Assignment task:
1. Describe the Medicare program or initiative that uses the statistic.
2. Is it an incentive- or penalty-type program related to the rate of Medicare reimbursement?
3. Are the statistics and the program or initiative tied to performance, for example improving quality of care? If so, how?
4. Which legislation is authorizing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to initiate these programs?
5. Define the statistic and how it is calculated.
6. Provide examples of these statistics from publications or government sites. For many of the CMS initiatives, data for health care institutions is made available through the CMS Hospital Compare Web site.