Hospitals:
HOSPITALS OUTCOMES DEMO TO GO FORWARD
Published on Wed Jun 25, 2003
Agreement has been reached on terms of a Medicare demonstration project that would give hospitals a one or two percent bonus for achieving good patient outcomes in conditions like heart attack, hip surgery, and pneumonia, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Tom Scully told reporters June 17. The demo had been held up by a dispute between CMS and the Office of Management and Budget. OMB wanted hospitals with bad outcomes to lose money in the third year of the demo, to ensure budget neutrality. Scully did not say how this dispute or design issues for the demo had been resolved or when the project would begin.