Medicare program; selected performance information on hospitals providing care to Medicare beneficiaries--HCFA....

This notice announces our intent to release, through a HCFA publication, selected statistical information on the performance of hospitals participating in the Medicare program. We believe that information about hospitals' overall post-admission mortality rates and specific mortality rates for certain medical conditions will be a valuable tool for Peer Review Organizations (PROs) for focusing on potential quality of care problems, for hospitals in focusing their efforts on improving the quality of care they provide, and for consumers in making decisions on obtaining health care. This information release is one part of HCFA's continuing initiative to promote quality of care which encompasses a broad range of regulatory, operational, and research efforts. This notice describes the areas of concentration and summarizes the analytical methodology that we propose to use to produce this information.