Changes in Hospital Referral Patterns to Skilled Nursing Facilities Under the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) penalizes hospitals for higher-than-expected readmission rates. Almost 20% of Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) patients receive postacute care in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) after hospitalization. SNF patients have high readmission rates.

Objective

The objective of this study was to investigate the association between changes in hospital referral patterns to SNFs and HRRP penalty pressure.

Design

We examined changes in the relationship between penalty pressure and outcomes before versus after HRRP announcement among 2698 hospitals serving 6,936,393 Medicare FFS patients admitted for target conditions: acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, or pneumonia. Hospital-level penalty pressure was the expec

SUBMITTER: Kim KL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6944285 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature