NEW YORK CITY— More than two dozen New York City hospitals face Medicare payment cuts this year under a federal program designed to reduce preventable hospital readmissions.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services imposed penalties on 28 New York City hospitals, with an average payment reduction of 0.84 percent, according to a Patch analysis.
South Brooklyn Health faces the largest cut, at 2.09 percent. The hospital did not respond to Patch's request for comment.
The federal program reduces the base payments hospitals receive from traditional Medicare for inpatient stays when they record higher-than-expected readmission rates for certain conditions and procedures.
The reductions took effect Oct. 1.
The Medicare payment cuts will not directly increase patients' hospital bills or out-of-pocket costs, but they could put additional financial pressure on hospitals, potentially affecting their operations and services.
Nationally, 2,334 hospitals face penalties in fiscal 2027, about 80 percent of those evaluated.
Ten hospitals face the maximum 3 percent reduction, while 244 face cuts of at least 1 percent, up from 240 in fiscal 2026.
For fiscal 2027, federal officials evaluated hospital readmissions using Medicare data covering discharges from July 1,2023, through June 30, 2025. The government shortened the measurement period from three years to two.
The evaluation also marks the first year the government incorporated data from both traditional Medicare and MedicareAdvantage, the privately administered alternative to traditional Medicare.
The penalties, however, apply only to hospitals' payments for traditional Medicare inpatient care.
The federal Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program reduces Medicare payments to hospitals with higher-than-expected rates of patients returning for inpatient care within 30 days of discharge.
The program targets six conditions and procedures: heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary artery bypass graft surgery and elective hip or knee replacement.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services compares each hospital's readmission rates with expected rates based on patients' clinical risks.
The calculations account for factors such as age, medical history and other health conditions.
The program also adjusts for hospitals' shares of patients who qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid, helping account for differences in the populations hospitals serve. However, those adjustments do not eliminate the influence of socioeconomic barriers on readmissions.
Hospitals treating the highest proportions of patients enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid faced an average penalty of 0.33 percent, unchanged from fiscal 2026.
Hospitals with the lowest proportions of these patients faced an average penalty of 0.32 percent, down from 0.35 percent a year earlier.
Medicare provides health coverage primarily to older adults and certain people with disabilities. Medicaid provides coverage to eligible people with limited incomes. Patients enrolled in both programs qualify for assistance through each.
Almost a quarter of evaluated hospitals escaped penalties in fiscal 2027, down from 21.8 percent in fiscal 2026.
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