We were heartened to hear that 10,631 nursing facilities will be receiving a total of $333 million from HHS based on improving COVID-19 metrics. While it sounds like a lot, it comes to just over $31,000 per facility. The good news is that this is just the first of five potential payments for good performance. The performance was for just one month, from August to September, whereby these 10,631 facilities had 1,200 fewer COVID- related deaths month over month.
Apparently, this is all part of HHS’s goal to use a little more of the carrot and less of the stick when dealing with the nursing home industry. About 77% of the eligible facilities received the funds. It would be nice if the money went to the staff.
What HHS really should be doing is giving two carrots to those facilities which have had zero deaths and no positive cases over the past month or two. Then, go into them and try to figure out what they are doing right that can be passed around to other facilities. Think about the cost savings to Medicare and Medicaid for no COVID illnesses and treatments.
Even though it is a largely private pay industry, assisted living and memory care providers who have removed COVID from their communities could sure use a bonus as well, not to mention those which never had it. And again, what can we learn from it, as this is not going away anytime soon, as most of us have come to understand.
