Reducing hospital readmission rates is a national priority.
Approximately 20% of Medicare beneficiaries are readmitted
within 30 days of discharge, and these readmissions
have been estimated to cost the American public >$15 billion
per year.1 The National Quality Forum has endorsed hospital
risk-standardized readmission rates (RSRRs) as performance
measures, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services publicly report these rates. The Patient Protection
Affordable Care Act of 2010 has created new incentives to
reduce readmissions using the publicly reported measures
because hospitals with high readmission rates can lose ≤3% of
their Medicare reimbursement by 2015. In response, dozens of
national, state-based, and local quality campaigns and collaboratives
have emerged to help hospitals reduce readmissions