Yet another study, this one carried by Health Services Research, suggests that current methods for encouraging fewer inappropriate hospital readmissions are inadequate to avoid wrongly punishing hospitals for events beyond…
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CMS is extending hospital readmission penalties to surgeries. An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association examines reasons for such readmissions, which is kind of a core predicate…
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A paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research challenges the contemporary view and finds that keeping patients in a hospital longer may reduce readmissions in some cases.
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CMS' program to use community aging agencies to help cut hospital readmissions shows dismal early results, as only 4 out of 48 of the agencies involved showed meaningful decreases.
http://kaiserhealthnews.org/news/health-law-test-to-cut-readmissions-lacks-early-results/?utm_campaign=KHN%3A+Daily+Health+Policy+Report&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=15584116&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--tbPtkv-ME_YzKiQwxJsySYmA3Sy-pEifmlaZrhdTOM4uMX-gKoozRQONEcCd0tnsQ68CakoGRyd5DsaAp7-IWSjiNxw&_hsmi=15584116CMS will be penalizing over 2600 hospitals in 2015 for their hospital readmission rates, notwithstanding an overall reduction in readmissions, further pointing our how wrong-headed the initiative is.
http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20141002/NEWS/310029947&utm_source=AltURL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mpdaily&AllowView=VXQ0UnpwZTRDdlNjL1IzSkUvSHRlRUtwajA0ZEErSmE=A study reported in JAMA finds that use of a "virtual ward" to prevent hospital readmissions was no more effective than usual care and a second article reviews the overall…
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A study in Health Affairs analyzes hospital admissions and Readmissions for patients covered by Medicaid.
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Patients who reside in neighborhoods with low socioeconomic status have higher rates of hospital readmissions, even after adjusting for individual socioeconomic status and other factors, according to a study in the journal Circulation Outcomes, providing further evidence of how flawed CMS' readmission penalty program is.
http://circoutcomes.ahajournals.org/content/early/2014/07/29/CIRCOUTCOMES.113.000911.full.pdfA review of interventions to prevent hospital readmissions for heart failure diagnoses finds that certain types may be effective.
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The use of administrative data, as opposed to chart review, to gather information on hospital readmissions, results in incorrect reasons for the readmission in about a third of cases, according to research in JAMA Surgery, which could seriously affect penalties levied on hospitals under the CMS program to reduce readmissions.
http://archsurg.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleID=1879843&utm_source=Silverchair%20Information%20Systems&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ArchivesofSurgery%3AOnlineFirst06%2F11%2F2014&utm_campaign=KHN%3A+Daily+Health+Policy+Report&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=13177961&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8sG6r4Nnjy-e8mks87DfEwo8tr35TLMGEXgl6jgnFuDaBUeZhFUYNaU2B-3FBJ27qRggrpfhg4l7FLl38FI8LYmPVWGg&_hsmi=13177961Two articles in Health Affairs examine the likelihood that by not incorporating socioeconomic factors, the Medicare readmission penalties are hurting hospitals that serve large numbers of low-income patients.
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A Statistical Brief from the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality examines hospital readmissions for the year 2011.
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A study in the British Medical Journal following the health reform implementation in Massachusetts finds that providing insurance does not reduce 30-day hospital readmission rates.
A study in JAMA looks at hospital readmissions after discharge from inpatient rehabilitation units, finding an overall rate of around 12% for leading conditions with substantial variation across facilities and regions. Many of these patients appear to be in a downward cycle which is hard to interrupt.
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1829684A study done by KNG Health Consulting for Academy Health finds that the Medicare hospital readmission penalties disproportionately affect hospitals servicing low income patients; the very hospitals that can least…
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