Contact: Nisha Bhat
                National Coalition on Health Care
                nbhat@nchc.org
                202-638-7151, ext. 106

NCHC Praises Ways and Means’ Reforms to Hospital Readmissions Policy
Statement by NCHC President and CEO John Rother on reforms to Medicare’s Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP), included in The Helping Hospitals Improve Patient Care Act (H.R. 5273), scheduled for markup today by the full House Ways and Means Committee

“The important reforms to Medicare’s readmissions penalties, as advanced by Representatives Tiberi and McDermott, will enable Medicare to continue reducing readmission rates, while addressing disproportionate and biased penalties against providers serving lower-income populations.

“Improving health care affordability requires improving the value of care delivered—especially in the communities and populations where costly chronic conditions are more prevalent. But it is a fact, documented by MedPAC and peer-reviewed studies, that HRRP’s current methodology penalizes providers serving lower-income patients, draining resources from the places that need them most. In the long-run, continuation of that methodology would generate higher rather than lower cost of care for those patients.

“This new legislation would enable CMS to place hospitals in groups for the purposes of determining penalties. Hospitals would compete against those with a similar proportion of dually eligible patients. NCHC has supported just such an approach for several years, and we are pleased to see it advancing in the House today.”

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The National Coalition on Health Care (NCHC), the oldest and most diverse group working to achieve comprehensive health system reform, is a 501(c)(3) organization representing more than 80 participating organizations, including medical societies, businesses, unions, health care providers, faith-based associations, pension and health funds, insurers and groups representing consumers, patients, women, minorities and persons with disabilities. Member organizations collectively represent – as employees, members, or congregants – over 100 million Americans.

Some members of NCHC do not, or cannot, take positions either on specific legislation, strategies or on any policies outside their respective mission areas. However, all that can, do endorse broad policy positions in support of comprehensive health system change.