Maui hospital faces funding reduction for poor ratings

MAUI, Hawaii (AP) - The head of the Maui Memorial Medical Center says the hospital expects to lose about $600,000 in Medicare funding after it scored poorly on an Affordable Care Act performance measuring program.

The Maui News reports the facility will lose 1 percent of reimbursements it receives directly from Medicare in the rating program covering hospital infections and other ailments.

CEO of the Hawaii Health System Corp.'s Maui Region, Wes Lo, says that not all of the low scores it received were related to care. Hospital officials also noted problems with coding and physician documentation.

Maui Memorial scored near the bottom in all categories but the central-line-associated bloodstream infections category, which was at the national average.

Hospital officials attribute some of the low scores to the hospital's switch to electronic filing.