The study suggests socioeconomic factors may directly affect hospital readmissions and can financially impact reimbursement payments from CMS. Many safety-net hospitals and non-safety-net hospitals that serve high-need communities face higher than average reimbursement penalties, according to the report.
High rates of unemployed patients resulted in up to 1.4 percent greater penalties for pneumonia, 1.3 percent greater penalties for acute myocardial infarction and 1.1 percent greater penalties for heart failure, according to the report. Race and income rates showed slightly less impact on penalties, between 1.1 to 1.2 percent. Maximum penalties during the study were 2 percent of total Medicare reimbursements. For fiscal year 2015, this maximum increased to 3 percent.
The study was based on CMS hospital discharge data from third quarter 2009 to second quarter 2012.
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