Medicare Preparing New Hospital Performance Measure: Spending Per Beneficiary

Medicare Hospital Compare is posting the median amount hospitals spend per beneficiary to provide care for six diagnostic groups—heart attack, heart failure, chronic lung diseases, pneumonia, diabetes in adults, and chest pain. Starting in April 2012, Medicare Hospital Compare will replace the median spending amount per diagnostic group with new Medicare Spending Per Beneficiary (MSPB) ratios for each hospital; the performance data will be available online for a year at www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov (accessed March 2, 2012). The new MSPB is part of a larger plan by Medicare to eventually use spending per beneficiary as a hospital performance . . .