Aetna PUTS patient safety language into contracts

Aetna, of Hartford, Conn., has incorporated language from the Leapfrog Group’s “Never Events” policy in its hospital contract templates for negotiations or renegotiations that use a new contract. The language included in Aetna’s template for hospital contracts calls for facilities to report the medical error to one of several quality monitoring agencies within 10 days of becoming aware it has occurred. Hospitals also are asked to take action to prevent future events, waive all costs related to a serious reportable event and apologize to the patient and/or family affected by the never event.

OIG opinions favor two hospital-doc arrangements

The Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services issued two separate advisory opinions in mid-January supporting arrangements between hospitals and physician groups, saying such arrangements that share cost savings can serve legitimate business and medical purposes. The arrangements enabled anesthesiologists and cardiac surgeons to participate in an arrangement to share part of facility savings as a result of the groups implementing cost-saving strategies.

Wait times rise in ERs, especially for severely ill

Researchers from the Harvard Medical School say they’ve detected a dangerous increase in the amount of time patients are waiting in emergency departments for treatment. The study, which analyzed the time between patients’ arrivals in the emergency department and when they were first seen by a doctor, found that the increasing delays affected everyone, including those with and without health insurance, and people from all racial and ethnic groups. Severely ill patients suffered the largest increases in waits.

AHA urges CAH input on outpatient quality reports

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services should allow critical-access hospitals to submit and publicly report outpatient quality data along with other hospitals in fiscal year 2008, according to a recent letter to the agency from the American Hospital Association. Hospitals participating in Medicare’s outpatient prospective payment system are required to submit data on seven outpatient quality measures to receive a full payment update in fiscal year 2008. CAHs qualify for cost-based reimbursement from Medicare, but the hospitals would like to demonstrate their commitment to quality and transparency, the letter said.