The mortality and readmission rates published on Medicare's hospital comparison tools have carried a limitation most patients never knew about. For years, they have been calculated largely from fee-for-service claims, which now describe less than half of the Medicare population.
That is changing. In the inpatient payment rule finalized on July 31, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services finalized modifications to eight claims-based measures that add Medicare Advantage patients to the calculations and shorten the performance period used to produce them.
