WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci (OH-16) announced that the House Ways and Means Committee passed The Helping Hospitals Improve Patient Care Act of 2016, which includes Renacci’s bill to reform the hospital readmissions program.  This legislation will now be reported to the full House of Representatives.

Watch here or click the image below to view Renacci’s statement.  Below the image is the transcript.

“I want to thank the Chairman for all the hard work he has been doing to address these hospital issues such as HOPD.  I heard from many of my hospitals, such as MetroHealth in Cuyahoga County, of the impact this policy was going to have on them and I’m glad we’re fixing that here today. 

I also want to thank the Chairman for including my bill, H.R. 1343 – The Establishing Equity in the Hospital Readmission Program – in the underlying legislation.   

The Hospital Readmissions Program was created under ACA due to concerns that too few resources were being spent on reducing acute care hospital readmissions.  This program penalizes hospitals based on the last three years of available readmission data compared to the national average.  While, we do want to make sure hospitals are reducing acute care readmissions, we also want to make sure we are not disproportionately penalizing those who see a large number of our most vulnerable patient populations who tend to have a higher rate of readmissions due to no fault of the hospital.

I’ve heard from many hospitals in Ohio, and especially many teaching hospitals, who see a large number of dual-eligible beneficiaries, low-income seniors, or young people with disabilities who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid who would have been unintentionally hurt under the current program.  To address these concerns, I introduced the bill which now has 82 bipartisan cosponsors and I want to thank the Chairman for moving this legislation forward today. 

This legislation provides for improved consideration of socioeconomic status in the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program to prevent penalizing hospitals that serve low-income patients, without masking socioeconomic disparities.  Adjusting the penalty to account for certain disparities in patient population can make a big difference to hospitals across the country and the nine million dual-eligible beneficiaries that rely on these hospitals for their critical care needs,” Renacci stated.

Renacci has represented the 16^th district of Ohio since 2011 and sits on the Ways and Means Committee and Budget Committee.

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