Characteristics of hospitals penalized in HAC reduction program
Editor's Note Among hospitals participating in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program, those penalized the most had more quality accreditations, offered more advanced services, were major teaching institutions, and had better performance on other process and outcome measures. The findings suggest that the approach CMS…
Senate bill would let Medicare patients self-pay for medical devices
Editor's Note Four US Senators (two democrats, two republicans) are sponsoring legislation—The Accelerating Innovation in Medicine (AIM) Act—that would increase Medicare patients’ access to new medical devices. Currently, Medicare patients who are interested in self-paying for a device not covered by Medicare face significant administrative obstacles. Under AIM, once a…
Senate panel asking for delay of Stage 3 MU
Editor's Note The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee is asking for a delay of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Stage 3 meaningful-use rules, which providers say are costly and time-consuming. Stage 3 requires providers to send electronic summaries for 50% of patients they refer to other…
Medicare trust fund exhausted by 2030
Editor's Note A report from Medicare trustees on July 22 projects that the Medicare trust fund will be exhausted in 2030. The report also revealed that recipients of Social Security disability benefits could face steep cuts next year. The fund it expected to run out of money in 2016. Congress…
Potholes, speed bumps on road to quality reporting
Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) are moving forward with quality reporting, adding a series of new measures this year while continuing to build a national database of performance levels on earlier measures. Now that they have experience with reporting safe surgery checklist use (ASC 6) and volume of selected procedures (ASC…
ASCA issues quality reporting alert for ASCs
Editor's Note The Ambulatory Surgery Center Association on July 7 posted a quality reporting alert that provides instructions on required reporting that all Medicare-certified ASCs must submit to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ASC Quality Reporting Program by August 15. ASCs must report on five measures (ASC-6 through…
CMS proposes major initiative for total joints
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is planning to require more than 800 hospitals in 75 geographic areas to participate in a bundled payments initiative for hip and knee replacements. These procedures are among the most common that Medicare beneficiaries receive, and prices vary significantly across geographic…
CMS releases CY 2016 proposed physician payment rule
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on July 8 released its proposed rule for the physician fee schedule for CY 2016. Physicians will have a 0.5% overall increase in Medicare reimbursement under the rule, which will be finalized this fall. The rule also calls for reimbursement for…
Industry payments to nurses not reported in federal database
Editor's Note Though a nurse practitioner in Connecticut pleaded guilty recently to taking $83,000 in kickbacks from a drug company, the payments were not listed in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Open Payments Database. That’s because companies are not required under the Physician Payment Sunshine Act to publicly…
CMS, AMA announce efforts to help with transition to ICD-10
Editor's Note In less than 3 months, healthcare providers will switch from ICD-9 to ICD-10 coding for medical diagnoses and inpatient hospital procedures. To help providers get ready for the October 1 deadline, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is releasing additional guidance that will allow for flexibility in…
Free Daily News
- Study: COVID-19's impact on oncological surgery offers lessons for future crises
- Study links pandemic stress to persistent increases in nursing-sensitive quality indicators
- Save the date for the 2025 OR Business Management Conference
- Study: Education, exercise improve knee OA with or without prior surgery
- Study: Early surgery outperforms endoscopy for long-term pancreatitis
- Study: Blood thinner, NSAID combination raises bleeding risk
- Hospital financial report predicts stability, high cybersecurity costs for 2025
- IV fluid shortage drives innovation in hospital hydration practices
- FDA Class 1 recalls target anesthesia workstations, ambulatory infusion pumps, ventilators
- Five leadership lessons from an ASC CEO