Congressman James Renacci has put out a call to his fellow House members to support H.R. 4188, the Establishing Beneficiary Equity in the Hospital Readmissions Program Act.

The bill seeks to improve Medicare’s hospital readmissions reduction program, which penalizes hospitals that are deemed to have “too many” Medicare readmissions, but adding a risk adjustment component to reflect the additional challenges that some hospitals – like private safety-net hospitals – face because they serve low-income patients who often are more difficult to treat than the typical hospital patient.

In a “Dear Colleague” letter, Representative Renacci invites his House colleagues to join him as a co-sponsor of the bill.

The National Association of Urban Hospitals (NAUH) has long called for such risk adjustment in the hospital readmissions reduction program, has endorsed the bill, and has worked to recruit co-sponsors for the measure.

See Mr. Renacci’s appeal to his House colleagues here.