Accreditors Can Keep Their Hospital Inspection Reports Secret, Feds Decide

[turbinetree]

Source: National Memo

Reprinted with permission from ProPublica.

Federal health officials have backed down from a controversial proposal that would have required private accreditors to publicly release reports about errors, mishaps and mix-ups in the nation’s hospitals and health care facilities.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had proposed in April that accreditors publicly detail problems they find during inspections of hospitals and other medical facilities, as well as the steps being taken to fix them. Nearly nine in 10 hospitals are directly overseen by these accreditors, not the government.

But in a notice released Wednesday afternoon, the government withdrew the proposal. CMS said that federal law prohibits the agency from disclosing the results of inspections performed by the accrediting organizations and that the proposal — though it required accreditors, not the agency, to release the reports — “may appear as if CMS was attempting to circumvent” the law.

Read more: http://www.nationalmemo.com/accreditors-can-keep-hospital-inspection-reports-secret-feds-decide/

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Ms. Seema Verma

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/11/29/503762324/trump-picks-seema-verma-to-run-medicare-and-medicaid

https://www.hassan.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senator-hassan-statement-on-her-opposition-to-cms-administrator-nominee-seema-verma

http://www.mdedge.com/oncologypractice/article/131659/practice-management/seema-verma-dodges-questions-how-improve-cms

[Phoenix61]

1. But they want the health care market

to function as a free market. This would be like conducting crash tests on cars but not releasing the data. Health inspecting restaurants but keeping the information private. Rating stocks but not telling anyone what the rating is. So, in essence, free market with no consumer protections. What a deal.

[turbinetree]

2. Yepper, spot on

oh boy