More than $100 million in Affordable Care Act funding is being awarded to 17 national, regional, and state hospital associations and health system organizations to assist efforts to reduce hospital-acquired conditions and readmissions.
Since 2011, preventable hospital-acquired conditions have been reduced 40% and 30-day readmissions are down by 20%, and CMS has made funding available to hospital associations and health systems around the country to continue efforts at reducing those numbers further.
More than $100 million in Affordable Care Act (ACA) funding is being awarded to 17 national, regional, and state hospital associations and health system organizations to assist efforts to reduce hospital-acquired conditions and readmissions.
“We have made significant progress in keeping patients safe and we are focused on accelerating improvement efforts through collaboration and reliable implementation of best practices,” Patrick Conway, MD, CMS acting principal deputy administrator and chief medical officer, said in a statement. “This second round of Hospital Engagement Networks will allow us to continue to improve health care safety across the nation.”
The funding is available through the second round of the Hospital Engagement Networks, part of the Partnership for Patients initiative.
HHS reported last year that efforts to improve patient safety in hospitals had resulted in 1.3 million fewer adverse events harming patients in 2011, 2012, and 2013. Additionally, approximately 50,000 fewer patients are dying in the hospital as a result of the reduction to hospital-acquired conditions and the industry saved roughly $12 billion in healthcare costs.
CMS reported that overall, initiatives born out of the ACA, like the Partnership for Patients, accountable care organizations, quality improvement organizations, and others have helped reduce hospital readmissions in Medicare by nearly 8% between January 2012 and December 2013.
Patient safety has taken the spotlight this lately. Earlier this week, the National Academy of Medicine released a report calling for paying more attention to getting diagnoses right and faster. Diagnostic errors are responsible for 6% to 7% of hospital adverse events and contribute to roughly 10% of patient deaths.
Standard Criteria for Loss of Ambulation Needed in DMD
April 19th 2024A recent study suggests the differences between ambulation definitions for patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) can impact the identification of ambulant vs nonambulant individuals, and standard criteria across settings are needed.
Read More
Navigating Health Literacy, Social Determinants, and Discrimination in National Health Plans
February 13th 2024On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we're talking with the authors of a study published in the February 2024 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care® about their findings on how health plans can screen for health literacy, social determinants of health, and perceived health care discrimination.
Listen
Early Involvement Critical in Treating Immunotherapy-Induced Overlap Syndrome
April 19th 2024A series of case studies reveals the importance of early diagnosis and involvement of special teams of clinicians when dealing with potential cases of overlap syndrome, which encompasses myocarditis, myasthenia gravis, and immune checkpoint inhibitor–related myositis.
Read More
Drs Raymond Thertulien, Joseph Mikhael on Racial Disparities in Multiple Myeloma Care Access
December 28th 2023In the wake of the 2023 American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition, Raymond Thertulien, MD, PhD, of Novant Health, and Joseph Mikhael, MD, MEd, FRCPC, FACP, chief medical officer of the International Myeloma Foundation, discussed health equity research highlights from the meeting and drivers of racial disparities in multiple myeloma outcomes.
Listen
Government agencies have created an online portal for the public to report potential anticompetitive practices in health care; there are changes coming to the “boxed warning” section for chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies (CAR T) to highlight T-cell blood cancer risk; questions about the safety of obesity medications during pregnancy have arisen in women on them who previously struggled with fertility issues.
Read More