Quality and Safety
As a new report showed the vast majority of U.S. states failing when it comes to healthcare price transparency, one expert has said that for states to get on board they must first take a hard look at the websites they are creating to communicate costs.
Their findings are important because, under the health law, services that the task force assigns an "A" or "B" grade must generally be covered by health plans, including Medicare, without charging consumers anything out of pocket.
The federal government released its first overall hospital quality rating on Wednesday, slapping average or below average scores on many of the nation's best-known hospitals while awarding top scores to many unheralded ones.
The new ratings are based on results tied to 64 measures that gauge care, readmissions, patient safety, financial management and imaging.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Wednesday released its star ratings for individual providers on its Hospital Compare website.
Though finances are a great motivator to integrate patient care and focus on quality and outcomes, said Glenn Hirsch, MD, associate professor of medicine and clinical director in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.
While most hospitals have contingency plans in place in case something happens to their electronic health records, less than three-quarters of those surveyed by the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Inspector General have plans that address testing and revision procedures -- a requirement under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
AHA among groups concerned that the methodology used does not account for socioeconomic factors affecting patient outcomes.
The newest ACO program by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services offers higher opportunities for incentive payments if participating providers agree to take on more risk.
After two dozen infections were reported in French and Dutch hospitals, the company alerted European customers in January 2013 that a scope it manufactured could become contaminated.