The $18B Impact of Medicare Hospital Readmissions

Medicare will go bankrupt in 10 years, even sooner by less optimistic estimates. One of the largest contributors to the ballooning deficit and to Medicare’s cost is the high frequency of patient readmissions to the hospital.

Nearly 3 percent of all our taxes are going to pay for Medicare and to pay hospitals who allow their patients to “bounce back.” These “bounce backs” as they’re called consume the two costliest resources in the American health system, emergency department and inpatient care. In fact, 1 in 8 Medicare patients are readmitted within 30 days.  In contrast, outpatient and preventative medicine is the cheapest.