Hospitals Thinking Beyond 30-Day Readmissions

HealthLeaders Media

May 29, 2013

Operating under the assumption that the government is moving toward enacting reimbursement penalties for all-cause readmissions, some hospitals and readmission prevention experts are already developing corresponding strategies.

When asked why their efforts to prevent 30-day readmissions focus only on patients with heart failure, pneumonia, or heart attack, many hospital leaders shrug: because those readmissions are the only ones for which hospitals suffer a stiff reimbursement penalty.

While many hospitals intend to target all-cause readmissions eventually, for now, it represents a steep front-end expense their budgets are not yet ready to absorb in a fee-for-service world, especially for readmissions that are not yet at risk for penalties.

Amy Boutwell, MD, MPP, is a readmission prevention expert and practicing physician at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Mass. She recalls a seminar she held in December for representatives of 62 New Jersey hospitals.

"I asked everyone in the group, 'Is anyone taking this all-cause approach?' And none of them were," she says. "They just don't have it on their radar. Their 'first phase' of efforts is still very much focused just on one disease. Their challenge in 2013 is to move from one disease-focused pilot to a broad portfolio of efforts." Click here to read the full article.