1 hours ago · Each year, medical centers with the top 25 percent of rates of hospital-acquired conditions are penalized by a 1-percent reduction in Medicare funding for patients discharged between last October ... >> Go To The Portal
ALPENA–MidMichigan Medical Center-Alpena is among 800 hospitals nationwide being penalized by by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services because of an increase in the rates of infections and patient injuries occurring at the hospital during the past year.
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The patient safety penalties cost hospitals 1 percent of Medicare payments over the federal fiscal year, which runs from October through September. Maryland hospitals are exempted from penalties because that state has a separate payment arrangement with Medicare.
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The punishments, which the 2010 Affordable Care Act requires to be assessed on the worst-performing 25% of general hospitals each year, are intended to make hospitals focus on reducing bedsores, hip fractures, blood clots, and the cohort of infections that before COVID-19 were the biggest scourges in hospitals.
For the readmission penalties, Medicare cuts as much as 3 percent for each patient, although the average is generally much lower. The patient safety penalties cost hospitals 1 percent of Medicare payments over the federal fiscal year, which runs from October through September.
Maryland hospitals are exempted from penalties because that state has a separate payment arrangement with Medicare.
For the readmission penalties, Medicare cuts as much as 3 percent for each patient, although the average is generally much lower.
The hospitals are among 786 nationwide being penalized under the Hospital-Acquired Conditions Reduction Program, which was created under the Affordable Care Act, according to a Kaiser Health News (KHN) analysis. The program is in its sixth year and the latest Medicare reimbursement penalties are for the current fiscal year, ...
In addition to these penalties, hospitals can face other fines as well. CMS announced in October that 26 of Connecticut’s 29 hospitals are being penalized this fiscal year with Medicare reimbursement reductions, of varying amounts, for having high rates of patients who were readmitted within a month of being discharged.
Fourteen Connecticut hospitals are being penalized by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), losing 1% of their Medicare reimbursements this fiscal year for having high rates of hospital-acquired infections and injuries, new data show.
The program is in its sixth year and the latest Medicare reimbursement penalties are for the current fiscal year, which began in October 2019 and runs through September. When assessing penalties, CMS considers the number of infections, blood clots, sepsis cases, pressure ulcers, and other complications that may have been prevented.
Seven hospitals are exempt from the program, including those that only serve children, veterans or psychiatric patients, as well as those deemed “critical access hospitals” due to a lack of nearby alternatives for patients, according to KHN. In addition to these penalties, hospitals can face other fines as well.