Hospitals - Good Quality or just Good Surveys? You Decide!

Did you know that Medicare pays hospitals based on the “quality of care” provided by the hospital? They withhold payment to hospitals that don’t “measure up”.

Did you know that Medicare uses patient surveys to determine the quality of care provided by the hospital?

Did you know that most lay people don’t really understand many of the questions asked on these surveys as they relate to quality? Many of the surveys are also completed by family members because the patient is unable to do so.

Did you know that Medicare grades hospitals on a comparison curve and that a hospital with raw scores in the low to mid 90’s will still be penalized? Only hospitals near the 100th percentile will not be penalized. I’m told this amounts to about 3 percent of hospitals.

Did you know that Medicare requires hospitals to do these surveys at the hospital’s expense thereby raising the cost of providing healthcare?

Did you know that most hospitals, especially large ones, employ several people who’s sole purpose is to make sure the hospital receives good survey scores? This raises the cost of providing healthcare.

Did you know that most small hospitals in rural and disadvantaged areas cannot collect enough surveys to make the results statistically significant? Nevertheless, unreliable results are used by Medicare to determine payment or lack thereof.

Did you after reading the above, suspect that none of this nonsense has anything to do with quality of care but rather who is able to produce the best survey results?

Did you conclude after reading all of this that Medicare is not really interested in quality but rather is just looking for more excuses not to pay for healthcare provided for seniors?

ADDENDUM:
I forgot to ask if you knew how much tax money was wasted by Medicare trying to implement this catastrophe.  I'd like to know.