quality measures news from FierceHealthcare
News
Medicare hands out $12M in hospital quality bonuses
The 230 hospitals that took part in the CMS/HQID value-based purchasing project raised their overall quality by an average of 17.2 percent during the fourth year of the project on delivery of 30... Read more...
Study: Higher spending for end-of-life care doesn't offer higher care quality
A new study published in Health Affairs underscores a principle that has been shown to apply to the entire U.S. healthcare system--that greater spending doesn't equal better care. The study, which... Read more...
CMS shares approaches for transforming FFS Medicare
CMS has released a group of documents explaining how it expects to transition the Medicare fee-for-service program to a quality-based system rather than paying based on service volume. One paper... Read more...
Medical education gets a 'C' grade
Medical education is behind the times, with too little focus on quality measures and too little training on information technology adoption, according to representatives from the academic medical... Read more...
AHA asks CMS to reconsider 2009 quality measures, payment rates
The American Hospital Association isn't too happy about the quality-reporting requirements in the new proposed outpatient prospective system rule for 2009, and it would like to see CMS make some... Read more...
VA issues 'report card' touting hospital quality
Lately, the VA has taken a pounding over its handling of mentally-ill soldiers, not to mention the conditions under which physically-injured veterans have been treated at its facilities. Now, the... Read more...
AHA says CMS hospital quality measures aren't ready
As things stand, hospitals soon will have to report on 72 quality measures (up from 30) if they want to receive full Medicare reimbursement. However, most of the new quality measures proposed by CMS... Read more...
Joint Commission releases new inpatient psych measures
The Joint Commission has released a new set of seven inpatient psychiatric measures for use with the group's Oryx performance-measurement requirements. Eventually, the data will appear on the... Read more...
$300M grant from RWJF intended to reduce health disparities
Today the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is expected to announce a $300 million initiative designed to reduce significant regional and ethnic care disparities across the U.S.--and ultimately, if... Read more...
Consumers Union plans to rate hospitals
The venerable organization behind the popular Consumer Reports magazine has announced that it's getting into the hospital ratings act. The publisher, Consumers Union, already offers assessments of... Read more...
