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Efforts to make hospitals safer for patients are paying off, preventing 3.1 million harmful hospital-acquired conditions and the deaths of some 125,000 people, according to an HHS report released Monday. Those improvements saved close to $28 billion in healthcare costs from 2010 through 2015. Healthcare leaders touted this progress as a direct result of policies laid out in the Affordable Care Act, public-private partnerships such as the Partnership for Patients, which launched in 2011, and other quality improvement initiatives to target hospital-acquired conditions. These conditions include infections, falls, pressure ulcers and other adverse outcomes. (Whitman, 12/12)

The CMS has issued an interim final rule Monday that attempts to stop providers and organizations from steering patients eligible for Medicaid or Medicare into private insurance as a way to receive higher reimbursement rates. The rule issued Monday requires dialysis centers that help patients pay private insurance premiums either directly or through charities to clarify what plans in their region pay for and how that compares to Medicare or Medicaid. The notices must inform patients that some plans may not cover all costs typically covered by Medicare, such as necessary medical expenses for living donors. (Dickson, 12/12)