Skilled nursing occupancy rates have dropped to their lowest levels in the last five years, and the bottom still may not be in sight. SNFs were 81.7% occupied in the second quarter of 2017, according to the most recent data from the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC). That’s a drop from 82.7% in […]
Hospitals that develop preferred provider networks of skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) are seeing lower readmission rates over time than those that don’t. However, establishing these networks does not come without roadblocks. In a recent study published by Health Affairs, a peer-reviewed health care journal, four hospitals with preferred SNF networks were monitored from 2009 to […]
Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, joined a growing chorus by questioning whether the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is doing enough to protect skilled nursing residents from abuse. In a letter penned last Friday, Grassley pressed CMS on “why it has failed to ensure that nursing home abuse and neglect cases are reported to law […]
The past week has brought countless stories of devastation and survival at nursing homes in Texas and Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, including dramatic footage of the Louisiana National Guard evacuating a nursing home in Orange, Texas and the widely-shared image of residents awaiting aid at a flooded assisted living facility in Dickinson, […]
Abuses at skilled nursing facilities frequently go unreported, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) determined in a new report that also accused the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) of not doing enough to protect residents. HHS’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) reviewed the emergency room records for 134 Medicare beneficiaries with any […]
As skilled nursing facilities feel the pressure to reduce readmission rates and manage costs, recent studies point to a technology that SNFs can outsource to achieve both. Telemedicine, which connects specialized doctors with skilled nursing residents through video conferencing, prevents unnecessary transfers from SNFs to hospitals, according to a recent study by the TRECS Institute […]
Politicians, district attorneys and even celebrities are up in arms over the Trump administration’s plan to reinstate skilled nursing arbitration agreements, which critics say unfairly limit patients’ rights. However, an arbitration ban stands in direct violation of a Supreme Court ruling and is unlikely to stand, according to an attorney specializing in health law. When […]
A bill recently reintroduced in the U.S. Senate aims to make skilled nursing services more readily available for veterans of the military. Sens. John Hoeven (R-ND) and Mike Rounds (R-SD) on July 20 reintroduced the Veterans Access to Long Term Care and Health Services Act (S. 1611). The legislation would allow the Department of Veterans Affairs to […]
Hospital patients only have a limited window of time to select a skilled nursing facility at discharge, and hospitals are increasingly looking at a few new metrics when deciding which SNFs to recommend. In particular, hospitals are watching staff turnover rates more and more — even for executive positions, Vivage Senior Living chief business development officer Nancy […]
Skilled Nursing News Take: In the same week that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it would delay enforcement of new skilled nursing regulations, Kaiser Health News took this deep look into how some troubled SNFs continue to rack up safety violations even after graduating from the agency’s most stringent monitoring […]
Last year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued its first comprehensive overhaul of skilled nursing rules since 1991. But faced with objections from operators in the industry about the scope and timing of the new requirements, CMS decided to delay their enforcement of the regulations. The Phase 2 stipulations of the revised Requirements […]
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