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Related: About this forumMedicare could penalize local hospitals
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/jun/29/medicare-hospitals-penalty-infections-program/Sharp Memorial Hospital in Serra Mesa is one of seven hospitals in the county that could be penalized by Medicare starting in the fall.
Medicare could penalize local hospitals
By Paul Sisson3:49 p.m.
June 29, 2014
Preliminary federal data shows that seven local hospitals are collectively at risk of losing millions in Medicare reimbursements this fall.
They are among 761 hospitals nationwide listed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services as potentially receiving a 1 percent penalty for having high rates of patient complications when compared to their peers.
The agency scored 3,203 hospitals nationwide on a scale of one to 10 10 being worst after analyzing their rates of preventable infections and other serious but avoidable complications such as falls, bed sores and wounds that split open after surgery. Medical centers in the worst quarter of all hospitals will have to stomach a one-year, 1 percent reduction to their overall Medicare reimbursements, starting in October.
The initiative, called the Hospital Acquired Condition Reduction Program, is one of three projects mandated by the Affordable Care Act that attempt to use financial penalties to increase the quality of care for patients.
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Medicare could penalize local hospitals (Original Post)
unhappycamper
Jun 2014
OP
Scuba
(53,475 posts)1. Financial incentives to improve quality make sense. There are certainly lots of financial ....
... incentives to reduce quality - nursing hours per patient day being the leader.
Mr.Bill
(24,304 posts)3. California is one of the few states
that has laws about nurse to patient ratios, so there's not much they can do in that area.
It's frightening to know how many patients can sometimes be under one nurse's care in other states that haven't legislated these safeguards.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)2. The hospitals had plenty of opportunity to improve things, but did not. They'll give you a lot of
bull about their patients are sicker, etc., but that is taken into account. I'm sure the bean counters weighed the cost of improvement vs. the relatively small penalty. Maybe now they will get on the stick and take this more seriously.
Yes, I know rural hospitals are struggling, particularly in states where the ignorant government refused to expand Medicaid under the ACA.