Insurers Will Keep Some Consumer Protections, Regardless of Supreme Court Decision on Health Reform
This month, UnitedHealth Group, Inc., Aetna Inc., and Humana announced that they will retain certain provisions of the health care reform law even if the Supreme Court overturns it. These include the requirements to offer certain preventive treatments with no copayments, allow adult children up to age 26 to remain on their parents' plans, and end the practice of limiting lifetime claims. According to an editorial in the Baltimore Sun, the insurers plan to retain these provisions because they are popular with consumers and also are likely to improve health outcomes and help control costs.
Leapfrog's New Hospital Safety Score
Earlier this month, the Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit organization representing large employers and other health care purchasers, released a new Hospital Safety Score, which assigns hospitals a letter grade based on their performance on 26 process, structural, or outcome measures of patient safety. The data came from the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS); the American Hospital Association Annual Survey is used as a secondary data source. Some hospitals have stopped participating in the Leapfrog Group's voluntary survey in recent years, and non-participation appears to have penalized these hospitals in the scoring.
Hospital, IT Groups Voice Concerns about Stage 2 Meaningful Use Requirements
iHealthBeat reports that the American Hospital Association, the College of Health Information Management Executives, and HIMSS Electronic Health Record Association have asked CMS not to increase the number of clinical quality measures providers must report to qualify for Stage 2 meaningful use certification. Among other things, the groups are concerned that vendors will not have time to re-write software and field test it, nor train providers on how to use it. CMS is not expected to comment until it releases the final rule on Stage 2 later this summer. Electronic quality reporting will be key to new reimbursement approaches that are set to roll out under health reform.