Some local hospitals with high infection rates experiencing lower Medicare payments

PROVIDENCE – In December, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced that 769 hospitals will see their Medicare payments reduced by 1 percent, after all other adjustments have been made, for patient discharges occurring during fiscal year 2017 due to the hospitals’ high rates of hospital-acquired conditions, such as infections. Rhode Island hospitals so affected are Roger Williams Medical Center and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital – both CharterCARE Health Partners’ hospitals – Newport Hospital, a Lifespan facility, and Kent Hospital, a Care New England facility.

These HAC scores were derived partially from data from July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2015 and partially from data from Jan. 1, 2014 through Dec. 31, 2015, reported a CMS spokesperson. Under its Hospital-Acquired Conditions Reduction Program, CMS began reducing Medicare payments in October 2014 for hospitals ranking in the worst performing quartile for HAC.

Of those 769 hospitals, 241 of them, including Our Lady of Fatima Hospital in North Providence and Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Conn., are three-time offenders and have seen their Medicare payments cut in each of the three years of the HAC Reduction Program, according to information from “Becker’s Hospital Review.”

In response to a query from Providence Business News, Otis Brown, vice president, external affairs, CharterCARE Health Partners, issued this statement: “Fatima Hospital provides high quality, safe patient care and follows best practices to prevent infection. We are especially proud of our zero infection rate for intensive care patients that we have achieved in the past year. We provide comprehensive infection-control education to our staff and utilize the latest technologies to improve quality and safety for our patients.”

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CharterCARE did not respond to Providence Business News’ questions regarding the financial impact this reduction would have on Fatima Hospital or how it plans to address the problem of hospital-acquired conditions.

LMW Healthcare, also known as Westerly Hospital, and Yale-New Haven Health Services Corp., which includes Yale-New Haven Hospital, received approval in 2016 to affiliate from all applicable regulatory agencies, although R.I. Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin issued a conditional approval.

Click HERE for an entire list of hospitals subject to the most current payment reduction.

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