AHA blasts federal policy on home health ownership.
A month after the Health Care Financing Administration implemented its new transfer payment policy, the American Hospital Association has blasted federal investigators for unfairly targeting hospital discharge planners. According to the association, recent actions by investigators suggest that the government is set to crack down on hospitals that own home health agencies, and particularly on discharge planners, who remain under suspicion for allegedly limiting patient choice in steering patients to hospital-owned agencies. The AHA's senior associate director of policy development stresses the importance of reviewing and correcting all discharge policies to make sure financial incentives aren't driving discharge decisions.
D000573:American Hospital Association; D014487:Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.; D018575:Home Care Services, Hospital-Based / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010067:Ownership; D010351:Patient Discharge / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards*; D014481:United States