With Key Resources At The Ready, Specialty Providers Have Done Well Amid COVID-19

Most of long-term care has found itself hobbled by low occupancy and consumers’ sustained fears during the pandemic, but one group has generally fared much better than the others: Providers focusing on intense rehabilitation and transitional care.

That’s largely because they were able to demonstrate their value to upstream providers in need of reliable outlets for step-down patients.

The trend toward targeting clinically complex patients is nothing new, but observers say the continued push toward payment incentives that unite payers and providers around risk — plus ongoing, specific needs related to COVID-19 — have hastened the transformation.

“There’s no question,” said Bob Kramer, co-founder and former CEO of the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care. “Specialized clinical programs working in conjunction with health systems … are seeing real pick-up and real demand of a sort they weren’t before.”

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