Quality & Patient Safety
Hospitals participating in the inpatient and outpatient quality reporting programs can preview their overall hospital quality star rating through Feb. 14 at the QualityNet Secure Portal. CMS expects to add the overall hospital star ratings and other quality data updates to the Hospital Compare…
The Issue
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) required the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to penalize hospitals for “excess” readmissions when compared to “expected” levels of readmissions. Since the start of the program on Oct. 1, 2012, hospitals have experienced nearly $1.9 billion…
Today, the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) released the first in a planned series of reports that will identify “social risk factors” affecting the health outcomes of Medicare beneficiaries, and methods to account for these factors in Medicare payment programs like the Hospital Readmission…
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services last week published a Request for Information related to certification of health information technology, including electronic health record products used for reporting to CMS quality programs such as the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting…
AHA's "Appropriate Use of Medical Resources" white paper offers innovative solutions for reducing non-beneficial healthcare services. Learn about appropriate blood management, antimicrobial stewardship, inpatient admissions, elective percutaneous coronary intervention, and intensive care unit use.
In an AHASTAT blog post today, AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack responds to a recent Wall Street Journal analysis that questioned the recent reductions in hospital readmissions. “Here is what the numbers show,” Pollack writes.
Readmissions are falling fast thanks to the hard work of America’s hospitals to improve care, provide better discharge instructions to patients and partner with patients and others in their communities to coordinate care after they leave the hospital (Medicare Rules Reshape Hospital Readmissions,…
Progress is encouraging; continuous progress promises a better future.