Savings Generated From Reducing Hospital Readmissions Could Help Cover the Uninsured
Hospital readmissions cost the U.S. billions of dollars a year, yet many can be prevented with better follow-up care, according to a study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
According to the study,
As many as a fifth all Medicare patients are readmitted within a month of being discharged . . . and a third are rehospitalized within 90 days.
Photo by giest via Flickr
We recently reported that a pilot program in Baton Rouge and 13 other cities seeks to reduce the number of chronically ill elderly that are readmitted to the hospital. That program, called the Care Transitions Project, provides patients with a “transition coach” who helps them recognize symptoms and create a plan for follow-up care.
The New York Times reports that the Obama administration has already identified hospital readmissions as a potential source of cost-cutting. Hospitals with high numbers of patients who are readmitted would receive lowered payments under the president’s budget, which calls for $26 billion in savings from reducing readmissions over 10 years.
Policy analysts say that insurers, including Medicare, must begin to reward doctors and hospitals that help patients get better and stay healthy. While some hospitals have already shown that they can reduce readmissions by taking simple steps, about one in four of the nation’s hospitals derive 25% of their admissions from returning patients.
Posts from Health Reform Watch have been cited by media sources throughout the country, including The New York Times, Washington Post, L.A. Times, Kaiser Health News, The Health Care Blog, NPR's Planet Money Blog, Duke Univ. Med. Center News, American Health Line Alerts, BusinessWeek.com, Concurring Opinions, Balkinization, The New England Journal of Medicine, Harvard's Nieman Foundation for Journalism, Las Vegas Sun, Maggie Mahar, Ezra Klein, Tom Geoghegan, and the official homepage of the Office of the Democratic Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Steny Hoyer.
Minimizing Avoidable Hospital Readmissions
Virtually no one opposes hospital readmissions. The area of concern is avoidable hospital readmissions. According to the CMS, avoidable hospital readmissions are unnecessarily costing Medicare $12 billion/year.
And there is a practical and inexpensive solution to this problem. It involves providing family caregivers with a means to check on their loved ones and ensure that they are doing the things to ensure their well-being. The solution utilizes a new device called the Wellness Wizard, which is a $149 electronic caregiver’s assistant. If anyone wants more information, a white paper is available. For a copy email me at ssoled@cs.com
Hospitals are being denied payment for chronically ill patients that have frequent re-admissions and this is not right. Insurance companies thru HIPPA are now forbidden to refuse coverage or drop patients with chronic illness so they thing they have found a loop-hole. Their “answer” to having to keep these patients is to refuse payment to hospitals and physicians that agree to provided care to these chronically ill patients thru “re-admission reviews.” I forsee that if this practice continues then it will become increasingly difficult for patients with chronic diseases (many of which are due to years of self abuse) to find a Hospital or Physician who will agree to provide them care. Unfortunately as more and more hospitals are being forced to shut their doors as a result of these payment denials, we will see a health care crisis where no one will be able to receive adequate care. Something needs to be done to force insurance companies and Medicare to pay the claims of these “frequent flyers” who are overburdening the healthcare system.