The government's system of investigating complaints related to Medicare is "broken" and of "no help" for improving care quality, an investigation by the Senate Finance Committee found. Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) sent a letter to senior Medicare officials on Monday recommending major reforms to the program. Medicare relies on private contractors known as quality improvement organizations (QIOs) to investigate complaints. The Washington Post reports that QIOs investigated about 3,000 patient complaints last year. The Institute of Medicine is expected to release a major report on QIO performance Thursday.
- see this article [1] from The Washington Post
Links:
[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030601386.html