Hospital and Skilled Nursing Facility Networks: Informal Relationships and Their Role in the Placement of Traditional Medicare Beneficiaries With Serious Mental Illness

Volume-driven preferred partner relationships differentially impact referral patterns for traditional Medicare patients with SMI. Our findings suggest that patients with complex mental and behavioral health conditions may not benefit equally from more targeted investments in transitional care practices that are made in response to these partnerships. Yet our findings are also suggestive of opportunities to leverage existing hospital-SNF relational dynamics to improve the quality of care for a broader group of medically and socially complex patients.