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A “bankruptcy bill” signed into law in April will make it harder for consumers to shield their assets and avoid paying off medical bills and other debt, according to some industry observers.
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A recent decision by the Wisconsin Supreme Court involving the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) offers several take-home points for access managers and others charged with overseeing emergency department operations, says Stephen A. Frew, JD, a risk management attorney and web site publisher.
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has made sweeping changes to the Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) that will have a major impact on hospital reimbursement.
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If youre not using your clinical pathways on a regular basis, youre missing an opportunity to facilitate the collection of quality indicators and outcomes information and to affect your patients length of stay.
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Since Childrens National Medical Center in Washington, DC, implemented its diabetes clinical pathway, the hospitals average length of stay for diabetes patients has been significantly lower than the national average, and the 72-hour readmission rate has been less than 1%.
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One of the better known ongoing collaborations in the United States is the Cambridge, MA-based Institute for Healthcare Improvements (IHI) 100,000 Lives Campaign, whose goal is to save 100,000 lives through targeted QI interventions by June 14, 2006.
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Now that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is requiring hospitals to submit data on 10 quality measures to get the full 3.7% inflation-adjusted payment increase, it is more important than ever for case managers to ensure accurate documentation.
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Fifty-six hospitals from 50 states as well as U.S. territories, collaborating to improve surgical care, significantly cut the rate of surgical infections for more than 35,000 patients in a yearlong, nationwide effort sponsored by the Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services (CMS) and led by Qualis Health, the quality improvement organization (QIO) for Washington, Alaska, and Idaho.
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An unusual collaboration among three competing California hospitals is providing much-needed post-discharge care for homeless people. It is linking those individuals to ongoing medical benefits while freeing up hospital beds for more acute patients.
