‘Fighting for a Rate Floor’: Stagnant Medicare Advantage Rates Force Nursing Homes to Shift Payers

Operators have been opting for different payer sources other than Medicare Advantage plans given its persistent challenges. Medicare Advantage’s lower reimbursement rates compared to traditional Medicare and higher administrative burdens tied to prior authorizations and payment denials, have caused operators to seek even Medicaid as an alternative payer, emboldening efforts by advocacy groups to push […]

Medicare Advantage Growth Could Normalize, but Nursing Home Leaders Call for Rate Floor and Other Changes

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 […]

Most-Read Skilled Nursing News Stories of 2023

The year 2023 was a busy one for skilled nursing operators – many of whom began to see signs of recovery from the pandemic amidst challenges that have continuously plagued the industry. In our reporting, a few outstanding and recurring themes we observed from the year past included staffing shortages, low reimbursement rates, and governmental […]

Skilled Nursing Operators Protest ‘Insane Amount’ of Administration Needed as Medicare Advantage Expands

As the federal government pushes to get more beneficiaries on managed care, nursing home providers say the administrative burden associated with such clients is “extraordinary.” That’s according to Kim Majick, chief development officer at Carespring Health Care Management. A heavier administrative lift is set against a backdrop of dire staffing shortages, along with staffing minimum […]

Rethink Podcast #48: Chris Chirumbolo, CEO, Carespring

The 48th episode of our podcast, Rethink, is now available. When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) eased Covid-19 guidelines earlier in August, many let out a sigh of relief. But as the nursing home industry toils its way through operational recovery amidst a staffing shortage, leaders in the space can’t help but […]

Carespring CEO: The Time Has Come to Lessen Covid-19 Restrictions in Nursing Homes

If the sector is going to make meaningful progress in rebuilding its depleted workforce pool, federal government agencies need to begin unwinding many of the stringent Covid-19 related guidelines nursing homes have adhered to over the last two-plus years. Until that occurs, the skilled nursing industry will likely remain stagnant, according to Carespring CEO Chis […]

Shift to Home is ‘a Complement, it’s Not a Competitor’

As skilled nursing facilities see occupancy slowly tick upward from the lows of the COVID-19 pandemic, the topic of shifting post-acute residents into the home health space was kicked into a higher gear with members of Congress and President Biden himself weighing in on the conversation. And while the push to home care may be […]

Industry CEOs Say Vaccine Mandate Singles Out SNFs

Operators were left scratching their heads when the Biden administration “singled out” nursing home staff in its vaccine mandate, noting their residents are interacting with many more people — who don’t have such requirements — across the health care continuum. “Our residents go all over the place… 50% of our cases in the last month, […]

To Fight Nursing Home Vaccine Hesitancy, Operators Must Tackle Individual Concerns Head-On

For one skilled nursing operator, its ethos of maintaining a strong local footprint has paid off unexpectedly in the form of facilitating COVID-19 vaccination among its frontline staff. But that facilitation wouldn’t have been possible without a focus on documenting the concerns of its workers and taking the steps to address them individually. Carespring Health […]