Background | Medicare’s Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP) penalizes hospitals with elevated 30-day readmission rates for acute myocardial infarction (AMI), heart failure (HF), or pneumonia. To reduce readmissions, hospitals may have increased referrals to skilled nursing facilities and home health care.
Research Design | Outcomes included 30-day post-discharge utilization of skilled nursing facility and home health care, including any use as well as days of use. Subjects included Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries aged ≥65 who were admitted with AMI, HF, or pneumonia to hospitals subject to the HRRP. Using an interrupted time-series analysis, we compared utilization rates observed after the announcement of the HRRP (April 2010-September 2012) and after the imposition of penalties (October 2012-September 2014) with projected utilization rates that accounted for pre-HRRP trends (January 2008-March 2010). Models included patient characteristics and hospital fixed effects.
Results | For AMI and HF, utilization of skilled nursing facility and home health care remained stable overall. For pneumonia, observed utilization of any skilled nursing facility care increased modestly (1.0%, p<0.001 during anticipation; 2.4%, p<0.001 after penalties) and observed utilization of any home health care services declined modestly (−0.5%, p=0.008 after announcement; −0.7%, p=0.045 after penalties) relative to projections. Beneficiaries with AMI and pneumonia treated at penalized hospitals had higher rates of being in the community 30 days post-discharge.
Conclusions | Hospitals might be shifting to more intensive post-acute care to avoid readmissions among seniors with pneumonia. At the same time, penalized hospitals’ efforts to prevent readmissions may be keeping higher proportions of their patients in the community.
This study was published in Medical Care.