MEDICARE TO START IMPOSING FINES FOR HIGH READMISSIONS OF PATIENTS BETH ISRAEL IN BOSTON TO BE HARD HIT

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services seeks to curb patient readmissions and starting this fall, will start fining hospitals where the readmission rates are too high. CMS will begin recouping about $280 million from about 2,200 hospitals beginning in October. One hospital expected to be very hard hit by the fines is the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. The data indicates that hospitals in Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and two other states will be hardest hit. The focus of the Medicare and Medicaid fines will be on those readmitted within 30 days of a previous hospital admission. Nearly one in give Medicare patients return to the hospital within a month of discharge. The government sees this as a symptom of an overly expensive and overly aggressive health care system placing profits over medical necessity. Hospitals benefit more financially when patients don’t recover and return for more treatment. Nearly 2 million Medicare beneficiaries are readmitted within 30 days of release each year costing Medicare $17.5 billion in additional hospital bills.The new penalties are a part of a multifaceted effort by Medicare to force improvements in hospital quality. One of the hospitals that will lose the most in Massachusetts is the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School.