The Medicare Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program: Time for Reform

This op-ed piece, originally published in JAMA, outlines the authors concerns with the current state of the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP), including the absence of significant patient sociodemographic variables from main calculations and the associated disproportionate penalties assigned to safety-net institutions. In their closing, the authors highlight new proposed legislation that will require additional patient characteristics to be included in HRRP calculations (The Hospital Readmissions Program Accuracy and Accountability Act of 2014).