Letter to the editor regarding: the effectiveness of medicare's non-payment of hospital-acquired conditions policy.
Schuller, et al.(1) conclusion on the lack of impact of the Policy regarding non-payment for -(CAUTIs) can be supported by data that has been published in the U.S. Federal Register. The policy of not paying for certain Hospital-Acquired Conditions (HACs) was mandated by the U.S. Congress for Medicare in the 2006 Deficit Reduction Act(2) and for Medicaid by the Affordable Care Act and essentially enacted line item penalties in a largely bundled payment system; a plan some would argue was doomed to fail at its onset.(3) Nationwide data for the initiative has been published in the Federal Register for Fiscal Years 2008-2009 (4), 2009-2010(5) and 2010-2011(6). Later years have not been reported, possibly because of the very low impact of this congressional mandate.