Promising Effect of Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program on Reducing Excess Readmissions in U.S. Hospitals.

Background: On October 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) required by the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) started to reduce Medicare payments to hospitals with excess readmissions. The intention of the program is to reduce preventable readmissions by changing hospitals behaviors. Our study evaluated the financial penalty effect of the HRRP on 30-day inpatient readmissions for pneumonia (PN), acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and heart failure (HF) that were targeted by the CMS policy. Methods: Using publicly available HRRP Supplemental Data we performed repeated measures analysis of variance models to evaluate the effect of the HRRP on reducing readmissions for PN, AMI and HF. Results: We found significant decreases in excess readmissions for all three targeted conditions. Between FY 2013 and FY 2015, the reduction in readmission ratios for PN were 0.035 (P<0.0001), for AMI, 0.082 (P<0.0001), and for HF, 0.034 (PO.0001). The effect of HRRP on excess readmissions was greater for hospitals located in rural areas, small hospitals, and public hospitals. Conclusions: We conclude that the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program to reduce payments to hospitals with excess readmissions had a significant effect on inpatient readmissions for PN, AMI and HF in U.S. Hospitals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]