Quality and Safety
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services quietly updated its database of hospital star ratings last week, and for many hospitals the news was good.
Though new transparency rules worried dialysis providers and prevention efforts are increasing, DaVita HealthCare Partners says the demand for the kidney-care services is still driving business forward.
Though antibiotic-resistant "superbugs" aren't new, their rise in U.S. healthcare institutions is leading hospitals to stock up on supplies to combat them.
Medicare applied the new quality measure to more than 9,000 agencies based on how quickly visits began and how often patients improved while under their care.
Medicare cost differences ranged from $13,806 to $20,809 over an episode of care among patients with multiple organ failure, those treated for circulatory, digestive and musculoskeletal and connective tissue conditions at a long-term care hospital.
The proposed regulations include a section on electronic health records and measures to better ensure that patients or their families are involved in care planning and in the discharge process.
Though many hospitals are trying their best to become more transparent, one in five hospitals will not commit to a policy to combat events that should never happen in a hospital, group says.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services is calling on doctors, hospitals and health professionals to participate in a new aspect of the federal government's Million Hearts program, a national initiative to prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes between 2012 and 2017.
A former advisor to President Barack Obama is warning healthcare providers to embrace bundled payments as accountable care organizations fall behind in reaping savings from value-based payment models.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Wednesday proposed a new rule that would reimburse doctors for end-of-life counseling, the very kind of practice that led to the heated “death panel” debate before the Affordable Care Act was passed.