How data can play a significant role in reducing hospital readmissions

Hospitals around the country are facing mounting challenges with regard to lowering readmission rates. Readmissions directly affect hospitals' reimbursement, and thus, hospitals are increasingly focused on reducing readmissions.

The Affordable Care Act required CMS to penalize hospitals for excessive readmissions via its Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program. The program penalizes hospitals based on 30-day readmissions for heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hip/knee replacement and coronary artery bypass graft surgery. The program began Oct. 1, 2012, and since then hospitals have experienced nearly $1.9 billion of penalties through fiscal year 2017, according to the American Hospital Association.

CMS' 2018 Inpatient Prospective Payment System final rule will implement the socioeconomic adjustment approach mandated by the 21st Century Cures Act for the fiscal year 2019 Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program. Per the socioeconomic adjustment approach, hospitals will receive penalties based on its performance relative to other hospitals with a similar proportion of patients who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid.

Hospitals are using numerous strategies for reducing readmissions, including various clinical interventions, comprehensive discharge protocols as well as improving transitions to post-acute care facilities.

Increasingly, hospitals are turning to data and analytics to help lower readmissions. In a webinar hosted by Becker's Hospital Review, Buffy Key, senior vice president of quality and operations at Cookeville (Tenn.) Regional Medical Center, will detail how the hospital identified readmissions prediction tools and used data visualization to improve outcomes and achieve significant reductions in readmissions.

The webinar will take place March 27 at 12 p.m. CST. Click here to register.

 

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