Cost Containment in SNFs: A 7-Step Roadmap to Savings

December 12, 2023

Although profit margins remain razor thin, the long-term care industry’s census is slowly rebounding. After three years, operators are seeing the light at the tunnel’s end. The path there is cost containment, essential to a SNF’s healthy bottom line — and, in turn, healthy patients.

“Often the focus of cost containment is on how much an initially ordered medication costs, and how to get the price lower,” says Stephen M. Creasy, Director of Clinical Services at PharMerica, a top pharmacy provider to long-term care facilities. “Instead, we look at the challenge through different lenses. It’s not necessarily just about reducing the cost of that medication from a contractual standpoint. We want to see if there is an opportunity to move to a lower-cost alternative that is equally efficacious, ensuring the appropriate amount or duration of medication is used, or developing specific interventions based on prescribing trends of a client’s referral sources.”

This white paper, produced in partnership with Skilled Nursing News, reveals a 7-step roadmap SNFs can use to start saving today:

Before move-in
1. Formulary alternatives
2. Utilization reporting

After move-in
3. Reducing polypharmacy
4. Med-pass efficiencies
5. Resource alignment
6. Billing accuracy and intervention

Before move-out
7. Minimizing waste from unused medications

 

Read/Download the White Paper