CMS Targets Regulation That Penalizes Hospitals If Too Many Patients Die After Organ Transplants
CMS officials say they're eliminating inefficiencies created by the regulation on hospitals' Medicare funding, but advocates say rolling the rule back weakens the government’s authority to hold transplant programs accountable if they fail to provide safe patient care.
ProPublica:
Trump Administration Proposes Weakening Rules Governing Organ Transplant Centers
The Trump administration this week proposed eliminating a decade-old regulation that puts hospitals at risk of losing their Medicare funding if too many of their patients die or suffer organ failure after receiving transplants. The rule the government is proposing to scrap is the same one that led the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to cut off funding last month for heart transplants at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in Houston after an investigation by ProPublica and the Houston Chronicle revealed an outsized number of patient deaths and complications in recent years. (Hixenbaugh and Ornstein, 9/21)
