CMS proposes changes to modernize Medicare, restore physician-patient relationship
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on July 12 issued a proposed rule that includes updated payment policies, payment rates, and quality provisions for services furnished under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule on or after January 1, 2019. Physician fee schedule rates will be updated by…
Accuracy of Medicare’s HACRP to identify outlier hospitals for SSIs
Editor's Note Medicare’s Hospital Acquired Condition Reduction Program’s (HACRP) measure for surgical site infections (SSIs) after hysterectomy and colectomy unfairly places hospitals that are not statistical outliers at risk for financial penalties, this study from the University of Michigan finds. SSIs occurred in 1.1% of hysterectomies and 4.8% of colectomies…
Study: Medical device tax hurts investment in R&D
Editor's Note: This study from Iowa State University shows companies have cut funding for research and development (R&D) in response to the medical device tax imposed by the Affordable Care Act. Since 2013, the 2.3% excise tax has significantly reduced: R&D investment by $34 million Sales revenue by $188 million…
Preventability of early vs late readmissions
Editor's Note Early readmissions (within 7 days of discharge) were more likely to be preventable and amenable to hospital-based interventions, and late readmissions (8 to 30 days after discharge) were less likely to be preventable and more amenable to ambulatory and home-based interventions, this study finds. In this study of…
CMS issues FY 2019 hospital IPPS proposed rule
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on April 24 issued its hospital inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) proposed rule for FY 2019. The proposed rule increases rates by 1.75%, which reflects the projected market-basket update of 2.8% for hospitals that were meaningful users of electronic health…
CMS issues final rule to increase access to affordable health plans
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on April 9 issued the Health and Human Services Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters for 2019 final rule. CMS says the rule will mitigate the harmful effects of Obamacare and empower states to relax the rules on what insurers…
FDA announces AccessGUDID data update
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration announced that new data elements will be available on AccessGUDID, in the download files and in the APIs, as of April 2. Data for FDA Premarket Submission Number and FDA Premarket Supplement Number will not be provided until this summer. The FDA is…
EHRs hinder ability to report quality measures
Editor's Note The poor design of electronic health records (EHRs) poses challenges for primary care practices to generate the required reports for federal value-based payment programs, this study finds. An analysis of survey responses from 1,492 practices in 12 states, found that the reports generated for meaningful-use participation, which requires…
Medicare program linked to reduced readmission disparities between black, white patients
Editor's Note Black and white disparities in hospital readmission rates narrowed after the introduction of Medicare’s Hospital Readmission Reduction Program that penalizes higher than expected readmissions; however, black and white gaps still persist and minority serving hospitals continued to be penalized more by the program, this study finds. During the…
ORBMC 2018 arms business leaders with best practices
San Antonio, Texas, played host to the 2018 OR Business Management Conference (ORBMC), attended by more than 400 surgical services leaders, business managers, and industry leaders from across the US. Attendees chose from a menu of topics—including strategies to increase case volume, efficiency, and data transparency, right-size the OR, and…
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