Interventions designed to reduce hospital readmissions are accomplishing their goal from a patient perspective—but not always from a cost savings perspective.
In recent years, the federal government has been pushing hospitals to help their patients self-manage chronic conditions. If patients and families aren’t able to sufficiently self-manage their conditions within 30 days of discharge, hospitals may incur reimbursement penalties when these patients are readmitted or need to come back to the emergency department, says Karen Zander, RN, MS, CMAC, FAAN,president and CEO of The Center for Case Management, Inc., in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
Below is information from the National Institute of Mental Health outlining the signs and symptoms of depression and how the condition might manifest differently in different patients. The complete guide on depression is available online.
This week's note discusses the order and certification requirement for critical access hospitals (CAH), including the proposal in the FY 2018 IPPS proposed rule to reprioritize the review of CAH inpatient admissions.
Just before the MOON requirement became effective March 8, CMS added another hoop to jump through in an open door forum held February 28.The discussion in that forum forced many organizations to change course at the last minute as CMS announced it would not allow pre-populated check boxes in the free-text field of the MOON designated for describing clinical reasons for the service the patient receives. Organizations that had listened to experts touting the value of adding check boxes with specific rationale to the MOON were forced to revamp the form shortly before implementation.
This week's note from the instructor discusses several changes regarding inpatient-only procedures that might have flown under the radar for some hospitals.
