Summary

Hospital readmissions are frequent (∼20% of patients admitted to the hospital are readmitted within 30 days of discharge) and expensive (∼$12 billion dollars/year). The Medicare Payment Advisory Committee has estimated that about 13.3% of these readmissions are preventable [Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. Medicare Payment Policy 2007]. The objective of the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program is to reduce the rate of rehospitalization of Medicare patients for acute myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, and pneumonia, and beginning in 2014, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.