CMS Program Funding Designed to Reduce Hospital Readmissions Rates

Online, November 25, 2009 (Newswire.com) - Los Angeles, CA - The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is funding 14 communities nationwide to participate in a program designed to improve the quality of care for Medicare beneficiaries after The New England Journal of Medicine reported earlier this year that up to one-fifth of all Medicare patients are readmitted within thirty days of discharge and one-third are re-hospitalized within the next three months.

The CMS-designed Care Transitions Project will promote a case-by-case approach to health care nationwide, rather than applying a "one-size-fits-all" approach. The organization plans to look at each community to understand why hospital readmissions occur locally and how patients transition between health care settings.

CMS Acting Administrator Charlene Frizzera said, "This situation can be changed by approaching health care quality from a community-wide perspective, and focusing on how all of the members of an area's health care team can better work together in the best interests of their shared patient population."

Alan Weinstock, a top producing health insurance broker, agreed. "Helping Medicare participants get the high-quality, high-value health care they want and need is what we do," Weinstock said. "Medicare should be focused on quality follow-up care for seniors."

His Web site, http://www.MedicareSupplementPlans.com, specializes in Medicare supplement insurance, also known as Medigap insurance, and gives those 65 and older the opportunity to compare rates, plans and benefits from several prominent insurance companies.

Medicare recipient Robert Van Wyngaarden, 71, of Northridge, Calif., said of http://www.MedicareSupplementPlans.com, "Each time I have had a question and/or problem with a health care provider they answered and resolved it promptly. This is health care without any stress or worry."