Association of Changing Hospital Readmission Rates With Mortality Rates After Hospital Discharge.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

The Affordable Care Act has led to US national reductions in hospital 30-day readmission rates for heart failure (HF), acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and pneumonia. Whether readmission reductions have had the unintended consequence of increasing mortality after hospitalization is unknown.

Objective

To examine the correlation of paired trends in hospital 30-day readmission rates and hospital 30-day mortality rates after discharge.

Design, setting, and participants

Retrospective study of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries aged 65 years or older hospitalized with HF, AMI, or pneumonia from January 1, 2008, through December 31, 2014.

Exposure

Thirty-day risk-adjusted readmission rate (RARR).

Main outcomes and measures

Thirty-day RARRs and

SUBMITTER: Dharmarajan K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5817448 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature