In this issue . . .
October 2007 • Vol. 3 No. 10
CMS' outcome-based pay rules signal brave new policy world
By Paul Keckley, PhD
Executive Director
Deloitte Center for Health Solutions
Outcomes-based healthcare policy is not the future; it is now. Healthcare facilities that treat Medicare and Medicaid patients have been told they won't be reimbursed when certain "avoidable" errors occur during a patient's stay.
Rule denying payments for 'never events'
will force a close look at current practice
Under a mandate established by Congress in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, hospitals that provide Medicare and Medicaid services were required to begin reporting on Oct. 1 secondary diagnoses "present on admission" of patients. The new data-collection requirement sets the stage for the next major step in the federal government's continuing push toward Pay for Performance—beginning Oct. 1, 2008, hospitals no longer will be reimbursed for eight preventable "hospital-acquired conditions," several of which are associated with surgical procedures.
Industry, professional associations move
on guidelines for healthcare industry reps
With The Joint Commission working on standards for its accredited facilities, healthcare industry supply chain interests are collaborating with AORN, the American College of Surgeons and others to develop standard practices to manage healthcare industry representatives who visit facilities, including patient-care areas such as ORs.
An industry spokesman's viewpoint
on partnering with healthcare profession
AORN Management Connections recently asked John R. (Jack) Serino, co-chair of the AORN-supported Industry Partners for Patient Safety, to give industry's viewpoint on the value of collaborative patient-safety and medical education initiatives with AORN and other professional organizations.
Minnesota hospitals won’t bill
for ‘never events’ on NQF list
Continuing to take the lead in the effort to reduce preventable medical errors, Minnesota hospitals have agreed not to bill insurance companies and others when patients suffer any of the 27 "never events" included on the National Quality Forum list.
AORN will release revised edition
of Perioperative Nursing Data Set
A revised, updated edition of the Perioperative Nursing Data Set (PNDS)—a structured vocabulary used in uniformly documenting the practice decisions and interventions that lead to positive outcomes for patients undergoing surgical and/or invasive procedures—will soon be available from AORN.
News briefing for perioperative leaders
This month's news briefs include a plea by the American Hospital Association to delay the start of outpatient quality measure reports due Jan. 1, the launch of a new Minnesota health information exchange and much more.
ASC news review
This month's ASC news review includes a summary of industry comments on Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services plans to introduce quality measure reporting in 2009, an Arizona Medical Board proposal to regulate office-based surgeries more stringently and a study relating the growth of ASCs to shrinking patient volumes in hospital outpatient centers.
