Association of HRRP with surgical readmissions

Editor's Note

The Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) decreased readmissions for targeted procedures, but no association was found for nontargeted procedures in this study.

This analysis of 672,135 Medicare patients treated at 2,773 hospitals included 507,663 patients who had total knee or hip arthroplasty procedures (targeted) and 164, 472 who had abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, colectomy, or lung resection procedures (nontargeted).

Readmission rates after targeted procedures decreased faster during the performance period than the prepolicy period. For nontargeted procedures, readmission rates were already decreasing during the prepolicy period but plateaued during the performance period.

The lack of spillover effects for the nontargeted surgical procedures are contrary to the policy associations found after medical discharges. A better understanding of the differences in the association of the HRRP policy with medical and surgical discharges will be necessary to enhance its generalizability, the authors say.

This cohort study evaluates the association of the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program with readmissions after major joint surgery (targeted) and procedures with historically high rates not under its purview (nontargeted).

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