Reply To: Insurance Question

Having stayed in 3 SNF’s while I was paralyzed, I think few have good support for GBS/CIDP patients. It really comes down to the attitude of the CNA’s who primarily provide the care to patients. Many CNA’s just don’t care about the patients; a few are caring and will truly help. Others are very calloused having had to deal with patients with Alzheimer’s, in some kind of vegetable state, or who can no longer communicate and function well. The quality of the SNF staff can also be a reflection of patients and their abilities to deal with life (or end of life) in the SNF.

The better SNF’s have full time staffed on-site OT/PT departments, grooming departments, full kitchens overseen by dietitians. Only the very large SNF’s will have on-site doctors. SNF’s usually have a primary care doctor on-call along with several other specialty doctors. You doctors will most likely NOT be allowed to see you in an SNF, unless the SNF is run by a hospital your doctor is affiliated with.

My insurance required a re-justification of my need to stay in the SNF at the end of every 1-2 weeks. Unfortunately, the justification report writing usually fell onto the social worker at my SNF. I had to fight with her over her progress reports because she had no experience with GBS and couldn’t understand why I was not improving faster. My SNF would not accept reports or recommendations from my own doctors (including my GBS neurologist). So, the insurance justification process may not be a fair process at all SNF’s.

Picking a good SNF goes beyond just looking at the ratio.