Quality Improvement Spillovers: Evidence From the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program

@article{Soltani2020QualityIS,
  title={Quality Improvement Spillovers: Evidence From the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program},
  author={Mohamad Soltani and Robert J. Batt and Hessam Bavafa},
  journal={PSN: Health Care Delivery (Topic)},
  year={2020}
}
Financial incentives are commonly used to encourage improvements in quality. However, the presence of spillovers can make managing these incentives difficult. Using a large, national dataset, we study the spillover effects of a national healthcare quality improvement policy, the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP), on patients and metrics not targeted by the policy. Whereas prior work has shown limited spillover of quality improvement initiatives in manufacturing settings, we find… 
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17 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
2
Background Citations
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Results Citations
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17 Citations

Impact of the Medicare hospital readmissions reduction program on vulnerable populations

TLDR
The HRRP appears to have created the right incentives for reducing readmissions not only overall but also for vulnerable populations, accruing societal benefits in addition to previously found reductions in costs.

Unintended Consequences of Hospital Regulation: The Case of the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program

TLDR
It is shown that part of this reduction in readmission rates after HRRP may be due to hospitals admitting more patients for observation as opposed to inpatient admission, and variation in hospitals' financial exposure to HRRP due to: i) readmission performance relative to national average; and ii) financial constraints.

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Predictive analytics for 30-day hospital readmissions

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It turns out that the patient's age is the most important factor impacting hospital readmission, which can help hospitals and CMS reduce costly readmissions.

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It is found that home health visits that are longer than usual by one minute reduce the risk of hospital readmission by approximately 8 percent, and these effects seem to be driven by providers with higher levels of discretion in their time management and care provision.

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The findings suggest that prior studies estimating the cost of ED crowding underestimate the true effect, as they do not consider the “extra” post-ED care utilization.

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References

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Unintended Consequences of Hospital Regulation: The Case of the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program

TLDR
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TLDR
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