Feds Back Down Over Rule Requiring Accreditors To Release Reports On Hospital Errors, Mix-Ups
The decision did not go over well with supporters of the rule. ““The public deserves full transparency on how the health care industry performs. Instead, transparency has been sacrificed to accommodate special interests that lobby to avoid disclosing embarrassing information about health care quality,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group.
ProPublica:
Accreditors Can Keep Their Hospital Inspection Reports Secret, Feds Decide
Federal health officials have backed down from a controversial proposal that would have required private accreditors to publicly release reports about errors, mishaps and mix-ups in the nation’s hospitals and health care facilities. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had proposed in April that accreditors publicly detail problems they find during inspections of hospitals and other medical facilities, as well as the steps being taken to fix them. (Ornstein, 8/3)
In other news concerning hospitals —
Modern Healthcare:
Behind Kaiser's $1 Billion Quarterly Operating Gain, And How It Might Repeat It
Kaiser Permanente will be tested to repeat the record $1 billion in operating income it posted in the first quarter. After all, the Oakland, Calif.-based hospital and managed-care giant is swimming against the same national trends that dented the earnings of investor-owned hospital chains in the second quarter. (Barkholz, 8/3)
Modern Healthcare:
CHS To Sell Additional Hospitals Worth $1.5 Billion In Revenue
Community Health Systems expects to sell another group of its hospitals with combined revenue of $1.5 billion, not including the 30 hospitals previously announced, CEO Wayne Smith said during a second-quarter earnings call Wednesday. Buyer interest is strong for an undisclosed number of hospitals, which carry mid-single digit margins for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, like the first 30 hospitals being divested, Smith said. (Barkholz, 8/2)
Modern Healthcare:
CMS Gives Hospitals $2 Billion Raise, Finalizes Unpopular Uncompensated-Care Plan
The CMS will give a $2.4 billion raise to inpatient hospitals in fiscal 2018. The increase is less than the $3.1 billion the agency proposed in April, but exceeds the $746 million bump hospitals received in fiscal 2017. In its final rule for the inpatient prospective payment system, released late Wednesday, the CMS also announced it was moving forward with plans to change the way it reimburses uncompensated care even though the approach was panned by the hospital industry. (Dickson, 8/2)
Kaiser Health News:
Under Trump, Hospitals Face Same Penalties Embraced By Obama
Amid all the turbulence over the future of the Affordable Care Act, one facet continues unchanged: President Donald Trump’s administration is penalizing more than half the nation’s hospitals for having too many patients return within a month. Medicare is punishing 2,573 hospitals, just two dozen short of what it did last year under former President Barack Obama, according to federal records released Wednesday. Starting in October, the federal government will cut those hospitals’ payments by as much as 3 percent for a year. (Rau, 8/3)
Stat:
Hospitals Brace For Security Risks That Could Come With Using Wearables For Patient Care
Hailed as the future of preventive care, wearable health devices allow doctors to keep closer tabs on the health of patients as they go about their daily routines. But as health systems consider these medical-grade devices, hoping to lower costs associated with hospital readmissions, they have also raised concerns about potential security risks to patients and to the hospitals connected with them. (Blau, 8/4)