49 states have reduced hospital readmissions since 2010

Almost every state, along with the District of Columbia, saw a decrease in Medicare 30-day hospital readmission rates between 2010 and 2015, falling by 8 percent nationally.

The data from CMS said Vermont was the lone exception, and its readmissions rate barely rose from 15.3 to 15.4 percent.

In a blog post from CMS’s chief medical officer Patrick Conway, MD, and its deputy chief of staff, Tim Gronniger, the credit for the decrease was given to initiatives like the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program and the efforts of accountable care organizations.

“The goal of all of these efforts is to spend our healthcare dollars more wisely to promote better care for Medicare beneficiaries and other Americans across the country,” Conway and Gronniger wrote.

Forty-three states had readmission rates fall by more than 5 percent and 11 states had reductions above 10 percent.

The greatest improvements, percentage-wise, were in Hawaii, where readmissions fell by 13.4 percent in the five-year period, followed by New Jersey (decrease of 13.3 percent) and South Dakota (11.4 percent). The largest decreases in the number of readmissions were in New York (8,407 fewer 30-day readmissions in 2015 than 2010), Illinois (8,108 fewer readmissions) and New Jersey (6,774 fewer readmissions).  

Maryland had the highest readmission rate in 2015 at 18.9 percent, while Utah had the lowest at 11.5 percent.  

The overall decrease means about 100,000 30-day readmissions were avoided in 2015 alone, and 560,000 overall since 2010—which could translate to big savings, as CMS estimated readmissions accounts for $17 billion in Medicare spending annually.