There’s a storm brewing in senior housing: Between wage pressures and work environments that can take an emotional and physical toll, senior living providers are scrambling to recruit and retain staff. A dwindling labor force, though, has many looking to immigration reform as senior living’s saving grace. The stark conditions in the sector have prompted […]
Skilled nursing operators and other post-acute providers can look forward to more stable reimbursements in the future, thanks to the historic passage of a bill to change how Medicare sets payment rates. The Senate approved H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA,) late Tuesday in a 92-8 vote, and President Barack Obama […]
Investors are scooping up senior care facilities that are raking in Medicare dollars for post-acute care, but the rush to make money on these services might be putting patients’ health—and even lives—at risk, according to a lengthy New York Times article published Tuesday. Struggling with razor-thin margins for long-term care residents, skilled nursing facilities and […]
Mainstream disruptive products such as Uber and Airbnb may have yet to make a formal foray into senior living on a wide-scale basis, but providers can take cues from the technology being developed for the overall population as a way to improve the quality of care. Drawing from several mainstream trends in technology, including elevated […]
The American Health Care Association (AHCA) offered solutions on post-acute care reform that could save the Medicare program billions. In a response issued today to the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee, AHCA outlined its legislative proposal to reduce hospital readmissions from skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), guaranteeing $2 billion in savings […]
Skilled nursing facilities (SNF), like hospitals, have recently been subject to federal scrutiny for avoidable hospital readmissions, and new reports and data show that quality improvements are taking hold. The 30-day re-hospitalization rate for post-acute skilled nursing patients showed significant decline from 21.6% in FY 2007 to 20.9% in FY 2011, according to new analysis […]
Skilled Nursing providers would see a 1.4% increase in Medicare payments in 2014 as the result of a new proposed rule by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services. The proposed rule would update the Medicare payment rates for skilled nursing facilities for fiscal year 2014 by raising the rate to providers by 1.4%. The […]
Senior care providers have begun to see substantial results in their efforts to improve quality of care in the months following the American Health Care Association’s (AHCA) Quality Initiative announcement in February 2012. By December 2012, AHCA members have safely reduced the number of hospital readmissions within 30 days during a skilled nursing facility stay by […]
There was widespread uproar in the skilled nursing industry last summer when the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS) announced an upcoming cut to Medicare reimbursement rates. The cuts have been in effect for a full quarter now, and it looks the industry is still hanging on—for now. REITs: Less Impacted Than Expected HCP, […]
Even after steep cuts to skilled nursing facility reimbursements that went into effect last October, President Obama’s 2013 Federal Budget calls for still more Medicare payment and reimbursement reductions, causing associations representing the skilled nursing and home healthcare industries to blast back against the Administration’s strategy of “cuts only” without reforms. The budget report proposes […]
