List date(s) this work was published or aired.
24-Sep-12
Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
On October 1, Medicare is going to start hitting hospitals where it hurts. Those institutions that have worse-than-average rates of readmission for three common diagnoses are going to lose as much as 1 percent of their government reimbursement. The idea is that if hospitals are charged for not making people healthy enough to heal at home after discharge, taxpayer money should be saved and senior patients should have better outcomes.
Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services report on readmission rates from July 2008 through June 2011; New England Journal of Medicine perspective piece from April 2012 “Medicare’s Readmissions-Reduction Program — A Positive Alternative”
Explain types of human sources used.
Jonathan Keyserling, executive director of the Hospice Action Network and vice president for health policy at the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization; William Dombi, senior vice president of public policy for the National Association for Home Care & Hospice; Robert Berenson, senior fellow at the Urban Institute and former vice-chair of MedPAC; Eleanor DeArman Kinney, a health law expert at Indiana University’s Robert H. McKinney School of Law; Bill Price, a company spokesman for Johnson & Johnson; Sarah Alspach, spokeswoman for GlaxoSmithKline; Representatives for Pfizer, Abbot Laboratories and Humana; Matthew Bennett, a spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA); Alan Sager, a professor of health policy and management at the Boston University School of Public Health; Judith Stein, executive director for the Center for Medicare Advocacy; Lou Saccoccio, president of the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association; David Orentlicher, professor of law at the Robert H. McKinney School of Law; Saranyi Kurapati, M.D., of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement; Derek Robinson, M.D., a former CMS regional official who now leads a quality improvement initiative at the IHA; Patrick Romano, M.D., a professor of medicine at the University of California, Davis;
Results:
n/a
Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
No
Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
If you start your reporting with the hospitals and hospital associations, retain a quietly skeptical perspective on everything they are telling you. Hospitals are the biggest sources of waste in the U.S. healthcare system and also the biggest crybabies. They’re not going to paint the full picture for you themselves. It takes a fair amount of nosing around in the policy community and the medical community before you find out what the hospitals don’t want you to know.