May 2, 2015 | Peter Corless
Last week the Senate passed and the President signed into law some historic legislation. Known as the Sustainable Growth Rate or “Doc Fix,” the legislation eliminates the perennial threat of healthcare providers paying for a “Doc Fix” and injects much-needed stability for the long term and post-acute care sector. The legislation contains a cut to the profession, but it is a fraction of what we would have faced if we continued the risk of being a pay-for year after year. It also provides important therapy relief with a two-year extension of Therapy Cap Exception and Therapy MMR relief, which the skilled nursing profession has sought for many years.
The total price for a 10-year Fix was $210 billion, of which $140 billion was not paid for. The balance of $70 billion was paid for by cutting $30 billion from providers, split equally between hospitals and post-acute providers and $40 billion from Medicare beneficiaries. Of the post-acute amount, more than half or $8.4 billion came from Skilled Nursing Facilities. To come up with this amount, in FY 2018, Medicare reimbursement for skilled nursing will be held to 1% vs the CBO-projected market basket increase of 2.9%.
While eliminating the threat of continued future cuts is a great thing, the reality is that this is still another cut to Medicare reimbursement. The Doc Fix legislation comes on top of a string of reductions that significantly impact long-term and post-acute care providers:
Post-acute healthcare providers continue to operate in an environment where there is pressure on length of stay, reimbursement rates and new payment models focused on value vs volume. Yet we also continue to improve quality outcomes for those patients and residents we are privileged to serve. There has never been a time where that old adage that, ‘we need to work smarter, not harder,’ has been more true.
Get on top of the cuts by working smarter. One area to address is your number one expense: labor. A smart staffing strategy can go a long way to delivering the efficiencies and cost savings you need to stay ahead. Unnecessary overtime costs, labor budget variances, employee punch overages, staff turnover, hiring right – all of these areas can and should be addressed in order to drive high performance and the quality care and outcomes that will help keep your organization on top.
OnShift is committed to being a partner to post-acute healthcare in this new challenging environment and to help you to work smarter. Learn more:
See for yourself why thousands of providers rely on OnShift’s innovative software for recruitment, hiring, workforce management, pay and engagement. Request your personalized demo today.
