This Is What Happens When Medicare Minions Micromanage Microorganisms
Sepsis is a brutal killer. It often starts after a microorganism gets loose in your bloodstream, spreading to organs far and wide, releasing deadly toxins along the way. In response, your body releases toxins of its own, chemicals designed to kill the invading organism but that, all too often, damage your body, too, leaving you victim to friendly fire.
To survive sepsis, you need great medical care, in a hospital staffed with clinicians who know how to get you the right treatments in a timely manner. But in recent years, healthcare regulators became concerned that hospitals were not getting patients the right care at the right time. So, in 2015, Medicare started tracking and incentivizing the quality of sepsis care in the United States. It created a reimbursement program called the (be prepared for a catchy name) “SEP-1 bundle.” Read more here
