Only a few months remain before the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CCJR) goes into effect on January 1, 2016. This orthopedic bundled program, mandated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is expected to save $153 million as part of the goal to convert 50% of Medicare…

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Editor's Note Medical schools are beginning to teach students about healthcare costs and payment models as more patients enroll in high-deductible insurance plans and healthcare moves toward value-based care, according to a report by Kaiser Health News/KPCC/NPR. An Association of American Medical Colleges survey found that 129 of 140 responding…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced on August 13 that 360 more organizations have entered into agreements to assume financial risk for an episode of care during the second phase of the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Initiative. The initiative is testing four bundled payment models…

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Editor's Note Postoperative readmissions occurred in more than 1 in 10 patients, in this study, with considerable variation across specialties. The majority of variation was attributable to patient-related factors (82.8%); surgical specialty accounted for 14.5% of the variability, and individual surgeon factors accounted for 2.8%. After adjusting for patient and…

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Editor's Note After a review of 128 case histories, Johns Hopkins researchers find that financial penalties imposed by federal and state agencies on Maryland hospitals based solely on the total number of patients who suffer venous thromboemboli (VTEs) fail to account for those that occur despite the consistent and proper…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Office of the Actuary estimates that healthcare spending will grow an average of 5.8% each year from 2014 to 2024. The estimate is higher than the projection of 5.7% made a year ago. Prior to the Affordable Care Act in 2014,…

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The medical home, consisting of a patient-centered team focusing on the coordinated delivery of care, is now embedded in the healthcare lexicon, but the perioperative surgical home (PSH) is a more recent concept that is only starting to spread across the country. “The number of hospitals in the US with…

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As implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) continues, OR leaders are looking ahead and finding the view murky. “I think every organization is struggling because our crystal ball is not very clear as to what is coming,” says Donna Doyle, MS, RN, NE-BC, CNOR, administrative director for surgery and…

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When the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law, many ambulatory surgery center (ASC) leaders viewed it with optimism because it requires everyone to have health insurance unless they choose to pay a penalty. “We thought this would be a very positive thing because we would see an increase…

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Finding ways to meet Affordable Care Act (ACA) requirements is a challenge all healthcare leaders are facing, regardless of the type of facility they manage. That challenge includes shifting to a value-based payment system and helping staff and physicians adapt to the sometimes bewildering array of new rules. Kent Bottles,…

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