In an effort to pay for better performance, the federal government is penalizing 169 Texas hospitals that had the highest rates of Medicare patients readmitted within 30 days of being treated for heart failure, heart attacks or pneumonia. Those hospitals will see their Medicare payment rates for all procedures reduced by up to 2 percent.
Using data compiled by Kaiser Health News, this interactive compares the penalty rates at hospitals across the state. Look up which hospitals will take a Medicare rate hit in 2014 or review the hospitals in a county near you.
Hospitals were first penalized for poor readmission rates this year as part of the federal Affordable Care Act — up to 1 percent of Medicare rates. Next year, the maximum penalty increases to 2 percent. On average, Texas hospitals will have their Medicare payments reduced by 0.32 percent in 2014; 115 hospitals will have lower penalties in 2014 than in 2013, while 83 hospitals will have higher penalties.
Hospital | City | 2014 Penalty Rate | 2013 Penalty Rate | Change in Penalty Rate |
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This story was produced in partnership with Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan health policy research and communication organization not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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Comments (3)
Peck Young
This is silly.Senior citizens have relapses. Hospitals should not be penalized for providing care for serving people with fragile health.
Meme Me
So what will the result of this be? Will they be kept in the hospital longer until fully recovered the first time? Or, will they refuse to readmit them and send them home to die?
July Christmas
BRAVO to Obamacare for publicizing metrics that help us consumers make educated choices about WHERE we seek our medical care. Until now, such medical data has not been made available to the public. Also, thx to the Trib for putting this out here for us. Yes, there will be extenuating circumstances that affect these specific ratings but, let's face it, people (and the medical community) try harder in areas where they KNOW they are being measured.