Despite the arduous operating challenges facing skilled nursing providers in 2022 — workforce shortages, inflation, occupancy and looming federal regulations just to name a few — the future of the sector may not be as dark and stormy as one might anticipate. The obstacles nursing home operators have already and will continue to face over […]
While the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has been winding down certain waivers tied to the public health emergency (PHE), the agency has been noticeably silent about what could be the most impactful of the pandemic-related waivers – suspension of the three-day stay requirement. Industry leaders aren’t holding out much hope that the […]
In another attestation to the health care industry’s expanding interest in value-based care models, AllyAlign Health has teamed up with two other health care organizations to form Curana Health — with a goal of being in skilled nursing and senior living communities across the country. AllyAlign Health, Elite Patient Care and Provider Health Services are […]
The intersection of nursing home staffing and immigration has long been a conversation among operators before and during the pandemic, becoming even more pressing as industry leaders clamor to provide solutions to a historic workforce shortage. Incentivizing U.S. workers to take long-term care jobs won’t “come anywhere close” to filling the need the industry is […]
Skilled nursing operators will have until April 22 to decide whether they want to apply to become a part of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ new direct contracting model. The Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health (REACH) Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Model was announced by CMS last week. And while SNF participation in […]
President Joe Biden pledged in his first State of the Union address Tuesday night that his administration would do its part to boost nursing home quality, specifically calling out private equity-owned facilities. “As Wall Street firms take over more nursing homes, quality in those homes has gone down and costs have gone up. That ends […]
Skilled nursing operators are trying to adjust to how the Covid-19 pandemic changed the care continuum, with patients now embarking on different pathways after hospital stays. Not only are more patients going directly to home health, but long-term acute care hospitals (LTACHs) and inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) also have started to play more prominent roles […]
As the I-SNP model continues to expand across the skilled nursing industry, some see it as one way to effectively push telehealth services into smaller, rural facilities that don’t have the infrastructure to support the services by themselves. “We’re seeing a lot of traction in the I-SNP model,” TapestryHealth Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer Mordy […]
With more long-term care provider organizations embracing Medicare Advantage institutional special needs plans (I-SNPs), the time might be right for skilled nursing operators to explore the potential benefits of expanding D-SNPs, or dual-eligible special needs plans. Special needs plans provide services to “special needs individuals” such as institutionalized individuals and people with severe or disabling […]
Nearly a decade after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) established accountable care organizations (ACOs) in conjunction with the Affordable Care Act, the health care landscape has shifted even further toward a focus on outcomes and value. As recently as October CMS and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Innovation Center (CMMI) […]
Medicare Advantage advocacy groups are concerned the Biden Administration’s Build Back Better reconciliation bill will, in expanding Medicare fee-for-service (FFS), disadvantage MA. Advocacy and research group Better Medicare Alliance (BMA) on Wednesday hosted Reps. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) and Terri Sewell (D-Al.) to discuss the legislation further, and implications for the Part C plan under Build […]
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 […]
During Covid-19, skilled nursing facilities have seen their admissions squeezed as more patients have gone straight from hospitals to their own homes for recovery. But more complex cases are also being diverted away from SNFs, toward inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) and long-term acute-care hospitals (LTACs). It’s a trend highlighted in an analysis from consulting firm […]
Occupancy recovery in skilled nursing facilities will depend on a variety of factors: COVID-19 vaccination uptake among staff and residents, visitation policies of nursing homes, the willingness of family members to place their loved ones in the SNF setting, and acute care’s return to normal. At least, that was the theory. One of the looming […]
Long-term acute care (LTAC) hospitals proved themselves a critical part of the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic while also gaining a share of the patients discharged to facility-based care by short-term acute hospitals — even as the share of those patients going to the skilled nursing setting declined. A new report, published February […]
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 […]
When elective surgeries were halted or suspended in spring in an attempt to preserve hospital capacity, the number of patients leaving the hospital setting dropped significantly — and the number of patients leaving that setting for skilled nursing fell by nearly half as well. A new analysis of all Medicare fee-for-service claims data from January […]
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 […]
While the skilled nursing landscape continues to struggle both operationally and financially during the COVID-19 pandemic, those same negative forces have only served to strengthen private health plans — putting Medicare Advantage in an even better position to continue its growth. Cratering census and sharp declines in elective surgeries, while fiscally devastating for nursing homes, […]
Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen the federal government rapidly dismantle the dense scaffolding of rules and regulations that had been built over the course decades, all in the name of fighting the novel coronavirus. Ideas once unthinkable — doctors providing consultations over Skype without fear of violating HIPAA, a blanket freeze on the […]
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