{"id":5443,"date":"2018-07-10T09:12:38","date_gmt":"2018-07-10T09:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tele.healthcare\/?p=5443"},"modified":"2018-07-10T09:12:38","modified_gmt":"2018-07-10T09:12:38","slug":"insights-on-patient-engagement-and-behavior-change-are-hospital-readmissions-penalties-actually-improving-health-outcomes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drmiltie.com\/at-home-testing\/insights-on-patient-engagement-and-behavior-change-are-hospital-readmissions-penalties-actually-improving-health-outcomes\/","title":{"rendered":"Insights on Patient Engagement and Behavior Change. Are hospital readmissions penalties actually improving health outcomes?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Are hospital readmissions penalties actually improving health outcomes?<\/span><\/a><\/h2>\n

Posted by<\/span> Brent Walker, SVP Marketing & Analytics on Jan 17, 2018 1:44:27 PM<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A decade ago, a\u00a0study of hospitalizations<\/a>\u00a0of Medicare beneficiaries uncovered average readmission rates ranging from 18.4 percent to 27.5 percent, depending on condition. Enter the Medicare Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP), which penalizes hospitals with relatively high rates of Medicare readmissions.<\/p>\n

Established in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), it provides a financial incentive\u2014or penalty, depending on your perspective\u2014for hospitals to lower readmission rates. In the ensuing years, many have debated the efficacy of the program and the financial burden, in particular, that it poses for safety-net hospitals that treat vulnerable populations.<\/p>\n

Now, data analysis by researchers at UCLA and Harvard University<\/a> suggests that the program does, in fact, reduce readmissions, but among heart failure patients, the reduction in readmission corresponds with an increase in mortality rates. Let\u2019s take a closer look at the challenge of lowering hospital readmissions while improving health outcomes.<\/p>\n

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Readmissions on the decline<\/strong><\/h1>\n

After steadily inching up between 2005 to 2011, readmission rates across all tracked conditions began to decline in advance of the HRRP launch. Since 2012, the national average rates have continued the downward trajectory, with approximately 2-3 percent declines across all conditions. Last year, the Kaiser Family Foundation<\/a> evaluated the impact of HRRP and several findings:<\/p>\n