If they hadn’t known well in advance it would be that small, providers probably wouldn’t have been so gracious about a mere 1% increase in Medicare reimbursements from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

But they had and they were.

The 1% was mandated by a solution to solve the Medicare physician payment formula.

The leader of the nation’s largest nursing home association called the cumulative $370 million pay hike “critical” to providers’ well-being.

But top consultant Betsy Rust, CPA, a partner in Healthcare Consulting at Plante Moran, warned the increase is unlikely to cover wage and benefits for SNFs in competitive labor markets, nor an “increase in per diem SNF costs that has resulted from spreading costs like admissions, care planning, and discharge planning over shorter lengths of stay.”