As a cardiac electrophysiologist, I’m pretty far removed from public policy. But I have to admit that I was interested in the latest move by CMS to cut their Medicare payment rates to hospitals by invoking pay cuts for hospital readmissions. The Chicago Tribune‘s article is enlightening and filled with some interesting anecdotes after the first round of pay cuts were implemented:
(1) The vast majority of Illinois hospitals were penalized (112 of 128)
(2) Heart failure, heart attack, and pneumonia patients were targeted first because they are viewed as “obvious.”
(3) “A lot of places have put a lot of work and not seen improvement,” said Dr. Kenneth Sands, senior vice president for quality at Beth Israel.
(4) Even the nation’s #1 Best Hospital (according to US News and World Report) lost out.
So what’s a hospital to do?
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I have a suggestion based on other observations in regard to government-imposed pay-for-performance measures that have cost hospitals and clinics across the land untold billions to implement and still have failed to demonstrate even a break-even financial proposition for hospitals.
Stop trying.
From the looks of things, Medicare’s going to cut even the finest hospital’s pay. Everyone will suffer, just some more immediately than others, but woe to the hospital that works to understand why. This is not the intent of this measure. The intent of this measure is to cut payments.
Therefore, if we do not commit excessive funds to this endeavor and instead work to support the people on the front lines as they do their job, cost savings will more likely be realized than if 500 more administrators and nurse coordinators are put on the job. Like putting cash under your mattress in a down market, they’ll be way ahead.
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Hiring more people are expensive because of their salaries and benefits. Writing programs to do this is also expensive. All kinds of people are expensive because of the training they require for new government initiatives like Pay for Performance (which has NOT been shown to affect outcomes by the way) and avoidance of hospital readmissions (little proof of sustainable goals can be achieved, a la quote #3 above).
So just help the professional people you already have do their jobs caring for patients to the best of their ability. Make this the mantra rather than new unproven approaches.
Call me silly, but my bet is that hospitals would do WAY better off financially in the long run if they stopped trying so hard to follow unproven legislative initiatives.
Westby G. Fisher, MD, FACC is a board certified internist, cardiologist, and cardiac electrophysiologist (doctor specializing in heart rhythm disorders) practicing at NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston, IL, USA and is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine. He entered the blog-o-sphere in November, 2005. He writes regularly at Dr. Wes. DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in this blog are strictly the those of the author(s) and should not be construed as the opinion(s) or policy(ies) of NorthShore University HealthSystem, nor recommendations for your care or anyone else's. Please seek professional guidance instead.
