Reducing Hospital Readmissions Through Preferred Networks Of Skilled Nursing Facilities.

ABSTRACT: Establishing preferred provider networks of skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) is one approach hospital administrators are using to reduce excess thirty-day readmissions and avoid Medicare penalties or to reduce beneficiaries' costs as part of value-based payment models. However, hospitals are also required to provide patients at discharge with a list of Medicare-eligible providers and cannot explicitly restrict patient choice. This requirement complicates the development of a SNF network. Furthermore, there is little evidence about the effectiveness of network development in reducing readmission rates. We used a concurrent mixed-methods approach, combining Medicare claims data for the period 2009-13 with qualitative data gathered from interviews during site visits to hospitals in eight US

SUBMITTER: McHugh JP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5664928 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature