Medicare penalizes more than half of hospitals for readmissions

Editor's Note

Nearly 2,600 hospitals will be penalized for missing readmission targets under Medicare, with a loss of $420 million, Kaiser Health News reports.

The average Medicare payment reduction is 0.61% per patient stay; 38 hospitals will receive the maximum cut of 3%.

The reductions are based on readmissions of patients hospitalized for heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, chronic lung problems, or hip or knee replacements. 

The fines, in their fourth year, are assessed on hospitals that have patients frequently return and will cost nearly 2,600 hospitals $420 million in total.

Once again, the majority of the nation's hospitals are being penalized by Medicare for having patients frequently return within a month of discharge - this time losing a combined $420 million, government records show. In the fourth year of federal readmission penalties, 2,592 hospitals will receive lower payments for every Medicare patient that stays in the hospital - readmitted or not - starting in October.