CMS meting out more penalties than bonuses to nation's hospitals

In the second year of the the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' value-based purchasing program, the number of hospitals that will lose payments still outstrips the number that will receive bonus payments by a wide margin. According to data released by CMS, the agency will reduce payments to 1,451 hospitals and pay bonuses to 1,231. The facilities were scored on two-dozen quality measures, including patient satisfaction. Hospitals in states such as Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Maine, Utah and Nebraska fared the best, with 60 percent netting bonus payments. Seventeen other states had two-thirds or more of their hospitals experience reduced payments. Article