From NPR —
The federal government took a new step this week to reduce avoidable hospital readmissions of nursing home patients. The move targets the homes’ bottom lines by lowering a year’s worth of payments to nearly 11,000 nursing homes, and giving bonuses to nearly 4,000 others.
These financial incentives, determined by each home’s readmission rates, significantly expand Medicare’s effort to pay medical providers based on the quality of care instead of just the number or condition of their patients. …