As pressure mounts to reduce patient length of stay, skilled nursing facilities are particularly feeling the pinch of escalating drug costs, according to Skilled Nursing News.
Transitional Care Management, a skilled nursing facility with two locations in Illinois, saw the average price of medications per patient rise to $48 per day in 2018, compared to about $40 in 2017. This equates to about $18,000 to $20,000 extra costs per month for the facility.
"Our referrals are getting more and more complex. We're getting surviving cancer patients, organ transplant patients, that have more expensive medications and more complex medical systems that we have to put in place," Transitional Care Management COO Mike Filippo told Skilled Nursing News.
Ecumen, a nonprofit senior housing and healthcare organization with nine facilities in eight states, spends $10,000 per month on inhalers alone for Medicare Part A patients.
Since ACOs and managed care plans continue to force skilled nursing facilities to keep patient lengths of stay short and shift low-acuity cases to home health settings, skilled nursing facilities must shift their focus to managing their unique supply requirements to remain financially sustainable.
"It's a huge piece of our world that probably doesn’t always get the attention it deserves," Monica Schreck, vice president of clinical operations at Symphony Post Acute Network, told Skilled Nursing News.
Read the full report here.