National Physiatry to Attend HealthTAC East 2019 in Bahamas April 7-9
April 4, 2019
CORAL GABLES, FL–The Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM), the new Medicare payment rule for skilled nursing facilities (SNF) with an October 2019 implementation date, will surely be a topic of discussion among senior living and healthcare executives at the upcoming HealthTAC East 2019 to be held at Grand Hyatt Baha Mar, in Nassau, Bahamas, April 7-9.
“SNF administrators everywhere have been wrestling with how to keep readmission percentages low for short term sub-acute rehab patients while simultaneously complying with shorter lengths of stay, and this has been a dilemma.” said Glen Rundell, CEO, National Physiatry, who will make a presentation at HealthTAC East regarding his prediction for PDPM, reimbursements and risk adjustment.
SNF administrators will be looking at various methods to lower costs, improve patient outcomes, augment revenue sources and optimize reimbursements.
Physiatrists are medical doctors specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R). They diagnose and treat pain; restore maximum function lost through injury, illness or disabling conditions; treat the whole person rather than just the problem area; lead a team of medical professionals; provide non-surgical treatments; and explain a patient’s medical problems and treatment/prevention plan.
National Physiatry provides these physicians who are specialists in rehab at no cost to skilled nursing facilities, often within Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs) or Life Plan Communities.
Originally formed in order to improve the rehab process for sub-acute post-op patients, National Physiatry has grown from physician providers with a single purpose into an organization with many services that improve patient care, doctor life/work balance and the overall improvement of SNF effectiveness, patient outcomes and referrals through marketing. Happy and satisfied patients, primary care physicians and hospitals promote increased referrals.
Rundell believes SNFs will be able to increase some levels of stay with the implementation of PDPM based on higher acuity levels so they can focus on increased quality of life and help prevent rehospitalization. Some patients will be able to go home earlier like those in short-term rehab for knee replacements. Many of those are already going straight home, depending on age and condition. That is expected to offset the increased stay by those with more complicated diagnosis.
“National Physiatry provides physiatrists—rehabilitation physicians—as consultants at no cost to your facilities,” Rundell emphasized. “We hire the doctors; they’re not independent contractors. When we present a physiatrist for final approval, that doctor is ready to come aboard and has already met with the rehab team, director of nursing, executive director and primary care physicians prior to the physiatrist’s start date.”
“We are a full service practice management company and take care of all the day-to-day administration and operations that a SNF would have to do—and many can’t afford a full-time physiatrist—the interviewing process with extensive background checks and credentialing, payroll, compliance review, physician medical documentation, physician/team education, and timely patient outcome reports are all included with our management program, allowing the physiatrist to focus on rehab plans and improved patient care.” Rundell added. “Our physiatrists can really focus on exclusive customer service with each patient, re-hospitalization reduction, help with marketing and census building, and it becomes a differentiation of services offered by the SNF.”
Based in Coral Gables, FL, National Physiatry’s mission is to consistently provide high-quality patient care through their Physician Led Rehab Program throughout the nation. National Physiatry’s vision is to consistently improve patient care by providing physiatry physician services for short-term sub-acute rehab units, at no cost to the facility.