“Move from fee-for-service to managed care ‘a disaster’ for long-term care, Parkinson says,” by Liza Berger, McKnight’s LTC News

 

Quote:

“Changing payment models have made the last decade ‘an incredibly bad time’ for long-term care in many ways, the leader of the nation’s largest nursing home group said Monday. Mark Parkinson, the president and CEO of the American Health Care Association, made the damning assessment during opening remarks at AHCA’s inaugural population health summit. Over the last 10 years, the change has been ‘seismic,’ he noted, pointing out that in 2010, over 70% of post-acute volume was fee-for-service and 25% was managed care. Now, fee-for-service represents less than 50% of post-acute volume, and managed care and accountable care organizations occupy the rest.  Managed care and ACOs have dramatically reduced SNFs’ average length of stay, as well as payments. The end result has been severe reductions in SNF margins. ‘For the sector, it’s been pretty much a disaster,’ Parkinson said.”

 

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

Managed care disrupts LTC by putting an extra middleman between the Medicaid patient and care and paying even less for the care.