A lack of workers isn’t the only COVID-19 complication slowing skilled nursing admissions.
A new report finds Medicare Advantage restrictions are also creating log jams in hospitals desperate to discharge patients to post-acute care and free up needed beds.
The problem is especially pronounced in states with high COVID-19 case rates, several hospital executives and association leaders told Modern Healthcare this week. Healthcare leaders said the prior authorizations needed to send no-longer acute patients on to post-acute care have always come slowly in states like Florida, Louisiana and Oregon. But the problem is limiting access to care for would-be hospital admits during the ongoing delta surge.
“It’s equally about that (outgoing) patient, but it’s also equally about that patient that needs that bed turned over,” said Robert Peltier, M.D., chief medical officer of North Oaks Health System in Hammond, LA. His health system averages five Medicare Advantage patients at a time waiting to be discharged to post-acute care.
Many Medicare Advantage plans have suspended their restrictions during this stage of the pandemic, but their replacement requirements and expiration dates vary. Humana’s waiver for Louisiana lasts until Sept. 17, while Florida Blue’s is open-ended.
“The challenge when it is not being directed by a state or federal agency is you have significant variation from one plan to the next as to how they are providing the flexibility, which creates more confusion at a time when we need to minimize as much confusion as possible,” Mary Mayhew, CEO of the Florida Hospital Association, told Modern Healthcare.
In places where waivers exist, they can be highly effective. AdventHealth in Altamonte Springs, FL, estimated waivers issued by some Medicare Advantage plans cut transitions into post-acute care down to about 24 hours.
“If the waiver goes away, we are concerned hospitals could return to seeing delayed transfers contribute to challenging capacity constraints,” said Lisa Musgrave, vice president of home care administration and post-acute services.
The American Hospital Association has been working with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and Medicare Advantage organizations to “encourage adoption of these waivers.”
For its part, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued a memo August 20 that “strongly encouraged” plans to relax prior authorizations “to facilitate the movement of patients from general acute-care hospitals to post-acute care and other clinically-appropriate settings, including skilled nursing facilities.”
Whether skilled nursing facilities could accept patients more quickly if prior authorizations are lifted remains to be seen. Kristen Knapp, spokeswoman for the Florida Health Care Association, said the larger issue “is all about staffing.”
A survey of FHCA members in early August found half had had to reduce admissions in the previous month due to worker shortages.
“The workforce crisis is real, and while we want to be good community partners during the surge, nursing centers right now are doing everything they can to maintain and recruit more staff to support the patients they are currently caring for,” Knapp told McKnight’s Long-Term Care News on Wednesday.
