A significant number of Fairfield and Westchester counties”™ hospitals will see their payments from Medicare slashed for high rates of readmissions and/or those with the highest numbers of infections and patient injuries.
Under programs set up by the Affordable Care Act, the federal government cuts Medicare to hospitals by as much as 3% for each patient under the readmission penalties, and by 1% over patient safety penalties.
The penalties are applied over the federal fiscal year, which runs from October through September. Maryland hospitals are exempted from penalties, as it has a separate payment arrangement with Medicare.
The penalties are based on patients who stayed in the hospitals anytime between mid-2017 and 2019, before Covid-19.
In Fairfield County, Bridgeport Hospital is the only one whose payments from Medicare will be cut by 1% for having high rates of patient infections or other potentially avoidable medical complications.
But it is not the only Fairfield County hospital to be cited for what the government considers excessive rehospitalizations. Bridgeport is being penalized by 2.62%, along with Danbury Hospital (0.39%); Greenwich Hospital (0.79%); Norwalk Hospital (0.92%); St. Vincent”™s Medical Center (0.72%); and Stamford Hospital (0.7%).
Manchester Memorial Hospital was assessed the highest such penalty in the state, 2.89%.
In Westchester County, the following hospitals received penalties for rehospitalizations: Hudson Valley Hospital Center in Cortlandt Manor (1.84%); Montefiore Mount Vernon (0.43%); Montefiore New Rochelle (0.24%); Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco (1.91%); Nyack Hospital (2.36%); St. John”™s Riverside in Yonkers (1.07%); St. Joseph”™s Medical Center in Yonkers (0.27%); Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla (0.24%); and White Plains Hospital Center (1.76%).
The highest such penalty in the state ”“ 2.44% ”“ was received by St. Luke”™s Cornwall Hospital in Newburgh.
Receiving the 1% penalty for high rates of infections and/or complications were Montefiore Mount Vernon and Montefiore New Rochelle; St. Joseph”™s in Yonkers; and Westchester Medical Center.
