The National Association of Urban Hospitals has endorsed H.R. 4188, the Establishing Beneficiary Equity in the Hospital Readmissions Program Act.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jim Renacci (R-Ohio) and introduced just last week, would add a risk adjustment component to Medicare’s hospital readmissions reduction program.  NAUH has long advocated such an addition, maintaining that many of the low-income patients private safety-net hospitals serve are fundamentally harder to treat than the typical hospital patient and that safety-net hospitals are unfairly targeted for financial penalties by the program.  Several recent studies support NAUH’s view.

See NAUH’s letter of endorsement for the bill here, on NAUH’s web site.  Find the bill itself here.