New legislation introduced in Congress would add a risk adjustment component to Medicare’s hospital readmissions reduction program.

Under H.R. 4188, the Establishing Beneficiary Equity in the Hospital Readmission Program Act, hospitals’ performance in preventing Medicare readmissions would be risk-adjusted for patients who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid; for patients who are considered non-compliant; for patients whose readmission has been classified as based on psychosis or substance abuse; and for patients who have specific medical conditions.

Hospitals found to have too many Medicare readmissions suffer financial penalties under the program.

The National Association of Urban Hospitals (NAUH) has long maintained that the program is unfair to private safety-net hospitals because it fails to reflect the more medically and socially challenging patients such hospitals serve and has advocated adding a risk adjustment component to the program.

Learn more about the bill from this news release from its sponsor, Rep. James Renacci (R-Ohio), or find the bill itself here.