We haven’t reached the winter solstice yet, but it looks as if healthcare already is in need of some spring cleaning. When it comes to waste, why wait?

Healthcare administrative costs amount to $361 billion every year, and some of those expenses could be eliminated through standardization of coverage, claims processing, credentialing and EHRs, according to an article in the Nov. 15 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Implementing a pay-for-performance program that was modeled after an incentive initiative in the U.S. resulted in a significant reduction in mortality at 24 hospitals in northwest England, according to a study published Nov. 8 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Keeping Medicare payments to physicians at present levels and eliminating discretionary and mandatory spending reductions that are scheduled to start in January would boost the gross domestic product (GDP) by about three-quarters of a percent by the end of 2013, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated in a November report.

The cost of treating patients who received elective PCI at hospitals with no onsite cardiac surgery exceeds the cost for similar care at hospitals with on-site cardiac surgery, according to a substudy of the CPORT-E trial, presented Nov. 4 as a late-breaking clinical trial at the American Heart Association (AHA) scientific sessions in Los Angeles.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released final rules with changes in Medicare’s payment of physician fees, including what the American College of Cardiology described as cuts to “important cardiovascular services.”

The American Hospital Association (AHA) and four hospital systems are suing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) over rescinded Medicare reimbursement for services, such as cardiac catheterizations.

Does it pay to use financial incentives to try to improve the quality of care in hospitals? Possibly not, if physicians perceive factors such as patient nonadherence as being beyond their control, according to one study in the October issue of the American Journal of Managed Care.