Studies have shown that a projected $26 billion of Medicare spending is caused by readmissions. An estimated 65 percent of that $26 billion may be unnecessary. That’s almost $17 billion in taxpayer dollars going to pay for hospital stays and medical procedures that may be wasteful or unneeded.
This was the inspiration for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP). This program penalizes hospitals with higher than....