Improving the US hospital reimbursement: how patient satisfaction in HCAHPS reflects lower readmission.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine whether patient readmission rates are associated with patient satisfaction and Medicare reimbursement rates in the US hospitals.

Design/methodology/approach: The Hospital Compare database was obtained from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in the US. A total of 2,711 acute care hospitals were analyzed for this present study.