60 percent located in the Detroit/Flint area

The Economic Alliance for Michigan (EAM) is concerned about the increase in Michigan hospitals being penalized for hospital acquired conditions by the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). According to a report released by Kaiser Health News on December 21^st, 2016, the federal government has cut payments to 769 hospitals nationwide, 27 in Michigan.

The goal of the program is to hold hospitals accountable for hospital acquired infections and to shift hospitals into a thought process of giving higher quality and care performance, rather than higher volume of services. For the first time, the evaluation also included counting the spread of antibiotic-resistant germs in assessing penalties.

Penalized hospitals will lose 1 percent of Medicare payments for a year. Estimated losses among larger hospitals will exceed a million dollars. Reductions also apply to hospitals servicing low-income areas.

Nationally, hospital acquired infection rates declined 21 percent between 2010 and 2015, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

Key highlights for Michigan:

• Twenty-seven Michigan hospitals are penalized for hospital acquired conditions, an increase from last year when Michigan had 24 hospitals on the list.
• Sixty percent of the hospitals are located in the Detroit/Flint region.
• Beaumont, the largest health care system in Michigan, has 5 out of 8 facilities on the list.

“Medicare is having a dramatic impact on decreasing medical errors,” said Bret Jackson, president, EAM. “However there is more work to be done. Thousands of Michigan residents each year are the victims of medical errors and we must address it.”

In November 2016, EAM released a study demonstrating how CMS hospital star ratings skew lower for hospitals servicing Michigan’s poor and that socioeconomic factors may be a factor. The study can be found here: Socioeconomic Factors Impact on Hospital Quality.

For additional information on Kaiser Health News report go to Latest Hospital Injury Penalties Include Crackdown On Antibiotic Resistant Germs.

The 27 penalized Michigan hospitals are: