So under the new 2008 proposed rules, CMS won't pay for a number of conditions it deems to be preventable:
“In the proposed rule, CMS considered 13 and proposed to select 6 conditions that would be subject to the provision. While there were some public comments that said CMS should only select serious preventable events (Object left in surgery, blood incompatibility and air embolism), CMS believes there is a significant public health interest in selecting more. Based on public comments, CMS decided not to select 1 of the original six conditions (septicemia) but added an additional 2 (falls and mediastinitis—a preventable surgical site infection that follows heart surgery). In addition, CMS selected catheter associated urinary tract infections, pressure ulcers and vascular catheter associated infections. CMS also indicated that it will work to create a code to identify ventilator associated pneumonia as well as determine when septicemia and deep vein thrombosis are not present on admission and preventable in the hospital so that these conditions may be included in the future.”
What we want to know is: what are the IT and system implications of this? What effect will new reporting requirements have on workflow and data gathering? Will hospitals that don’t move to an EMR/CPOE model be able to collect from CMS?
