Evaluating whether changes in utilization of hospital outpatient services contributed to lower Medicare readmission rate.

Abstract

The reasons behind the decline in the Medicare readmission rate in 2012 are not yet clear. When looking at utilization changes in absolute terms, our findings suggest that the reduction in the nation-wide readmission rate observed in 2012 was not primarily the result of increases in either post-index ED visits or post-index observation stays.