Medicare Hospitals Slammed By Massive Fines
It’s one of those strange unintended consequences of health care…
If you’re on Medicare and you walk into a hospital… the hospital gets paid.
Then you get discharged.
What happens if you need to go back?
Here’s today’s shocking statistic – 18% of Medicare patients who were hospitalized were readmitted within a month.
- Does it mean they were discharged too early?
- Did they not get the right care?
- Were Doctors and Nurses lax in their treatment?
- Or, is there a bigger problem at hand?
Well I think there’s a bigger issue… and so does Medicare.
You see, when a Medicare patient returns to the hospital and is readmitted, the hospital gets to charge Medicare all over again for the patient… even if the patient walked into the parking lot, then turned right back around!
The hospitals were incentivized for patient treatment… not the long term recovery of a patient.
Medicare estimates it was paying out $17 billion a year in avoidable readmission costs!
That’s a lot of money… and now the system is changing.
Now Medicare is sending out stiff fines for hospitals with high re-admittance rates.
That’s right… hospitals get fined… but not only that… they also receive lower payouts for all Medicare patients who show up over the next year… Talk about a double whammy.
So is this good or bad for you as a Medicare patient?
Let me ask a question – if Medicare is going to pay less to a hospital when a Medicare patient walks in the door, do you think the hospital will try to dissuade patients from entering the hospital to begin with?
Maybe.
Might your care suffer in these hospitals with the biggest fines?
Again, Maybe… but probably not (I’d hope)!
But will your treatment improve…
You better believe it!
You see, because these boomerang patients are so costly to the hospital and they now face big fines for having too many… now discharge instructions are getting better!
And that means better treatment.
For example, instead of just giving a patient written instructions and sending them on their way… some hospitals are working with the patient’s own doctor to ensure follow-up treatment. Some hospitals are providing medical supplies and drugs to patients who may not be able to afford them.
Hospitals are now doing everything they can (even if they don’t get paid for it) to prevent patients from being readmitted… and in my mind, that’s a positive!
These fines and penalties are very positive in my mind!
Fyi-Medicare Staff
SOURCES:
http://www.pe.com/articles/hospitals-752204-patients-medicare.html
Category: Medicare Facts, Tips, and Tricks
