Medicare To Withhold $528 Million In Hospital Payments In 2017 As Penalty For High Readmission Rates

For fiscal year 2017, Medicare will impose penalties in the form of lower reimbursement rates on 2,597 hospitals with high 30-day readmission rates; the penalties are projected to total $528 million. The average penalty was cut to reimbursement of 0.73%; and 49 hospitals received the maximum penalty of 3%. The penalties are through the Medicare Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP), and based on the hospital’s readmissions from July 2012 through June 2015.

Under HRRP, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) withholds up to 3% of regular reimbursements for hospitals if they have a . . .