Alert Your Physicians...

Since Medicare decided not to pay for adverse events, especially never-events, hospitals should have been wondering how they were going to establish that these conditions were present on admission.

Ingenix is a consulting company owned by United Healthcare Group that helps prepare hospitals for what's coming. If you're a hospitalist, ER doc or admit patients to hospital, this would suggest that you are about to assume an additional duty: POA (presence on admission) reporting.

Alert physicians that you are going to ask for their cooperation related to POA. Work with physicians on the importance of documentation related to POA and explain why you need this information.

Some hospitals won't realize they need physicians' cooperation until... about mid-February, probably.