The second round of the Health Care Innovation Awards is now underway, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced Wednesday. CMS will distribute up to $1 billion to fund projects that aim to improve care while cutting costs for the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
April 30, 2013
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has proposed changing the way hospital readmission penalties are calculated as part of its 2014 Medicare rate update. Potential readmissions penalties for long-term care providers — such as those recently floated by the White House — would likely be based on the established CMS formula for hospitals.
April 17, 2013
As a long-term care geriatrician, it is my core belief that clinicians need to recognize the true value of what we can accomplish together by improving the quality of patient care through reducing avoidable hospitalizations.
April 03, 2013
A majority of long-term care providers reduced hospital readmissions and the off-label use of antipsychotics within the last year, according to the American Health Care Association. The organization recently posted a progress report on the AHCA Quality Initiative, which was launched in February 2012.
Increasing hospice enrollment would save the Medicare program millions of dollars annually, according to a new report.
March 28, 2013
Medicare and Medicaid should not be significantly altered, because spending for these programs is trending downward and incentives tied to the programs are working, according to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
Researchers have developed a scoring system to determine which hospital patients are at highest risk of readmission within 30 days of discharge, potentially helping acute and post-acute providers focus on high-intensity transition care for these patients.
March 13, 2013
When you have a physician or hospitalist in a facility, acute changes in condition are addressed. Moreover, acute changes in condition (once they're addressed) can lead to decreased re-hospitalizations and we've shown this quite convincingly. Scheduled presence improves nursing competency as oftentimes impromptu in-services contribute to the nursing staff's understanding of physician expectations.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently announced 20 new organizations participating in the Community-based Care Transitions Program (CCTP), which is an initiative to cut down on hospital readmissions by facilitating better patient transitions between acute and post-acute providers.
March 06, 2013
Nobody should pass up the opportunity to have a nationally respected professional expert visit his or her office. The chance to get six in there in a short amount of time? Outrageous. Yet, it's going to happen.
February 21, 2013
The penalties have been here for nearly half a year, but do long-term care providers really know what hospitals want in a post-acute partner in care? McKnight's is offering a free webcast so that providers can learn where they "need to be" with regard to avoiding hospital readmissions." The event, which starts at 2 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, Feb. 28, also will deliver strategies for how skilled nursing facilities can help prevent readmissions. Joe Ouslander, M.D., senior associate dean and geriatrics professor at Florida Atlantic University, will lead the presentation. McKnight's Editor James M. Berklan will moderate.
January 24, 2013
If you might have had the notion that anxious long-term care providers have been taking the hubbub over rehospitalization rates a bit too seriously, a newly posted study shouts otherwise.
December 20, 2012
Readmissions are a major problem in U.S. healthcare. LTC facilities are no longer lone providers in the health of a patient, but rather are a partner in the continuum of care from the initial admission of the patient to a hospital till the patient returns to their home environment or is transferred to hospice care.
Providers should consider social factors, such as race, gender and whether a person is a nursing home resident, when assessing readmission risk among pneumonia and heart failure patients, new research finds.
One-quarter of hospital admissions among Medicare beneficiaries are preventable, with the leading cause for those readmissions is heart failure, a Medicare advisory board report noted.
October 09, 2012
Long-term care psychologists are a valuable resource for facilities looking to reduce their hospital readmission rates.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said that it made an error when calculating the penalty rates, and that hospitals will pay slightly higher penalties than previously thought.
To help hospitals prevent costly readmissions, long-term care providers need to get serious about partnering with local hospitals, an expert said Tuesday.
September 28, 2012
A new federal program aimed at the reduction of hospitalization among nursing home residents, especially dual eligibles, announced seven health system participants Thursday.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced legislation that would reimburse providers for coordination of care services.
September 17, 2012
The revised hospital payment system technically hasn't begun yet. But that doesn't mean senior living operators shouldn't find a dark cloud around this silver lining.
September 06, 2012
Participants at a free McKnight's webcast on Oct.2 will learn about leadership and operational tactics, as well as clinical strategies, that can promote critical thinking among staff members. Attendees also will learn how innovative technology can help organizations succeed in this critical area. The free event begins at 1 p.m. Eastern. Registration (also free) is required.
September 06, 2012
About 25% of people admitted to skilled nursing facilities from hospitals land back in the hospital within 30 days. Attendees at a free McKnight's webcast will learn how to turn that tide. The result will be improved resident satisfaction, and provider reputations and bottom lines. Registration and attendance are both free. The event starts at 1 p.m. Eastern Time on Sept. 25.
Seventeen new sites, which includes some skilled nursing facilities, were added to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services care transitions program, the agency announced Friday.
August 14, 2012
In about six weeks, more than 2,000 U.S. hospitals will be subject to financial penalties for preventable readmissions, making their relationships with post-acute providers more important than ever.
July 24, 2012
Medicare expenditures for beneficiaries who are readmitted to the hospital within 60 days are twice as high as expenditures for beneficiaries who aren't readmitted, a new analysis sponsored by the home health industry finds.
July 20, 2012
With penalties for preventable hospital readmissions looming, recently released Medicare data shows that U.S. hospitals aren't making much progress in lowering readmission rates.
June 06, 2012
Last week, I heard one of the most insightful, no-baloney talks I've heard in a while from a long-term care official.
May 23, 2012
Healthcare reform efforts targeted at reducing hospital readmissions are here to stay, experts told participants in a McKnight's webcast Tuesday.
May 18, 2012
Socioeconomic differences and factors such as the availability of physicians have a bigger impact on readmission rates for heart failure than a provider's performance, a new study asserts.
