CMW News: Medicare rehospitalizations cost $17.4 billion in 2004
Case Management Weekly, April 8, 2009
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A study recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine examined Medicare claims data from 2003 to 2004 and found that one-fifth of Medicare patients were rehospitalized within 30 days of discharge during that time period.
The study further showed that 34% of the 11,855,702 Medicare beneficiaries studied were readmitted to hospitals within 90 days of discharge, and more than half of the patients readmitted within 30 days showed no record of a primary care physician visit after discharge.
The average stay of readmitted patients was 0.6 days longer than patients in the same diagnosis-related group. The cost of hospital readmissions in Medicare patients is likely to increase in coming years as the baby boomer generation ages.
Sources: The New England Journal of Medicine, Fierce Healthcare
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