Federal well being officers don’t inform customers about extreme security violations in hospitals specializing in bodily rehabilitation. Nor does Medicare impose fines because it does for nursing houses, or present easy-to-understand five-star rankings because it does for normal hospitals, in line with an investigation by KFF Well being Information and The New York Instances.
Medical rehab hospitals have turn into a extremely profitable area of interest inside the well being care business, collectively producing income of 10%, greater than normal hospitals, which earn about 6%, and excess of expert nursing houses, which make lower than 0.5%, in line with the newest knowledge from the Medicare Fee Advisory Fee, an unbiased congressional company referred to as MedPAC.
However MedPAC and unbiased researchers have discovered that for-profit rehabs are likely to have greater charges of sufferers being readmitted to normal hospitals than nonprofits do.
In 2023, stand-alone for-profit rehabilitation hospitals overtook nonprofits because the locations the place most annual affected person admissions happen, a KFF Well being Information and New York Instances evaluation discovered. These services are required to supply three hours of bodily, occupational, or speech remedy a day, 5 days per week.
Congress has not licensed Medicare to nice rehab hospitals for violations uncovered throughout inspections, even ones that resulted in demise, because it has accomplished with practically 8,000 nursing houses over the past three years, imposing common fines of about $28,000.
The one possibility is to completely minimize off a rehab hospital’s reimbursement for all companies by Medicare and Medicaid, which cowl most sufferers. That step would probably put it out of enterprise and is nearly by no means used. Even probably the most severe violations successfully carry no punishments as long as the hospital places steps in place to avert future issues.
The federal authorities’s general high quality oversight efforts are restricted. Medicare docks cost to rehab services for sufferers readmitted to a normal hospital throughout shorter-than-average rehab stays, however not like at normal hospitals, there aren’t any monetary penalties when lately discharged rehab sufferers are hospitalized for crucial well being points.
The Biden administration introduced final yr it supposed to develop a score scale of 1 to five stars for rehab services on its Care Evaluate web site. The business’s commerce affiliation, the American Medical Rehabilitation Suppliers Affiliation, requested a delay within the creation of star rankings till the present high quality measures have been refined. The Trump administration has not decided whether or not it is going to proceed the hassle to fee rehab services.
Additionally learn our shopper information to discovering the proper place to get bodily, occupational or speech remedy.
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