More hospitals improve care, increase payment from Medicare

More hospitals will be rewarded with bigger payments from Medicare because of improved patient ratings this year, a sign that incentives under ObamaCare are helping to improve treatment.

The number of hospitals receiving extra money from Medicare this year will outnumber those docked for subpar treatment for the first time, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) announced Thursday.

A total of 1,714 hospitals will receive extra payments from the federal government this year, compared to 1,375 hospitals with shrinking payments because of poor ratings. That marks a reversal of previous years, when most hospitals had scores too low to make them eligible for the extra federal dollars.

{mosads}“This change indicates that many hospitals are improving the quality of care delivered to patients,” the agency wrote in a release.

The federal government began considering patient scores as part of hospitals’ Medicare reimbursements under the Affordable Care Act, which officials said would make sure the hospitals have “skin in the game.”

For the third year in a row, the federal government now takes into account certain aspects of care — such as whether the patient winds up back in the hospital and whether they’d recommend their doctor — when it doles out funding.

Patients can score their hospitals on factors such as the cleanliness of the rooms, the communication of the staff and whether they understood the procedures.

A focus on healthcare quality also helps to trim costs as hospitals begin to reduce the number of patients who become ill or injured during their stay.

Starting next year, hospitals’ reimbursements from the federal government will be docked 1 percent for all facilities that report the injuries or illnesses from the hospital.

ObamaCare has sought to improve the quality of hospital care with more data and a greater focus on the patient experience.

“This transparency is critical to transforming the health care delivery system to achieve the three aims of better care for patients, better health for communities and spending dollars wisely,” the agency wrote in a release.