Ok so I’m using logic in the headlines here but it’s true.  If you are not admitting as many patients then you can’t be re-admitting as many right?  Of course I know the numbers and stats do look at how many of those who do get admitted end up back in the hospital and we have heard that drilled down our throats with CMS penalties.  Here’s a past post that makes more sense with what the penalties involve.  image

Medicare Re-Admissions Penalties–Algorithms Keep Money Shifting and Make It Difficult for Realistic Budgets to be Met Along With Good Patient Care–Algos Keep the Money Moving In One Direction or Another

You also have the “extensivist” position created to help keep patients out of the hospital and this is a human effort and not just straight analytics that HHS and CMS get stuck on. 

Health Plan Hospitalists Keeping Re-admissions down by “Leaving” the Hospital – “The Extensivist”

But you also have hospitals building on to get more patients admitted so it’s the ER cash cow and coding versus what CMS and HHS analytics say…and and there’s pros and cons on both sides. 

ER Building Boom By Hospitals in Some Parts of the US Taking Place–Cash Cows for Hospitals to Lure Insured Patients in Affluent Areas–Bigger Exposure to Re-Admissions

And you can revisit this 60 Minute report on a hospital that was charged with fraud and using software to admit more patients. 

Hospital Admission Rates at HMA Hospitals - Doctors Pressured to Meet Admission Percentages–Algorithms Pushing the Processes Requiring Explanations for Overriding & Not Admitting-Killer Algorithms Chapter 48

Puts the doctors in a jam though as you also have this, as seen in the video from a couple of years ago to where the hospital administrators wanted more admissions and that goes along with how empty beds they have and the doctors didn’t do it, so they fired them, so again doctors in hard spot here with taking care of you and keeping everyone else at bay so you can get the care you need.  BD

When Hospitals Play Doctor


(Reuters) - U.S. hospital admissions in November were the weakest in more than a decade, under pressure from a change in reimbursement rules for Medicare patients and confusion tied to the problem-ridden rollout of Obamacare, according to a survey by Citi Research.

New billing rules for the Medicare program for the elderly and disabled require hospitals to treat patient stays lasting less than "two midnights" as an outpatient visit.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/17/us-hospitals-admissions-idUSBRE9BG18J20131217

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