Healthcare, Senior Living, Economics
As I mentioned in the prior two posts, litigation activity is on the increase, post-COVID, and some of the most fertile ground for plaintiff’s counsel is Assisted Living. SNFs are still as targeted but as stays decrease and facilities improve care capability, the trend remains level, for the most part. Where perhaps, Assisted Living and … Read more
Following up from my last post regarding staffing and litigation risks, this post concentrates on “what we know” and “what we can control”. For example, what we know is that there simply is not enough staff (clinical and even non-clinical) to fill a provider’s vacant positions. The world in general knows this and the press, … Read more
Not sure how many folks caught this brief article in McKnight’s….The article link is just below. https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mcknights.com%2Fnews%2Fplaintiffs-lawyers-gaining-edge-against-nursing-home-with-staffing-issues%2F%3Futm_source%3Dnewsletter%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_campaign%3DNWLTR_MLT_DAILYUPDATE_0329823%26hmEmail%3DIjP1GPaY%252BJ2uvsLxTJ79bVeRWY7ycbnr%26sha256email%3Daa4cb7c695037c31a216b9562788596b6fcd012145d566f31440b6fcd139c8a9&data=05%7C01%7C%7Cbc9c24d5cbe1440a07e908db314a2be7%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638157966865063653%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=nvzAvsPBAwKo34DvYAWOf%2Fo5C0URgGaP4msv1jIubGk%3D&reserved=0 Post COVID, all of health care faced a seismic shift in staffing levels. COVID caused wide-spread disengagement in a labor force (clinical) already stressed in numbers. Retirements, especially of nurses, exploded. As COVID abated and the economy began … Read more
One quarter (three months and change) down and PDPM appears to be mostly positive for SNFs. CMS is reporting a higher average per diem payment level than under RUGs. Despite some added coding complexity, paperwork burdens are down for providers (two MDS’ during most stays now vs. many under RUGs). Anecdotally, the industry is seeing … Read more
The beautiful, fascinating thing about health policy in the U.S. is its cycle of evolution. It evolves, sometimes slowly and other times quickly but always, in a progressive (not in the political sense) direction. Providers today can be lulled to sleep (quickly) by the vacuum drone of big policy lectures, webinars, etc., easily thinking for … Read more
I spend a good (ok, large) amount of time working with non-profit and privately held health care, post-acute and seniors housing organizations. Nearly all of my work is at the C-level and above and frankly, my career as an executive was there as well (25 plus years). Boards/governance bodies play a key role in the success and/or failure of … Read more
In early October, I wrote an article regarding CMS 2019 OPPS (outpatient PPS) proposed rule, specifically regarding site neutral payments. The purpose of the article was to address the site neutrality trend that CMS is on, streamlining payments to reduced location of care disparities for the same care services. Succinctly, if the care provided is … Read more
In the 2019 OPPS (outpatient PPS) proposed rule, CMS included a site neutral payment provision. With the comment period closed, the lobbying (against) fierce, it will be interesting to see where CMS lands in terms of the final OPPS rule – maintain, change, or abate. The one thing that is for certain, regardless of the … Read more
Yesterday I wrote a quick post regarding the news that CMS was about to issue the SNF Final Rule for Fiscal Year 2019. Today, the text is available. Official publication in the Federal Register is set for August 8th. Readers may access the text here: SNF 2019 Final Rule I will have analysis and more … Read more
After CMS nixed the mandatory expansion provisions for Bundled Payments and reduced the metro areas participating in CJR (joint replacement), the prospects for post-acute provider involvement in non-fee-for-service initiatives (payments and incentives based on disease states and care episodes) went in to limbo. With a fair amount of excitement and trepidation building on the part of the … Read more