Study identifies high-risk groups for readmissions

Editor's Note

Comparing rates, characteristics, and costs of hospital readmissions across all ages and insurance types, researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, found that of more than 12.5 million patients discharged in 2013, approximately 1.8 million were readmitted within 30 days.

Medicare patients accounted for 56% of readmissions, resulting in a cost of $29.6 billion, and non-Medicare patients accounted for 44% of readmissions at a cost of more than $21 billion.

Medicaid patients had the highest odds of readmission across all age groups, most often due to psychiatric disease and substance abuse. Reasons for readmissions in Medicare included pneumonia, heart failure, and heart attack.

The findings suggest that targeted interventions for high-risk groups and select conditions could reduce readmission costs and burden, the researchers conclude.

Few studies have examined rates and causes of short-term readmissions among adults across age and insurance types. We compared rates, characteristics, and costs of 30-day readmission after all-cause hospitalizations across insurance types in the US. We retrospectively evaluated alive patients ≥18 years old, discharged for any cause, 1/1/13-11/31/13, 2006 non-federal hospitals in 21 states in the Nationwide Readmissions Database.