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Objective: To determine whether Medicare's Nonpayment Program was associated with decline in venous thromboembolism (VTE) following hip and knee replacements; and whether the decline was greater among hospitals at risk of larger financial losses from the Program.Data Sources: State Inpatient Database for New York (NY) from 2005 to 2013.Study Design: The primary outcome was an occurrence of VTE. Medicare Utilization Ratio (MUR), which is the proportion of inpatient days in a hospital that is financed by Medicare, represented a hospital's financial sensitivity. We used hierarchical logistic regressions with difference-in-differences estimation to study the Program effects.Principal Findings: A total of 98,729 hip replacement and 111,361 knee replacement stays were identified. For hip replacement, the Program was associated with significant reduction (Range: 44% to 53%) in VTE incidence among hospitals in MUR quartiles 2 to 4. For knee replacement, the Program was associated with significant reduction (47%) in VTE incidence only among quartile 2 hospitals.Conclusion: Implementation of the Program was associated with a reduction in VTE, especially for hip replacements, in higher MUR hospitals. Payment reforms such as Medicare's Nonpayment Program that withhold payments for complications are effective and should be continued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We examined the magnitude and related costs of potentially avoidable hospitalizations including re-hospitalizations for long-stay residents in nursing homes.Design: We conducted our investigation as a retrospective cohort study where the cohort comprised individuals who were eligible for Medicare and had spent at least 120 uninterrupted days in a nursing home in New York State between 2004 and 2007. To conduct the study, we linked the Minimum Data Set, Medicare Provider Assessment File and Provider of Service File.Measurements: We defined a potentially avoidable hospitalization as one where a resident was admitted to a hospital for which the principle diagnosis was 1 of 15 ambulatory care sensitive (ACS) conditions.Results: Although the percentage of total hospitalizations for ACS conditions declined during the study period, 20% or more of annual hospitalizations were for ACS conditions entailing Medicare payments in excess of $450 million. Approximately 40% of the residents who were hospitalized once for an ACS condition were re-hospitalized during the study period for the same or different ACS condition.Conclusion: During the study period, potentially avoidable hospitalizations from nursing homes were a common occurrence in New York. A substantial percentage of such hospitalizations involved residents who had been previously hospitalized, in some cases multiple times, for an ACS condition. Although the observed decline in ACS-related hospitalizations suggests improvements in nursing home care, various policy and managerial-level initiatives may be needed to ensure that nursing home residents are not exposed to a substantial risk of avoidable hospitalizations in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]