Discharge Planning Advisor Archives – October 1, 2008
October 1, 2008
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Securing care for uninsured: Look to community benefits for solutions
When dealing with a patient who has no insurance and isn't, at the time of hospitalization, qualified for Medicaid, social workers and case managers have to hit the ground running to piece together options for post-acute care. -
Include dietitian in discharge planning
In a 2005 survey of case managers and social workers who handle discharge planning in almost a dozen Florida hospitals, 30% of those surveyed described registered dietitians as "not important," to discharge planning, and 45% said they consult dietitians infrequently or not at all. -
CMS shifts claim reviews from QIOs to FIs, MACs
Citing improved efficiency and consistency, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has begun transitioning the handling of hospital claim reviews from quality improvement organizations (QIOs) to fiscal intermediaries (FIs) and Medicare administrative contractors (MACs). -
Bridge the hospital-to-outpatient gap with PC docs
No matter how positive their experiences during the discharge process, patients can feel that once they exit the hospital doors, they're in "no man's land" if issues arise later. But a process tested at Somerville (MA) Hospital showed success at bridging the gap between hospital and primary care. -
Patients leave ED thinking they know what happened
Every year, more than 115 million patients enter hospital emergency rooms (ER) in the United States. And many of them – as many as 75% leave the ER not really clear about what happened and what they should do next, a University of Michigan study reveals. -
Los Angeles hospitals enact new discharge rules
A California hospital that settled a lawsuit claiming that it dumped an indigent, paraplegic patient in downtown Los Angeles' Skid Row in 2006 will be monitored by a former U.S. attorney for up to five years to ensure the hospital won't engage in patient dumping again. -
For the Record: Medicare extends coverage for certain services
When Congress passed the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 amending Title XVIII of the Social Security Act, included in the more than 30 provisions of the act are several that impact discharge and transfer from an acute-care setting. -
HHS seeks to improve disease tracking
As expected, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in August announced a proposed regulation that would replace the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) code sets now used to report health care diagnoses and procedures with greatly expanded ICD-10 code sets. If adopted, the new regulation would take effect in October 2011. -
Findings of Kaiser report on uninsured reveal pitfalls
Major findings of a recent report by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured include the following: