NIC | CARES BLOG
A place for connections, analysis, research, and education on seniors housing and care

Cutting Skilled Nursing Medicare Reimbursement by 8%?

In July 2015, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), the House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman, introduced a measure called the Medicare Post-Acute Care Value-Based Purchasing Act of 2015. Since that time, the bill has been under committee consideration, but just over a year later, the buzz around Washington indicates that the bill may come out of committee for a…
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A Deep Dive into the 2Q2016 NIC Skilled Nursing Data Report

On September 15, at the 2016 NIC Fall Conference, NIC released its 2Q2016 Skilled Nursing Data Report. The report includes key occupancy and revenue metrics from October 2011 through June 2016. In today’s blog post, I’ll walk you through the data. Occupancy Declined to a Five-Year Low After bouncing back in the first quarter of 2016, occupancy declined 123 basis…
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Boosts to Interoperability Implementation May Give Skilled Nursing a Leg-Up in Meeting CMS Requirements

Interoperability can be a point of frustration for health care professionals considering the difficulties it can impose. If you’re not familiar with it, the term refers to the ability of various health care providers to collect and share patient information electronically through an electronic health record (EHR), also known as an electronic medical record (EMR). EMR also can refer to…
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Managed Care 101

Managed care is an all-encompassing term that covers a variety of methods to pay for healthcare outside the norm of fee-for-service. Medicare Advantage (MA) plans are a form of managed care, as are Managed Medicaid plans. Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) also fall under this umbrella. With the exception of MA, managed care is a relatively new idea in terms of…
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Five-Star Changes Go Live Today

All Medicare-certified skilled nursing facilities are subject to the Five-Star Quality Rating System and Nursing Home Compare, which were established, implemented, and maintained by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS). Both programs use metrics to judge the quality of skilled nursing properties. Nursing Home Compare is a website where consumers can gather information about quality metrics for every…
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March 14 2024 NIC Insider Newsletter Now Available Read Now »