At a time when Medicare and many state Medicaid programs are attempting to penalize hospitals when patients are readmitted shortly after they were discharged, researchers have found that some of those readmissions are linked to factors beyond hospitals’ control.
According to research presented recently at the American Heart Association’s Quality of Care & Outcomes Research Scientific Sessions 2012, differences in regional readmission rates are more closely tied to socioeconomic factors and access to care than they are to hospitals’ performance.
Researchers found that nine percent of regional variation in hospital readmission rates can be tied to patients’ poverty.  Access to care, based

Primary care physicians serving Medicaid patients will receive a raise in their fees for the next two years.
The raises, a temporary measure mandated by the Affordable Care Act, will be in effect for calendar years 2013 and 2014 and will raise Medicaid’s primary care physician fees to the same level paid by Medicare for comparable services.
The $11 billion needed to pay for this raise will come from the federal government.  States will not be required to provide matching funds.
Read a news release from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) about the new Medicaid primary care fee here, a

Seeking to counter a trend toward slashing state Medicaid spending, a new group calling itself “My Medicaid Matters” has emerged in Texas to advocate more appropriate funding for the state/federal health insurance program.
Among the groups participating in the coalition are the Center for Public Policy Priorities and the Children’s Defense Fund.
Read more about My Medicaid Matters, its advocacy, and the challenges Medicaid advocates face in Texas in this Dallas Morning News article.

The health care safety net is failing in Sacramento, California, leaving more than 400,000 residents who are covered by Medicaid or are uninsured with very limited access to primary care services.
The county, which once operated six public clinics, now has just one, leaving many low-income patients with only hospital emergency rooms to turn to for care.  Other free clinics are overwhelmed.
Read more about the situation today in this urban part of California in this Sacramento Bee article.

Enrollment increases spurred by the weak economy have been the primary force driving up state and federal Medicaid spending.
Meanwhile, Medicaid spending for health care services is growing slower than other sectors of the health care industry.
These are among the conclusions reached in “Enrollment-Driven Expenditure Growth:  Medicaid Spending During the Economic Downturn, FFY 2007-2010,” a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation.  Read that report here.