CMS reports drop in physicians, hospitals in ‘meaningful use’
Editor's Note The number of physicians that participated in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) “meaningful use” program dropped from 228,662 in 2014 to 226,514 in 2015, and hospital participation declined from 4,177 to 4,071, Bloomberg BNA reports. The drop in participation occurred despite repeated efforts by CMS…
Patient factors strongly predict 30-day readmissions
Editor's Note The patient’s clinical condition responsible for admission, age, comorbidities, and socioeconomic factors such as race, income, and payer status were strong predictors of readmission within 30 days in this study. The analysis included some 15 million patients at 611 hospitals from Premier healthcare alliance over a 2-year period.…
CMS given more time for final notice on ‘two-midnight’ payment cut
Editor's Note The US District Court for the District of Columbia has given the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) another month to issue a final notice justifying cutting inpatient payments by 0.2% in conjunction with its “two-midnight” rule, The March 18 AHA News Now reports. CMS has until…
Nurses’ perceptions of EHR
Editor's Note This study was designed to understand nurses’ perceptions of using an electronic health record (EHR) at the point of care. At 1 year after EHR adoption, the nurses said: it did not improve patient care the learning curve was steep they had lower confidence using the EHR than…
Two hospitals face value-based payment - which one does your OR resemble?
H ealthcare trends come and go, but one that shows no signs of stopping is value-based payment. Just this year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services launched the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replace-ment (CCJR) model, which mandates bundled payment for two of the most common surgical procedures in the…
More than 5,000 new codes will be added to ICD-10 in FY 2017
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced March 9 that about 1,900 diagnosis codes and 3,651 hospital inpatient procedure codes will be added to the ICD-10 coding system in FY 2017, AHA News Now reports. The large number of…
CMS issues ICD-10 assessment toolkit
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released a toolkit to help healthcare providers track and respond to ICD-10 performance indicators. The toolkit includes tips and resources for: assessing ICD-10 progress using key performance indicators to identify potential issues that could affect productivity or cash flow addressing…
Medicare bundled payments improve outcomes for total joint patients
Editor's Note Implementing bundled payments for Medicare patients having total joint replacements resulted in improved quality of care and outcomes and reduced costs, finds this study presented March 2 at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. As a pilot site for Medicare’s Bundled Payment for Care…
CMS extends ‘meaningful use’ deadline to July 1
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on February 26 once again extended the deadline for hardship exemptions for the “meaningful use” requirement of the electronic health records incentive payment program, Modern Healthcare reports. The new deadline for hospitals, critical access hospitals, physicians, and other eligible professionals is…
HHS: Hospitals responding to incentives to reduce readmissions
Editor's Note This study from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) found that readmission trends are consistent with the response by hospitals to incentives to reduce readmissions, including financial penalties, as mandated by the Affordable Care Act. No evidence was found that changes in observation-unit stays accounted for…
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