Maybe not in your daughters area, but I have read articles in which hospitals are pushing their patients ( who meet inpatient acuity and have been in the hospital 3 midnights) into SNF s because it reduces their risk of a return admission. However, that only applies to the patients who meet the inpatient criteria. Medicare has made a 48 hour observation rule on all patients admitted to the hospital( in which all insurance companies now follow- if Medicare makes a rule by law that rule applies to everyone) which makes it hard for patients to meet the criteria for an SNF because If you are an observation patient, you do not qualify for an SNF. If we had Republican politicians who had an ounce of intelligence, they should be screaming this fact about Obamacare to the elderly population, but they do not.
Your comments about observation to SNF is exactly correct.
I believe part of why this area (northern Georgia) has more of the home based care incidents is because there are fewer SNFs here so home based care is what the docs order.
I think we agree that what is happening to patient care is atrocious and driven by the government meddling into health care based on O’s power grab.