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CAPC Palliative Care Discussion Forum
Billing and Finance

Next Reply: Re:Medicare SNU patients
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Post Medicare SNU patients
Author: eewald
Date: Feb 5, 2009 12:25 pm
If our facility has a Medicare hospital-based skilled nursing unit patient and we want to assign them to a Palliative Care bed, does this patient have to be discharged from the SNU and then made an acute-care patient? They truly would be sub-acute if they are only receiving palliative care. Any recommendations?
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Re:Medicare SNU patients (by kkerr on 02/10/2009)
Great question. I do not have a definitive answer for you, but will say that the usual guidelines for determining appropriate acuity of care would apply to patients who are receiving palliative care. I’m guessing that by “only receiving palliative care” you mean that palliation, vs curative care, is the main focus of the treatment episode. Effective palliation may require services that can only be provided in an acute care facility, so by no means does receiving palliative care preclude transfer to the acute care setting – it depends on what the patient needs for symptoms to be controlled. Hope that helps. Kathleen Kerr, Senior Analyst, University of California San Francisco, Palliative Care Leadership Center

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