Medicare Excludes Mid-Sized Physician Groups From Start Of New Payment System
Medicare is sparing 5,300 mid-sized physicians groups from the first phase of the government’s effort to pay doctors based on the quality of care. Medicare had originally planned to apply the “value-based payment modifier” to medical groups of 25 or more professionals, starting in January 2015 but based on physician performance during 2013. Doctors that […]
Revised Medicare Penalties Hit Some States Hard
Medicare’s readmissions penalties are falling hardest on hospitals in New Jersey, New York, Arkansas, Mississippi and the District of Columbia, a Kaiser Health News analysis of updated government data shows. Medicare revised its penalties from the new Readmissions Reduction Program at the end of September after discovering it had made small errors in its calculations […]
Study Finds Premium Support Plan Could Raise Medicare Premiums In Many Parts of Country
Seniors in both traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans would be affected by the change, according to research that looks at how a voucher system would have worked in 2010.
Revealing Angioplasty Outcomes Didn’t Improve Patient Mortality: Study
In the 23 years since New York State began publishing hospital death rates of coronary artery-bypass graft patients, the number of publicly reported outcome measures has proliferated. There are now 258 public reports on health care quality available around the country, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Researchers are still studying what impact this […]
Medicare Revises Hospitals’ Readmissions Penalties
Federal officials made small errors in calculating how much hospitals will be docked for having too many patients return within 30 days. Many hospitals will lose a bit more money under revised calculations.
Medicare’s Pay For Performance Effort Begins, Targeting Quality and Readmissions
Monday is the start of the federal fiscal year, and with it begins Medicare’s biggest effort yet at paying for performance. Starting Oct. 1, Medicare is withholding 1 percent of its regular hospital reimbursements in the new Value-Based Purchasing Program, which was created by the 2010 health care law. Over the course of the year, […]
Poll: Younger Americans More Receptive Than Seniors To GOP Medicare Plan
Among those under 55, a majority want to keep the current program, but 44 percent prefer switching to premium support
Joint Commission Praises 620 Hospitals For Quality
Updated at 1:10 p.m. on Sept. 20. The Joint Commission, the nation’s major hospital accreditation board, is releasing its annual list of hospitals that have excelled at adhering to basic procedures for treating common illnesses such as heart attacks and strokes. The commission is recognizing 620 hospitals — 18 percent of those it accredits — as “top […]
Hospital Readmission Rates Dropping Slightly, New Study Finds
A new government analysis has found that hospital readmission rates of Medicare patients have fallen more than previously reported, bolstering hope that hospitals are having some success at tackling this stubborn and expensive problem. Hospital readmissions have been getting extensive attention as a new penalty program kicks in next month, which will cost hospitals as […]
Are Medicare’s New Quality Incentives Large Enough To Change Hospital Behavior?
In October, hospitals stand to gain or lose as much as 1 percent of reimbursements. But experts say most will break even.
New Hospital Safety Effort To Link ICU Machines
Peter Pronovost’s reputation as a health care safety maven was built on his success in getting doctors and nurses to think more systematically about avoiding hospital infections from catheters by using checklists. Now Pronovost is trying to see if the machines in hospital intensive care units can be taught to communicate with each other to […]
Hospitals Tally Likely Costs From New Readmissions Penalties
Across the country, hospitals are estimating how much money they are going to forfeit when Medicare’s new penalties for excess readmissions kick in. Hospitals are also issuing divergent verdicts on whether they think the program is a good idea or not. Starting in October, 2,211 hospitals will lose a portion of their regular Medicare reimbursements […]
Medicare To Penalize 2,217 Hospitals For Excess Readmissions
Too many patients are returning to the hospital soon after being discharged, a costly problem the government is tackling.
Hospitals Treating The Poor Hardest Hit By Readmissions Penalties
Many hospitals warn that Medicare penalties for high readmission rates will hurt facilities that most need resources.
Sources and Methodology: Where the Hospital Readmissions Data Came From
Kaiser Health News’ data on hospital readmissions penalties comes from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which oversees the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program. On Aug. 1, CMS published data tables containing the “Readmissions Adjustment Factor” for individual hospitals. More On Readmission Penalties Medicare To Penalize 2,211 Hospitals For Excess Readmissions Hospitals Treating The […]
Medicaid Expansion Favored In General, Less So Near Home, Survey Finds
Americans are broadly supportive of the health care law’s expansion of Medicaid to cover millions of uninsured people, according to a new poll. But they are less enthusiastic about expanding it in their own states after they realize state taxpayers will pick up some of the cost. Last month the U.S. Supreme Court upheld most of the Affordable […]
Former Obama Adviser Chosen As Commonwealth Fund President
The Commonwealth Fund, one of the nation’s largest health care philanthropies, has named Dr. David Blumenthal as its new president. Between 2009 and February 2011, Blumenthal led President Barack Obama’s effort to expand the use of electronic medical records and other health information technology. After that job he returned to Harvard Medical School, where he […]
When Going Back To The Hospital Is Good News
No one wants to be readmitted to a hospital, but it does beat one alternative: death. As Medicare prepares to start punishing hospitals with higher than expected readmission rates, new government data show that some hospitals with high readmissions are actually doing a better job than most in keeping Medicare patients alive. Beth Israel Deaconess […]
Medicare IDs Few Hospitals As Outliers In Readmissions
Correction: An earlier version of this report incorrectly listed 10 hospitals as having better than average readmission rates for heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia patients. Only two hospitals, Citrus Memorial Hospital of Inverness, Fla. and Sarasota Memorial Hospital of Sarasota, Fla., had better than average readmission rates for those three conditions tracked by Medicare’s Hospital Compare […]
Hospitals’ Readmissions Rates Not Budging
Medicare data show little improvement in curbing the number of beneficiaries who are readmitted despite threats of financial penalties to hospitals.
