Joint Commission revises standards to align with CMS requirements
Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced July 1 that it has made two sets of standards changes for deemed-status hospitals and critical access hospitals. The first set of changes, which went into effect July 1, was made in response to hospital deeming renewal applications with the Centers for Medicare &…
CMS issues call to action based on new COVID-19 data for Medicare patients
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on June 22 called for a renewed commitment to value-based care based on Medicare claims data that provides an early snapshot of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Medicare population. Medicare patient data, from January 1 to May…
ASC offsets some revenue loss through 'Hospital Without Walls' waiver
Far fewer cases of COVID-19 have been seen in rural areas of the US than in large urban populations. But even healthcare facilities not inundated with COVID-19 patients have sustained revenue losses and disruptions in standard procedures. One major advantage for Heartland Surgery Center in Kearney, Nebraska, was seeing the…
CMS to make some pandemic telehealth provisions permanent
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator Seema Verma says use of telehealth has grown dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic, and some provisions that were extended temporarily will be made permanent, the June 2 Becker’s Hospital Review reports. During the pandemic, CMS expanded access to telehealth…
CMS unveils enhanced enforcement actions for nursing homes based on COVID-19 data, inspections
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on June 1 unveiled enhanced enforcement actions for nursing homes with violations of infection control practices. The enhanced and targeted accountability actions are based on trends in recent data regarding the incidence of COVID-19 in nursing homes and infection control…
CMS releases proposed inpatient payment rule for FY 2021
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on May 11 released a proposed rule that increases Medicare inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) rates by a net of 3.1% in FY 2021, compared to 2020, for acute care hospitals participating in the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program that…
Best practices back proactive antimicrobial stewardship in ASCs
Hospitals have long dominated the realms of infection control and antibiotic overuse. Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), which typically release patients the same day of a procedure, use antibiotics less frequently than other facilities, and most do not have an antimicrobial stewardship program. However, some ASC leaders and organizations are encouraging…
Outcomes, costs of Medicare patients having surgery at teaching vs nonteaching hospitals
Editor's Note This study of Medicare patients at 340 teaching hospitals and matched patient controls at 2,444 nonteaching hospitals found that as risk of mortality increased, the mortality benefit of treatment at teaching hospitals also increased, though with marginally higher costs. Included in the analysis were 86,751 pairs of general,…
CMS issues call to action to healthcare providers aimed at limiting spread of COVID-19
Editor's Note In a March 4 press release, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) called on all healthcare providers to make sure they are implementing infection control practices, which they are required to maintain at all times, in an effort to limit the spread of the Novel Coronavirus…
Association of geriatric-specific characteristics with postop readmissions
Editor's Note In this study from the University of Virginia, new geriatric-specific characteristics were found to raise the risk of elderly surgical patients having unplanned readmissions within a month of leaving the hospital. The four geriatric-specific risk factors for readmission include: cognitive impairment requiring another person to sign the patient’s…
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