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Changes to Racial Disparities in Readmission Rates After Medicare's Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program Within Safety-Net and Non-Safety-Net Hospitals.

ABSTRACT: Importance:Although readmission rates are declining under Medicare's Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP), concerns remain that the HRRP will harm quality at safety-net hospitals because they are penalized more often. Disparities between white and black patients might widen because more black patients receive care at safety-net hospitals. Disparities may be particularly worse for clinical conditions not targeted by the HRRP because hospitals might reallocate resources toward targeted conditions (acute myocardial infarction, pneumonia, and heart failure) at the expense of nontargeted conditions. Objective:To examine disparities in readmission rates between white and black patients discharged from safety-net or non-safety-net hospitals after the HRRP began, evaluating discharges for any clinical condition and the subsets of targeted and nontargeted conditions. Design, Setting, and Participants:Cohort study conducting quasi-experimental analyses of patient hospital discharges for any clinical condition among fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries from 2007 to 2015 after controlling for patient and hospital characteristics. Changes in disparities were measured within safety-net and non-safety-net hospitals after the HRRP penalties were enforced and compared with prior trends. These analyses were then stratified by targeted and nontargeted conditions. Analyses were conducted from October 1, 2017, through August 31, 2018. Main Outcomes and Measures:Trends in 30-day readmission rates among white and black patients by quarter and differences in trends across periods. Results:The study sample included 58?237?056 patient discharges (black patients, 9.8%; female, 57.7%; mean age [SD] age, 78.8 [7.9] years; nontargeted conditions, 50?372?806 [86.5%]). Within safety-net hospitals, disparities in readmission rates for all clinical conditions widened between black and white patients by 0.04 percentage point per quarter in the HRRP penalty period (95% CI, 0.01 to 0.07; P?=?.01). This widening was driven by nontargeted conditions (0.05 percentage point per quarter [95% CI, 0.01 to 0.08]; P?=?.006), whereas disparities for the HRRP-targeted conditions did not change (with an increase of 0.01 percentage point per quarter [95% CI, -0.07 to 0.10]; P?=?.74). Within non-safety-net hospitals, racial disparities remained stable in the HRRP penalty period across all conditions, whether the conditions were HRRP-targeted or nontargeted. Conclusions and Relevance:Findings from this study suggest that disparities are widening within safety-net hospitals, specifically for non-HRRP-targeted conditions. Although increases in racial disparities for nontargeted conditions were modest, they represent 6 times more discharges in our cohort than targeted conditions.

SUBMITTER: Chaiyachati KH

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6324411 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Changes to Racial Disparities in Readmission Rates After Medicare's Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program Within Safety-Net and Non-Safety-Net Hospitals.

Chaiyachati Krisda H KH Qi Mingyu M Werner Rachel M RM

JAMA network open 20181102 7

<h4>Importance</h4>Although readmission rates are declining under Medicare's Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP), concerns remain that the HRRP will harm quality at safety-net hospitals because they are penalized more often. Disparities between white and black patients might widen because more black patients receive care at safety-net hospitals. Disparities may be particularly worse for clinical conditions not targeted by the HRRP because hospitals might reallocate resources toward ta ...[more]

PMID: 30646342

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Project description:Importance:The strongest evidence for the effectiveness of Medicare's Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) involves greater reductions in readmissions for hospitals receiving penalties compared with those not receiving penalties. However, the HRRP penalty is an imperfect measure of hospitals' marginal incentive to avoid a readmission for HRRP-targeted diagnoses. Objectives:To assess the association between hospitals' condition-specific incentives and readmission performance and to examine the responsiveness of hospitals to condition-specific incentives compared with aggregate penalty amounts. Design, Setting, and Participants:This retrospective cohort analysis used Medicare readmissions data from 2823 US short-term acute care hospitals participating in HRRP to compare 3-year (fiscal years 2016-2019) follow-up readmission performance according to tertiles of hospitals' baseline (2016) marginal incentives for each of 5 HRRP-targeted conditions (acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pneumonia, and hip and/or knee surgery). Main Outcomes and Measures:Linear regression models were used to estimate mean change in follow-up readmission performance, measured using the excess readmissions ratio, with baseline condition-specific incentives and aggregate penalty amounts. Results:Of 2823 hospitals that participated in the HRRP from baseline to follow-up, 2280 (81%) had more than 1 excess readmission for 1 or more applicable condition and 543 (19%) did not have any excess readmissions. The mean (SD) financial incentive to reduce readmissions for incentivized hospitals ranged from $8762 ($3699) to $58?158 ($26?198) per 1 avoided readmission. Hospitals with greater incentives for readmission avoidance had greater decreases in readmissions compared with hospitals with smaller incentives (45% greater for pneumonia, 172% greater for acute myocardial infarction, 40% greater for hip and/or knee surgery, 32% greater for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and 13% greater for heart failure), whereas hospitals with no incentives had increases in excess readmissions of 4% to 7% (median, 4% [percentage change for nonincentivized hospitals was 3.7% for pneumonia, 4.2% for acute myocardial infarction, 7.1% for hip and/or knee surgery, 3.7% for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and 3.7% for heart failure]; P?<?.001). During the study period, each additional $5000 in the incentive amount was associated with a 0.6- to 1.3-percentage point decrease, or up to a 26% decrease, in excess readmissions (P?<?.001). Regression to the mean explained approximately one-third of the results depending on the condition examined. Conclusions and Relevance:The findings suggest that improvements in readmission avoidance are more strongly associated with incentives from the HRRP than with aggregate penalty amounts, suggesting that the program has elicited sizeable changes. Worsened performance among hospitals with small or no incentives may indicate the need for reconsideration of the program's lack of financial rewards for high-performing hospitals.

Project description:ObjectiveTo compare trends in readmission rates among safety net and non-safety net hospitals under the US Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP).DesignA retrospective time series analysis using Medicare administrative claims data from January 2008 to June 2015.SettingWe examined 3254 US hospitals eligible for penalties under the HRRP, categorised as safety net or non-safety net hospitals based on the hospital's proportion of patients with low socioeconomic status.ParticipantsAdmissions for Medicare fee-for-service patients, age ?65 years, discharged alive, who had a valid five-digit zip code and did not have a principal discharge diagnosis of cancer or psychiatric illness were included, for a total of 52 516 213 index admissions.Primary and secondary outcome measuresMean hospital-level, all-condition, 30-day risk-adjusted standardised unplanned readmission rate, measured quarterly, along with quarterly rate of change, and an interrupted time series examining: April-June 2010, after HRRP was passed, and October-December 2012, after HRRP penalties were implemented.Results58.0% (SD 15.3) of safety net hospitals and 17.1% (SD 10.4) of non-safety net hospitals' patients were in the lowest quartile of socioeconomic status. The mean safety net hospital standardised readmission rate declined from 17.0% (SD 3.7) to 13.6% (SD 3.6), whereas the mean non-safety net hospital declined from 15.4% (SD 3.0) to 12.7% (SD 2.5). The absolute difference in rates between safety net and non-safety net hospitals declined from 1.6% (95% CI 1.3 to 1.9) to 0.9% (0.7 to 1.2). The quarterly decline in standardised readmission rates was 0.03 percentage points (95%?CI 0.03 to 0.02, p<0.001) greater among safety net hospitals over the entire study period, and no differential change among safety net and non-safety net hospitals was found after either HRRP was passed or penalties enacted.ConclusionsSince HRRP was passed and penalties implemented, readmission rates for safety net hospitals have decreased more rapidly than those for non-safety net hospitals.

Project description:OBJECTIVES:Prior studies have reported mixed findings about the existence of racial disparities in readmission rates among Medicare Advantage beneficiaries, but these studies used data from one state, focused on black-white disparities, and did not focus on patients discharged to skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). The objective of the study was to characterize racial and ethnic disparities in rates of 30-day rehospitalization directly from SNFs among fee-for-service and Medicare Advantage patients. DESIGN:A cross-sectional study of admissions to SNFs in 2015 was conducted. SETTING:SNFs across the United States. PARTICIPANTS:The sample included 1 500 334 white, 213 848 African American, and 99 781 Hispanic Medicare patients who were admitted to 13 375 SNFs. MEASUREMENTS:The main outcome of interest was readmission, identified as patients sent back to any hospital directly from the SNF within 30?days of admission, as indicated on the Minimum Data Set discharge assessment. RESULTS:Overall readmission rates for fee-for-service patients were 16.7% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 16.7%-16.8%) for whites, 18.8% (95% CI =?18.7%-19.0%) for African Americans, and 17.4% (95% CI =?17.1%-17.7%) for Hispanics. Readmission rates in Medicare Advantage were 14.7% (95% CI =?14.5%-14.8%) for whites, 16.8% (95% CI =?16.6%-17.1%) for African Americans, and 15.3% (95% CI =?14.9%-15.6%) for Hispanics. We also found that African Americans had about 1% higher readmission rates than whites, even when they received care within the same SNF. No statistically significant differences were found in the magnitude of within-SNF racial disparities in Medicare Advantage compared with Medicare fee-for-service. CONCLUSION:We found racial disparities in readmission rates even within the same facility for both Medicare Advantage and fee-for-service beneficiaries. Intervention to reduce disparities in readmission rates, as well as more comprehensive quality measures that incorporate outcomes for Medicare Advantage enrollees, are needed. J Am Geriatr Soc 67:1672-1679, 2019.

Dataset Information

Changes to Racial Disparities in Readmission Rates After Medicare's Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program Within Safety-Net and Non-Safety-Net Hospitals.

Publications

Changes to Racial Disparities in Readmission Rates After Medicare's Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program Within Safety-Net and Non-Safety-Net Hospitals.

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