Danbury Hospital Penalized for High Readmission Rate

DANBURY, CT —Danbury Hospital joins the majority of Connecticut hospitals which will forfeit a percentage of their Medicare reimbursement for having a high rate of readmitted patients, according to data supplied by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Under guide lines established by the Affordable Care Act, the federal government cuts payments to hospitals that have high rates of readmissions, as well as those with high numbers of infections and patient injuries.

Medicare will cut as much as three percent for each patient a hospital readmits, although the average is usually lower. Penalties levied due to high rates of infection or injury cost hospitals one percent of Medicare payments over the federal fiscal year, which runs from October through September.

Medicare will be reducing its payments to Danbury Hospital by 0.85 percent in the coming fiscal year due to readmissions, trending upward from 0.63 in the previous year. Penalties for infections and injuries acquired while a patient was in-house have not yet been released.

In Connecticut, 90 percent of the hospitals evaluated will have their reimbursements dinged to one degree or another, in the federal fiscal year that began Oct. 1. Nationwide, over 2,500 hospitals will be penalized this year, according to Kaiser Health News.