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.

Alescia Teel, from Politcker NJ News reports on a new bill to improve transparency:

New Jersey’s Assembly passed two measures that are part of a multi-bill legislative package to stabilize the long-term financial health of the state’s hospital industry.

The legislative package will enhance the fiscal transparency, accountability, and efficiency at general New Jersey hospitals.

The Health Accountability Foundation's Regional Health Care Report Card has been updated to include the latest hospital quality measures from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for all hospitals in New York and New Jersey, and HMO Monthly Premiums for HMOs in New York and New Jersey.

The updated reporting period for most hospital quality measures is April 1, 2006 to March 31, 2007. Exceptions are:

1) Pneumonia Patients Assessed and Given Influenza Vaccination: December 2006 through Feb 28 07

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine (D) is scheduled today to sign into law a bill to require hospitals to publicly report infection rates, iHealthbeat reports.

Under the new law, hospitals will be required to file quarterly reports with the state on infection rates, including infection control procedures and information about the types of infection at the hospitals. The information then would be posted on a state Web site.

New Jersey consumers are now able to research and compare retail prices for prescription drugs online following this month's launch of New Jersey Prescription Drug Retail Price Registry.

The registry contains the prices reported to the state by New Jersey pharmacies for the 150 most-frequently prescribed prescription drugs. Comparing the prices listed in the registry will assist consumers to locate the pharmacy in his or her area with the lowest retail price for a specific prescription drug.

On Thursday, the State of New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) released the 2007 New Jersey Hospital Performance Report. This report included data on New Jersey hospitals performance in preventing potentially life-threatening surgical infections in patients.

A news item on Newsday.com reports that HMOs in New York and New Jersey stack up well against national averages in patient satisfaction and other measures, but the level of care varies widely both within and between counties, according to a health care report card released Thursday.

Health care consumers and employers in New York and New Jersey have a unique new tool for evaluating the region's hospitals and managed care plans: the New York State Health Accountability Foundation's first New York Regional Health Care Report Card.

The following is a summary of legislation by state regarding the disclosure by hospitals of their hospital infection rates.

Arkansas

150 hospitals, nursing homes and home care agencies achieved a 70% reduction in the incidence of pressure ulcers, according to a study conducted by the New Jersey Hospital Association.

Working to reduce the occurrence of pressure ulcers in patients throughout various care settings, members of the New Jersey Hospital Association’s Pressure Ulcer Collaborative reported a 70 percent reduction in the incidence of new pressure ulcers after nearly two years of applying shared best practices and preventive techniques.

A comprehensive performance report on New Jersey commercial HMOs was released today. Produced by the New Jersey Department of Banking & Insurance, this report (2006 New Jersey Commercial Health Maintenance Organizations: A Comprehensive Peformance Report) provides detailed, plan-specific and statewide measures of performance for HMOs in New Jersey. The report presents HEDIS results in the following four main categories of care: Health plan size and stability; Effectiveness of care; Access and availability; Use of services.

The New Jersey Assembly on Thursday (6/21) gave final legislative approval to a bill (S147) that will require the state to collect information on hospitals' infection rates and post the information online. The infection-control bill was approved unanimously and now goes to the Governor of New Jersey, Jon Corzine, for consideration.

Read more on this topic: NJ bill moves towards greater transparency in reporting hospital infection, errors, 6/18

Earlier this month, we blogged that New Jersey lawmakers were moving forward with a bill that would require New Jersey hospitals to make infection rates public and available online to the public.

New Jersey lawmakers are moving forward with a bill that would require New Jersey hospitals to make infection rates public and available online to the public. The bill (S147) requires hospitals to report information about patient infections to Department of Health & Human Services. This data would be available to consumers to faciliate comparisons online as the results would be posted on the health department Web site.

A report on cardiac surgery in New Jersey, found that cardiac surgery death rates have dropped to their lowest level since the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services began issuing reports a decade ago. The state’s mortality rate has declined 54.5 percent between 1994 and 2004, including a nearly 12 percent drop from 2003 to 2004, according to the report 'Cardiac Surgery in New Jersey 2004.

The Cardiac Surgery in New Jersey series focuses on a common cardiac surgical procedure – coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery with no other major surgery during the same hospital admission.