surgeries | Common News Update

Nov. 27 (UPI) -- The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, on Tuesday unveiled a new online tool that gives consumers the power to compare Medicare payouts for various hospital procedures. The Procedure Price Lookup tool allows users to see the national averages for what Medicare pays to hospitals or ambulatory surgical centers, along with the national average copayment amounts that beneficiaries without Medicare supplemental insurance would pay the provider. "We must do something about rising cost, and a key pillar is to empower patients with the information they need to drive cost and quality by making our healthcare system evolve to one that competes for patients," Seema Verma, administrator of CMS, wrote in a blog post. The launch of the lookup tool comes almost two year...

A significant number of patients requiring serious surgery are having operations postponed, a study suggests.Research led by the Royal College of Anaesthetists and University College London looked at more than 26,000 cases in a seven-day period in March last year, across 245 UK hospitals.They found one in seven operations were cancelled on the day of surgery.However, researchers acknowledged it was likely this figure would be lower during quieter periods of the year.Nonetheless, they said the problem needed addressing as it put the health and welfare of patients at risk.The study, published in the British Journal of Anaesthesia, looked at both emergency and planned operations that required a stay in hospital.This would include everything from heart operat...

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CMS launches tool that prices surgeries for patients

Many serious surgeries cancelled on the day, study finds