According to this article in Modern Healthcare, over 700 hospitals will experience a 1% penalty on their total Medicare payments in fiscal 2015. This is the first year of a CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) penalty program, the purpose of which is to reduce preventable harm and improve patient safety.
To “earn” being docked the 1% under the Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program, hospitals must fall within the worst-performing quartile, based on measures of adverse events occurring during hospital stays, such as pressure ulcers, pulmonary embolisms and certain types of healthcare-associated conditions.