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ObamaCare’s Death Payments: A program to reduce hospital admissions may have led to more deaths.
Wall Street Journal ^ | November 23, 2017

Posted on 11/24/2017 12:37:43 PM PST by reaganaut1

ObamaCare has caused hard-to-quantify economic damage, but some of the law’s regulations may be lethal—literally. Consider a Medicare hospital payment initiative, which a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association Cardiology suggests may have contributed to an increase in deaths.

Readers are likely familiar with ObamaCare’s mandate and subsidies to impel individuals to obtain health insurance. But the law also included monetary incentives and penalties aimed at inducing changes in health-care delivery and spending reductions. The government rolled out these payment models nationally without careful study, and they are having unintended side effects.

A case in point is the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, which penalizes hospitals with above-average readmissions for Medicare patients. Readmissions are expensive, and the goal of the penalties is to encourage providers to take measures that reduce repeat hospitalizations—for instance, providing patients with clearer discharge instructions and coordinating with primary-care physicians.

Hospitals are graded on a curve and dunned if their 30-day readmission rate exceeds the national average. Hospitals can thus be penalized even if they reduce readmissions. The penalties, which are assessed as a share of hospitals’ Medicare payments, have been applied to an increasing number of medical conditions including knee and hip replacements.

Liberals have touted data showing that readmissions have fallen since the penalties took effect in 2013, but the JAMA researchers examined whether quality of care has improved as a result. Their observational study examined 115,245 fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries hospitalized with heart failure across the U.S. in the four years prior to and first two years following implementation of the program.

Researchers found that the 30-day readmission rate (adjusted for patient risk) declined to 18.4% from 20% after the penalties were introduced. Yet the 30-day mortality rate increased to 8.6% from 7.2%—about 5,400 additional deaths per year.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 0carenightmare; deathpanels; hospitaladmissions; hospitalstays; medicare; obamacare; obamacaredeathpanels
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1 posted on 11/24/2017 12:37:43 PM PST by reaganaut1
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To: reaganaut1

Who needs death panels when you can grade on a curve?


2 posted on 11/24/2017 12:43:56 PM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Psephomancers for Hillary!)
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To: reaganaut1

Death Panels by another name.


3 posted on 11/24/2017 12:44:05 PM PST by Balding_Eagle ( The Great Wall of Trump ---- 100% sealing of the border. Coming soon.)
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To: reaganaut1

Obamacare - the gift that just keeps giving.


4 posted on 11/24/2017 12:44:26 PM PST by Slyfox (Are you tired of winning yet?)
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To: reaganaut1

“Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program”

and this is precisely what was predicted at the time the Democrats were pushing it.

For the safety of every American the only answer is to get the government the ‘H’ out of our healthcare. Write laws preventing any future dalliance with our health by the Socialist-Democrats.


5 posted on 11/24/2017 12:46:48 PM PST by rockinqsranch (Dems, Libs, Socialists Call 'em what you will, they all have fairies livin' in their trees.)
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To: reaganaut1

Sending men home with catheters right after surgery is a form of male sex abuse I thought I’d never see. Unfortunately I “saw” it when helping a family member.


6 posted on 11/24/2017 12:50:13 PM PST by The Westerner (Protect the most vulnerable: get the government out of medicine and education and the forests)
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To: reaganaut1

5,400 deaths are an acceptable loss when you think of all the money that ObamaCare has saved everyone!

Right?


7 posted on 11/24/2017 12:51:24 PM PST by airborne (I don't always scream at the TV but when I do it's hockey playoffs season!)
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To: reaganaut1

Bah...”Death Panels” don’t exist. Everybody knows that! — so sayeth every lib across the land. They were ignorantly looking for the “Death Panel” section in the bill or the door in the hospital with the sign “Death Panels - Woe to all who Enter This Portal.” Lib article after article couldn’t find a “Death Panel” anywhere. But here they are.

What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet;

Or, in the O-Care case...

What’s in a name? that which we call a turd
By any other word would smell as shitty;


8 posted on 11/24/2017 12:57:35 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: airborne

I got my $2,500 check. Didn’t you?


9 posted on 11/24/2017 12:58:10 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: reaganaut1

Damn——I couldn’t get the article-——and I’m on Medicare.

.


10 posted on 11/24/2017 12:59:00 PM PST by Mears
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Fortunately I get all my health care at the VA Hospital.


11 posted on 11/24/2017 1:00:15 PM PST by airborne (I don't always scream at the TV but when I do it's hockey playoffs season!)
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To: reaganaut1

Predicable, and unsurprising - accept perhaps to the outcomes analysis purveyors, who tend to be uninformed yet convinced.


12 posted on 11/24/2017 1:07:38 PM PST by neverevergiveup
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To: reaganaut1

This was the plan, wasn’t it?

Sarah Palin was right.


13 posted on 11/24/2017 1:27:17 PM PST by TBP (Progressives lack compassion and tolerance. Their self-aggrandizement is all that matters.)
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To: reaganaut1
they are having unintended side effects

Lie. The effects are exactly what was intended.

14 posted on 11/24/2017 1:29:08 PM PST by Jim Noble (Single payer is coming. Which kind do you like)
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To: reaganaut1; All

I can hardly wait to see this be the lead story on ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN.


15 posted on 11/24/2017 1:48:00 PM PST by SoFloFreeper
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To: Slyfox
"Obamacare - the gift that just keeps giving."

ObamaCare - the gift that just keeps on killing.

16 posted on 11/24/2017 3:11:53 PM PST by StormEye
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To: reaganaut1

I had a relative in rehab and she was discharged, but needed more help. The rehab would not take her back because they didn’t want a readmission. So she went to the hospital where there was no rehab, just lay in bed.


17 posted on 11/24/2017 3:32:23 PM PST by palmer (...if we do not have strong families and strong values, then we will be weak and we will not survive)
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To: reaganaut1
Hospitals are graded on a curve and dunned if their 30-day readmission rate exceeds the national average.

Whoa, Jack! That means that HALF of hospitals are getting dunned all the time! And it is a no-win deal. If they cut their readmission rate, the average will drop, and they will still be dunning the HALF who are above average!

Government operations at their finest!

All these government people who designed this must have gone to Lake Woebegone High School. Nobody else could be this diabolical.

18 posted on 11/24/2017 3:33:11 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: rockinqsranch

Yep, the hospitals are responsible for the patient’s bad decisions. If they decide not to take their insulin,
antibiotics, etc. the hospital is responsible. Just like teachers are responsible that there is no discipline or values taught at home.

Cradle to grave government control. Only the grave is coming much quicker these days. The Dems love it because they know that the older population votes R in huge numbers. When they get rid of those pesky old people, they will have little competition in elections. Just like in California.


19 posted on 11/24/2017 4:04:52 PM PST by notpoliticallycorewrecked (Will the last responsible person leaving California, please turn out the lights.)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

“That means that HALF of hospitals are getting dunned all the time! “


Not necessarily——an average is not the same as a median.

.


20 posted on 11/24/2017 4:08:40 PM PST by Mears
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