Medicare Set-Aside, Workers’ Compensation, Medical Case Management
CMS recently released many performance statistics regarding their Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set-Aside Initiative. Overall, CMS claims the initiative has saved Medicare more than $180 Million during calendar year (CY) 2005, and more than $390 Million during CY 2006. Other key findings include:
In an effort to increase the quality of medical care and reduce expenditures, Medicare will not reimburse providers for “preventable†conditions or medical errors. Under a rule proposed in April, as of October 2008, Medicare will not reimburse hospitals for specific conditions unless the patient has the condition at the time of admission. The rationale behind the rule is to incentivize hospitals to practice quality improvement, while reducing unnecessary expenditures for Medicare. The specific conditions that will not be reimbursed include:
Four organizations recently united efforts to start RxWiki, a Wikipedia-style encyclopedia disseminating information about medications. The resource was created with the goal to become the most trusted online source for knowledge on medications, providing pharmaceutical, over-the-counter, and nutraceutical information. The creators include the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), the American Pharmacists Association (APhA), the National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations (NASPA) and Mirixa Corporation.
