CHIA Releases Behavioral Health and Readmissions Report

DATE: October 31, 2019

CHIA is excited to publish its second report on behavioral health and readmissions in Massachusetts acute care hospitals. This report is a statewide, all-payer examination of the prevalence of behavioral health comorbidities and readmissions among hospitalized adults in Massachusetts acute care hospitals.

Until recently, hospital readmission reduction efforts have focused primarily on medical or surgical conditions, with less emphasis on patients' behavioral health conditions. Given the high hospital utilization and cost associated with comorbid behavioral health conditions, stakeholders share a growing awareness that patients with behavioral health comorbidities may have a higher than average risk of readmissions, thus any efforts to reduce readmissions should include identifying risk factors associated with these populations.

Based on data reported to CHIA's Hospital Inpatient Discharge Database for discharges between July 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017, CHIA examined the readmission patterns for individuals with comorbid behavioral health conditions at the statewide level, by patient demographics, payer type, discharge diagnosis, and discharge setting.

This report is also accompanied by a databook and technical appendix. For more information on hospital-wide adult all-payer readmissions in the Commonwealth, please visit the Hospital-Wide Adult All-Payer Readmissions webpage.