The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reports that preventable hospitalizations have been on a steep decline because of public-policy and other changes.

• Preventable hospitalizations for long-term care facility patientswith certain conditions and eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid  fell 31 percent in 2010-2015.
• Avoidable hospitalizations for dually eligible long-term-care patients declined to 157 per 1,000 beneficiaries in 2015 from 227 in 2010.

HealthcareDIVE says the Affordable Care Act helped to drive the reduction in preventable hospitalizations with its readmissions-prevention provisions.  Other elements in the decline include the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program, bundled payments, Accountable Care Organizations and value-based care initiatives in such often manageable conditions as bacterial pneumonia, urinary-tract infections, congestive heart failure, dehydration and chronic pulmonary disease.

To read the CMS report, please hit this link.

To read the HealthcareDive analysis, please hit this link.