http://m.yahoo.com/w/legobpengine/news/medicare-fines-over-hospitals-readmitted-patients-084816882.html?orig_host_hdr=news.yahoo.com&.intl=US&.lang=en-US
It's coming! Medicare will start to penalize hospitals for readmissions. Penalty will be as low as 1% and is expected to go up to 3%. This is part of the Health Care Reform ...transforming Health Care from fragmented care to continuing care. This will make healthcare providers to be more vigilant in ensuring that patients follow up with their doctors after discharge. What do we do with non-compliant ones? It will be a challenge to drag them to their appointments. I can almost foresee hospitals forming initiatives in attempt to reduce readmissions. This could be a good thing!
Change is sometimes good and it's constant, so we all have to roll with it or sink! Medicare has been implementing new strategies to curtail costs and reimbursement to healthcare providers. Hospitals have to be innovative at looking at ways to decrease "avoidable" admissions. Nationally it's been shown there are 2 primary reasons for readmissions - medication adherence issues and the patient's inability to see his or her PCP within 7 days of discharge. Non compliant patients are a challenge! Hospitals have to act as insurers now - treating the patient not only as an inpatient, but as outpatient as well. There will be an increasing demand for Case Managers - inpatient and outpatient!
ReplyDeleteVery good point!
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