Indigent Patient Populations Tied to Higher Readmissions
Hospitals with the most low-income patients are nearly three times more likely to report high congestive heart failure readmission rates than other hospitals, according to an analysis by Kaiser Health News. For the analysis, KHN studied 30-day congestive heart failure readmission rates at 3,119 U.S. hospitals from July 2007 to June 2010 using the CMS Hospital Compare website. According to the analysis, 11.7% of the hospitals that treated the greatest share of low-income patients were ranked by Medicare as having worse rehospitalization rates than the national average. In comparison, only 4.3% of remaining hospitals reported higher-than-average rates.
- "Medicare Penalties for Readmissions Could Be a Tough Hit on Hospitals Serving the Poor" (Rau [1], Kaiser Health News, 12/19).
- "KHN Used CMS Readmission Rates and Patients' Income for Analysis" (Rau [2], Kaiser Health News, 12/19).