The payment change was created by the federal health law.
Some states fared well. Others, like New York State, came out the worst.
Harold Miller, a healthcare expert in Pittsburgh, doubted the money would be enough to change the way hospitals function. “It’s better than nothing, but it’s not what is necessary,” Miller said. “It doesn’t fix the underlying problem, which is fee for service.”
One local hospital, Northern Dutchess, received a bonus of 0.09 per cent. The other results, in descending order, were Benedictine Hospital (-0.27 per cent), Columbia Memorial (-0.37), St. Francis (-0.46 per cent), Vassar Brothers (-0.92 per cent), Saint Luke’s Cornwall (-1.02 per cent), Kingston Hospital (-1.22 per cent), and Orange Regional Medical Center (-1.27 per cent).
Some local hospital administrators claimed that differences in coding practices and in patient load accounted for many of the discrepancies in performance among hospitals and among states.
