Hospital Readmissions in the Medicare Population

Authors:
  • GAGerard F. Anderson
    Gerard F. Anderson
  • ESEarl P. Steinberg
    Earl P. Steinberg
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
In order to examine the proportion of Medicare expenditures attributable to repeated admissions to the hospital, we assessed the frequency with which 270,266 randomly selected Medicare beneficiaries were readmitted after hospital discharge between 1974 and 1977. Twenty-two per cent of Medicare hospitalizations were followed by a readmission within 60 days of discharge. Medicare spent over $2.5 billion per year (24 per cent of Medicare inpatient expenditures) on such readmissions between 1974 and 1977. Analogous expenditures in 1984 could approach $8 billion.