Oklahoma skilled nursing providers are due for a $23-a-day boost for Medicaid payments. But there’s a catch.
Out of the raise, $5 of it is dependent on meeting certain quality of care measures.
“Pay-for-performance payments may be earned quarterly and based on facility-specific performance achievement of four equally-weighted, Long-Stay Quality Measures as defined by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,” Senate Bill 280 states. Introduced by Sen. Frank Simpson (R-Ardmore), the bill received no opposition and is pending final approval.
These are the Percentage of High Risk Long-Stay Residents with Pressure Ulcers; Percentage of Long-Stay Residents Who Lose Too Much Weight; Percentage of Long-Stay Residents with a Urinary Tract Infection; and Percentage of Long-Stay Residents who received an Antipsychotic Medication.
The increased cost will be around $35 million a year, but lawmakers seemed to acknowledge that a boost was needed to halt a decline in the state’s skilled nursing facilities, The Tulsa World reported. Medicaid pays for more than 70% of the state’s nursing home residents.
State legislators also are revising a bill that would bar SNFs from giving antipsychotic medications to patients without informed consent, and another bill that would require assisted suicide to be noted on death certificates. However, physician-assisted suicide is currently illegal in Oklahoma, leading some to wonder if the legislation is necessary.