Dive Brief:
- New Bipartisan legislation seeks to improve the fairness of CMS' Medicare Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program which currently does not account for sociodemographic factors that impact patients' health and their likelihood of requiring readmission.
- S. 688/H.R. 1343 aims to improve the fairness of the program's readmission penalties by considering what proportion of a hospital's patients are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, as well as the patients' sociodemographic status.
- "This recalibration ensures hospital performance is compared equally while maintaining an incentive for all hospitals to reduce unnecessary readmissions," says the American Hospital Association.
Dive Insight:
As the AHA notes, there are numerous factors outside of a hospital's control that affect their readmission rates, such as whether their patients can afford the necessary follow-up treatments and care to ensure their recovery. They point out that community health services and appropriate food are not always accessible to patients being released from hospitals.
As a result of the current inequity that particularly impacts hospitals serving low-income populations, the AHA has announced that it is backing the legislation. "We applaud Senators Rob Portman and Joe Manchin and Representatives James Renacci and Eliot Engel for their leadership on this important issue," wrote AHA Executive Vice President Rick Pollack in a prepared statement. "We look forward to working with Congress to make the legislation a reality."