While Medicare Advantage (MA) has grown steadily in the last several years, leaders in the nursing home sector speculate whether increased federal regulation – and perhaps even more importantly, changes in the consumer experience – will slow its growth. This would come as a welcome development to many nursing home leaders, who have been struggling […]
Medicare Advantage plans might lower their payments to nursing homes in 2025, to absorb the federal government’s benchmark rate cut to insurers. Nursing home advocacy groups are worried that this move by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to cut Medicare Advantage rates may be passed on to nursing home providers. The Medicare […]
Nursing homes in Pennsylvania face a critical underfunding of Medicaid, with one in four nursing home beds currently offline due to inadequate reimbursement. Survey findings from LeadingAge PA also point toward the continuing workforce shortage, as to why so many beds are not in use. About 48% of facilities in the state have had to […]
Conspicuously absent data on Medicare Advantage (MA), along with stagnated data collection overall by government agencies, should give nursing home operators cause for concern especially as this trend has influenced company advocacy and negotiating power when it comes to insurance plans. Having this data and understanding how it’s calculated can help operators “speak the same […]
As inadequate funding squeezes nursing homes dry, with Medicare Advantage reimbursing lower than traditional Medicare, and Medicaid funding decades behind on meeting cost of care, facilities are shifting operations to optimize reimbursement. But even that may not be enough. Richard Gamache, CEO of Aldersbridge Communities in Rhode Island, has had to make such operating decisions […]
As Medicare Advantage continues to grow in the skilled nursing space, beneficiaries utilizing traditional Fee-For-Service Medicare have declined, and in turn reimbursement has dropped at an alarming rate. For every two beneficiaries that opted for MA, one FFS individual left the program in 2023, the first year the number of FFS beneficiaries declined in every […]
The growing prevalence of Medicare Advantage (MA) plans in many skilled nursing markets has been a source of mounting challenges for operators, many of whom are wondering whether they can keep up with the change. Yet a few strategies can go a long way to make the transition work, experts said. They cite leveraging data […]
More government scrutiny of Medicare Advantage (MA) plans and data sharing with nursing homes could reduce claims denials and burdens associated with such plans, sector leaders have long argued. And now a report released Thursday by a Congressional advisory body backs that view in shedding light on how enrollees are captured in data. The Medicare […]
Soaring costs associated with skilled nursing – and problematic payer sources – are making it harder for continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) to provide such labor intensive post-acute care. CCRCs have to ask themselves some hard questions when it comes to what services they can reasonably offer, and if it’s worth it to keep open […]
Sanford Health announced plans Tuesday to break ground on a $200 million project for a continuing care retirement community (CCRC) in South Dakota through its subsidiary, the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society. The Good Samaritan Society executives told Skilled Nursing News that the funding for the project is an outcome of a strategy to expand […]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is placing limits on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in denials of claims related to Medicare Advantage plans, and adding more guidance to health care providers on post-acute care admissions. The agency issued an FAQ Tuesday to address concerns related to coverage criteria and utilization […]
Piece by piece, nursing home operators are seeing stricter government oversight of Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, a welcome relief given that partnerships with such managed care plans have become a huge source of administrative burden for providers in the sector, especially as workforce shortages persist. Most recently, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) […]
Nursing home operators can expect to see a lot more regulatory activity in the next few months, with rules and regulations being finalized prior to a potential presidential administration change, with that administration taking office in 2025. A slew of proposed and finalized rules were issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) […]
As Medicare Advantage becomes an increasingly important – and controversial – payer for skilled nursing services, operators should note a major shift has occurred in the insurance landscape. Cigna Group (NYSE: CI) agreed Wednesday to sell its Medicare businesses and CareAllies to Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC). HCSC said it intends to acquire the Cigna […]
The federal government’s Medicare Advantage and Part D proposed rule offers nursing home operators several favorable updates, including those related to the appeals process for terminating SNF services as well as alleviating burdens posed by choice and multiple plans for dual eligible residents. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has been working on […]
The majority of MedPAC board members voted Thursday to recommend reducing Medicare-based payment rates for skilled nursing spending by 3% for 2025, despite voicing concerns about the federal minimum staffing proposed rule. MedPAC, which stands for the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, is made up of health care professionals who make recommendations to Congress in terms […]
The Covid-19 pandemic’s labor crisis forced some nursing home providers to adapt their business practices in 2023, during a time some leaders termed the “year of recovery.” And, as they look ahead to 2024 amid a looming federal staffing mandate, many nursing home providers look to gain from these efficiencies – but are fearful about […]
Margins squeezed by interest rates and inflation, staffing shortages amid a draconian staffing mandate proposal, an invasion of Medicare Advantage and mixed efforts at adapting to Minimum Data Set (MDS) changes are among a litany of the challenges facing the skilled nursing sector at the start of 2024. However, all is not doom and gloom […]
As the Covid-19 public health emergency officially ended in 2023, the nursing home sector continued to face lingering troubles across many facets of the business even if spread of disease – and death resulting from it – diminished as a concern. Chief among troubles that continued to plague nursing homes included workforce shortages and expansion […]
Operating a skilled nursing facility today is considered a difficult business with regulations and reimbursement woes making the space “tougher every day.” As a result, some operators say they regularly budget a loss for skilled nursing services, and if it weren’t for other lines of business, skilled nursing would be unsustainable. This dire view of […]
