Outcomes After Shortened Skilled Nursing Facility Stays Suggest Potential For Improving Postacute Care Efficiency.

ABSTRACT: Reducing postacute care in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) in favor of home-based care is a leading cost-saving strategy in new payment models. Yet the extent to which SNF stays can be safely shortened remains unclear. We leveraged the exposure of fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries without supplemental coverage to cost sharing after SNF benefit day 20 as a cause of shortened stays. Marked reductions in length-of-stay because of cost sharing shifted patients to home more than a week earlier than expected without cost sharing, producing a discharge spike. These reductions were not associated with clear evidence of compromised patient safety as measured by death, hospitalization for fall-related injuries, or all-cause hospitalization within nine days of the spike. Adverse consequences r

SUBMITTER: McGarry BE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8130553 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature