Haynes and Boone, LLP Associate Jennifer Kreick talked with Bloomberg Law about why healthcare workers fear that the nation’s most vulnerable could be exposed to COVID-19 after a mandatory waiting period for nursing home admissions was rolled back.
Here is an excerpt:
In response to the pandemic, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has temporarily waived a mandatory three-day hospital stay before a patient qualifies for transfer to a skilled nursing facility. The waiting period is typically required before Medicare covers a nursing home stay.
The three-day waiting period wasn’t intended for screening patients to determine whether a nursing home is the right setting or to rule out the risk of spreading infection, but to verify that Medicare would actually cover the higher cost of nursing home care.
The waiver ensures nursing homes will be reimbursed without delay as COVID-19 drives demand. It also aims to help free up in-patient hospital beds by transferring patients into nursing homes, said Jennifer Kreick, a healthcare attorney with Haynes and Boone, LLP in Dallas.
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