Articles Tagged With:
-
CMS Delays Start of Cardiac Bundled Payment Initiative
CMS has delayed the effective date of two bundled payments initiatives from July 1 to Oct. 1.
-
Observation Unit Cuts Length of Stay, Lowers Costs
Patients who were transferred to the Outpatient Observation Unit at Rockford (IL) Memorial Hospital experienced lower lengths of stay and lower costs than patients who were candidates for observation services but were treated on an inpatient unit.
-
Why the Two-Midnight Rule Is ‘Clear as Mud’
There are patients whose condition and circumstances put them in the shadowy area between meeting criteria for an inpatient stay and being an outpatient with observation services.
-
OIG: Hospitals Are Still Getting Patient Status Wrong
A report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, released in December 2016, concluded that hospitals are billing for short inpatient stays that are inappropriate under the Two-Midnight Rule and for long outpatient stays.
-
Top 10 Potentially Inappropriate Stays
The following is a list of potentially inappropriate stays from the Office of Inspector General.
-
Be Proactive: Review Your Short Stays Before They Are Billed
Case management directors should take a proactive approach to managing denials and monitor their short inpatient stays, watch for trends, and prevent inappropriate short-stay admissions.
-
Hospitals Are Still Confused About Inpatient vs. Observation
It’s been nearly four years since the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced its Two-Midnight Rule, but hospital staff still are grappling with the gray areas in the rule.
-
Tranexamic Acid in Trauma
Tranexamic acid or TXA is a potent antifibrinolytic that has the potential to decrease clot breakdown and reduce bleeding in trauma patients. Studies have shown that the use of TXA in trauma patients improves overall survival, although these studies have been discounted as not being relevant to trauma care as practiced in well-resourced countries. Thus, the adoption of TXA into trauma protocols in U.S. centers has been slow and controversial. Further studies are needed to answer questions about which patient populations can benefit most from TXA and how it should be used in highly developed and well-resourced trauma systems and centers.
-
Antibiotic Stewardship: A Little Goes A Long Way
With antibiotic stewardship programs now critical to preserve fading drug efficacy, it’s good to know that even small efforts can yield considerable bang for the buck.
-
Ebola Outbreak Sustained by Superspreaders
Prior to the epic Ebola outbreak of 2014-2015, the prevailing dogma was that the virus was not a pandemic threat because it killed its victims too quickly to sustain itself in a prolonged outbreak. That myth was certainly exploded, and now we have one clue as to why: “superspreaders.”