The federal government is cracking down on hospitals with high rates of patient injuries, and they've now added spreading those crazy antibiotic-resistant germs like MRSA to their calculations. So the government has reduced Medicare payments to 769 hospitals, including 27 hospitals right here in Michigan!

This penalizing began a couple years ago, as hospitals began being penalized for avoidable injuries, like certain infections, blood clots, bed sores, and falls. Now, added to the list are these germs spread in hospitals that are hard to treat.

27 Michigan hospitals are losing one percent of all Medicare payments for a year, retroactive to this past October. This adds up to millions of dollars lost to hospitals right here in Grand Rapids, including Saint Mary's Health Care, and Spectrum Health - Butterworth Campus!

Those are the only two GR hospitals getting penalized, but there are so many more here in Michigan, all losing 1% of their Medicare funding.

This affects not only patient visits to the hospitals, but also the money the hospitals get to teach medical residents, and care for low-income patients.

MRSA and C.diff are two of the germs that are on the list, and they can be really nasty.

The American Hospital Association claims that they're being unfairly penalized for being better at detecting these infections, and that these penalties aren't doing more than upsetting people, and is not changing behaviors.

For the complete list of Michigan hospitals that are on the list for Medicare cuts, check out the complete story at