Quality and Safety
The federal government will punish more than half of the nation's hospitals -- a total of 2,597 -- for excess readmissions by withholding more than half a billion dollars in Medicare payments over the next year, records released Tuesday show.
The money comes as the number of Zika-infected patients in Miami passed 10, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a travel warning to the area, and many people are blaming Congress for not acting earlier to fund Zika work.
Many facilities miss out, or score low, in ratings from U.S. News, Leapfrog and Healthgrades.
Georgia-based Athens Orthopedic Clinic is investigating a recent data breach in which as many as 397,000 current or former patients' information was compromised, potentially including personal medical information.
Leapfrog CEO says California hospital an outlier, but argues multiple ratings approaches only give consumers the benefit of more info.
Results show overexertion is strongly felt across all practice types, and most physicians struggle with poor work-life balance, the study found. Moreover, thirty-nine percent of respondents didn't think their facility supported a strong work-life balance.
A report in 2012 by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse revealed that medical schools devoted little time to teaching addiction medicine -- only a few hours over four years. Since then, the number of Americans overdosing from prescribed opioids has surpassed 14,000 per year, quadrupling from 1999 to 2014.
CMS estimates that up to 5,000 primary care practices serving an estimated 3.5 million beneficiaries could participate in the model.
Comprehensive board orientation, planned retreats and an annual self-assessment are important to fostering a good relationship, execs say.
The study, published online by the journal Pediatrics, reviewed the medical records and conducted interviews with clinicians and parents of 305 children who were readmitted within 30 days to Boston Children's Hospital between December 2012 and February 2013. It excluded planned readmissions such as those for chemotherapy.