Hard agree, and not just because I'm a spreadsheet nerd. Why are we all here? Isn't it in the service…
Morning Headlines 9/25/14
HHS claims in a report that hospitals will see a $5.7 billion drop in uncompensated care in 2014 due to the ACA, “based on an estimated 10.3 million decrease in the total number of uninsured and an estimated 8 million increase in the number covered by Medicaid.”
Drew Memorial Hospital of Monticello, AK will likely have to pay $900,000 of its Stage 1 MU incentive money back to the government after failing to pass an MU attestation audit.
Hospitals Cut Costs by Getting Doctors to Stick to Guidelines
Researchers from Christiana Care Health System (DE) found that they were able to cut costs associated with non-recommended use of cardiac monitors by 70 percent after embedding American Heart Association protocol reminders in their EHR.
Farzad Mostashari, MD and his investment partner Bob Kocher, MD co-author an op-ed in the New York Times highlighting the cost savings and improved outcomes seen in the small community of McAllen, TX, once famously pinpointed as the most expensive place in the US to receive healthcare, since its physician practices formed an ACO.
RE Uncompensated care, so the uncompensated care costs is decreasng, and Medicaid expansion is increasing. What is the delta of savings or is there by moving costs? The costs to cover these new Medicaid patients has to be covered somewhere? There are many conflicting stories out there. Last week there was an article that said that hospitals had to hire new providers at all levels because of the influx of newly covered Medicaid patients, but the reimbursements were not enough to cover the cost of the people hired or the care. We still have some ways to go, possibly another 3 years before this all shakes out. The bravado of savings, access, coverage is constantly being challenged by other stories contra to them.