CA hospital has high rate of heart failure; may be linked to Medicare payments

“From 2008 through 2010, Chino Valley Medical Center in San Bernardino County claimed that 35.2 percent of its Medicare patients were suffering from acture heart failure. That’s six times the state average, according to a California Watch analysis of Medicare billing data.

However, in 2006, before Medicare began making bonus payments to hospitals treating patients with major complications, Chino Valley reported no cases of acute heart failure.”