Patient Characteristics and Differences in Hospital Readmission Rates.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Medicare penalizes hospitals with higher than expected readmission rates by up to 3% of annual inpatient payments. Expected rates are adjusted only for patients' age, sex, discharge diagnosis, and recent diagnoses.

Objective

To assess the extent to which a comprehensive set of patient characteristics accounts for differences in hospital readmission rates.

Design, setting, and participants

Using survey data from the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and linked Medicare claims for HRS participants enrolled in Medicare who were hospitalized from 2009 to 2012 (n = 8067 admissions), we assessed 29 patient characteristics from survey data and claims as potential predictors of 30-day readmission when added to standard Medicare adjustments

SUBMITTER: Barnett ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4991542 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature