A new bill introduced in Congress this week would require Medicare to consider the social determinants of health of the patients individual hospitals serve as part of its hospital readmissions reduction program.

The Establishing Beneficiary Equity in the Hospital Readmissions Program Act of 2015 was introduced as S. 688 in the Senate, sponsored by Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Joe Manchin (D-WV), and in the House by Representatives Jim Renacci (R-OH) and Eliot Engel (D-NY) as H.R. 1343.

Rep. Renacci introduced a similar measure last year.  NAUH endorsed that bill.  This year’s version has bipartisan sponsorship in both the House and Senate.

Since the launch of Medicare’s readmissions reduction program several years ago, NAUH has maintained that it treats private safety-net hospitals unfairly because it fails to reflect the large numbers of especially challenging patients such hospitals serve – challenging because of the many socio-economic barriers to care they face.  In recent years a number of studies have confirmed that bias and this latest proposal seeks to correct this shortcoming in the Medicare program.

To learn more about this proposal, see this news release announcing the bill.  Find the bill itself here.