For patients with COPD, implementation of the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) is associated with a reduction in 30-day readmissions but may increase mortality, according to a recent study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Daniel A. Puebla Neira, MD, and colleagues examined the association between HRRP and 30- day hospital readmission and 30-day post-discharge mortality among 4,587,542 Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries with COPD aged 65 years and older. Data were analyzed for three periods: preannouncement of HRRP (December 2006 to March 2010), announcement (April 2010 to August 2014), and implementation (October 2014 to November 2017). The researchers found that from the preannouncement period to the implementation period, there was a decrease in 30-day readmissions from 20.54% to 18.7%. For the preannouncement, announcement, and implementation periods, the 30-day risk-standardized post-discharge mortality rates were 6.91%, 6.59%, and 7.30%, respectively. An additional 1,196 and 3,858 deaths were estimated during the HRRP implementation period in equations analyses (October 2014 to April 2016 and May 2016 to November 2017, respectively).
