Latest KFF Health News Stories
2013 Medicare Readmissions Penalties By Region
Medicare evaluated the readmission rates of 3,104 hospitals in determining the first year of penalties in the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, ultimately penalizing 71 percent of those hospitals. The first column in this chart lists 305 hospital referral regions, which are area health care markets identified by the Dartmouth Atlas. The second column in this chart […]
2013 Medicare Readmissions Penalties By State
Medicare evaluated the readmission rates of 3,104 hospitals in determining the first year of penalties in the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, ultimately penalizing 71 percent of those hospitals. This chart lists states in the first column. The second column shows how many hospitals in each state had at least 25 heart attack, heart failure or […]
Sources and Methodology: Where the Hospital Readmissions Data Came From
Kaiser Health News’ data on hospital readmissions penalties comes from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which oversees the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program. On Aug. 1, CMS published data tables containing the “Readmissions Adjustment Factor” for individual hospitals. More On Readmission Penalties Medicare To Penalize 2,211 Hospitals For Excess Readmissions Hospitals Treating The […]
Medicare To Penalize 2,217 Hospitals For Excess Readmissions
Too many patients are returning to the hospital soon after being discharged, a costly problem the government is tackling.
Hospitals Treating The Poor Hardest Hit By Readmissions Penalties
Many hospitals warn that Medicare penalties for high readmission rates will hurt facilities that most need resources.
KHN periodically shares readers’ comments on recent original stories.
Medicare IDs Few Hospitals As Outliers In Readmissions
Correction: An earlier version of this report incorrectly listed 10 hospitals as having better than average readmission rates for heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia patients. Only two hospitals, Citrus Memorial Hospital of Inverness, Fla. and Sarasota Memorial Hospital of Sarasota, Fla., had better than average readmission rates for those three conditions tracked by Medicare’s Hospital Compare […]
Hospitals’ Readmissions Rates Not Budging
Medicare data show little improvement in curbing the number of beneficiaries who are readmitted despite threats of financial penalties to hospitals.
KHN Used CMS Readmission Rates And Patients’ Income For Analysis
The examination found that hospitals with the largest share of poor patients were 2.7 times as likely to have high readmission rates.
Medicare Penalties For Readmissions Could Be A Tough Hit On Hospitals Serving The Poor
Federal officials are seeking to make sure patients get the care they need after discharge. But the new policy is likely to disproportionately affect hospitals that treat the most low-income patients, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis.
The Revolving Door Of Readmissions
Ralph Rust’s decade-long struggle to stay out of hospitals involves some of the factors that cause patients to be readmitted frequently. For years he was hospitalized as often as three times a month.
Interactive: Readmission Rates And Poverty Levels For Individual Hospitals
This interactive chart compares the heart failure readmission rates and patient population poverty levels for more than 3,000 hospitals.
Study Suggests Readmission Rates May Reflect Broader Hospital Use
The high rate of hospital readmissions has produced a flurry of policy solutions to improve care for patients as they’re being discharged and afterward. But new research suggests more concern might be directed elsewhere: at the doctors who decide not just to send patients back to the hospital, but to admit them in the first […]
Hospitals Try To Control Readmissions, Even When It Hurts Profits
Patients with multiple chronic conditions benefit from a new clinic at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York. But the hospital says it bears too much of the costs to keep discharged patients from returning.
Readmissions Not Just A Medicare Problem, Study Finds
Medicare has identified preventable hospital readmissions as a measure of the fragmentation of health care for the elderly, driving up health care costs. A new paper finds younger patients also fail to get needed follow-up care after a hospital stay. About one in 12 adults ages 21 and older were readmitted to hospitals within 30 days of discharge, […]
Cutting Hospital Readmissions: Revolving Doors Still Spinning, Study Finds
As Medicare figures out how to financially penalize hospitals with high readmission rates, a new Dartmouth Atlas study finds hospitals have made very little progress in ensuring that fewer patients return. One possible reason raised by the study: fewer than half of patients had a follow-up appointment with a doctor within two weeks of discharge. […]
Seven Hospitals Share Distinction Of Highest Readmission Rates
As Medicare prepares to start punishing hospitals with higher-than-average readmissions, seven hospitals have a particularly dubious distinction: higher-than-average rates for three kinds of patients. These hospitals all had worse readmission rates than the average hospital for heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia patients — the three categories Medicare tracks. The hospitals were: San Juan VA […]
Letters To KHN: Prominent Doctor, Nurses And Other Readers On Medicare Readmissions
Readers react to Jordan Rau’s review of the upcoming Medicare push to make hospitals accountable for some of what happens to patients after discharge
Medicare Prepares Rule To Penalize Hospitals With High Readmission Rates
The federal health care program also wants to pay less to hospitals with higher-than-average costs for patient care.
Health Law Forces Changes To Reduce Hospitals Readmissions
20 percent of Medicare patients are back in the hospital within 30 days, a trend that endangers patients and raises health costs.
