Bush Administration Plans Medicare Changes
From NYT > Health:
The Bush administration says it plans sweeping changes in Medicare payments to hospitals that could cut payments by 20 percent to 30 percent for many complex treatments and new technologies.
The changes, the biggest since the current payment system was adopted in 1983, are meant to improve the accuracy of payment rates.
Michael O. Leavitt, the secretary of health and human services, said the new system would be more accurate because payments would be based on hospital costs, rather than on charges, and would be adjusted to reflect the severity of a patient's illness.
A hospital now receives the same amount for a patient with a particular condition, like pneumonia, regardless of whether the illness is mild or severe.
Read more from this post.
