The Michigan Health & Hospital Association joins a growing list of hospital associations, states and payers who have adopted policies to stop billing patients for certain serious preventable errors ("never events") and hospital-acquired conditions. This follows on from Medicare's decision to cease payment from 2008, for specific hospital medical errors.

North Country Gazette: The State of New York has released new legislation to fight fraud in the home health care industry.

The New York Certified Aide Registry and Employment Search Act (NY-CARES) developed a central registry of home health and personal care aides. They are currently working on a public internet-based registry that would include health care employment history, along with results of criminal background checks for aides employed.

Medicaid to Cease Reimbursement to Hospitals for 'Never Events' and Avoidable Errors

Beginning in October, the New York State Medicaid program will deny reimbursements on 14 “never-events”- avoidable hospital complications and medical errors. These “never events” include surgical errors such as procedures performed on the wrong body part or the wrong patient.

iHealthbeat: A new Web site called ZocDoc is enabling patients to make same-day appointments online. The site is part of an ongoing effort to reduce emergency department visits, however it should only be utilized for non-emergencies. There are currently more than 100 physicians listed, including internists and dentists, while many dermatologists will be added this year.

Governor David A. Paterson announced that he has proposed legislation to limit the influence of pharmaceutical manufacturers over prescription decisions. The Governor’s bill would ban gifts and payments from drug companies to physicians and other prescribers in excess of $50 per year.

Bill Offers More Transparency for Patients and Tougher Discipline for Physicians: Governor David A. Paterson announced that he has proposed legislation that will dramatically improve patient safety, enhance the state’s authority in medical investigation and help to prevent future infection control violations.

The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC): announced that hospital-acquired infections at their 11 hospitals have dropped dramatically since 2005 as part of a larger patient safety program to reduce preventable deaths and unnecessary hospital stays.

The new statistics are available on the HHC website, http://www.nyc.gov/hhc, and is part of the public hospital system's effort to voluntarily share information on hospital quality and safety with the public.

More on Press Release:

New York State Department of Health Funds Projects to Reduce Hospital-Acquired Infections

The state Department of Health announced, that seven non-profit health organizations will share in more than $1.2 million in funding for demonstration projects that focus on the prevention of infections acquired in hospitals.

The Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS) released a study to assess and score of eight prominent government, not-for-profit, and for-profit hospital quality reports. They included New York health care practitioners and quality experts. HANYS reported three out of the eight major hospital quality reports scored better than a “B”.

State Health Department of Health: A recent report on cardiac surgery, released by the New York State Department of Health, illustrates the lowest mortality rate ever for heart bypass surgery.

The report includes information on coronary artery bypass graft surgery, valve surgery, and the two procedures done in combination during 2003-2005 at the 39 hospitals in New York State where these procedures are performed.

New York State-Department of Health: The New York State Department of Health and Health Research Inc., in collaboration with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, has been awarded a $20 million grant from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to improve the state's accuracy, timeliness and completeness of public health surveillance and reporting.

Newsday:
Long Islanders unhappy with hospitals

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) several weeks ago made patient satisfaction surveys available on the Hospital Compare Web site. This year the survey is voluntary, and according to the Newsday report, Long Islanders are unhappy with hospitals. Hospitals scored lower in patient satisfaction as compared with other hospitals-statewide or nationally.

A new state Web site with information and key quality measures on home health care services and hospice care statewide, was launched today, to help people find appropriate care for themselves and their loved ones.

Richard F. Daines, M.D. (State Health Commissioner) stated that the New York State Home Health and Hospice Profile Web site, homecare.nyhealth.gov, are designed for users to easily obtain important information on home care and hospice services.

Do you want to work in the exciting new world of health care transparency? IPRO is currently recruiting PHP Programmers to join the Online Services team.

IPRO's Online Services are nationally recognized as leading the field in developing Web-based health care report cards, and have won many awards for their work.

If you'd like to work in an open source environment producing publicly-available report cards that help people make more informed decisions about their health care, visit http://company.ipro.org/index/Prog280

A new state website that allows New York State consumers to easily compare prescription drug prices for the 150 most commonly prescribed drugs at pharmacies in their neighborhood was announced last week by Governor Spitzer.

The site, www.rx.nyhealth.gov, searches drug prices by zip code, city, or county; provides brand-name and generic drug prices; lists pharmacies’ addresses and phone numbers; and provides driving directions. It was developed and will be maintained by the Department of Health.