The federal government on Saturday announced a plan to offer advance Medicare fee-for-service payments, as well as accelerated reimbursements, to all Medicare Part A and B providers. Under the terms of the emergency action, most providers who bill under Medicare Parts A and B can request up to 100% of their Medicare payment for a […]
Category: Medicare
The federal government has implemented some key waivers designed to ease health care system burdens, including adopting a waiver of the requirement to have a three-day stay in a hospital to get Medicare coverage of a skilled nursing stay. But some of those waivers have led to confusion among operators — and some of the […]
As both the chief medical officer for Signature HealthCARE and president of AMDA, the Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine, Dr. Arif Nazir has a micro- and macro-level view on how skilled nursing facilities are fighting the coronavirus. And even in these early days of the crisis, Nazir believes that the sweeping emergency steps […]
As the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S. mounts, concerns about hospital bed capacity are rising in proportion — and skilled nursing facilities need to be ready to help ease the stress on the acute care system, according to multiple providers. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) seemed to confirm this […]
The Trump administration on Tuesday announced an emergency expansion of telehealth coverage for Medicare beneficiaries amid the COVID-19 outbreak, removing multiple regulatory barriers to doctors providing remote care for nursing home residents. Retroactive to March 6, Medicare can pay for virtual consultations provided through telehealth platforms across the country, including those conducted in a patient’s […]
UPDATE, Saturday, March 14: CMS formally issued its guidance late Friday, enacting a ban on most non-essential visits to nursing homes and also waiving the three-day stay rule for Medicare skilled nursing coverage. The federal government will soon issue guidance directing nursing home operators to ban the vast majority of visitors amid the spread of […]
Telemedicine is drawing national attention from lawmakers as officials look to safeguard health care workers and patients — while nursing homes anxiously monitor infection-control policies to protect vulnerable residents from the global pandemic of the coronavirus. Expanded Medicare coverage of telehealth services was included in the recent $8.3 billion emergency bill, offering national aid in […]
A skilled nursing operator or investor could be forgiven for running toward the exits when presented with the opportunity to take over buildings in rural West Texas. Between persistently low Medicaid rates in the Lone Star State and the general operational difficulties that rural buildings face in markets across the country, the combination may not […]
After the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced an immediate crackdown on nursing home compliance in the wake of the coronavirus, the agency laid out new expectations for updated inspections and surveys — with no exact timeline for resuming non-emergency surveys in sight. Although containing and preventing the coronavirus is the agency’s current […]
Medicare Advantage plans have long been a thorn in skilled nursing facilities’ sides, with lower-per day rates and increased pressure to reduce lengths of stay than traditional fee-for-service Medicare. But a new report shines a light on why seniors are increasingly choosing the plans in the first place, reinforcing recent calls to embrace working with […]
Despite a net loss for the quarter, skilled nursing operator Diversicare Healthcare Services (OTCQX: DVCR) touted its performance at the end of 2019, pointing to a 7.5% Medicare rate boost and generally positive performance under the new Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM). “With our portfolio changes behind us after the Kentucky exit and the implementation of the new […]
The early returns for the new Medicare payment model for nursing homes have been broadly positive, with multiple experts and operators pegging the revenue gains at a healthy but modest 5% to 6%. But the actual gains may be higher than those numbers betray, and several experts predict some kind of eventual adjustment from the […]
In the wake of an outbreak of the novel coronavirus at a Washington nursing home, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will immediately refocus inspections of skilled nursing facilities on compliance with the agency’s infection control policies — and suspend all non-emergency survey work, the agency announced on Wednesday. “We obviously are looking […]
The Department of Justice this week announced the creation of a specialized task force targeting “grossly substandard care” in nursing homes, with both criminal and civil penalties on the table for owners and operators. About 30 individual facilities across nine states are already under investigation, the DOJ revealed in announcing its new National Nursing Home […]
The new fee-for-service payment model for nursing homes took up most of the oxygen in the industry over the past two years, but the rise of Medicare Advantage in markets across the country could make all of that preparation for naught — sooner than many may think. The Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM) for nursing homes […]
While the skilled nursing world has largely adapted to its new Medicare payment model, the home health industry is currently in the midst of its own seismic shift — a change that could potentially open the door for nursing homes to grow in the space as smaller agencies rush for the exits. The new Patient-Driven […]
The Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM) overhauled the way skilled nursing facilities are paid for their services to Medicare fee-for-service patients when it took effect last year – removing therapy as a driver of reimbursement and putting an emphasis on patient conditions. That gives it more than a passing resemblance to a lightning rod in the […]
The federal government on Thursday acknowledged some errors in processing Medicare claims under the new payment system for nursing homes, promising to make a full correction by the start of its next fiscal year. The main issue has to do with the sequence of initial claim filings for Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM) reimbursements, the Centers […]
Attend any conference geared toward long-term and post-acute health care operators, and you’ll hear a common thread: Data is king. In a landscape defined by value-based payment models such as Medicare Advantage plans and accountable care organizations (ACOs), investing in data analytics has become almost a prerequisite for success. If a given operator can prove […]
Nursing home closures are on the rise, regardless of geography and quality ratings, according to a recent report authored by industry trade group LeadingAge — raising the possibility of market-specific supply shortages in the near future. In fact, more than 550 facilities have closed between June 2015 and June 2019, with a steady increase in […]
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