Hospitals want readmissions program to account for social determinants

Hospitals, particularly safety net providers, are calling on the CMS to better account for patients’ social risk factors in the long-standing readmissions penalty program, but achieving that anytime soon faces hurdles.

“We are still getting our arms around the best data to collect on social risk factors and the mechanism to collect it both for the purposes of improving quality measures and their accuracy and validity for use in patient care,” said Akin Demehin, director of policy at the American Hospital Association.

The 21st Century Cures Act gave the CMS authority to change the program to account for patient social risk so it’s possible for the agency to incorporate social determinants of health. The big question...