Oops, another study finds that a quality reporting program doesn't seem to make a bit of difference in surgery outcomes and costs.
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A paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research challenges the contemporary view and finds that keeping patients in a hospital longer may reduce readmissions in some cases.
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MedPAC has expressed again its serious concern about the CMS approach to quality reporting, which it views as having an excessive number of measures which are burdensome to report on and often have to little to do with actual meaningful outcomes.
http://www.medpac.gov/documents/comment-letters/medpac-comment-on-the-cms-list-of-measures-under-consideration-for-december-1-2014.pdf?sfvrsn=0While about 1700 hospitals are scheduled to receive quality bonus payments from Medicare, Kaiser Family Foundation reports that most in essence won't get it because they will be subject to penalties under programs like the readmissions reduction one that reduce their payments.
http://kaiserhealthnews.org/news/1700-hospitals-win-quality-bonuses-from-medicare-but-most-will-never-collect/The Medicare initiative to reduce hospital-acquired conditions has shown progress on some but not on others.
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Research published in the New England Journal of Medicine finds that hospital care is improving for most subgroups, according to common performance measures.
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A new study examines whether requiring physicians to periodically re-certify will improve quality or lower costs.
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The Kaiser Family Foundation in conjunction with The Peterson Foundation has created a new health system tracker which will issue regular reports on the state of American health.
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An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that self-care by patients with high blood pressure can have good outcomes.
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A study in the New England Journal of Medicine looks at how Medicare beneficiaries assigned to ACOs view their care.
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Blue Cross' global payment system in Massachusetts appears to be saving a small amount of money and improving quality a few years after implementation.
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Happy Halloween!! A scary item for physicians is apparently Medicare's quality reporting programs, according to an MGMA survey.
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According to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that converting a hospital to for-profit status did not affect quality measures and financial margins improved.
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An Employee Benefits Research Institute survey finds that workers generally have a poor view of the health system, but are more satisfied with their own health plan.
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About this Blog
The Healthy Skeptic is a website about the health care system, and is written by Kevin Roche, who has many years of experience working in the health industry. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements through Roche Consulting, LLC and may be reached at khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.
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