Kettering Medical Center earns Medicare reimbursement bonus
Monday, June 23, 2008
KETTERING — Kettering Medical Center earned a $175,701 bonus in Medicare reimbursements for hip- and knee-replacement surgeries by meeting quality criteria, the most of more than 250 U.S. hospitals in a demonstration project for the second consecutive year.
KMC-Sycamore earned an extra $15,283 for its top-10-percent ranking for pneumonia care in the same Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) pay-for-performance program.
CMS began its first bonus program in 2004 with hospitals in Premier Inc., a national purchasing network and repository of hospitals' clinical and financial information. The program, subsequently extended for 2007-09, awarded more than $7 million to 112 hospitals in the latest payments, based on 2006 data.
The demonstration project's purpose is to see whether economic incentives lead to improved hospital care. The bonuses are for meeting accepted treatment standards in five clinical areas, the others being care for heart attacks, heart failure and heart-bypass surgery.
CMS reports a 15.8 percent improvement in participating hospitals' average composite quality scores from 2004 to '06. Kettering Health Network hospitals have improved in 13 out of 14 applicable measures, a spokesman said.
More info is at www.qualitydemo.com.
— Kevin Lamb, Staff Writer
