Wanna Buy A Hospital? Feds Cut Funding For Financially Strapped Hospital

bankruptcy

The penalty comes after news of a deal between Mission Regional and Doctor’s Hospital at Renaissance to save the financially-strapped Mission Regional, a non-profit, and help it expand as a short-term secondary health facility.

Mission Regional Hospital to see cuts in federal funding

BERENICE GARCIA | STAFF WRITER

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MISSION – Mission Regional Medical Center will see cuts in federal funding for the third straight year next year for its high number of patients contracting illnesses during their stay at the hospital.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid released a report of hospitals throughout the country that will have reduced funding under the Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program.

Mission Regional was the only hospital in either Hidalgo or Starr County to be penalized. However, Valley Regional Medical Center in Harlingen was also among them.

The program was implemented in 2015 as part of the Affordable Care Act in order to reduce cases of patients getting ill during their hospital stay by requiring the Secretary of Health and Human Services to cut funds from hospitals that rank in the worst-performing 25 percent. Performance is determined by calculating a Hospital-Acquired Condition (HAC) score. A score larger than 6.75 ranks them among the worst-performing quartile.

Mission Regional received an HAC score of 6.7800. A few of the worst-performing facilities earned a high score of 10.0000 while some of the best performing earned a score of 1.0000.

Measures and scoring methodology is set by CMS. For fiscal year 2017, hospitals’ scores were determined by looking at rates of ulcers, bed sores, hip fractures, sepsis, catheter-related bloodstream infections, accidental punctures, and urinary tract infections.

Mission Regional had an above-average nine cases of central line-associated bloodstream infections – infections that occur when germs enter the bloodstream through the central line – according to data from Medicare.gov.

However, this is not the first time the hospital was penalized under the program. The hospital also saw cuts in funding in fiscal years 2015 and 2016. A request for comment by a representative from Mission Regional went unreturned as of press time.

The penalty comes after news of a deal between Mission Regional and Doctor’s Hospital at Renaissance to save the financially-strapped Mission Regional, a non-profit, and help it expand as a short-term secondary health facility.

The announcement in August of that non-binding letter of intent came after the hospital entertained buy-out proposals from DHR and Universal Health Systems, the parent company of South Texas Health System, which operates McAllen Medical Center and Edinburg Regional Medical Center.

Under the LOI, Mission Regional would continue to run as a non-profit hospital.

bereniceg@themonitor.com