Modern Healthcare reports CMS has revealed that critical-access hospitals will be excluded from a national quality reporting initiative that ties participation to Medicare reimbursement.
Under the terms of the Hospital Outpatient Quality Data Reporting Program, hospital outpatient departments are required to report on seven mostly heart attack-related clinical measures, beginning in April. While the program is voluntary, those hospitals that don’t participate are automatically docked 2% of their annual outpatient update starting in 2009.