How Medicare can reduce waste in post-acute care: the case of skilled nursing facilities
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- SIEPR policy brief
- Author(s):
- Lee, Ajin, author
- Contributor(s):
- Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, issuing body.
- Publication:
- Stanford, CA : Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), January 2022
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Cost Savings Medicare -- economics Skilled Nursing Facilities -- economics Subacute Care -- economics Length of Stay Quality of Health Care United States
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Medicare spending on post-acute care accounts for about $60 billion, or 15 percent, of Medicare spending every year (MedPAC, 2021). It also contributes to a large share of geographic variation in Medicare spending. A 2013 report by the Institute of Medicine documents that a striking 73 percent of geographic variation is due to post-acute care services (IOM, 2013). Per capita Medicare spending varies substantially across regions, ranging from $8,056 in Burlington, Vermont, to $15,348 in Los Angeles, according to the 2018 Dartmouth Atlas Data. Given no evidence that Medicare enrollees in high-spending areas have better health outcomes than those in low-spending areas (Fisher et al., 2003), large geographic variation in spending is a potential indication of inefficiency. To improve quality and reduce costs, designing a payment model that provides appropriate incentives to health care providers is key (Newhouse and Garber, 2013). This policy brief provides an overview of the post-acute care sector and discusses the impacts of a Medicare reimbursement rule for skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), institutions that provide post-acute care.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-ND license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (6 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918383986506676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918383986506676