WP: Lack of Funds Reduces Frequency of Health (facility) Inspections

[DeepModem Mom]

Lack of Funds Reduces Frequency of Health Inspections
Many U.S. Surgery Centers Are Overdue for Review

By Gilbert M. Gaul
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 25, 2005; Page A08


....Last year, Medicare's budget for policing more than 50,000 facilities -- from big teaching hospitals to tiny hospices -- was $259 million, less than one-third of what it spends in a single day on medical bills.

State regulators say that because federal funding is inadequate and comes with restrictions, they are forced to employ a form of triage. Under rules imposed by Congress, nursing homes must be inspected annually, a requirement that gobbles up about 70 percent of their oversight funds. The result is that thousands of facilities, including outpatient surgery and kidney dialysis centers go years without review.

Dialysis is one of Medicare's fastest-growing services. It spends about $15 billion a year to rinse deadly toxins from the bloodstreams of patients with failing kidneys. In a report earlier this year, federal officials called the health and safety risks of dialysis "extraordinary" and "life-threatening." Yet centers are supposed to be inspected just once every three years -- and only half of all states are able to meet that minimal standard.

Some state regulators note that mortality rates in American dialysis facilities are 15 to 30 percent higher than those for patients in Europe and Japan.

Thomas E. Hamilton, director of the oversight program for Medicare, acknowledged gaps in inspections but said federal officials are doing "the best that they can with constrained resources. Our job is to ensure that we get the maximum benefits for the dollars that are appropriated."...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/24/AR2005072400945.html