Congress seeking way to cut post-acute care costs: 5 insights

Medicare costs for post-acute care more than doubled between 2001 and 2013, causing alarm in Congress, according to Roll Call.

Advertisement

Here are five insights:

 

1. No guidelines outlining appropriate care for discharged hospital patients exist.

 

2. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission reported stark variances in reimbursements between skilled nursing homes, rehabilitation centers and other post-op settings.

 

3. The federal fiscal budget 2016 has a proposal for packaging payment for defined episodes of care, in the hope of eliminating superfluous costs. It is estimated this could save $9.3 billion over 10 years.

 

4. Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) led a bill in 2014 that focused on post-acute care in a single payment system. The law calls for data collection of various post-acute care services, starting in 2018.

 

5. Once the data is collected for two years, the Department of Health and Human Services will present a proposal to Congress on how to establish a post-acute care payment system.

 

More articles on practice management:
How much do young physicians’ owe in medical school debt? 5 statistics
Thousands file compensation claims for DePuy’s wrong size implants — 5 key points
5 things to know about the expanding primary care market

Advertisement

Next Up in Practice Management

Advertisement

Comments are closed.