Healthcare, Senior Living, Economics
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission is (likely) recommending to Congress a series of post-acute rate reductions (Medicare, Fee-for-Service) for federal fiscal year 2025 (beginning October 1, 2024, for most programs, January 1, 2025, for Home Health Agencies). Specifically, the MedPAC recommendations are as follows. Reduce the 2025 payment rate for home health agencies by 7%. … Read more
TGIF and Happy Hanukkah (to my Jewish colleagues and friends)! A major concern as the demographic in the U.S. ages is senior housing and services affordability. The expanding cohort of seniors in terms of real purchasing power, is not as financially fit as prior generations. The Baby Boomers for example, while well paid in their … Read more
I follow Medicaid but don’t often get many inquiries around Medicaid policy or requests for articles in this subject area. Medicaid, however, is very important for providers, especially post-acute and senior living, as it is typically, a significant if not majority payer. During COVID and the public health emergency, Medicaid policy and CMS enacted requirements … Read more
Happy Hump Day! Advent has begun and soon, Chanukah will kick-off. ‘Tis the season or seasons. I will no doubt say this (or write it) many times over, but it always bears repeating, Happy Holidays to all! Yesterday, I wrote a post about Fitch Rating’s and their outlook for CCRCs/Life Plan communities for 2024. Fitch maintained … Read more
Long title for a Tuesday. Two reports dropped within the last couple of days and into my email regarding CCRCs/ Life Plan communities and some interesting trends/outlooks. Yesterday (Dec 4), Fitch issued its 2024 outlook for Life Plan/CCRCs, reaffirming its 2023 outlook as “deteriorating”. The primary reason for the gloomy outlook is present and projected, … Read more
On Friday, I wrote about expanding litigation due to increasing resident care needs found in senior living, assisted and independent living. Specifically, the issue is primarily around “acuity creep” or residents aging in-place, in environments that may not have the staff and infrastructure to meet their advancing care needs. Friday’s post is here: https://rhislop3.com/2023/12/01/friday-feature-senior-living-litigation-watch-risks-at-ccrcs-independent-living/ I’ve … Read more
Happy Hump Day! As readers would expect, I spend a ton (ok, maybe not a ton but a lot) of time reading and researching for client purposes and for this site. Over the years, I have found developing subject level knowledge has kept me sane and given me a deep perspective on health care and … Read more
I get asked about value-based care a lot. It is a buzzword or term these days, somewhat driven by the rise in Medicare Advantage enrollment. Frankly, it is a bit of a catch-all concept that has its origins in Medicare and various demonstration projects (e.g., bundled payments) and the implementation of quality measures to “improve … Read more
Somewhat buried within the Home Health Final Rule (PPS) was an update on a CMS initiative to identify hospice agencies requiring additional regulatory oversight for poor care performance (poor quality, unsafe care practices). Back in 2021, CMS began the Special Focus initiative and in the 2024 Hospice Final Rule, CMS indicated that the recommendations for … Read more
TGIF! This week has been very busy with lots of data and lots of economic news. We got a new report from the BLS on inflation. We got earnings reports from Home Depot, Target, and yesterday, Wal Mart indicating what we saw from the Conference Board – consumers are slowing their spending. I called the … Read more