Heart failure is a complicated condition to diagnose and treat and it’s about to get even more complicated, at least for providers. In August, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) formally adopted the fiscal 2012 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) final rule, which among other things, establishes a new process for tracking and quantifying 30-day hospital readmission rates for three high-cost conditions: heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, and pneumonia. The aim is to identify hospitals with “excess” Medicare readmissions as part of CMS’ new Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, mandated by the health care reform law.
Heart Failure Devices: Raising Roadblocks To Readmission
A new Medicare cost-control program aimed at reducing costly hospital readmissions has heart failure squarely in the cross-hairs, and the consequences could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost Medicare revenue for hospitals that fail to meet the new readmission standards. As a result, providers are scrambling to implement programs to assess and reduce heart failure readmissions, and a growing number of device companies are touting a variety of technologies they believe could help them achieve that goal.
More from Archive
More from In Vivo
• By
Ochre Bio co-founder and CSO Quin Wills spoke with In Vivo about the UK-based company's novel approach to finding RNA therapies for chronic liver disease.
• By
As GLP-1 agonists surge to blockbuster status transforming diabetes and obesity treatment, Richard DiMarchi, the pioneering scientist behind their development, recounts the inside story of the drug class in a fireside chat.
• By
João Ribas combines scientific expertise with venture capital at Novo Holdings, applying his dual background to develop biotech investments that connect academic research with commercial opportunity.