Pediatric Inpatient Readmissions in an Accountable Care Organization

Abstract

To assess the association between the length of consistent primary care as part of an accountable care organization (attribution length) and population-level and same-hospital readmissions. Readmission studies are generally focused on same-hospital readmissions rather than readmissions to any hospital (population-level readmissions). A retrospective study of Medicaid claims data for 28,794 unique pediatric patients attributed to a single children's hospital between September 2013 and May 2015. Study used logistic regression to estimate the impact of attribution length on readmissions and a zero-inflated Poisson model to assess the impact of attribution length on readmission cost and readmission days. The study showed attribution length was associated with a significant reduction in the population-level 30-day readmission rate from 8.9%-6.2% (P = .010) primarily by reducing readmissions that occurred at hospitals other than the discharging hospital. There was no significant reduction in the same-hospital readmission rate. Readmissions to a different hospital occurred in 37% of readmissions. Although not significant at the P = .05 level, attribution length was associated with a 44% reduction (P = .100) in 30-day readmission costs or a 5.0% reduction in the cost of an inpatient episode of care and a 53% reduction (P = .019) in readmission days. Consistent primary care (attribution length) may be able to reduce 30-day, pediatric Medicaid patients' readmissions at the population level. The decrease occurred primarily in readmissions to hospitals other than the discharging hospital. There was no decrease in the rate of same-hospital readmissions.