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CHIA PUBLISHES SFY 2011-2023 HOSPITAL-WIDE ADULT ALL-PAYER READMISSIONS REPORT

CHIA PUBLISHES SFY 2011-2023 HOSPITAL-WIDE ADULT ALL-PAYER READMISSIONS REPORT

DATE: January 2, 2025

The Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA) has published its most recent report on Hospital-Wide Adult All-Payer Readmissions in Massachusetts: SFY 2011-2023. The statewide adult readmission rate was 16.0 percent in State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2023, consistent with previous years.

 

Unplanned hospital readmissions can be used as an indicator of health system performance, for instance as a reflection of appropriate levels of treatment before discharge and follow-up care afterward. A reduction in avoidable readmissions may be tied to lower costs and improved patient experience, and it has been a key measure of health system quality and value since the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010.

 

This report is the ninth in CHIA’s annual series of all-payer readmission reports and includes data through SFY 2023 data (July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023). For the first time, this report includes an enhanced payer type classification that leverages insurance enrollment data from Medicare, Medicaid (MassHealth), and commercial payers and includes a new breakout for patients dually eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. This report also includes additional analyses by patient characteristics, including sex and race/ethnicity, to provide a more comprehensive look at differences in

readmissions by important sociodemographic factors.

 

Key Findings:

 

  • The adult all-cause all-payer unplanned readmission rate in 2023 was 16.0 percent, consistent with previous years.

 

  • Non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic patients age 65 and older had a higher readmission rate (both 17.8 percent) compared with patients of other racial/ethnic and age groups.

 

  • Dually eligible patients (i.e., individuals enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid) had the highest readmission rate of all payer groups, at 21.7 percent.

 

  • Medicare patients, regardless of dual eligibility, accounted for 59 percent of all readmissions.

 

  • Frequently hospitalized patients, defined as those with four or more hospitalizations within 12 months, accounted for 6 percent of hospitalized patients in 2023 but 51 percent of all readmissions, with a readmission rate of 43.6 percent.

 

  • Commercially insured patients had the lowest readmission rate among payer types (9.9 percent), but the readmission rate for this group has increased over the past several years.

 

This report is also accompanied by a hospital-specific interactive dashboard, which displays readmission rates by hospital and enables comparison with statewide estimates and across hospitals. A detailed databook and technical appendix are also available.