- Washington Free Beacon -
http://freebeacon.com -
Study: Obamacare Penalizes Hospitals Serving Low-Income Medicare Patients
Posted By Lachlan Markay On September 14, 2015 @ 12:44 pm In Issues | No Comments
Obamacare provisions designed to cut Medicare costs are penalizing hospitals that treat more low-income and otherwise vulnerable patients, according to a new study.
Language in the law designed to reduce hospital readmission rates has caused fines to be levied against hospitals that devote more resources to treating poorer, sicker patients, the Harvard Medical School researchers found.
The Washington Post reported on the study’s findings on Monday:
For the last four years, Medicare has wielded a big stick: It has fined hospitals if too many of their patients returned to any hospital within weeks of being released.
But many safety-net hospitals, including academic teaching hospitals, say this is unfair because they take care of sicker, poorer patients. […]
The researchers found that nearly two dozen variables, such as patients’ education, income and ability to bathe, dress and feed themselves, explain nearly half of the difference in readmission rates between the best- and worst-performing hospitals. […]
The bottom line, the researchers said, is that hospitals treating the most vulnerable patients are being deprived of needed resources.
Article printed from Washington Free Beacon:
http://freebeacon.comURL to article:
http://freebeacon.com/issues/study-obamacare-penalizes-hospitals-serving-low-income-medicare-patients/
