Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on July 29 issued the 2020 proposed payment rule for ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) and hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs), which would increase Medicare hospital outpatient prospective payment system rates by 2.7%. CMS is also proposing to add eight codes to…

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Editor's Note The Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP), which penalizes hospitals for higher-than-expected readmission rates, did not prompt substantial changes in hospital referral patterns to skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), this study finds. However, readmissions for patients referred to SNFs decreased more than for other patients. In this analysis of nearly…

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Editor's Note Residing in a disadvantaged neighborhood in Maryland and being discharged from a hospital serving a large proportion of disadvantaged neighborhoods were independently associated with increased risk of readmission in this study. 2015 data from Maryland hospitals showed a 14.1% 30-day readmission rate for patients living in neighborhoods in…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) hospital penalization in the Hospital Acquired Condition Reduction Program (HACRP) was not associated with significant changes in rates of hospital acquired conditions (HACs), 30-day readmissions, or 30-day mortality and does not appear to drive meaningful clinical improvements, this study finds.…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on June 21 issued final updates to its national coverage policy for Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR). The update provides more flexibility in how centers meet volume requirements for performing TAVR, while emphasizing the importance of the heart team for…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on June 19 announced that the National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ) has issued a new report−“Key Workforce Competencies for Quality-Driven Healthcare”− that focuses on creating a new framework for competencies needed by healthcare organizations to meet new goals for quality-driven healthcare. Among the competencies:…

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The Leapfrog Group’s spring 2019 Hospital Safety Grade Report shows some progress in patient safety: an estimated 160,000 avoidable deaths nationwide, down from 205,000 in 2016. But 160,000 is a large number. “There’s still a lot of needless death and harm in American hospitals,” says Leah Binder, Leapfrog’s president and…

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Editor's Note Stratification of hospitals in Medicare’s Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP) was associated with a significant shift in hospital penalties for excess readmissions, this study finds. Beginning in FY 2019, Medicare is stratifying hospitals into five peer groups based on the proportions of each hospital’s patient population that is…

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Editor's Note Regional anesthesia was not associated with decreased readmission rates and costs after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) in this study. In this analysis of 138,362 privately insured TKA patients 18-64 years of age, the adjusted 90-day readmission rate was 1.8% for those who did not receive regional anesthesia compared…

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Editor's Note Patients with diabetes who had low blood glucose values during the last day of hospitalization had higher rates of 30-day readmission and post discharge mortality, this study finds. Examining 843,978 admissions to the VA health care system over a 14-year period, researchers found that  patients with diabetes who…

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