The increased hospital penalties for 30-day readmission rates just went into effect on October 1, 2014, and about three-quarters of all hospitals are impacted. Home health offers hospitals one of the best strategies to reduce admissions, but are we living up to the challenge? CMS provides national data on the rates of rehospitalizations by hospital and plans to start sharing 30 day rehosptializations rates of HHA’s sometime this month. With the impacts to hospitals and HHA pay-for-performance just around the corner, agencies need to continually look at their performance and understand the relationships of patient characteristics and the utilization of services provided to improve their scores.

Using data from the Strategic Healthcare Programs national database, we intend to share the data behind hospital readmissions that will analyze these different characteristics and agency profiles. Please join us as we delve into the characteristics and elements of readmissions that can lead to better performance.