Health bills would shift Medicare money to Marshfield, Mayo and other 'high-value' hospitals

Insuring Resources Commentary:

This article details a huge win for many hospitals including Marshfield Clinic here in Wisconsin and Mayo Clinic. The House and Senate bills both include a revised Medicare formula that helps efficient hospital systems. This is an important efficiency incentive that will provide the necessary inducements to create efficiency's nationwide.

The article states- "Hospitals now have little incentive to be parsimonious, because Medicare revenue is based on the number of procedures performed at a facility. But supporters say a value index -- by rewarding hospitals that spend less per patient -- would provide an incentive to limit procedures."




Hopefully this can also be expanded beyond just Medicare in the future.



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Link to article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/05/AR2010010503572.html

As House and Senate lawmakers start to reconcile their health-care bills with an eye to final passage, a little-noticed provision is already prompting celebration from a small group of influential hospitals that stand to gain millions in Medicare dollars
Language in both the House and Senate bills would reward hospitals for efficiency in their Medicare spending, a dramatic change in the formula for parceling out the public dollars, which can account for as much as half of a hospital's budget. That could prove to be a windfall for some hospitals but a significant loss of funding for others, mostly those in big cities and the South.

A revised Medicare formula represents a major lobbying victory for a coalition of hospitals based in the upper Midwest, led by the Mayo Clinic. Their leaders sent a letter to House members in July demanding Medicare reform, as well as objecting to a government-run insurance plan, or "public option." Even the smallest in the group mobilized lobbyists and sent their leaders to Capitol Hill to press their case.

Mayo leaders met with White House officials several times in recent months, convincing them that "paying for value" was key to slowing the growth in health-care costs. Throughout, President Obama has praised Mayo and "high-value" care.

We are extremely pleased," said Karl Ulrich, president of the Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin, a member of the coalition. He predicted a period of transition "that will be difficult for other providers to adapt to" but added: "We just think it's the way to go."

But those on the losing end are criticizing the provision as a brazen money grab. They predict that, instead of saving taxpayer money, it will simply take funding from areas with more poverty and racial minorities and send it to more homogenous communities that tend to have fewer health problems.

"The people in Minnesota are just going to say, 'We want our money,' " said J. Thomas Rosenthal, chief medical officer of the UCLA Medical System. "It's just 'Give us your money. You people are wasteful and we're not, and we deserve it.' "

Regional differences


Medicare payment rates are based on a mix of factors, including regional differences in the cost of living. Doctors and hospitals across the country have argued that the system underpays them for their services, but those in the Midwest, Mountain West and Northwest have been particularly aggrieved.

Hospitals in those regions perform well in oft-cited rankings by Dartmouth College researchers, which measure per-patient Medicare spending. And many of those hospitals also rank high in the quality of their care, suggesting it is possible to restrain the volume of medical procedures without affecting care.
Meanwhile, Dartmouth's surveys find that hospitals in some areas -- led by Miami, Los Angeles, New York City, and much of Texas and the South -- spend far more per Medicare patient than hospitals elsewhere.

That type of measurement is at the heart of the language in the health-care bills, which would introduce a "value index" or "payment modifier" to reward more efficient providers.

Just how much money is at stake depends on how the index is crafted. But even before the details are ironed out, many health policy experts say the provision may be one of the strongest cost-control tools in the legislation.