In 2010, CMS established the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program under the ACA. Two years later, the government began fining hospitals with high rates of readmission within 30 days of a hospitalization for pneumonia, heart attack, or heart failure. But a study finds the program may have led to more patient deaths. “Why are policies that profoundly influence patient care not rigorously studied before widespread rollout?” the researchers ask. “[W]e remain uncertain about whether it has had unintentionally deadly consequences. That should be a bracing reminder that before we are seduced by promising but untried ideas, we need to first demand robust evidence that they will not harm patients.”