Lack Of Cooperation Among Health Facilities Mars Antibiotic Resistance Fight, CDC Says
Infected patients often move from hospitals to nursing homes and long-term care facilities, and coordination could help keep those infections from spreading.
Half Of Nation’s Hospitals Fail Again To Escape Medicare’s Readmission Penalties
The fines, in their fourth year, are assessed on hospitals that have patients frequently return and will cost nearly 2,600 hospitals $420 million in total.
2015 Home Health Agencies Ratings: 5-Star Facilities
Kaiser Health News lists the 239 home health agencies that received Medicare’s highest rating of five stars.
2015 Home Health Agencies Ratings: 1-Star And 1.5-Star Facilities
KHN also lists the six home health agencies that received Medicare’s lowest rating of one star and the 195 agencies rated one and a half stars. These ratings, released July 2015, are based on performance from fall 2013 through last year.
Home Health Agencies Get Medicare’s Star Treatment
For the first time, the government is assigning one to five stars to the agencies that care for seniors in their homes. Nearly half of 9,000 agencies rated captured average scores.
Having Survived Court Ruling, Insurance Markets Still Face Economic Threats
Among the challenges for these online exchanges set up by the health law are attracting more customers, keeping consumers’ health costs affordable and quality high, and finding enough financing.
Patients Not Hurt When Their Hospitals Close, Study Finds
Despite frequent fears in communities when losing their hospitals, mortality rates do not rise, say Harvard researchers who examined 194 closures.
Medicare Itemizes Its $103 Billion Drug Bill
Federal officials release data showing prescription histories of hundreds of thousands of doctors and identifying the most common and costly drugs.
Few Consumers Are Using Quality, Price Information To Make Health Decisions
Despite the federal government’s push to make more information available to consumers, two out of three people say it is still difficult to find out how much a doctor or hospital charges for a specific procedure or treatment, according to a new poll.
Only 251 Hospitals Score Five Stars In Medicare’s New Ratings
The ratings, posted on Medicare’s website Thursday, rank hospitals based on patient reviews.
Medicare Is Stingy In First Year Of Doctor Bonuses
More than 300 large medical groups are being penalized because they did not score well on quality measures or didn’t report their efforts to the government. The incentives will soon expand to all doctors who treat Medicare patients.
Hundreds Of Hospitals Struggle To Improve Patient Satisfaction
Pleasing patients has become more important to hospitals as Medicare takes consumers views into account when setting payments. Most hospitals are getting better, but others have not improved since the government started publishing ratings six years ago.
Fancy Flourishes At Hospitals Don’t Impress Patients, Study Finds
A study at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins finds that patients in older buildings rate their care about the same as those in a sleek new hospital tower.
UCLA Bacteria Outbreak Highlights The Challenges Of Curbing Infections
The lethal infection is one of three that the CDC says urgently require close monitoring and prevention to halt their spread.
Some Seeking Insurance Told They Didn’t Qualify, Others Balked At Cost, Poll Finds
Confusion about federal assistance stymied many from getting insurance in the first year of the health law marketplaces.
HHS Pledges To Quicken Pace Toward Quality-Based Medicare Payments
As part of their effort to improve quality while cutting costs, federal officials announced Monday that they want programs such as accountable care organizations and bundled care to account for 50 percent of traditional Medicare spending by the end of 2018.
1,700 Hospitals Win Quality Bonuses From Medicare, But Most Will Never Collect
Penalties for readmissions and patient injuries erase bonuses hospitals earn for meeting stiff quality criteria. Fewer than 800 will end up with higher payments.
Alaska Health Plan Premiums, Highest In Nation, Are Triple Those In Phoenix
A look at the 10 least and 10 most expensive places for health insurance shows a wide gap in prices for the same type of coverage.
Is Your Heart Doctor In? If Not, You Might Be Better Off.
A new study finds that high-risk heart patients in teaching hospitals do better during the times that cardiologists gather for national conventions.
Hospital-Acquired Condition Penalties By State
Medicare is reducing payments to 721 hospitals with high rates of infections or other medical complications. About 1,400 hospitals, including all in Maryland, are excluded from the program and Medicare did not assess their rates of patient harm.
