Medicare penalizes more than half of hospitals for readmissions
Editor's Note Nearly 2,600 hospitals will be penalized for missing readmission targets under Medicare, with a loss of $420 million, Kaiser Health News reports. The average Medicare payment reduction is 0.61% per patient stay; 38 hospitals will receive the maximum cut of 3%. The reductions are based on readmissions of…
Which procedures should be added to ASC Medicare list?
Editor's Note The Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA) is conducting a survey of its members to determine which procedures should be added to the list of ASC Medicare payable procedures for 2016. The information will help ASCA advocate for the expansion of the list of procedures the Centers for Medicare…
Medicare patient mortality, hospitalizations, and expenditures down
Editor's Note Deaths, hospital stays, and spending all decreased for Medicare patients from 1999 to 2013, this study finds. In 1999, the all-cause mortality rate was 5.3%, and by 2013 that rate had fallen to 4.5%. Hospitalizations decreased from around 35,000 per 100,000 annually to 27,000 per 100,000. Inpatient inflation-adjusted…
Penalties based on number of VTEs unfairly imposed
Editor's Note After a review of 128 case histories, Johns Hopkins researchers find that financial penalties imposed by federal and state agencies on Maryland hospitals based solely on the total number of patients who suffer venous thromboemboli (VTEs) fail to account for those that occur despite the consistent and proper…
Healthcare spending to grow 5.8% annually
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Office of the Actuary estimates that healthcare spending will grow an average of 5.8% each year from 2014 to 2024. The estimate is higher than the projection of 5.7% made a year ago. Prior to the Affordable Care Act in 2014,…
Characteristics of hospitals penalized in HAC reduction program
Editor's Note Among hospitals participating in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program, those penalized the most had more quality accreditations, offered more advanced services, were major teaching institutions, and had better performance on other process and outcome measures. The findings suggest that the approach CMS…
Senate bill would let Medicare patients self-pay for medical devices
Editor's Note Four US Senators (two democrats, two republicans) are sponsoring legislation—The Accelerating Innovation in Medicine (AIM) Act—that would increase Medicare patients’ access to new medical devices. Currently, Medicare patients who are interested in self-paying for a device not covered by Medicare face significant administrative obstacles. Under AIM, once a…
Senate panel asking for delay of Stage 3 MU
Editor's Note The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee is asking for a delay of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Stage 3 meaningful-use rules, which providers say are costly and time-consuming. Stage 3 requires providers to send electronic summaries for 50% of patients they refer to other…
Medicare trust fund exhausted by 2030
Editor's Note A report from Medicare trustees on July 22 projects that the Medicare trust fund will be exhausted in 2030. The report also revealed that recipients of Social Security disability benefits could face steep cuts next year. The fund it expected to run out of money in 2016. Congress…
Potholes, speed bumps on road to quality reporting
Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) are moving forward with quality reporting, adding a series of new measures this year while continuing to build a national database of performance levels on earlier measures. Now that they have experience with reporting safe surgery checklist use (ASC 6) and volume of selected procedures (ASC…
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