Medicare Cuts Payment To 774 Hospitals Due To High Incidence Of Hospital-Acquired Complications

For federal fiscal year 2021, Medicare cut fee-for-service reimbursement rates to 774 hospitals by 1% due to poor performance scores for the Hospital-Acquired Condition (HAC) Reduction Program. Their performance scores were based on their average rates of hospital-acquired infections and complications reported from mid-2017 through 2019. Of the remaining hospitals in the United States, 2,430 hospitals had better HAC scores and were not penalized. Another 2,057 hospitals were excluded from the HAC penalties for various reasons.

The HAC Reduction Program is a Medicare value-based purchasing program created in 2014 by the Patient . . .