Here are some of the major quality- and safety-related provisions in the final rule, based on a CMS fact sheet:
1. CMS will implement the Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program in FY 2015. Under this program, hospitals in the lowest quartile for medical errors or hospital-acquired infections will receive a 1 percent penalty on reimbursement.
Performance will be based on two domains included in the Inpatient Quality Reporting program. The first is a composite that includes eight individual measures, including pressure ulcer rate, postoperative hip fracture rate and postoperative sepsis rate. The second domain will include central line-associated blood stream infections and catheter-associated urinary tract infections for FY 2015. CMS will add surgical site infections to this domain in FY 2016 and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium difficile in FY 2017.
2. The maximum penalty under the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program will be increased from 1 percent to2 percent for FY 2014.
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