Want to know if the nurses respond faster to the call button if you're a hospital patient at Georgetown or GW? If the rooms and bathrooms are cleaner at Sibley or Johns Hopkins? If you are more likely to get pain medication at Holy Cross or Shady Grove? Some time in 2007, visitors to Medicare's Hospital Compare Web site may be able to get answers to those questions, not only for hospitals in the Washington area but for facilities around the country. The key to those kinds of comparisons is the release of the "HCAHPS" survey, a 27-item questionnaire hospitals are expected to begin administering to their patients next year, said Philip Dunn, spokesman for the National Quality Forum. Read more »
Medicare "dual eligibles" who are not automatically enrolled in the new Medicare drug benefit or have not selected a plan for coverage by Jan. 1 will still be able to have their prescriptions filled, government officials said. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has contracted with Wellpoint, which has a pharmacy network that covers all 50 states, to manage a single national account for payment of drug claims for what is expected to be a limited number of dual eligibles who have not picked a plan or been automatically enrolled in one by the time the new Medicare drug benefit begins. Read more »
The effort to reconcile House and Senate spending cut plans next month will include a health care debate that not only pits conservatives against moderate Republicans—as expected—but will force Congress to choose between the nation's two major entitlement programs: Medicaid and Medicare. At issue is whether to trim the federal-state program that provides health care to the poorest Americans—especially just months after Hurricane Katrina—or whether to tamper with one of the president's top initiatives, the Medicare prescription drug program, which goes into effect Jan. 1. Read more »
Advocates of linking health care providers' payments to the quality of care they give their patients received a boost when a new Institute of Medicine report called for a comprehensive, universally accepted system to measure and report on the performance of health care providers and organizations. The IOM study, which was mandated as part of the Medicare prescription drug law (PL 108-173) and sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services, urged Congress to establish a new board within HHS to coordinate the development of standardized performance measures and monitor the nation's progress toward improving the health care system. Read more »
Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., said in a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that two recent Government Accountability Office reports indicate "serious flaws" in the implementation of the Medicare drug discount card. In a letter to CMS Administrator Mark B. McClellan, Waxman said the errors "have important implications for the new Medicare drug benefit." The Medicare drug discount card was a temporary program that went into effect in June 2004 to assist Medicare beneficiaries with their drug costs until the new prescription drug benefit is enacted on Jan. 1. In response, CMS Administrator Mark B. McClellan said that the report focuses on negative results, rather than the overall outreach and education activities of CMS. Read more »