This issue of SHM & Hospital Medicine in the News features:
- The potential for CMS to require hospitals to adhere to a formal antibiotic stewardship program in order to receive reimbursement from Medicare
- The impetus behind and implications of the significant growth of the physician assistant profession over the last five years
- SHM member Dr. Matthew Hindman on FOX Carolina news, stressing the importance of end-of-life care decisions
- An explanation in the mainstream media of how the US is bending the healthcare cost curve, highlighting the shift to quality-based reimbursements, among other potential solutions
- The perceived lack of correlation between price and healthcare quality by consumers
- The higher case complexity and associated cost to treat children at rural medical centers versus those at urban medical centers
Antibiotics Stewardship Enters Play-to-Pay Arena
At some point in the very near future, your hospital may have to certify its adherence to a formal antibiotics stewardship program in order to receive reimbursement from Medicare. Such rulings are known as conditions of participation. Meaning, if you don’t participate, you don’t get paid for treating Medicare patients.
April 7, 2016
HealthLeaders Media
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Growth of certified PAs hits 35% in 5 years
Physician assistants are growing rapidly in popularity throughout the U.S. The profession grew 35 percent in five years, so that at the end of 2015, there were more than 108,700 certified PAs practicing in the U.S., according to data from the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants. “What it tells us is that certified PAs are an integral part of today’s healthcare system, opening up much-needed access to care for all populations,” Dawn Morton-Rias, EdD, president and CEO of NCCPA and a certified PA, said in a statement.
April 4, 2016
Becker’s Hospital Review
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Doctors stress importance of pre-planned end-of-life decisions
Doctors with the Greenville Health System are part of the National Healthcare Decisions Day event. “You never know when there’s going to be a sudden event,” Dr. Matthew Hindman said. He’s a hospitalist, which means he only sees patients at hospitals, but he says it’s also where he witnesses stress among families when tough decisions have to be made. “One of the major thrust of Healthcare Decision Day is for folks to identify someone to make decisions for them when they no longer can make decisions,” Hindman said.
April 13, 2016
FOX Carolina TV News
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How Small Ideas Are Helping to Bend the Health Care Cost Curve
Even as overall U.S. health care spending grew by 5.3 percent in 2014 – reaching a jaw-dropping $3 trillion — the healthcare industry has made some important strides in trying to bend the overall cost curve in the coming years, according to some experts. Since the advent of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, for instance, the move away from so-called fee-for-service that maximizes costs for insurers and patients by encouraging excessive billings has begun to make some inroads in overall spending.
April 10, 2016
The Fiscal Times
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Prices and Health Care Quality: Many Consumers Don’t See a Link
Most consumers don’t believe the adage that “you get what you pay for” in health care, according to a new study. The report in this month’s issue of the journal Health Affairs analyzed the responses of 2,010 adults to four questions about the relationship between health care prices and quality, such as “Would you say higher prices are typically a sign of better quality medical care or not?” and “If one doctor charged less than another doctor for the same service, would you think that the less expensive doctor is providing lower quality care or would you not think that?”
April 8, 2016
Kaiser Health News
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Rural Kids Face Special Challenges When Seriously Ill
Sick children from rural areas in the United States have more complex medical problems and cost more to treat than urban or suburban kids, a new hospital study finds. Researchers who analyzed admissions at 41 children’s hospitals found significant differences between city kids and their country counterparts. Rural children, for instance, were more likely to require readmission, tended to be from poorer homes and traveled five times as far, on average, for specialized health care.
April 11, 2016
U.S. News & World Report
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