Skilled Nursing Facility Utilization and Payment Public Use File: Released Transparency Data, CY2013, a Resource for Costs and Services
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently released a public data set on skilled nursing facility utilization and payment. The Skilled Nursing Facility Utilization and Payment Public Use File (SNF PUF) is a comprehensive resource for information on utilization, payments, and submitted charges organized by provider, state, and resource utilization groups (RUGs). Findings for two categories of RUGs for patients who receive a significant amount of therapy, the Ultra-High (RU) and Very High (RV) Rehabilitation RUGs, show that the amount of therapy provided is often very close to the minimum number of minutes needed to qualify a patient for these categories.
The public data set includes information on 15,055 skilled nursing facilities, over 2.5 million stays, almost $27 billion in Medicare payments for 2013, and does not contain any individually identifiable information about Medicare beneficiaries.