Northern Montana Hospital to lose funds - along with half the nation

Five hospitals in Montana will be penalized for readmission rates, including Northern Montana Hospital.

Readmission rates allude toward the number of patients who return to a hospital after being released from that hospital and more than half of the United States’ hospitals don’t stand up to the proposed rate set up by Medicare. That’s 2,592 hospitals penalized, or 54 percent of all hospitals.

Specifically, rates for each hospital were figured through readmission rates of patients with one of five conditions: heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, chronic lung problems or effective knee or hip replacements.

The data was taken from July 2011 to July 2014.

Northern Montana Hospital will suffer a readmission penalty of .64 percent for 2013, 0 percent for 2014, .49 percent for 2015 and .84 percent for 2016, according the the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The average penalty for all hospitals penalized is .61 percent.

To find what the appropriate readmission rate is for each hospital, Medicare based the number off the hospital’s mix of patients and how the hospital industry performed overall, Kaiser Health News reported. If the hospital’s number was higher, Medicare would penalize the hospital.

The Readmissions Reduction Program, created by the Affordable Health Care Act, became effective October 2012. According to Kaiser Health News, the national readmission rates have dropped since the program started, but around one in five Medicare patients end up going back to the hospital within a month.

The other Montana hospitals to be penalized are Benefis Hospital, St. Vincent Healthcare in Billings, St. James Healthcare in Butte and St. Peter’s Hospital in Helena.

Northern Montana Hospital Director Dave Henry was not available this morning for comment.