STAT February 20, 2024
Groundbreaking research more than a decade ago showed that almost one-fifth of people enrolled in Medicare were being readmitted within 30 days after being discharged from the hospital, harming patients and increasing costs.
That study led to a sea change in health care. The government started closely monitoring readmission rates and imposing fines on hospitals with high rates. Hospitals adopted new procedures aimed at ensuring patients could leave the hospital successfully. Today, patients do better after hospital discharge. That work wouldn’t have been possible without investigators’ access to Medicare data.
Fast-forward to this month, and that kind of sleuthing with Medicare’s data is suddenly in jeopardy. On Feb. 12, in the name of data security and without sufficient warning, the...
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