Tag: Medicare

Nonhierarchical vs hierarchical modeling to measure hospital performance

Editor's Note In this study, nonhierarchical modeling to measure hospital performance frequently misclassified average-quality hospitals as low quality, and hierarchical modeling misclassified low-quality hospitals as average. At low hospital case volumes, hierarchical modeling missed 90.6% of low-quality hospitals, and nonhierarchical modeling missed 65.3%. However, 38.9% of hospitals classified as low-quality…

Read More

By: Judy Mathias
September 30, 2016
Share

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…

Read More

By: Judy Mathias
September 1, 2016
Share

Bariatric surgery outcomes in accredited vs nonaccredited centers

Editor's Note In this study, the preponderance of medical evidence supports Center of Excellence accreditation for bariatric surgery centers. This meta-analysis analyzed 13 studies that included more than 1.5 million patients. Among the benefits of accreditation: 10 studies found a substantial benefit for risk-adjusted outcomes 6 studies reported a considerable…

Read More

By: Judy Mathias
August 26, 2016
Share

Physician-owned surgical hospitals performed better in VBP program

Editor's Note Medicare’s value-based purchasing (VBP) program revealed superior performance associated with physician owned surgical hospitals in this study. Researchers analyzed 3,089 hospitals that included physician-owned surgical, University HealthSystem Consortium, US News & World Report Honor Roll, Kaiser Permanente, and Accountable Care Organization hospitals. Estimated mean total performance scores were…

Read More

By: Judy Mathias
August 9, 2016
Share

Bariatric surgery outcomes in accredited vs nonaccredited centers

Editor's Note Patients who have bariatric surgery at nonaccredited bariatric surgical centers are 1.4 times likelier to have serious complications and more than twice as likely to die after the procedure compared to those who have surgery in accredited centers, this study finds. In this review of more than 1.5…

Read More

By: Judy Mathias
July 13, 2016
Share

Reminder: July 1 is deadline to apply for 'meaningful use' hardship exception

Editor's Note Eligible hospitals, critical access hospitals, and professionals who did not achieve "meaningful use" in the Medicare Electronic Health Record Incentive Program for the 2015 reporting period have until July 1 to apply for a hardship exception from the 2017 payment adjustment.   The streamlined hardship applications reduce the…

Read More

By: Judy Mathias
June 13, 2016
Share

Hospitals with high readmission rates penalized for the patients they serve

Clinical and social characteristics not included in Medicare’s current risk-adjustment methods explained much of the difference in readmission risk between patients admitted to hospitals with higher versus lower readmission rates, a study finds. The Medicare Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program penalizes hospitals with higher than expected 30-day readmission rates by reducing…

Read More

By: Judith M. Mathias, MA, RN
October 28, 2015
Share

Infection prevention tops list of readmission 'action items'

Although most patients spend a brief time in the OR, what happens there significantly impacts a hospital’s 30-day readmission rate. According to a 2015 study in JAMA, complications related to the surgical procedure are the most common cause of readmission after surgery. The researchers analyzed data from the American College…

Read More

By: OR Manager
September 22, 2015
Share

Medicare penalizes more than half of hospitals for readmissions

Editor's Note Nearly 2,600 hospitals will be penalized for missing readmission targets under Medicare, with a loss of $420 million, Kaiser Health News reports. The average Medicare payment reduction is 0.61% per patient stay; 38 hospitals will receive the maximum cut of 3%. The reductions are based on readmissions of…

Read More

By: OR Manager
August 4, 2015
Share

More physicians, nurses needed as Medicare turns 50

Editor's Note More physicians and nurses are needed as Medicare and Medicaid reach their 50th anniversary, Healthcare Finance News reports. Medicare and Medicaid paid $15 billion toward residency training programs in 2012, and the Association of American Medical Colleges has predicted a shortage of between 46,000 and 90,000 physicians by…

Read More

By: OR Manager
July 31, 2015
Share

Join our community

Learn More
Video Spotlight
Live chat by BoldChat