A new report says that a federal initiative to reduce preventable hospital admissions among nursing-home residents has had encouraging early results.
In 2014, the second year of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services initiative, Medicare expenditures fell for all seven demonstration sites and all-cause hospitalizations. Further, potentially avoidable hospitalizations fell across sites.
“As we plan for new Medicare payment incentives to reduce hospital readmissions from skilled nursing facilities, these results provide early indications that when the right strategies are in place, they may effectively reduce hospitalization rates and reduce overall Medicare spending,” said Patrick Conway, M.D., CMS’s principal deputy administrator and chief medical officer.
