Did This Health Care Policy Do Harm?

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.”