Case Management

Study: CMS off the mark on readmission causes

Case Management Insider, June 30, 2015

CMS may not be getting it right when it comes to readmissions, according to a new study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

 
The authors of the study say that while CMS focuses on comorbidity as a readmission predictor, the truth is that functional status is a better indicator of whether a patient will wind up back in the hospital after discharge.
 
"This raises a question of whether Medicare is really using the best predictors to really understand readmission," principal investigator Jeffrey Schneider, MD, medical director of the Trauma, Burn and Orthopedic Program at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston and assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School said to HealthLeaders Media. It also raises questions about how fairly hospitals are being financially penalized.

 

Most Popular