Noteworthy News
New Program to Link Patient Satisfaction, Medicare Payments
A new federal initiative will use patient satisfaction to help determine Medicare payments to hospitals.
Under the new value-based purchasing program it will launch in October, Medicare will use the results of patient responses to the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey (HCAHPS) as a factor in determining its payments to hospitals.
As reported in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, not everyone believes there is a tangible link between patient satisfaction and the quality of care a hospital provides – and not everyone believes the HCAHPS survey accurately measures either.
In addition, a recent article in the Archives of Internal Medicine reported that safety-net hospitals generally receive lower scores on the HCAHPS survey than other providers – a major concern for urban safety-net hospitals that the National Association of Urban Hospitals (NAUH) has already begun to address with policy-makers.
Read more about this controversial program in this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report
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