CMS Tinkers With Readmissions Policy, Other Quality Initiatives

The agency plans to be more selective about which hospital readmissions count toward a potential payment reduction in fiscal year 2014, according to its inpatient payment proposal. CMS also proposes hip and knee replacements as a new category of hospital admission to be included in the readmissions reduction program.

CMS plans to be more forgiving to hospitals in tabulating 30-day readmission rates as a basis for reducing payments next year, although the penalty will be higher for facilities that do exceed the readmissions threshold.

In addition, the agency says it wants to add two new patient admission conditions to those that will be included in the readmission penalty calculations for 2015, including hip and...

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