MN--Individual

Skilled Nursing facilities cannot afford a reduction in payments that this new grouping appears to be imposing. The geriatric clients coming in from an acute hospital stay are extremely volatile ---and indicators of their propensity to 'crash and burn' include those items that we have looked for in the 'look back' period, such as IV meds and fluids--those who receive these special treatments require significantly more nursing care and monitoring than those who do not--We cannot afford to increase the nurse:patient ratio when it is already too high at roughly 15- 20:1--for our short term Medicare rehab patients! If SNFs cannot stay solvent, the government will be forced to pay the 100x more expensive hospital charges to maintain these patients. Why can't the federal government realize the benefit of skilled nursing facilities and try to reward our work, rather than make things harder, costing the taxpayers more money in both the long and short run! Leave RUGs III alone--leave the MDS 3.0 draft alone and stop spending money on these ventures that increase the cost, rather than save anything. Shelley Matthes RN-BC