US News and World Report Ranks Top Hospitals
For the twenty-seventh year, U.S. News and World Report released the #BestHospitals list. The 2016-17 rankings include hospitals from around the country known for their…
Read MoreHospitals
Helping Hospitals with Interoperability: Taking a Technologist’s Perspective with Joel Rydbeck
By Sarianne Gruber – At the Inforum 2016, I meet Joel Rydbeck and learn how their software and cloud services help their clients advance towards interoperability. A very timely conversation given ONC’s release of two measures addressing ‘widespread interoperability’, as required by MACRA.
Slow Progress on Medicare’s Goal of 50 Percent Value-Based Reimbursement by 2018
Fewer than a quarter of U.S. hospitals are on track to hit the Obama Administration’s 2018 goal of providing at least half their patient care through so-called “value-based” arrangements – structures that tie reimbursement from Medicare to the quality of care patients receive.
Critics Of Medicare’s Overall Hospital Star Rating Push For Changes
By Jordan Rau – Over the past decade, the federal government has publicized 115 different ways to measure medical quality in hospitals, from assessing wait times in emergency rooms and noise levels outside hospital rooms to tracking blood clots in surgical patients. But the latest effort, to combine dozens of metrics into one patient-friendly quality indicator, has proven the most contentious.
Medicare Pays Bonuses To 231 Hospitals With Lower Quality Because Of Cheaper Costs
By Jordan Rau – The federal government paid bonuses to 231 hospitals with subpar quality because their patients tend to be less expensive for Medicare, new research shows. The bonuses are small, generally a fraction of a percent of their Medicare payments. Nonetheless, rewarding hospitals of mediocre quality was hardly the stated goal…
For Hospitals, Prestige Leads To Profits
By Shefali Luthra – When it comes to hospitals, which benefit most from high health care prices? It may sound counter-intuitive, but a group of not-for-profit hospitals appear to be among those doing the best business.
California Insurance Marketplace Imposes New Quality, Cost Conditions On Plans
By Ana B. Ibarra & David Gorn – Moving into a realm usually reserved for health care regulators, the California health marketplace unveiled sweeping reforms to its contracts with insurers, seeking to improve the quality of care, curb its cost and increase transparency for consumers.
Continuing to Improve Patient Safety in Hospitals
By Patrick Conway – Recently, a Department of Health and Human Services report showed that an estimated 50,000 fewer patients died in hospitals and approximately $12 billion in health care costs were saved as a result of a reduction in hospital-acquired conditions from 2010 to 2013.