The American Hospital Association asked The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to consider a series of questions before issuing their final decision on withholding coverage for surgical errors in an August 28 letter. These questions would force CMS to evaluate how surgical errors are defined, how the hospital will take accountability for these errors, and what coverage will not be provided. Additionally, the AHA recommended that there be an appeals process created for hospitals to use when they feel they have been unjustly denied coverage. Other types of questions it hopes CMS considers are what happens if a wrong-site procedure is started but then corrected during surgery? Is the hospital denied payment in that case as well? To read the letter, click here.

The Patient Safety Act of 2005 outlines a means of collecting patient safety data for analysis from all types of healthcare organizations. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) released in the August 29 issue of the Federal Register information about common formats of the data. The information sets out how healthcare organizations should submit data related to patient safety events. These include: Incidents—patient safety events that reached the patient, whether or not there was harm Near misses or close calls—patient safety events that did not reach the patient Unsafe conditions The AHRQ worked with the Federal Patient Safety Work Group to develop the common formats. The common formats can be found on the Privacy Protection Center Web site. To read more about this announcement, click here.

The National Quality Forum endorsed of nine new voluntary health information technology (HIT) measures in an August 29 announcement. The measures are intended to help facilities assess how efficient current HIT systems are and how to provide additional support to these areas. The standards come in the following areas: electronic prescribing electronic health record (EHR) interoperability care management quality registries the medical home The NQF says that medication errors are reduced by 20% when HIT is used; also overall healthcare costs are reduced by 12% when HIT is used. To read more about this announcement, click here.

The Alabama state government has told its employees that anyone with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or is obese will be paying a $25 a month in 2011 if they do not take action to fix their ailments, reports the Wall Street Journal Health Blog. Alabama, which provides health insurance free to its state employees, has found no change in the number of people with these risk factors for 15 years and now wants to influence those people to change their ways. The state also has a $24 insurance fee for people who smoke, says the article. Those state employees who demonstrate high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or obesity during a 2010 screening and do not take action to remedy these will be charged the fee come 2011. Note that employees do not actually have to lose weight or lower blood pressure or cholesterol, the have to enroll in certain required programs. To read more, click here.

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