Bill introduced to reduce hospital readmissions

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) has introduced legislation that seeks to reduce hospital readmission rates by improving the follow-up care patients receive after leaving the hospital. The Medicare Care Transitions Act of 2009 would save billions of dollars each year by incorporating a model that Colorado has used to reduce readmission rates and improve care, Bennet said in a written statement.

The bill would create a nationwide network of community-based transitional “care coaches” whose duties would include helping patients self-manage their condition and medications over time, providing personal follow-up care, and serving as an access point when patients change care settings. The goal is to improve patient quality and cost-effectiveness of care for Medicare beneficiaries and ease the burden on providers to reduce hospital readmission rates, according to a summary of the bill.

“Across the country, too many seniors are being readmitted to a hospital within a month even though it could often be preventable,” according to the statement. A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that unplanned rehospitalizations among Medicare beneficiaries are expensive and frequent, accounting for $17.4 billion of $102.6 billion Medicare paid to hospitals in 2004. Bennet’s legislation has been referred to the Senate Finance Committee.

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