HHS: Hospitals responding to incentives to reduce readmissions

Editor's Note

This study from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) found that readmission trends are consistent with the response by hospitals to incentives to reduce readmissions, including financial penalties, as mandated by the Affordable Care Act.

No evidence was found that changes in observation-unit stays accounted for the decrease in readmissions.

Policy analysts had worried that reductions in readmissions were being achieved by keeping patients in observation units instead of formally readmitting them to the hospital, the authors say.

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