Understanding the Issues 2008: Health Care

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by dmek25

this is where the issue is. you have to meet certain " goals " to get the reimbursement. if this happens, there will be an accountant in every hospital in charge of the numbers. those numbers will be scrutinized over and over again to make the " goal " you probably know as well as i do that anyone can make numbers look and say anything that they want. im lucky. i have a top 25 hospital right here in my home town. i have access to some of the very best care available.

Incorrect. You have to report the numbers to the government via the Medicare Cost Report, and are subject to an annual audit. Allegheny (a former Philadelphia hospital group since taken over by Tenet) got themselves into a lot of hot water when they fudged some reimbursement documents in the 1990s. They were fined a crapload of money which weakened their balance sheet, and they were eventually taken over by Tenet.

It doesn't pay to fudge those kinds of numbers.