Health worker shortages are keeping hospitals from discharging patients for post-acute care and prompting pleas to Congress for per diem Medicare payments to cover the longer stays.
The requests add to a long list of health industry asks that Congress will have to sort through in the lame-duck session and underscore how the fallout from the pandemic is still rippling through the health care system.Discharging patients to long-term care facilities was challenging even before the pandemic, but COVID-19 dramatically disrupted the process, making it hard for facilities to accept patients in the midst of outbreaks.
Providence Health in Spokane, Wash., for example, is on track to spend nearly $18 million this year on nursing care for patients who no longer need to be hospitalized at its two facilities. A handful of patients have been on the premises for more than 100 days, Susan Stacey, Providence chief executive for inland northwest Washington state, told Axios.
Normally, an emergency department can handle a challenge of tight capacity, high acuity or a staffing shortage, but when all three come together at once, it can quickly overwhelm an ER.
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