Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
CMS Says It Will Release Hospital Star Ratings 'Shortly'
Modern Healthcare: CMS Previews How Hospitals Will Fare On New Star Ratings
Ahead of the release of its much-anticipated star ratings for overall hospital quality, the CMS published data Thursday showing how those star ratings are distributed according to hospital characteristics, such as size and status. The agency said it planned to post overall hospital star ratings "shortly" on its Hospital Compare website. (Whitman, 7/21)
Kaiser Health News: Medicare Prepares To Go Forward With New Hospital Quality Ratings
Despite objections from Congress and the hospital industry, the Obama administration said it will soon publish star ratings summing up the quality of 3,662 hospitals. Nearly half will be rated as average, and hospitals that serve the poor will not score as well overall as will other hospitals, according to government figures released Thursday. The government says the ratings, which will award between one and five stars to each hospital, will be more useful to consumers than its current mishmash of more than 100 individual metrics, many of which deal with technical matters. The hospital industry, however, fears the ratings will be misleading and oversimplify the many types of care at the institutions. (Rau, 7/22)
In other Medicare news --
Politico Pro: MACRA Rules Cause Surge In Second Quarter Lobbying
The number of provider and other organizations lobbying on MACRA — Medicare’s massive physician payment reform — doubled in the second quarter as CMS published a 962-page rule on the program. Seventy-seven organizations noted lobbying on MACRA in the second three months of 2016, according to disclosure forms that were due Wednesday. Only 38 had cited the law in the first three months of the year. (Pittman, 7/21)
Modern Healthcare: Medicare Will Test Population-Health Approach To Stroke And Heart Disease Risk
The CMS has selected 516 physician practices to participate in a payment initiative intended to change the way providers manage heart disease. Overall, nearly 20,000 healthcare practitioners and more than 3.3 million Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries will participate in the five-year effort, called the Million Hearts Cardiovascular Disease Risk Reduction Model. (Dickson, 7/21)
