CMS issues guide to preventing hospital readmissions among diverse Medicare patients

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Office of Minority Health today issued a guide to help hospital leaders prevent readmissions among racially and ethnically diverse Medicare beneficiaries. The guide reviews key readmissions issues and strategies for reducing readmissions, and offers high-level recommendations to prevent avoidable readmissions in diverse populations. CMS developed the guide in collaboration with the Disparities Solutions Center at Massachusetts General Hospital and the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago as part of the agency’s plan to reduce health disparities in Medicare. “America’s hospitals are deeply committed to ensuring all patients receive high quality care and applaud CMS for helping to spread best practices on addressing readmissions among diverse patient populations,” said Maulik Joshi, president of HRET and associate executive vice president of AHA. “Hospitals are implementing many of the practices outlined in the report, and in particular, have redoubled their efforts to use data to identify opportunities for improvement. Indeed, nearly 1,000 hospitals and 35 state and metropolitan hospital associations have pledged to examine their performance on quality measures by race, ethnicity and language, and implement plans to address any disparities in care.”