The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal firm that manages much of the investment for the physical care of the elderly, made a decision amid a national pandemic to verify the imposition of a new knowledge reporting formula for COVID- 19 cases At a time when our efforts deserve to focus on the fight against the pandemic and ensure that patients have access to care , this is an unnecessary distraction that will affect patient outcomes.
Why is this a problem? In a proposed new rule, CMS now threatens to retain investment flows that on average account for more than 40% of hospital admissions (compared to 33% of personal insurance) if they do not promptly adopt further monitoring of patient knowledge in TeleTracking labor.As a one who had managed 24 residences, service homes, and nursing homes in my previous career, I can attest to the importance of that income for financing operations.This is not the time when the pandemic hovers over the fitness care system, to use a matter of collecting administrative knowledge to undermine hospitals.
Even in the circumstances, hospitals are suffering to the balance point, and in the unique and unique situations of this pandemic, the lack of elective surgeries and other outpatient procedures has added additional monetary pressure.Since 2005, 170 hospitals in 36 states have closed and this trend is likely to continue if hospitals are disadvantaged from their main source of funding. Many of these small services would have the utmost difficulty in adopting an absolutely different record-keeping system, and the risk of sanctions rather than the provision of resources to facilitate this transition would only worsen the issues.
Even in larger facilities, accumulating staff time to gain more knowledge is a concern.TeleTracking requires almost twice as much reporting as the previous system, requiring more limited personnel resources.Becker’s Hospital Review reports that hospital staff, adding nurses, perform “more than a hundred shift-consistent responsibilities while interrupted every 3 minutes.”Stacking new and challenging additional responsibilities is not the way to help hospital staff achieve their patient care goals.
The way the contract was awarded has also been problematic from the outset.Public records, which showed for the first time that the contract was not a tender, have since been updated to correct a “coding error” and the Department of Health and Human Services now claims that the contract was actually a tender.TeleTracking itself is a small personal business that has never collected knowledge like this on this scale, and has raised additional questions about its ability to satisfy the desires of the government.
Then there’s the optics factor. For starters, it would be wise to avoid the belief that older patients may simply lose their fitness care in the hospital in the midst of a pandemic.Moreover, while the Trump administration prides itself on removing regulatory barriers and requirements, this CMS rule would pass.And while the White House Coronavirus Working Group, led through Jared Kushner, prefers to deal with personal suppliers than with government agencies, it would probably be sensible to avoid an inexperienced provider and a CEO with links to New York, genuine global real estate, and a company that has funded billions of dollars in projects with the Trump Organization.
The solution is to remove this proposed rule and suspend any additional adjustments to reporting mechanisms while testing and refining TeleTracking.Perhaps over time this formula may be useful, but looking to impose it in the middle of a pandemic and with the risk of taking flight investment is a mistake.
Hospitals already have decades of experience working with the CDC’s National Health Safety Network and are expected to manage several other adjustments to virus reporting from the start of this pandemic.There will need to be a way to address knowledge collection and investigate disorders without threatening a significant source of investment for our hospitals and the vulnerable populations they serve.Let us use our common sense and remove this proposed rule from the CMS.
Earl Baker is the former chairman of the Pennsylvania County Commissioners Association Human Services Committee and has in the past served as executive director of a primary health care organization in the Delaware Valley.
Pelosi’s valid explanation why to violate the coronavirus regulations he defended
Oh, my brother: the conservative editor of WaPo makes a laudable about suburban white women
Es: CSPAN Dunks calls Brian Stelter and CNN about his lies