The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has issued a comprehensive guide with an interactive toolkit for providers to target reductions in Medicaid hospital readmissions. While numerous CMS initiatives have targeted reductions in Medicare readmissions rates, the AHRQ guide is the first of its kind to target Medicaid readmissions. AHRQ states that it has tailored its guide and toolkit to address unique clinical and socioeconomic characteristics of Medicaid patients that may not be incorporated into Medicare readmissions reduction strategies. For instance, the AHRQ toolkit includes a 10-point data analysis tool to contrast a hospital’s readmissions by payor, and scripts and templates for providers to use in patient encounters to better identify and analyze root causes for readmissions.

The guide and toolkit are available here.

Reporter, Christopher Kenny, Washington, D.C., + 1 202 626 9253, ckenny@kslaw.com.