Rural hospitals excluded from ACA requirements

One quarter of the hospitals around the country have been left out of some of the biggest shifts in U.S. healthcare initiated by the Affordable Care Act. The Department of Health and Human Services has not yet incorporated the 1,256 primarily rural, “critical access” hospitals into Medicare’s pay-for-performance programs. Although most hospitals are required to report quality scores on Medicare’s Hospital Compare website, reporting is voluntary for critical access hospitals, and many do not. Some critical access hospitals have found ways to get involved in new payment arrangements. The Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative, for example, has contracts with private insurers that provide financial incentives for quality.

Source: Kaiser Health News