NAPH Submits Comments on CMS Readmission Measure - August 30, 2011

On Aug. 29, NAPH submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on its draft “Hospital-Wide (All-Condition) 30-Day Risk-Standardized Readmission Measure.” In the future, CMS may choose to incorporate this measure, which would assess all-condition, all-cause readmissions, into the Medicare hospital quality reporting or readmissions reduction programs. In addition to urging CMS to include both demographic and socioeconomic factors in its risk-adjustment methodologies, NAPH also recommended that CMS broaden its exclusion criteria for unrelated admissions and develop measures for 7, 15, and 30-day readmissions until researchers conclusively determine the most appropriate timeframe for hospital accountability. For more information on NAPH’s comments, please contact Kevin Van Dyke at kvandyke@naph.org.