A recent Senior Housing News article explains how senior living communities might form better healthcare partnerships with other providers.
The article points out that pay-for-performance measures mainly target services that result in quality outcomes. Skilled nursing, home health, hospitals, and physicians have all begun partnering to coordinate this care, leaving senior living and assisted living communities largely out of the picture.
Often, seniors who benefit from these other care outlets are living in senior living or assisted living communities. These communities are also providing care that contributes to seniors’ complex needs but which isn’t covered by pay-for-performance.
SHN notes the most obvious opportunity for senior living communities is with seniors who return after hospitalization or receiving post-acute or skilled nursing care. Medicare payments decrease when readmission rates rise. Some suggest senior living facilities might start by providing oversight, observation, and medication management to those returning home, thereby reducing readmissions and benefitting all involved.
Source: Senior Housing News. How Senior Living Providers Can Crash the Health Care Party.
