Posted on 09/16/2015 2:18:16 AM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
An ObamaCare program could be penalizing certain hospitals for serving more poor patients, according to a study released Monday.
The study focuses on an ObamaCare program that docks a hospital’s Medicare payments if its readmission rate is above a certain level. The program is meant to provide a financial incentive for hospitals to improve the quality of care and cut down on costly readmissions, in which a patient must return to the hospital after a procedure.
But the new study, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, finds that many readmissions occur not because of problems with a hospital’s care, but because of socioeconomic factors among the patients.
For example, the American Hospital Association (AHA) wrote in a report in March, “Research shows that economically disadvantaged patients often have limited access to services and resources that can help support their recovery post-hospitalization and, therefore, reduce their likelihood of being readmitted.”
Hospital groups like AHA have called for their penalties to be adjusted for factors outside of a hospital’s control, like patients’ income. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Exactly what it is supposed to do. More services at lower reimbursements (below cost) drives them to “rescue” by feral gummint.
Democrats will get the care....Republicans will NOT! Just wait.....they KNOW how we vote!
Yep. It’s all about control.
When bureaucrats by metrics, your product will become...better metrics. Thus the VA is rebuked over the size of its backlog, so it makes the backlog go away. Metrics like readmission rate are the tools of ignorant people who have power. They always produce better metrics but nothing else. That’s why Stalin’s people always gave him great metrics showing bumper harvests even as people starved.
my bigest problem with obbama care is the law of unatended consquences
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