CMS Cuts Payments to 769 Hospitals for Infections, Injuries

Seven-hundred-sixty-nine hospitals in the U.S. will see a one percent reduction in federal reimbursements for Medicare discharges in 2017 because they failed to show progress on reducing patient injuries and healthcare-acquired infections.

The government's Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program, now in its third year, will result in a collective loss for hospitals in 2017 of $430 million. That's 18 percent higher than last year, in which 750 facilities were penalized. Sixty percent of those on this year's list as the worst performing 25 percent of hospitals in the U.S. (those in this linked chart with scores greater than 6.75) in reducing HAIs and patient injuries were also on last year's list. Two-hundred-forty-one have been on the list all three years.

According to a Healthcare Finance article, hospital-acquired conditions declined 21 percent between 2010 and 2015. However, the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) estimates there were 3.8 million hospital-related injuries last year.