DETROIT, MI — Medicare and Medicaid payments have been cut at
27 Michigan hospitals where patients became sicker due to infections
 and other conditions acquired while hospitalized, according to a
 report released Wednesday by Kaiser Health News. Of the Michigan
 hospitals, 60 percent are in the Detroit and Flint areas, and Beaumont
 Hospitals, the largest health system in the state, has five of the
 eight Metro Detroit hospitals on the list.
Nationwide, 769 hospitals received cuts from the Centers of Medicare
 and Medicaid Services. The Metro Detroit/Flint area hospitals include:
 Beaumont Hospital – Farmington Hills; Beaumont Hospital – Taylor;
 Beaumont Hospital – Wayne; Beaumont Hospital – Grosse Pointe;
Beaumont-Hospital – Royal Oak; Detroit Receiving Hospital and
University Health Center, Detroit; Gensys Regional Medical Center –
Health Park, Grand Blanc; Harper University Hospital, Detroit; Henry
Ford Wyandotte Hospital; Hurley Medical Center, Flint; Karmanos
 Cancer Center, Detroit; McLaren Flint; Providence-Providence Park
Hospital, Southfield; St. Joseph Mercy – Pontiac; and Sinai Grace
 Hospital, Detroit.
Others on the list include Bronson Battle Creek Hospital; Edward w.
 Sparrow Hospital in Lansing; Garden City Hospital; Memorial
Healthcare, Owosso; Mid-Michigan Center – Clare; Munson Medical
 Center, Traverse City; St. Mary’s Health Care, Grand Rapids; Spectrum
Healthcare – Butterworth Campus, Grand Rapids; St. Joseph Mercy,
Ann Arbor; University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor; and
UP Health System Portage, Hancock.
The goal of the program is to hold hospitals accountable for hospital
acquired infections and to shift hospitals into a thought process of
 giving higher quality and care performance, rather than higher
 volume of services. For the first time, the evaluation also included
counting the spread of antibiotic-resistant germs in assessing penalties.

Thursday's Best Holiday Deals: Last Day For Two-Day Shipping
Take advantage of some great deals while you can still get them in time for Christmas with two-day shipping.
Penalized hospitals will lose 1 percent of Medicare payments for a year.
Estimated losses among larger hospitals will exceed $1 million dollars
. Reductions also apply to hospitals servicing low-income areas.
Nationally, hospital acquired infection rates declined 21 percent
 between 2010 and 2015, according to the Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality.
“Medicare is having a dramatic impact on decreasing medical errors,”
Bret Jackson, president of the Economic Alliance of Michigan, said in
 a news release. “However there is more work to be done. Thousands
 of Michigan residents each year are the victims of medical errors and
 we must address it.”
In November 2016, EAM released a study demonstrating how CMS
 hospital star ratings skew lower for hospitals servicing Michigan’s
poor and that socioeconomic factors may be a factor. The study can
 be found here: Socioeconomic Factors Impact on Hospital Quality.

For additional information on Kaiser Health News report go to Latest
 Hospital Injury Penalties Include Crackdown On Antibiotic Resistant
 Germs.
Photo via Shutterstock