To Improve Patient Care, Think Both “Zebras” and Golf

By MICHAEL MILLENSON Super Bowl Week ended with the San Francisco 49ers and 161 U.S. hospitals having something in common. Both were publicly penalized, both lost money as a result and both passionately believed the process was unfair. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to decide whether their objections were sensible or sour grapes and, in the case of hospitals, the real-life consequences are not a game. The penalty that pained the 49ers occurred shortly before halftime of Super Bowl LIV, when offensive pass interference was called on tight end George Kittle. The call negated a big gain that might have enabled the 49ers to take the lead. Replays showed that the referees – nicknamed “zebras” for their black-and-white striped shirts – were technically correct in their decision. Nonetheless, controversy erupted over whether given other possible penalties called or overlooked, this one deserved a yellow flag. Hospitals call that kind of context “risk adjustment.” A few days before the Super Bowl, the Medicare program blew the whistle on a group of hospitals having high rates of infection and other patient injuries. The hospitals who are outliers in what are blandly labeled “hospital-caused conditions” (HACs) suffer a cut of one percent in their Medicare payments over next fiscal year. Like that interference penalty, cries were immediately heard that the “refs” – otherwise known as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Health Policy Medicare CMS hospital acquired conditions (HACs) Michael Millenson Risk adjustment Source Type: blogs