The hospital readmission rate PUF presents nation-wide information about inpatient hospital stays that occurred within 30 days of a previous inpatient hospital stay (readmissions) for Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries. The readmission rate equals the number of inpatient hospital stays classified as readmissions divided by the number of index stays for a given month. Index stays include all inpatient hospital stays except those where the primary diagnosis was cancer treatment or rehabilitation. Readmissions include stays where a beneficiary was admitted as an inpatient within 30 days of the discharge date following a previous index stay, except cases where a stay is considered always planned or potentially planned. Planned readmissions include admissions for organ transplant surgery, maintenance chemotherapy/immunotherapy, and rehabilitation.
This dataset has several limitations. Readmissions rates are unadjusted for age, health status or other factors. In addition, this dataset reports data for some months where claims are not yet final. Data published for the most recent six months is preliminary and subject to change. Final data will be published as they become available, although the difference between preliminary and final readmission rates for a given month is likely to be less than 0.1 percentage point.
Data Source: The primary data source for these data is the CMS Chronic Condition Data Warehouse (CCW), a database with 100% of Medicare enrollment and fee-for-service claims data. For complete information regarding data in the CCW, visit
http://ccwdata.org/index.php.
Study Population: Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries with inpatient hospital stays.