As skilled nursing operators look for ways to build back hospital referrals, data shows that Medicare Advantage enrollment continues to climb, making some managed care experts wonder how smaller, traditional, single nursing home operators will be able to build a sustainable future. With Medicare Advantage enrollment now representing 46% of all 57.7 million eligible Medicare […]
Category: Medicare Advantage
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives this week introduced bipartisan legislation to strengthen Medicare’s value-based care models and accountable care organizations (ACOs), among other alternative payment models (APMs). Doctors, hospitals and other providers make up an ACO — the group coordinates care for Medicare patients while limiting extraneous services and preventing medical errors. The […]
Ignite Medical Resorts, a short-term rehabilitation and nursing care provider that reimagines the traditional post-acute experience with “luxury resorts,” opened three new buildings during COVID-19 and has no plans of slowing down. The Illinois-based provider will look to build more respiratory programs and invest in in-house dialysis units coming out of COVID as it remains […]
Skilled nursing facility operators and others in the senior care industry with diversified service lines are in a better position to care for residents at this point in the pandemic — and in the future. Operators with a diverse payer mix also have an edge, long-term care experts told Skilled Nursing News. Broadly, operators have […]
The ultimate role skilled nursing facilities will play in the post-acute care continuum coming out of COVID-19 remains to be seen. Home-based care utilization has skyrocketed over the past year, partly due to favorable policies out of the Biden administration and shifting referral-source preferences. Meanwhile, most SNF operators continue to battle back from the sudden […]
Longevity Health Plan, one of the nation’s leading independent providers of Medicare Advantage (MA) institutional special needs (I-SNP) plans in the skilled nursing industry, announced this week that it will be expanding into Michigan next month. It plans to offer I-SNP plans across 16 counties in the state. “We are pleased to partner with forward-thinking […]
In a testament to the health care industry’s growing interest in value-based care models, AllyAlign Health has pulled in a new investment of $300 million led by global venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA), the company announced Thursday. Richmond, Va.-based AllyAlign partners with long-term care providers to set up Medicare Advantage institutional special needs […]
After a year dominated by a global pandemic that proved especially deadly for the elderly, skilled nursing operators are navigating recovery thanks to the rollout of vaccines against COVID-19. But many operators are looking at not just how to return to normal, but how to build a foundation for the future after the pandemic. And […]
Skilled Nursing News was able to sit down (virtually) with Amy Kaszak, president of special needs plans for Virginia-based AllyAlign Health, to talk about current trends in the skilled nursing industry. Consolidation is on the horizon, Kaszak said, along with an increase in managed care, preventative services and home health supplemental options. AllyAlign Health was […]
The vaccine is working, especially in places where it is needed the most, according to a new study. “The vaccine is associated with decreased spread of SARS-CoV-2 in both residents and staff at nursing homes as well as decreased deaths among residents,” the study, published last week in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society, […]
The COVID-19 pandemic paused most post-acute providers’ long-term planning efforts beyond making it through the next week or month, but now that the peak of the crisis has passed, it’s high time both operators and policymakers confront the new world ahead. That world will almost certainly bring a smaller crop of potential residents of skilled […]
American Health Partners, which operates 29 skilled nursing and senior living facilities among other post-acute ventures, on Wednesday announced its acquisition by the Mitchell Family Office (MFO). The Birmingham, Mich.-based MFO explicitly pointed to the diversity of American Health Partners’ holdings as a reason behind inking the deal. In addition to its brick-and-mortar senior health […]
Skilled nursing giant The Ensign Group (Nasdaq: ENSG) on Tuesday announced the acquisition of three new skilled nursing facilities in Colorado. The San Juan Capistrano, Calif.-based Ensign picked up the following three facilities as of April 1: The 140-bed Boulder Canyon Health and Rehabilitation in Boulder The 76-bed Berthoud Care and Rehabilitation in Berthoud The […]
Home health operators aren’t the only players in post-acute and long-term care looking to capitalize on a weakened skilled nursing sector: As health systems and managed care insurers look to adapt their offerings to the post-COVID tastes of their patients, home health providers may find themselves with significant regulatory and payment tailwinds as they work […]
The average U.S. nursing home has operated in a kind of survival mode for the last year, with long-term goals around new clinical and reimbursement models shoved aside to tackle the immediate and persistent scourge of COVID-19. That said, some facilities were still able to execute on previously developed strategies to enter the world of […]
The COVID-19 pandemic brought an unrelenting spotlight to clinical care in skilled nursing facilities — one that will shine in the form of government audits and investigations before the immediate crisis ends and long after it passes. But several operators had trained their sights on clinical care within their facilities before the start of the […]
A new report comparing health outcomes for beneficiaries of Medicare Advantage (MA) and those on traditional fee-for-service Medicare put hard numbers to the differences in skilled nursing facility stays between the two groups. The findings show that MA beneficiaries spend far fewer days in SNFs than those covered by traditional Medicare. Specifically, SNF stays were […]
When conferences were a staple of business development and not potential sources of contagion from COVID-19, skilled nursing providers would frequently pack the rooms featuring sessions on institutional special needs plans (I-SNPs). Under this model, SNFs can move into the Medicare Advantage world by offering their own insurance plans to beneficiaries who are living in […]
Some aspects of the nursing home world do not change even during a global pandemic, and that includes the need to manage relationships with multiple payers. Several managed care organizations (MCOs) are now sending in their new contracts to skilled nursing providers as old agreements expire, Chad Bogar, the founder and CEO of the law […]
Providers of nursing home care and other long-term services continued to expand their Medicare Advantage offerings into the 2021 plan year, as more operators look to gain financial control in a landscape where managed care maintains its steady march toward a Medicare majority. The number of provider-led Institutional Special Needs Plans (I-SNPs) increased from 76 […]
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