How SNFs are cutting costs without cutting back on care
By
Betsy Rust
Jun 29, 2018
As if managing the health of patients wasn’t difficult and time-consuming enough, skilled nursing facilities now have to do more to manage their increasingly complex businesses as well.
Three stars will be the new one star
By
Betsy Rust
Dec 07, 2016
Nursing home operators call it low occupancy. Medicare insiders call it a declining census. Economists call it excess capacity.
House calls coming back for seniors needing care
By
Betsy Rust
Nov 02, 2016
Baby boomers likely recall, in flickering black-and-white, kindly physicians making house calls on television and in the movies.
SNF Medicare margins: What MedPAC doesn’t know
By
Betsy Rust
Apr 29, 2016
The articulation of data is vitally important, and MedPAC is not the only entity interpreting, or misinterpreting, cost report and claim data.
Transitions ahead for nursing homes
By
Betsy Rust
Mar 16, 2016
Align your incentives with the incentives of those who are paying for your services. Remember that your revenues are someone else’s costs.
Payroll-Based Journal Reporting system should lose a star
By
Betsy Rust
Dec 28, 2015
Nursing homes may have difficulty determining what constitutes payroll and staffing data.
Uniform data collection key for SNF cost containment
By
Betsy Rust
Oct 09, 2015
When the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced in July that it was implementing a system of bundled payments for knee and hip operations in 75 geographic areas of the country, it prompted...
Compensation for better outcomes and costs
By
Betsy Rust
Betsy Rust
Sep 03, 2015
In particular, SNFs must make sure the right personnel mix of healthcare and business expertise exists, especially as doctors become de facto insurance administrators.
Network participation critical to LTC’s future
By
Betsy Rust
Betsy Rust
May 07, 2015
The finances of running a long-term care facility long have seemed like Monopoly. With each patient, you pass “Go,” you collect $200.
Understanding consumer choice
By
Betsy Rust
Betsy Rust
Feb 13, 2015
If you operate a senior living facility, here is something to put at the very top of your to-do list: Survey your residents to understand the choices they have made in the Medicare open enrollment period,...