Costly unplanned hospital readmissions remain problem

DATE: February 24, 2016

BOSTON -- Unplanned patient readmissions to hospitals, which drive up health-care costs because they are often preventable, remain a problem in Massachusetts, where 78 percent of hospitals face federal penalties for having higher-than-expected readmissions in the most recent federal fiscal year.

A Center for Health Information and Analysis report, released at noon Tuesday, shows that 81 percent of readmissions were for patients covered by public or government payers. The report also found that the readmission rate for commercial payers was 10.3 percent, compared to 17.4 percent for Medicare and 17 percent for Medicaid.