Skilled nursing facilities are not in the business of only taking you for a few weeks just to ship you out. They are regulated by Medicare and Medicaid and must follow those guidelines. If your loved one is there under their Medicare benefit, they must show consistent functions improvement in order to remain under that benefit. If they have plateaued with their rehab, under Medicare regs they are at baseline and no longer meet Medicare criteria, therefore, Medicare will no longer cover their stay. Truly, if a patient meets Medicare criteria it is in everybody's interest to keep the patient in the facility under their Medicare as long as possible. It reduces the patients readmission rare back to the hospital significantly, costs the patient less, and the facility is reimbursed at a higher rate for patients on Medicare. As far as pushing hospice, facilities gain nothing by having residents on hospice. Hospice is an additional service to the resident as well as their family. Hospice care is also closely regulated and has strict criteria to be eligible for the services.
You are not telling the whole story. Skilled nursing facilities might take you for a few weeks, but their main objective is to ship you out even if you are not physically ready. In our case they bumped our father from pureed food to eat what you want when in actuality he was still at the pureed food stage. Then they say that you aren't making significant progress so that is how they kick you out. How do you make significant progress when you are actually in dire need of skilled care but can't stay in the hospital. It's a tangled web of deceit. They only want the Medicare money, but really don't care about your progress or lack of progress. There are so many people in the same boat, and I watched them coming and going. They were also pushing, and I do mean pushing hospice care. That's so you cannot take your elderly parent or whomever, back to the hospital. Don't do it. If they are ready for that, then so be it. However if not, then don't do it.
Before I had the need to place my mother in a SKN, I was wondering about the possibility of having an Adult Co-op in our community with people who have similar needs. Trading 3 hours at a time of staying with loved ones--similar to the nursery co-op which I had when our children were young. Have any of you done this before, and if so, how has it worked? Probably 4 adults at a time would be the most I would want to take on; but it might be a blessing for the loved ones; and also offer a time away for the caregivers. Just a thought.
Oh how I wish when my mom purchased her LTC she had purchased a coverage more appropriate for her needs as well as mine Her LTC only has than 2 yrs of skilled care in a facility. She insisted that she wanted to stay in the home and have in home care and only allowed for 2 yrs of NH on the policy. She has PD but will likely live long and neediing this type of faciility and her policy only pays $50-$100 in home agency care. UUUGGHH! So I am her 24/7 and she wants to pay me which is sweet and thoughtful but soon to be unrealistic. I'm a daughter, not a nurse or home aide and she'll need more skilled care. These places above mentioned in the article sound nice but they must be sooo expensive. Still something like this would be so better for my mom (actiivities, people here own age, etc). This would be so much better than the prison me and mom live in now with neither of us having a life except that of siamese twins.
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Frequently Asked Questions About Skilled Nursing Facilities