Improving Quality And Lower Health Care Act

Readmissions is a basis for financial penalties to hospitals as a provision of the Affordable Care Act by reducing payments to hospitals with an” excess” 30-day readmissions. The data showed that patients living in high poverty neighborhoods were more likely to be readmitted, older and male patients were more likely to be readmitted as opposed to young and female patients. Lastly, patients with CHF, acute myocardial infarction, and those with certain diseases, such as diabetes, liver and kidney disease were at higher risk of being readmitted. The data also showed married patients were less likely to have a readmission because of more social support (Study Links Social, Community Factors with Hospital Readmissions,

This model reimburses hospitals based on quality of care instead of the volume of patients. The quality of care is assessed by patient questionnaires and if hospitals are unsatisfactory penalties may be imposed (Edwoldt, 2012). The value-based system also affects Medicare and Medicaid. It was reported that Medicare readmissions within 30 days of discharge cost 17 billion dollars annually (Edwoldt, 2012). Due to the high costs of readmissions Medicare and Medicaid have implemented a Hospital Readmission Reduction program. A formula is utilized to evaluate readmission rates within 30 days of discharge for any medical reason related to their original admission such as heart failure and pneumonia. Upon review the hospital is potentially penalized. It is important that nurses strive to provide excellence in care despite their beliefs on the ACA. Nurses have the ability to provide a safe patient environment and reduce the risk of hospital associated infections by following hospital protocols such as hand washing.

This newer reimbursement system has been a topic of contention amongst a large portion of the professional medical community due to the perceived unfairness that it brings in certain situations where a patient must be readmitted and, as a consequence, the primary care providers may not be reimbursed for the readmission regardless if they were responsible. With the introduction of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, further criteria such as the Readmissions Reduction Program have been added that determines the eligibility of a primary care provider being reimbursed through the Medicare/Medicaid program. These new requirements have led to new avenues of contention amongst healthcare professionals and, in some cases, new avenues for fraud and patient discrimination.

This article reviews the history of Medicare’s Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP) which began in October 2012. It examines why Medicare and Medicaid initiated the program, clarifies what conditions were originally included in HRRP and analyzes the reasoning behind adding Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) to the list of high priority conditions. It also, clarifies what information U.S Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) take into consideration when calculating readmission rates and points to the fact that high readmission rates could be due to non-hospital factors. The authors review new data that focuses on the potential harm of adding COPD to the list of conditions due to the increased level of patients from lower

The Affordable Care Act was enacted to improve health care and to lower health care cost in America. The ACA developed different strategies to meet these goals called the “pay for performance” programs. These strategies are aimed at the different providers to improve quality care. The strategy that I selected is the “Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program” this program/strategy is also known as the HRRP and was begun in October of 2012. HRRP is aimed at hospitals and penalizes hospitals that have a high 30 day readmission rate. The penalties are assessed and based on a number of comparisons, those such as, performance, patient demographics, comorbidities and frailty.

The Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) was passed in 2012 under the Affordable Care Act, to help hospitals to improve patient care and reduce costs. (Danner, 2016). The diagnoses with the highest readmissions rates associated with the highest expense are: acute myocardial infarction (AMI), pneumonia, and congestive heart failure. CMS also extended their program in 2015 to incorporate reimbursement reduction for hip/knee replacements, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and they also have plans in 2017 to include the

Under the ACA there is a new method of payment called value-based purchasing (Yuh et al., 2015). Value-based purchasing focuses on aspects of quality care such as: patient safety, efficient care, and customer satisfaction. By providing quality care, physicians and hospitals are offered incentives that deter them from providing avoidable and pricey care (Yuh et al., 2015). Another way that the ACA is enhancing quality care is through the Readmissions Reduction Program. This program will decrease the reimbursements that the hospital will receive if there are a surplus of readmissions within a 30 day period. Overall, this will also improve quality of care by making sure that the patient is really ready for discharge when leaving the hospital and also strengthen efforts to reduce nosocomial infections (Aoughsten et al.,

With a variety of trends that account for the increasing cases of the elderly population at risk for hospital readmission, the authors discuss an in depth evaluation on why this occurs. Hospital readmission, a growing health concern, tallied in a whopping $17 B in Medicare cost for unplanned hospitalizations. Readmission, refers to a return to the hospital after discharge from a recent stay where rates are reported mostly at 30, 60, and 90-day intervals after discharge. Even though the elderly, aged 60 years or older, unfailingly represent the highest rate of hospital readmissions compared to other age groups, according to the authors, readmission rates have been associated with patient demographics, chronic conditions and utilization factors. Additionally, although the aforementioned factors contribute to readmission, adverse events such as injuries that result from hospitalization or at home like medication errors. According to (Robinson, Howie-Esquivel, & Vlahov)

