Medicare rule-1553-P update

Dr. Charles McIntosh, Vice President and Chief Medical Science and Technology Officer at Cook Group in Bloomington, Indiana has wriiten an interesting overview of the CMS Rule-1553-P.

“As part of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) Rule-1553-P, effective October 1, 2008, Medicare will no longer pay for eight conditions that can be acquired by patients during hospital stays that could have been reasonably prevented by following evidence based guidelines. The initial eight conditions identified in CMS Rule-1553-P are: bed sores; objects left in a patient during surgery; in-hospital falls; blood incompatibility; air embolism; mediastinitis, which is an infection of the area between the lungs after heart bypass surgery; catheter-associated urinary tract infections; and central venous catheter-related bloodstream infections. 

Additionally, on April 14, 2008 CMS proposed to supplement this list with an additional nine conditions, including surgical site infections following certain elective procedures; deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism; Staphylococcus aureus septicemia or bloodstream infection; and, Clostridium difficile associated disease”.

Click here for the full review.

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