The National Committee for Quality Assurance is seeking public comments on proposed changes to the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set, a set of quality measures used by the CMS to assess the performance of Medicare Advantage plans and other commercial insurers. Proposed changes include doing away with an ambulatory-care metric that summarizes utilization and adding metrics to evaluate whether adolescents and adults who were treated for substance abuse disorder received follow-up care and to assess screening and follow-up for depression screening among pregnant women.

Healthgrades released its list of the top 50 US hospitals for 2019, grouped by state. The list begins with two facilities in Arizona -- Dignity Health in Chandler and Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix -- and closes with Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle.

Data analysis showed a 22% overall readmission rate for patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin-susceptible S. aureus, and the overall per-case readmission cost was $12,425, researchers wrote in Clinical Infectious Diseases. MRSA bacteremia was associated with more readmissions for bacteremia recurrence, a greater risk of in-hospital mortality and longer hospital stays.

Vertical physician-hospital integration may improve quality in a small number of process of care measures, but market concentration was linked to decreases in patient satisfaction in 6 of 10 patient satisfaction scores, researchers reported in Medical Care Research and Review. Data used in the study came from the CMS Hospital Compare database for 2008 to 2015 and included readmission rates, patient satisfaction scores and process of care measurements.

CMS Administrator Seema Verma told the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society's annual meeting the health IT sector needs to catch up to the federal government in making strides toward interoperability of electronic health records. "This is a moment for us in the health care industry to step up; we need to see this as a call to action," said former HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital's David Vawdrey told the Cloud Computing Forum that the health system expects to have most of its applications and infrastructure on the cloud by 2022, with the goal of improving patients' experience. Mercy Health System's Curtis Dudley said the system is commercializing its cloud services and offering them to other hospitals.

Five technology tools for health care zero in on patient experience, engagement and safety, and helping patients and clinicians manage chronic disease. Brian Kalis of Accenture said some of the tools have a clinical evidence base and are being developed by health systems, "demonstrating that they are solving problems that systems have en masse."

A group of House and Senate Democrats introduced a bill that would permit people ages 50 and older to buy into Medicare plans and obtain the same cost-sharing subsidies and tax credits offered through Affordable Care Act exchanges. Supporters of the measure said the legislation is a more acceptable and less disruptive alternative to proposals that would open Medicare to everyone.

The American Hospital Association's 2019 Rural Advocacy Agenda calls for the development of advanced payment and care delivery models that would enable more hospitals in rural areas to participate. Rural hospitals lack experience with value-based payment models, serve geographically dispersed patient populations, have limited financial resources for infrastructure investments and lack interoperable health IT systems, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

Join us for a live webinar, "Keys to Optimizing a TAVR Program," on Tuesday, Feb. 26, at 6 p.m. ET. Hosted by the ACC Interventional Council Structural Heart Disease Work Group, the webinar will highlight lessons learned from established TAVR programs and feature perspectives from both patients and providers. Cardiovascular team members will provide an overview of the pre-TAVR workup, the procedure, post-TAVR period and follow-up care. Register now on ACC.org.

The 2018 Merit-Based Incentive Payment System data submission period is open now through April 2. Eligible clinicians can submit their data to the CMS for Year 2 (2018) of the Quality Payment Program. Did your hospital participate in ACC's Patient Navigator Program: Focus MI (MIPS Activity ID: IA_CC_17) and/or Reduce the Risk: PCI Bleed (MIPS Activity ID: IA_PSPA_30) in 2018? CMS strongly urges hospitals to maintain a record of their clinicians' MIPS Improvement Activity participation for six years. Ensure you have documentation of your participation by taking ACC's MIPS survey to receive a certificate. The ACC Patient Navigator Program: Focus MI and Reduce the Risk: PCI Bleed campaign are approved as high-weight MIPS Improvement Activities for the 2019 QPP program year, which began Jan. 1. Learn more and set your hospital up for success in 2019.