Journal Article

Will Hospital Peer Grouping by Patient Socioeconomic Status Fix the Medicare Hospital Readmission Reduction Program or Create New Problems?

With Richard Fuller, MS, Jack Hughes, MD, Norbert Goldfield, MD, Richard Averill, MS

Published by the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, April 2018. 

In 2016 the U.S. Congress directed the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to implement the 21st Century Cures Act to fix a flaw in the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP). One section of the Act is intended to remove bias in calculating penalties for hospitals treating large percentages of low socioeconomic status (SES) patients. A study was conducted to analyze the effect of the introduction of SES hospital peer groups on the number and distribution of the hospitals being penalized.

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Source: Fuller RL, Hughes JS, Goldfield NI, Averill RF. Will hospital peer grouping by patient socioeconomic status fix the Medicare hospital readmission reduction program or create new problems? The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. 2018;44:177-185.