They should be rewarded instead:
Ipswich Hospital, in Suffolk, which is more than £16m in the red, accidentally breached an agreement to ensure all patients had similar waiting times.Ipswich Hospital agreed with the East Suffolk Primary Care Trusts, which fund treatment, that patients should wait at least four months for treatment.
However, doctors had treated patients inside that time and the trust refused to pay the £2.5m cost of treatment.
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That happens here too. Medicare, as you may know, pays hospitals with DRG’s – a lump sum for a particular diagnosis. So, the hospital gets more per day if the stay is shorter.
That is until a few years ago when “transfer DRGs” were originated. There are now 82 DRGs for which the hospital will receive a pro-rated amount if the patient stays in less time than the “Geometeric mean length-of-stay” and is transfered to any other level of care (hospital, nursing home or even home care).
So the hospital is incented to either a) discharge the patient at the exact time of the GM-LOS or b)send them home with no services.
Medicare’s message to hospitals: “Do too good a job and you will make less money”
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