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have proposed policies that will penalize healthcare organizations for the increasing readmission rate related to patients who has been diagnosed with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). This readmission policy is part of the CMS Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP) which was enacted to further address the diminishing quality of health care services and to curb the rising cost of health care services by providing financial incentives to healthcare organization in order to promote gravitation toward Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) or Managed Care Organization (MCO). The main objective of levying reimbursement penalties on healthcare organizations is to move away from the fee-for-service method of reimbursement toward a patient-centric, and disease management approach where healthcare services are coordinated not just in the acute phase of disease, but also in the chronic of phase disease.

CMS 30 day-readmission penalties have motivated hospital to reevaluate discharge planning in hopes to reduce 30-day readmissions. Lopes et al. (2015) used the CRUSADE registry to evaluate causes associated with 30-day readmissions. This study included 36,711 patients with non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction, age > 65 enrolled February 15, 2003 – December 29, 2006. This study evaluated comorbidities and cumulative incidence of readmissions over one year and found that readmissions with the very elderly having 50% mortality rate at 1 year which was thought to be impacted by co-morbidities, deconditioning and avoidance of core measure post-MI medications for various reasons. The final conclusion was that

This brief describes in short, the Medicare Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program established in the Affordable Care Act (ACT, 2012), that provides a financial incentive to hospitals to lower readmission rates. Hospitals fear unintended consequences for safety-net hospitals that may threaten care for vulnerable populations. Patient’s who refuse to change life style and comply to

Procedures such as knee and hip replacement are also included. Any of the previously listed disorders or procedures occurring within 30 days of discharge will have a Medicare reimbursement rate cut of 1% the first year and an additional penalty of up to 3 % within the following years. This 30 day time period also includes new hospitals, the patient does not have to be readmitted to the initial hospital where care took place in order for it to count against the hospital. Unlike the HRRP Medicare has determined that “all causes” can be considered a readmission, and subjected to fines not just specified

The U.S government spends about 17% of GDP on healthcare industry which is enormously high as compared to any other industrialized nation. President Obama signed the comprehensive healthcare reform – Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on March 23, 2010. The law worked on the principles of triple aim to reduce healthcare cost, improve quality and access for the U.S citizens. One of the fundamental component of Affordable Care Act that will affect the caregiving to the U.S citizens is payment cuts to the hospitals if they do not provide quality care to their patients. The reason behind these payment cuts is because Part A Medicare Trust may go bankrupt by 2017. Hence, it is necessary to bring the cost of healthcare under control along with providing quality care to the patients. In order to contain cost, ACA proposed Medicare Readmission Program. Effective October 1, 2012 Medicare will reduce payments to the hospitals that will have higher percentage than the specified amount of preventable readmission rates. Effective fiscal year 2015, Medicare will penalize the hospitals by 1 % that will show higher number of hospital acquired infections (KFF, 2013). CMS has reported that approximated one out of every 5 Medicare patients are admitted back to the hospital within 30 days of their prior inpatient stay. Readmission rates are generally high for hospital that serve more vulnerable population like safety net hospitals. The high readmissions are caused by a

Helping patients stay out of hospitals is not only an important quality improvement objective but also a financial one especially after the advent of Affordable Care Act (ACA). Efforts to improve clinical outcomes and reduce readmissions have been ongoing for several years, but still high readmission rates continue to be an issue for most healthcare organizations. Although many hospital readmissions cannot and should not be avoided, a wide variation in readmission rates across the hospitals nationwide, has led the researchers and Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to believe that hospitals can implement various quality improvement strategies to reduce their readmission rates and improve patient care as a whole. In an effort to reduce readmission rates and achieve better quality outcomes, CMS has started Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP) under which the hospitals will be penalized by up to 3% of total Medicare reimbursements, for readmission cases within 30 days specifically for conditions like heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and elective hip or knee replacement. The percentage of hospitals receiving a penalty in 2014 was around 64%, which has increased to about 78% in FY 2015 making it a high priority quality improvement concern for healthcare organizations in order to retain their Medicare patients and balance their Medicare reimbursements.

In an effort to curb these costs, in 2013 the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) enacted the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program. Under this program, hospitals are penalized for readmissions occurring in the first 30 days. The penalties apply to specific conditions for CMS recipients including acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, coronary artery bypass graft