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2024 IPPS Proposed Rule

CMS recently published the FY 2024 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) Proposed Rule which includes several proposed changes to the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) Program and Medicare Promoting Interoperability (PI) Program for eligible hospitals (EHs) and critical access hospitals (CAHs). For the full text of the rule, see the Federal Register.

2024 IPF PPS Proposed Rule

CMS recently published the FY 2024 Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities Prospective Payment System (IPF PPS) Proposed Rule which proposed changes to the Inpatient Psychiatric Facility Quality Reporting (IPFQR) program. All IPFs, which include psychiatric hospitals and psychiatric units of an acute care hospital or critical access hospital, paid under the IPF PPS must meet IPFQR reporting requirements. For the full text of the proposed rule, see the Federal Register.

New Requirements to Reduce Health Care Disparities

Effective January 1, 2023, new and revised requirements to reduce health care disparities will apply to organizations in the Joint Commission’s ambulatory health care, behavioral health care and human services, critical access hospitals, and hospital accreditation programs. 

Palliative Care vs. Hospice Care

What are the differences between Hospice and Palliative care?
Sometimes the lines can be a bit blurred due to the similarities between the two. However, there are some distinct differences between them accordingn to definitions from the CMS. 
Power BI blog

Data Models in Power BI

In our previous Power BI blogs, we’ve introduced the Power BI platform and described why it’s such a great tool for developing custom business and clinical analytics reports for MEDITECH Data Repository. In this blog, we’ll discuss a vitally important concept at the heart of all Power BI report development: the data model.

Case Study: Downtime Defender

Downtime Defender is Acmeware's downtime reporting solution for the MEDITECH EHR. To learn more, read the case study from Anderson Hospital, who use Downtime Defender as their continuity of care solution. 

2023 OPPS Final Rule

CMS recently released the CY 2023 OPPS Final Rule, which included updates to the Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting Program (OQR) Program. For the full text of the rule, see the Federal Register.

2023 QPP Final Rule

CMS recently published the CY 2023 Quality Payment Program (QPP) Final Rule which included numerous updates to MIPS Value Pathways (MVPs) and Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). For the full text of the rule, see the Federal Register.

SAFER Guides-Contingency Planning

As a healthcare professional with many years of nursing experience, I can’t say that there is ever a good time for a hospital’s EHR system to be offline. Whether the system is having routine maintenance or if there is another event that interrupts its access and use, the impact is never a positive one. Every healthcare provider working in the facility during that downtime period will be affected. 

Working with Precision in T-SQL

Working with data these days seems to be all about metrics, measurements, and numbers. Healthcare data of course is no exception, just think of the many different contexts of numeric values possible in the MEDITECH EHR: lab test results, patient counts, drug dosages, account balances and budgets – the list is long. Fortunately, SQL Server gives us some tools to work with and manipulate numeric values to the sometimes very precise formats we need in a clinical context.

The Importance of DR Maintenance

I often find myself having the same conversation with folks about the health of the data in MEDITECH’S Data Repository (DR).  I remind them that if they use the DR for reporting, but don’t have a process to maintain data health and accuracy, then they shouldn’t be using DR. Keeping DR data healthy is easy, it’s just a matter of knowing what to do and when to do it.

2022 Quality Reporting Requirements for Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and The Joint Commission (TJC) have quality reporting programs for Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities (IPFs).