Over the last eight years, there has been a concerted effort to reinvent Medicare. The direction the program is currently being steered towards is focused on increasing quality through a coordinated effort. With a new President poised to begin his term, there are definitely some questions facing the country right now, but Medicare seems to be continuing in the direction it has been pointed over the last eight years; at least for now.
In 2017, Medicare will be implementing two new experiments to test the way hospitals and rehab centers are coordinating their efforts to offer the highest quality service and to contain costs. The experiments will be focused on cardiac and hip surgeries.
Statistics show that an estimated 168,000 Medicare beneficiaries are treated for heart attacks a year, while 109,000 undergo surgery to treat broken hips.
The experiments devised by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation are designed to test whether more coordination between clinicians, hospitals and rehab centers can lead to better recoveries for patients and prevent hospital re-admissions.
To do this, Medicare will pay regular rates to the doctors, hospitals and rehab centers, but hospitals will be given responsibility for the quality and cost. Compared to benchmarks set by Medicare, the hospital will be given a financial bonus for exceeding goals and may have to pay the government for falling short on the goals.
While the experiments are designed to continue the reinvention effort of Medicare, there are some unknowns with the incoming of Donald Trump as President. The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation itself could be abolished by Trump, which could mark the end for the push to reinvent how Medicare operates.
The experiments, which also include earlier efforts that tested the care for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and knee replacement, are designed to improve Medicare and the way the system currently operates.
To read more about the Medicare experiments, click here.
