“Medicare Advantage Enrollees More Likely to Enter Low-Quality SNFs,” by Maggie Flynn, Skilled Nursing News

“Fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare has been increasingly de-emphasized in favor of newer payment models such as Medicare Advantage (MA), but a new study in the journal Health Affairs suggests that FFS might provide better skilled-nursing choices for its beneficiaries. ‘Even after accounting for the quality of nursing homes in a geographic area and the quality of Medicare Advantage plans in a geographic area, patients in Medicare Advantage plans tended to go to lower-starred nursing homes,’ David Meyers of the Brown University School of Public Health told Skilled Nursing News.”

LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform):

Before taking this correlation very seriously, I’d want to know what percentage of MA patients rely on Medicaid as well. Medicaid’s notoriously low reimbursement rates make placement in a lower-quality nursing home highly likely.

Medicare Advantage Enrollees More Likely to Enter Low-Quality SNFs

#SNF
#medicare
#goldencareagent