Three large, metropolitan hospitals could face Medicare cuts as soon as next year due to their poor readmission rate figures for the past three years, according to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch report.
Our Lady of the Resurrection Medical Center in Chicago, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis are the only three hospitals that have performed "significantly worse" than the national averages in readmissions within 30 days for heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia for three straight years and could face up to 3 percent in Medicare reductions, the report said.
The government estimates reducing readmissions could save $26 billion over a decade, and hospitals are now striving to cut readmissions through closer monitoring and clear follow-up instructions for patients. However, the hospitals think they should not be punished for treating underserved populations.
"If you believe, and we do, that there are significant social and economic factors driving the root causes of readmission, Medicare's strategy to penalize providers who deal with those populations could potentially be flawed," John Lynch, MD, chief medical officer at Barnes-Jewish, said in the report.
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Our Lady of the Resurrection Medical Center in Chicago, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis are the only three hospitals that have performed "significantly worse" than the national averages in readmissions within 30 days for heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia for three straight years and could face up to 3 percent in Medicare reductions, the report said.
The government estimates reducing readmissions could save $26 billion over a decade, and hospitals are now striving to cut readmissions through closer monitoring and clear follow-up instructions for patients. However, the hospitals think they should not be punished for treating underserved populations.
"If you believe, and we do, that there are significant social and economic factors driving the root causes of readmission, Medicare's strategy to penalize providers who deal with those populations could potentially be flawed," John Lynch, MD, chief medical officer at Barnes-Jewish, said in the report.
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