Hospitals penalized for readmission rates

Starting in October, 2,592 hospitals will receive lower payments for Medicare patients due to penalties for high rates of readmissions, according to Kaiser Health News. The hospitals will lose a combined $420 million through the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program, which was created by the Affordable Care Act.

The program determines the fines based on readmissions of Medicare patients from July 2011 to June 2014 who were hospitalized for chronic lung problems, elective hip or knee replacements, heart attacks, heart failures, or pneumonia.

Source: Kaiser Health News