skilled nursing facilities

Patients who experience life-altering hospitalizations -- in this case, strokes -- are often discharged not to home, but to either inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRF) or skilled nursing facilities (SNF). A new study shows that patients sent to IRFs do better than those assigned to SNFs. But as always, the story is more complicated.
Because Medicare Advantage programs are paid in part, by the value their care-partners provide, they choose their partners carefully. And when incentives are aligned, patient outcomes seem to improve.