Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
CMS Releases Star Ratings For Hospitals, But Says It May Scrap Model That's Proven To Be Controversial
Modern Healthcare: CMS Updates Hospital Star Ratings But Seeks Feedback On More Changes
The CMS is considering scrapping the model it uses to assign hospital star ratings, signaling a big shift from the agency's stance just seven months ago. In conjunction with releasing new ratings on the Hospital Compare website Thursday for the first time in nearly 15-months, the agency also opened a public comment page for stakeholders to provide feedback on potential changes to the ratings program, and one them is tossing out the latent variable model used to assign hospitals ratings. (Castellucci, 2/28)
Kaiser Health News: Medicare Trims Payments To 800 Hospitals, Citing Patient Safety Incidents
Eight hundred hospitals will be paid less by Medicare this year because of high rates of infections and patient injuries, federal records show. The number is the highest since the federal government five years ago launched the Hospital Acquired Conditions (HAC) Reduction Program, created by the Affordable Care Act. Under the program, 1,756 hospitals have been penalized at least once, a Kaiser Health News analysis found.This year, 110 hospitals are being punished for the fifth straight time. (Rau, 3/1)
Look Up Your Hospital: Is It Being Penalized By Medicare? Use KHN's New Search
Chicago Tribune: In Controversial Ratings, Feds Lower Quality Scores Of Some Of Chicago's Top Hospitals
Several of the Chicago area’s biggest-name hospitals — including Northwestern Memorial, Rush University, University of Chicago and Loyola University medical centers — saw their scores for quality drop, in controversial ratings released by the federal government Thursday. In some cases, the hospitals, which are often touted as among the best in the area, earned surprisingly low scores. University of Chicago and Loyola University medical centers each earned two out of five stars, according to the ratings released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. They earned three stars the last time ratings were released. (Schencker, 2/28)
