Readmissions news and information

An eight-year initiative aimed at improving healthcare quality and lowering costs has entered its final phase, and its director says the project's lessons could serve as best practices for healthcare providers across the nation.
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The spreading obesity epidemic, greater intensity of medical care and greater prevalence of chronic disease contributed the most to health spending growth during the better part of the last quarter century, according to new research released this week.
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The need for better communication—with research applicants, patients and practicing clinicians—was a frequent topic of discussion at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute's board of governors meeting on Monday.
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Medicare's inpatient rehabilitation facility payment rates could increase by up to 2% in fiscal 2014, under a rule proposed by the CMS.
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In its newly released proposed inpatient hospital payment rule for 2014, the CMS plans a slew of performance-based payment changes, including a penalty program for hospital-acquired conditions and updates to the agency's readmissions reduction program that would expand the parameters for...
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While the CMS' proposed payment schedule for 2014 includes small increases in Medicare payments for acute- and long-term care hospitals, it would change reimbursement for facilities serving high numbers of the uninsured, drawing fire from public hospitals.
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Mobile devices, microchipped meds and digital health records are among the tools available to keep patients and clinicians connected during convalescence.
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Most hospitals in Southeast Michigan have been working on projects to reduce readmission rates as Medicare and some private payers no longer reimburse for certain patients who are re-hospitalized within 30 days.
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Though scientists remain divided over the importance of reducing dietary salt, some healthcare systems struggling to lower their readmission rates are taking public health warnings to heart.
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It is no longer enough for hospitals to make patients healthy enough to leave. Now, they are spending millions of dollars to keep those patients from coming back.
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