A recent letter from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to State Medicaid directors reminded me again of the critical importance of data-driven decision making and outcomes measurement […]

Medicare beneficiaries in low socioeconomic status (SES) areas have fewer physician and care management visits and are less likely to be admitted from the emergency department for low severity medical […]

Referred to by many as the “Father of the DRG,” Rich Averill has had a storied health care career going all the way back to the advent of diagnosis-related groups […]

Recently, I visited my optician after an 18-month, pandemic-induced absence. The doctor is a rather pleasant fellow, but the annual exam is just as much fun as I recall. First […]

Dealing with a pandemic this past year turned everything we thought we knew about life upside down, including health care. An already challenged industry was exposed for what it has […]

Risk adjustment is a correction applied in hospital performance measurement to account for the contribution of population characteristics that are beyond the control of the hospital. The effects of these […]

At the end of September, CMS posted the latest round of data supporting the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program. This is the first year of compliance with the direction of the […]

In this blog, we return to how socioeconomic status is accounted for when measuring patient outcomes. We have actively participated in the debate on how to identify potentially preventable readmissions […]

Last month, an article appeared in Modern Healthcare lauding the achievement of New York’s Bellevue Hospital in reducing readmissions to their facility. The article raised a number of issues relating […]