Quality and Safety
According to a new study, shortages of many drugs that are essential in emergency care have increased in both number and duration in recent years even as shortages for drugs for non-acute or chronic care have eased somewhat.
The study measures how many people were hospitalized between 2002 and 2012 because they were abusing heroin or prescription painkillers, and how many of them got serious infections related to their drug use. It also tracks what hospitals charged to treat those patients and how the hospitals were paid.
Between January 2010 and July 2015, the analysis found, inspectors identified 3,016 home health agencies -- nearly a quarter of all those examined by Medicare -- that had inadequately reviewed or tracked medications for new patients. In some cases, nurses failed to realize that patients were taking potentially dangerous combinations of drugs, risking abnormal heart rhythms, bleeding, kidney damage and seizures.
In the 2017 open enrollment period, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will pilot a program on Healthcare.gov to pair results of a 5-star care rating with health plans on the federal marketplace.
The more flexible Quality Payment Program for physicians is aimed at reducing the reporting burden and offers financial incentives.
Patients in some states are paying more than double what those in other states pay for healthcare services, a recent study by the Health Care Cost Institute has found. In fact, even within single states, prices can vary widely.
For the first time, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is adding Medicare claims data submitted by hospitals to quality measures posted on its consumer-based website, Nursing Home Compare.
Vermont led the country with 83 percent of hospitals earning 'A' grades while Maine and Rhode Island both came in second with 62.5 percent of hospitals earning top grades.
Nearly 800 hospitals earned the highest marks for safety in the Spring 2016 release of the Leapfrog Group's Hospital Safety Score, and report organizers say about 33,000 lives could be saved annually if every hospital performed that well.
The Leapfrog Group on Monday released its latest Hospital Safety Score rankings, assigning 15 hospitals with flunking grades for their record of incidents of patient harm and preventable death.