The majority of D.C hospitals will receive a pay cut from the federal government in 2015 for infection or injury rates, records show.
George Washington University Hospital, MedStar’s Washington Hospital Center and Georgetown University Hospital, Sibley Memorial Hospital and Providence Hospital will receive the 1 percent penalty in Medicare payments, according to federal records.
They are among one out of every seven hospitals in the nation that will have their Medicare payments lowered by 1 percent over the fiscal year that began Oct. 1 and continues through September 2015, Kaiser Health News reported.
The Affordable Care Act mandates the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to reduce payments for hospitals assessed by Medicare as having the highest rates of hospital-acquired conditions, such as infections from central lines or bed sores. CMS is cutting Medicare payments to 724 hospitals.
Meanwhile, records show Howard University Hospital and United Medical Center will escape the cuts.
In Northern Virginia, Inova Fairfax Hospital will be penalized. Inova’s Fair Oaks, Mount Vernon, Loudoun and Alexandria hospitals will not receive the penalty. Virginia Hospital Center, Reston Hospital Center and Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center will also not be penalized.
Maryland hospitals are exempt from the penalties because the state has a waiver with CMS for a different payment system. Hospitals were just finalizing that system earlier this year.
Hospital-acquired infections, in particular, have been the topic of intense scrutiny in the U.S. hospital system, as well as a point of reflection for local hospitals. MedStar Washington Hospital Center, for instance, held an event earlier this year to mark two years in its neonatal intensive care unit without a single central line infection. But that same hospital reported employee concerns for patient safety in survey results it also released earlier this year.
“MedStar Washington Hospital Center has taken significant steps to reduce infections, which are a challenge across the country for many teaching hospitals, including ours. In fact, we see patients with very complex illnesses, which add to their risk of infection,” the hospital said in a statement. “However, our recent data show we’ve made significant improvements in [central line-associated blood stream infection] rates and reductions in pressure ulcers. We attribute our progress to our team’s efforts focused on timely removals of lines and catheters, standardization of equipment and reducing variability by using evidence-based practices.”
A recently released Robert Wood Johnson Foundation report ranked D.C. among the lower half of U.S. states or jurisdictions in preparedness to prevent or respond to infectious disease outbreaks, in part due to a lower score regarding central line infection rates among its hospitals.
