Mind your high utilizers
Your physicians who provide unusually high numbers of services to Medicare beneficiaries may trigger warnings from the federal government, and those warnings will be addressed to your medical executive committee. In an effort to make hospitals more utilization-efficient, HCFA is being asked to project utilization of physician inpatient services for 1999 and 2001 - all a part of the balanced budget legislation made law this past August.
To accomplish this, starting in 1999, HCFA will average per-discharge relative value units, and then notify the medical executive committee if the hospital is delivering an excessive volume of services. HCFA will then compare that data with the warned hospital's future utilization to see if being notified had any impact. Provider groups fear the data reporting requirement might encumber hospitals and HCFA alike.
You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
- Award-winning Medical Content
- Latest Advances & Development in Medicine
- Unbiased Content