Healthcare Financial News

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has launched a national print advertising campaign to promote Hospital Compare, its hospital quality reporting web site. The web site provides scores on 26 quality and patient satisfaction measures for almost 4,000 U.S. hospitals. The ads, which appeared May 21 in 58 major daily newspapers, invite readers to “Compare the Quality of Your Local Hospitals.” The ads highlight two quality measures for hospitals in the newspapers’ market: the percentage of patients at each hospital who always received help when they requested it, and the percentage of patients at each hospital who were given antibiotics one hour prior to surgery. The ads also give the state average for the two measures.

Hospital Compare enables consumers to comparison shop for a hospital. “These ads--and Hospital Compare--are intended to give consumers more information about making choices about their health care,” said HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt. “This brings us closer to meeting the goal of using new technologies to make the quality of healthcare services all across the nation more transparent to the public.” For more information, read CMS’s press release announcing its ad campaign, or go to the Hospital Compare web site.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released the names of the 325 supplier participants in a competitive bidding program that aims to provide certain durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS) to Medicare beneficiaries at substantially lower-than-current prices. The first round of the program goes into effect on July 1, 2008, in 10 communities across the United States. CMS notes that as a result of bids submitted by these suppliers, DMEPOS prices could be 26 percent lower, on average, than the prices Medicare currently pays for the same items. 

To participate in the program, suppliers had to meet quality and financial standards that ensure they are “viable companies able to meet the needs of Medicare beneficiaries and the terms of their contracts with Medicare.” A list of participating suppliers in the 10 initial areas of the program is available at the Medicare web site (under “Search Tools” select “Find Suppliers of Medical Equipment in Your Area”) or by calling 1-800-MEDICARE. 

CMS also announced that it has extended the accreditation deadline for the second round of the competitive bidding program, which encompasses 70 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) across the United States. To participate in this round, suppliers now must be accredited or have applied for accreditation by July 21, 2008, (formerly May 14, 2008). The final accreditation deadline for the second round of competitive bidding is now January 14, 2009. 

Go to the CMS web site for additional information on the DMEPOS competitive bidding program.