Racial and Ethnic Composition of Hospitals' Service Areas and the Likelihood of Being Penalized for Excess Readmissions by the Medicare Program.

Background: The Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP) disproportionately penalizes hospitals serving minority communities. The National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine has recommended that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) consider adjusting for social risk factors in their risk adjustment methodology. This study examines the association between the racial and ethnic composition of a hospital market and the impact of other social risk factors on the probability of a hospital being penalized under the HRRP.

Stroke survivors with severe mental illness: Are they at-risk for increased non-psychiatric hospitalizations?

Background: This study examined outcomes for two groups of stroke survivors treated in Veteran Health Administration (VHA) hospitals, those with a severe mental illness (SMI) and those without prior psychiatric diagnoses, to examine risk of non-psychiatric medical hospitalizations over five years after initial stroke.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study included 523 veterans who survived an initial stroke hospitalization in a VHA medical center during fiscal year 2003. The survivors were followed using administrative data documenting inpatient stroke treatment, patient demographics, disease comorbidities, and VHA hospital admissions.

Healthcare Resource Use and Costs in Long-Term Survivors of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: A 5-Year Longitudinal Cohort Study.

Objective: To evaluate the time-varying relationship of annual physical, psychiatric, and quality of life status with subsequent inpatient healthcare resource use and estimated costs.

Design: Five-year longitudinal cohort study.

Setting: Thirteen ICUs at four teaching hospitals.

Medicaid Reimbursement of Mental Health Peer-Run Organizations: Results of a National Survey.

This study sought to understand whether knowledge of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was associated with willingness of mental health peer-run organizations to become Medicaid providers. Through the 2012 National Survey of Peer-Run Organizations, organizational directors reported their organization's willingness to accept Medicaid reimbursement and knowledge about the ACA. Multinomial logistic regression was used to model the association between willingness to accept Medicaid and the primary predictor of knowledge of the ACA, as well as other predictors at the organizational and state levels.

Health care resource use and costs of two-year survivors of acute lung injury. An observational cohort study.

Rationale: Survivors of acute lung injury (ALI) require ongoing health care resources after hospital discharge. The extent of such resource use, and associated costs, are not fully understood.

Objectives: For patients surviving at least 2 years after ALI, we evaluated cumulative 2-year inpatient admissions and related costs, and the association of patient- and intensive care unit-related exposures with these costs.