Hospitals Face Pressure to Avert Readmissions

NY Times  By JORDAN RAU  Published: November 26, 2012   New Efforts to Close Hospitals’ Revolving Doors  After years of gently prodding hospitals to make sure discharged patients do not need to return, the federal government is now using its financial muscle to discourage readmissions. Spurred by new financial penalties that Medicare started imposing on places with too many readmissions, hospitals are doing more outreach to make sure patients are following their discharge program. Medicare last month began levying financial penalties against 2,217 hospitals it says have had too many readmissions. Of those hospitals, 307 will receive the maximum punishment, a 1 percent reduction in Medicare’s regular payments for every patient over the next year, federal records show.  Read more