News Archive
“ Patients are Transferring Back to Our Services Because Our Doctors and Nurse Practitioners Go above and Beyond All Other Providers”
Recently, the DON of one of our long-time Post-Acute and Long-term Care Facility clients reached out to our clinical coordinator to explain to us why we were getting so many of our previous patients returning to our service. For some background, earlier this year, the facility’s corporate management made the decision to change Medical DirectorshipRead the Rest…
The Real Cost of Hospital Readmission Rates
Starting this year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) fees are being strongly enforced and will affect many non-complying hospitals. The cost of hospital readmission is already extensive for health care payors and patients, and now hospitals will be financially impacted as well. CMS’s hospital penalties are expected to reach $428 million inRead the Rest…
Doctor Shortage Continues to Plague Nation
The doctor shortage across the nation continues to be a detriment to the health care industry, and the deficit will steadily increase over the next 10 years. By 2025, it’s expected that at best the U.S. will be 46,100 physicians short—at worst, the shortage will reach 90,000, according to the Association of American Medical CollegesRead the Rest…
Affordable Care Act Puts Post-Acute Care Facilities under Increasing Scrutiny
Improved healthcare for patients and substantial Medicare savings are the motivations behind the Affordable Care Act’s call for increasing scrutiny of post-acute care facilities; long-term care facility owners and operators need to take notice. Revised nursing home rating systems President Obama signed the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act (IMPACT) Oct. 6 changing the wayRead the Rest…
High rates of nursing staff turnovers have surprising benefit for facilities
High rates of nursing staff turnovers have been an issue in the long-term care industry for decades. Studies show, that for Certified Nurse Assistants (CNAs), the most common type of caregiver in long-term care, turnover can exceed 100%. For other nursing home staff it isn’t much better. For RNs, Licensed Vocational Nurses turnover rates canRead the Rest…
Patient-Centered Care Approach Tops List of Changes Coming to Long-Term Facilities
A combination of increasingly high costs, alarming statistics, Affordable Healthcare Act requirements and an aging generation of Baby Boomers has forced the long-term care industry to evaluate and adjust the way it provides services to post-acute care patients. An increasing number of patients have their healthcare coverage through an ACO or MCO, which have theirRead the Rest…
Medicare Tracks ACOs Quality of Care
ACOs, networks of doctors and hospitals tasked with improving patient care while saving Medicare money, reported mixed rates of success in a February 2014 report that offered the first look at their effectiveness. Voluntary creation of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) is the most prominent way the Affordable Care Act attempts to provide higher-quality care toRead the Rest…
Study Finds Nursing Home Rates at All-Time High
It’s no secret that the cost of receiving post-acute care is high, but recent survey results show they are at an all-time high after rising by as much as 4% over the last five years. Costs vary significantly by state and service, with the highest increases occurring for care provided in a post-hospitalist facility. Read the Rest…
Affordable Care Act and Doctors Q and A
When the topic turns to the Affordable Care Act and doctors, a pair of issues always seem to come up and raise concerns about Obamacare’s effect on doctors and their practices. The last time we took a look at some of the questions relating to the ACA and how it impacts patients, this time we’reRead the Rest…
Affordable Care Act Q & As
It’s still too soon after implementation to have many questions raised by the Affordable Care Act answered definitively, and of course, debates in courts across the nation will likely change things. But, some of the details about how it’s impacting quality patient care are beginning to come into focus even as they raise more questions.Read the Rest…