[Free Essay] Medicare Payment Policies

Medicare Payment Policies

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMSs) published a final policy on July 2022, updating Medicare payment policies and subsequent rates for skilled and proficient nursing centers. This was done under the Skilled Nursing Facility Prospective Payment System (SNF-PPS) for the financial year 2022-2023. During this period, the CMS approved almost a 2.7% increase in Medicare payments for Skilled Nursing Facilities. Medicare is a splendid policy that pays for nearly 19% of all long-term care expenditures within approximately 33 days of a hospital stay. The program also covers critical rehabilitation care services when a person or patient is discharged from a healthcare facility.

Resident Room Capacity

Center for Medicare and Medicaid Service memorandum, documented as QSO-22-19-NH, encompasses recommendations associated with patient room capacity. Indeed, the CMS memorandum has highlighted the benefits aligned with minimizing the number of residents in every facility room, considering the lessons and guidelines comprehended during the coronavirus era. The primary goal is to prevent infections and guarantee home-like settings for the patient, thereby upholding their rights to privacy. Understanding that infection control is paramount in a facility’s work to mitigate disease outbreaks is pivotal. Notably, single-occupancy rooms reduce the probability of contracting and transmitting infectious ailments and provide our patients with a home-like environment and privacy.

Recommendations

There is a need to conduct a comprehensive financial analysis based on the 2.7% upsurge in Medicare payments to predict the 2023 and 2024 revenues. It is imperative to ask if the updated Medicare rates would be adequate to offset the renovation costs. Besides, the facility must explore and consider options of converting some of its rooms to single occupancy cubicles are a primary goal to foster an individual-based facility, the cost of renovation and warrant privacy.
Cultural and Workforce Management Factors
Several cultural and workforce management factors affect our healthcare facility’s operations and service delivery. Some of these factors include;

Cultural Awareness and Recognition

Our healthcare facility seeks to foster equity and inclusivity in care service provision. Competent healthcare professionals advocate for high-quality health equality, inclusion and diversity in daily operations and service care delivery. Familiarity with cultural diversities has the power and privilege to make our facility more collaborative and compassionate. There is a need for every person, including healthcare professionals and stakeholders, to extend the promotion and creation of equity, inclusion and diversity throughout the workplace. This will enable healthcare professionals to handle different patients with various health complications effectively with discriminating them against their culture, ethnicity, color or gender.

Positive Working Environment

This is another prominent factor affecting our healthcare facility. The facility deals with effective work culture by hiring competent and devoted professionals and encourage their retention trough timely training programs. Most nurses and healthcare specialists work in well-ventilated rooms to care for different patients with chronic disorders. A positive working environment encourages team collaboration, cooperation and coordination in care service delivery. It also fosters sound clinical decision-making processes for improved care, reduced hospital readmission and enhanced patient outcomes.

Recommendations

The healthcare facility must embrace equity, inclusion and diversity as the primary value when dealing with patients from different cultural settings. Implementing an efficient communication channel and ensuring every voice is heard and given the utmost respect will be imperative. There is a need to implement cultural proficiency training programs to incorporate diversity, inclusion and sensitivity subjects. To take care of discriminatory matters, it will be pivotal to partner with service providers for special populations such as LGBT elders and Sage as core advocates.

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