CMS releases payment adjustments for 2017 EHR incentives
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced that starting October 1, 2016, hospitals that are still not meaningful users of electronic health records (EHRs) will be subjected to a reduced increase in their Inpatient Prospective Payment System rate, the September 2 Healthcare IT News reports.…
Study: Physicians spend half their time on EHRs, desk work
Editor's Note In this study, researchers found that physicians spent 49.2% of their time during the day on electronic health records and desk work and 27% of their time with patients. In addition, they spent an extra 1 to 2 hours each night during their personal time on EHRs. While…
Bundled payments: Part and parcel of value-based care
Government and third-party payers are pushing for value-based, rather than volume-based, models of care, yet few hospitals are moving that direction, a survey shows. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requires that half of hospitals’ payments be value based by 2018, according to a 2016 Health Catalyst survey…
Editorial
The shift toward value-based payment has gained some momentum with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) July 25 announcement of a proposed cardiac bundled payment model. Under the proposal, 98 randomly selected metropolitan areas would become accountable for the cost and quality of care related to coronary artery…
Study: Hospital readmissions sometimes save lives
Editor's Note Analyzing data on nearly 4,500 acute-care facilities, Johns Hopkins researchers found that the hospitals with the highest rates of readmissions were more likely to show better mortality scores. Data on mortality and hospital readmissions used by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) sometime fail to tell…
CMS finalizes cut to hospital reimbursement
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on August 2 released its inpatient prospective payment system (PPS) final rule for FY 2017. In the rule, CMS kept a controversial 1.5% cut to hospital reimbursement, which aims to collect $11 billion in overpayments, the August 2 Modern Healthcare…
Medical device companies scrambling to meet UDI deadline
Editor's Note A survey by Loftware, Inc (Portsmouth, New Hampshire), shows that only 15% of medical device companies are currently compliant with the next phase of the Food and Drug Administration's Unique Device Identification (UDI) regulation, the August 3 PRWEB reports. The deadline is September 24. Of 120 companies polled,…
Many top hospitals fail Medicare’s quality star ratings
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) on July 27 released its Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings of 3,617 hospitals. Only 102 received the top rating of five stars, and only a few of those are considered among the nation’s best, including Memorial Hermann Hospital System in Houston…
Mortality rates similar for safety-net, other hospitals
Editor's Note In a new study funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), safety-net hospitals performed equally as well as other hospitals when evaluated according to medical-surgical mortality rates. Analyzing data from 1,891 hospitals in 31 states, researchers found that despite ongoing financial disadvantages, the quality of…
CMS publishes hospital star ratings
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on July 27 published its Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings, the July 27 Modern Healthcare reports. The ratings, which are a composite metric of one to five stars, grade the quality of nearly 4,000 hospitals and are posted to the…
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