4 ms·
This is wonderful, and so the medical industry would fight it with all their might, except for one problem: the fine is only $300 a day. That is about the cost
by tropo 7y ago
This is wonderful, and so the medical industry would fight it with all their might, except for one problem: the fine is only $300 a day. That is about the cost of a nurse.
It'll matter for little urgent care shops staffed by a handful of people. City hospitals will laugh at $109,572 per year.
Well, it's a step in the right direction.
- Ididntdothis 7y agoI don’t know if this is a step in the right direction. It sounds more like they want the PR value of “doing something” without actually doing anything useful. This seems to be the case with almost all initiatives in the health care area for the last few years.
- credit_guy 7y agoWhile $300/day is indeed ridiculously little, these fines would be published on a website, as per the factsheet [1] "If the hospital fails to respond to CMS’ request to submit a corrective action plan or comply with the requirements of a corrective action plan, CMS may impose a civil monetary penalty on the hospital not in excess of $300 per day, and publicize these penalties on a CMS website." I guess a "name and shame" strategy could lead to increased public awareness, and later to political pressure, which in time would translate into political action. At least that's how democracy is supposed to work. Separately, the public is asked for feedback on the proposed rule until 27-Sept-2019. Not sure how this works, but I guess a grassroots movement could result in an increase in this diminutive fine. [1]https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/cy-2020-medicare-hospital-outpatient-prospective-payment-system-and-ambulatory-surgical-center https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/cy-2020-medicare-ho...
- mars4rp 7y agoyou need name and shame if you are a civil activist not when you are government!!!!!
- b_tterc_p 7y agoWhile it may be economical to pay the fines, I don’t think many hospitals would choose to tank the fine and keep hiding the information. That’s some pretty bad PR when it adds up. A larger fine would be better, but I think this will be sufficient.
- Ididntdothis 7y agoTheir billing practices are already getting a lot of PR and nothing has changed. They can easily handle this too. Especially since probably close to nobody will know about this list.
- dragonwriter 7y ago> the fine is only $300 a day. That is about the cost of a nurse. No, it's about the salary of a nurse. The cost (salary + benefits + overhead) of a nurse is much higher.
- tropo 7y agoIt's the cost. Of course this depends on the location and the type of nurse. I'm not in California, the most expensive place to get a nurse, where the average salary of a Registered Nurse is actually $102,700. Other states have salaries that are half of that. Even for the national average, a Licensed Practical Nurse is only getting $48,251. Allowing a factor of 2 for benefits and overhead, nurses generally cost about $100,000.