CMS study: All-cause 30-day readmissions declining

All-cause, 30-day Medicare readmission rates showed “meaningful decline” in 2012 when compared to readmissions between 2007 and 2011, according to a Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Research Review study published online on May 29. While the trend is welcome news to CMS, study authors cautioned that cause of the apparent reduction remains unclear and merits further investigation.

The study found that between 2007 and 2012, average hospital readmission rates remained stable at 19 percent but dipped to an average of 18.4 percent in 2012. Digging deeper, it reported that hospitals participating in the Partner for Patients program—a CMS-led public-private partnership launched in 2011 that aims to improve care and lower costs—consistently saw fewer readmissions in comparison to non-participants. Nevertheless, both groups saw a decline, the research found.

“We estimate that this reduction translates to approximately 70,000 fewer readmissions during 2012 than if the rate had remained at 19 percent,” wrote leader author Geoffrey Gerhardt and colleagues at CMS’ Office of Information Products & Data Analytics.  

The study looked at readmission rates for all clinical diagnoses and included beneficiaries who were readmitted to a different hospital than the one from which they were initially discharged. During an average month in 2007, providers saw 23.7 admissions and 5.1 readmissions compared to 23.7 admissions and 4.4 readmissions in 2012.

“Thus, the number of index admissions and readmissions on a per-beneficiary basis were 10 to 14 percent lower in 2012 than in 2007, with the number of readmissions falling somewhat faster than the corresponding index admissions, which helps explain the lower readmission rate,” Gerhardt et al wrote.

The authors presented a variety of factors that could have influenced the reduction, including payment reforms and other initiatives that focus on reducing avoidable readmissions or that more beneficiaries are receiving post-discharge care through emergency departments, observational stays or other non-inpatient settings without material improvements in quality of care.

The report can be viewed here.