CMS stops payment for eight HACs; more to come

Beginning in October, hospital staff members need to be more conscious of patients’ conditions at admission.

In 2007, CMS proposed to stop paying for eight hospital-acquired conditions (HAC) previously included in the higher-weighted DRG in the inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS), including:

• Foreign objects retained after surgery
• Air embolisms
• Blood incompatibility
• Stage III and IV pressure ulcers
• Falls and trauma in the hospital
• Catheter-associated urinary tract infections
• Vascular catheter–associated infections
• Surgical site infections