Ohio Medicaid Program Incentivizes High Quality Care For Nursing Homes

Starting last month, Ohio' Medicaid program altered its payment procedures to reflect the current trend of moving slowly away from a fee-for-service scheme to adapt to pay-for-performance reimbursement schemes. Ohio's new payment policy links approximately 10% of all Medicaid reimbursements for nursing homes to a wide range of quality measures including, patient satisfaction, rate of errors and nurse staffing levels.

To read more about this initiative, head over to Kaiser Health News for a more thorough explanation of this, and similar programs.

Pennsylvania's Nursing Homes Are in Crisis

Last week, Jim Hook, senior writer for PublicOpinionOnline.com, discussed in great detail how proposed Medicaid cuts in Pennsylvania will create a financially unsustainable environment for nursing home facilities. The proposed $102 million statewide cut in Medicaid funding would drastically effect the way in which care is delivered both inside and outside of these facilities, potentially resulting in home visits by case coordinators being drastically cut back. Mr. Hook does a fantastic job of covering numerous issues with the latest Medicaid cuts and we strongly encourage you to read the full article.

Click here to read the article.

Reflecting On Dr. Berwick's Tenure As CMS Administrator

In this month's edition of Health Affairs, Harris Meyer wrote a fascinating piece reflecting on Dr. Don Berwick's short tenure as the head of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). In the article, Ms. Meyer discussed the praise Dr. Berwick's body of work at the CMS received from numerous professional organizations and highly respected health leaders.

Click here to read the Health Affairs article (freely available to all).

Study Shows That Nursing Home Medicaid Recipients Have Higher Hospitalization Rates

In a recently published study in the journal, Medical Care Research and Review, Helena Temkin-Greener, PhD, MPH, and her colleagues found that nursing homes may be enticed to send Medicaid recipients to the hospital for care due to financial incentives. The study identified that Medicaid reimbursement for hospitalizations are almost half that of Medicare reimbursements and as a result, may motivate decisions when determining if a patient needs to be transferred to a higher level of care.

Click here to read the full news article.

Click here to access the study (subscription may be required).

Health Care Taps The Brake On Job Creation

On Monday, Reed Abelson & Katie Thomas, of the New York Times, wrote an interesting guest piece in The Seattle Times discussing the health care industry's reliable job growth during tough times. The journalists also point out that although the industry has continued to grow, looming Medicare & Medicaid reimbursement cuts will have an affect on hospitals' expansion and hiring plans. The article concludes with a few paragraphs regarding the current and future need for nurse assistants, registered nurses and nurse practitioners & midwives.

Click here to read the article.

Nurse Anesthetists' Scope of Practice Challenged in CA

Yesterday, californiahealthline.org reported that the California Medical Association (CMA) and the California Society of Anesthesiologists (CSA) have challenged nurse anesthetists' ability to give anestethics without the supervision of a physician. This challenge looks to overturn a decision made by Gov. Schwarzenegger in June of 2009 that allowed the sate of California to 'opt out' of federal regulation requiring physicians to oversee nurse anesthetists during the treatment of Medicare beneficiaries. Currently, California is one of sixteen states that have opted out of this regulation.

Click here to read the news article.