Subacute care facilities: enormous cost savings raise health reform issues.

In summary, there is every reason to believe that subacute care providers will ultimately achieve their goal of reducing the cost of those subacute care services that are currently being furnished in the high-cost acute care setting. The degree to which this goal will be achieved, however, will depend upon the level of acceptance of subacute care within the public and private sectors of our health care system. Such acceptance will be greatly facilitated by thoughtful consideration of the economic impact of subacute care services on the health care system as a whole, and its ability to adapt to whatever changes are instituted as a result of the ongoing debate over health care reform. Further, anticipating and responding to concerns relating to the cost and quality of subacute care services will not only lend credibility to the subacute care movement, but will insure its place in the our soon-to-be-reformed health care system.