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2,200 hospitals face Medicare penalties averaging $125K for patients returning with problems
Medicare fines over hospitals' readmitted patients
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR | ASSOCIATED PRESS | 2 hours, 39 minutes ago in
            
If you or an elderly relative have been hospitalized recently and noticed extra attention when the time came to be discharged, there's more to it than good customer service.


Starting Monday, Medicare will fine hospitals that have too many patients readmitted within 30 days of discharge due to complications. The penalties are part of a broader push under President Barack Obama's health care law to improve quality while also trying to cut costs.

About two-thirds of the hospitals serving Medicare patients, or some 2,200 facilities, will be hit with penalties averaging around $125,000 per facility this coming year, according to government estimates.

Data to assess the penalties have been collected and crunched, and Medicare has shared the results with individual hospitals. Medicare plans to post details online later and people can look up how their community hospitals performed.

It adds up to a new way of doing business for hospitals, and they have scrambled to prepare for well over a year. They are working on ways to improve communication with rehabilitation centers and doctors who follow patients after they're released, as well as connecting individually with patients.

"There is a lot of activity at the hospital level to straighten out our internal processes," said Nancy Foster, vice president for quality and safety at the American Hospital Association. "We are also spreading our wings a little and reaching outside the hospital, to the extent that we can, to make sure patients are getting the ongoing treatment they need."...............................>>>>.....................>>>>..........................http://www.newser.com/article/.....g-with-problems.html

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Meaningful Use & EHR Medicare/Medicaid Incentive Criteria & Requirements

Meaningful Use & EHR Medicare/Medicaid Incentive Criteria & Requirements

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) authorizes the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide reimbursement incentives for eligible professionals who are successful in becoming “meaningful users” of certified electronic health record (EHR) technology. The law includes the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, or the "HITECH Act," which established programs under the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS). On July 13, 2010, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued its final rule on the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs under Medicare and Medicaid. The Final Rule established the criteria and reporting requirements which eligible professionals follow to prove meaningful use of their adopted Electronic Health Record technology.

CMS Final Rule Snapshot

A set of specific requirements to be considered “certified” electronic health record (EHR) technology
A series of criteria to which healthcare providers must adhere to in order to qualify as meaningful users of a certified EHR and receive incentive payments.
Establish a series of quality measures on which providers must report in order to receive the incentive payments
Meaningful Use Objectives: Use of Certified EHR Technology

Improve quality, safety & efficiency
Reduce health disparities
Engage patients & families in their health care
Improve care coordination
Improve population & public health
Maintain privacy & security across all areas
The Office of the National Coordinator

Under the HITECH Act, CMS worked closely with the Office of the National Coordinator for HealthInformation Technology (ONC). ONC is the principal Federal entity charged with developing support for the adoption of HIT and the promotion of nationwide health information exchange to improve health care. In an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, former National HIT coordinator Dr. David Blumenthal and principal deputy administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Marilyn Tavenner review the programs and provide a detailed overview of the “basic functions that enable EHRs to support improved healthcare.”

Know the Incentive Facts: The CMS Final Rule

On July 13, 2010, CMS and ONC released companion sets of regulations for the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Records Incentives Program. One defines the minimum requirements that providers must meet through their use of certified EHR technology in order to qualify for the payments. The other outlines criteria for the certification of EHR technology.

To take advantage of these incentives you must be able to demonstrate “Meaningful Use” of a certified EHR. Meaningful includes, for example, use of:
ePrescribing, an accurate & secure way to transmit & manage the patient prescription process
Interoperability, the ability to share clinical data with other providers
Reporting on specified clinical quality measures
By focusing on the effective use of EHRs, the HITECH Act makes clear that the adoption of Electronic Health Records is not a goal in itself. It is the use of EHRs to achieve health and efficiency goals that matters. HITECH’s incentives and assistance programs seek to improve the health of Americans and the performance of their health care system through “meaningful use” of EHRs to achieve five health care goals.

Improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of care while reducing disparities
Engage patients and families in their care
Promote public and population health
Improve care coordination
Promote the privacy and security of EHRs
To the best of our knowledge, this information is accurate as of this writing. As more information becomes available from HHS and other agencies, this page will be updated. Please check the HHS site regularly.