Dive Brief:
- Seniors from the nation's lowest-income neighborhoods are at higher risk for readmission to the hospital for pneumonia or heart disease, says a new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
- The 30-day rehospitalization rate did not vary significantly across the least disadvantaged 85% of neighborhoods, which had an average rehospitalization rate of 21%. However, within the most disadvantaged 15% of neighborhoods, rehospitalization rates increased.
- Lead author Amy Kind, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine noted the poorest seniors often lack support networks or access to prescriptions or healthier food options.
Dive Insight:
Improving readmission rates has become a big "to do" for hospitals across the country, largely thanks to the Affordable Care Act's Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, which requires CMS to reduce payments to hospitals with excess readmissions for CHF and other conditions. However, hospitals serving the poorest seniors are at a disadvantage and can't completely control whether their patients come back within a few days or weeks.
Recent data from CMS show that approximately 77% of hospitals serving the poorest patients incur a readmissions penalty. By contrast, only 36% of hospitals with the fewest poor patients will receive a penalty.
"Your likelihood of being readmitted has to do a lot with factors the hospitals can't control," Akin Demehin, senior associate director, policy, for the American Hospital Association, recently told Healthcare Dive. "Sometimes communities where patients live don't have primary-care physicians, or patients have difficulties in getting medications. Hospitals treating the poorest patients tend to get the stiffest penalties."
