CMS to Bolster Payments to Rural Hospitals; 27 Hospitals Score High Marks for Patient Safety
CMS is moving toward making the Biden Administration's promises about health equity a reality. American hospitals proved themselves capable of ensuring patient safety during the pandemic.
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By - Happy Thursday. The weekend is fast approaching and with it the Kentucky Derby.
CMS Proposes Payment Increase to Boost Rural Health
CMS is proposing to increase Medicare hospital inpatient rates by $2.5 billion next fiscal year, in addition to bolstering the rural healthcare workforce and health equity reporting. The rate increase would apply to the Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) starting Oct. 1, 2022, and is based on a projected hospital market basket update of 2.5 percent, plus a 0.5 percentage points adjustment required by law and less a 0.2 percentage point productivity adjustment, according to the proposed IPPS rule for FY 2022.
“Hospitals are often the backbone of rural communities — but the COVID-19 pandemic has hit rural hospitals hard, and too many are struggling to stay afloat,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in an announcement. READ MORE
Patient Safety Efforts During COVID-19 Paying Off
A total of 27 hospitals in the United States have received a perfect letter grade in The Leapfrog Group’s patient safety ratings since the biannual reports started in 2012, a feat the group credits to a deep commitment to continuous practice improvement. The ratings also revealed that about a third of US hospitals got an A in patient safety and about a quarter got a B.
“We find that straight ‘A’ hospitals have strong structures of safety in place,” Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, said in a public statement. “These hospitals are continuously learning, monitoring data, and addressing areas of improvement.” READ MORE
Abbott Brings Artificial Intelligence to Imaging
Abbott recently announced that its artificial intelligence-powered, coronary imaging platform launched in Europe. The platform, which is now CE-marked in Europe, is the first-of-its-kind imaging software that leverages optical coherence tomography (OCT). OTC is an imaging tool that provides physicians a comprehensive view inside an artery or blood vessel using artificial intelligence.
The Ultreon 1.0 Software can detect the severity of calcium-based blockages and measure vessel diameter to boost the precision of physicians’ decision-making during coronary stenting procedures. READ MORE
Improving the Accuracy of Predictive Algorithms
Researchers from Michigan Medicine have developed a predictive analytics model that can accurately identify patient deterioration for both general ward and COVID-19 patients. The algorithm was more accurate than the Epic Deterioration Index, an existing tool used for patient deterioration investigation. In a study published in JMIR: Medical Informatics, researchers describe the development and performance of the Predicting ICU Transfer and other Unforeseen Events (PICTURE) algorithm.
“The PICTURE model is able to integrate data from the electronic health record and transform it into meaningful predictions based on the patient’s risk of experiencing an adverse outcome,” said Brandon Cummings, a data scientist at Michigan Center for Integrative Research in Clinical Care. READ MORE
UHC Unveils Improvements to its Integrated Care Benefits
UnitedHealthcare announced various enhancements to its integrated care benefit and specialty benefit approach for employer-sponsored health plans that are expected to simplify the member experience and increase value.
The health plan will provide employers with self-funded health plans (over 300 employees) that integrate medical and specialty benefits into their health plans with a net cost guarantee. If healthcare costs exceed projections, employers will receive an administrative fee credit. A separate premium savings program will enable employers in certain states with fully insured plans to save up to 4 percent per year on medical premiums when combining a medical plan with specialty benefits. READ MORE
Remote Rehabilitation Showing Positive Results
Telerehabilitation use during COVID-19 was most popular among young, city-dwelling individuals, and yielded high patient satisfaction, according to a new Focus on Therapeutic Outcomes (FOTO) study. The descriptive study, based on a national FOTO data set of 222,680 patient records, examined how telerehabilitation frequency and telecommunication modes impacted patient variables and outcomes such as physical function, number of visits, and patient satisfaction.
Patients who were treated using telerehabilitation were more likely to be younger and live in large metropolitan areas when compared to those patients treated with in-person care. The researchers also found that patients who received virtual care for outpatient rehab exercised more and had fewer medical comorbidities than the group of patients that received in-person care. READ MORE
