The Glendale Healthier Community Coalition brought together representatives from several nonprofit organizations this week for a workshop with the three local hospitals looking at ways to reduce patient readmissions.
Starting Oct. 1, Medicare began penalizing hospitals whose readmissions of patients with pneumonia, congestive heart failure and coronary disease were above a rate established by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services using past information from each site and statistics from hospitals of similar sizes and demographics.
For fiscal year 2013, Glendale Memorial Hospital will lose up to 1% is its Medicare reimbursements — the highest penalty levied — and Glendale Adventist Medical Center will lose about 0.7%, according to information from the Medicare agency. Verdugo Hills Hospital will not lose any reimbursements.
Thomas Backer, president of Encino-based Valley Nonprofit Resources, told the coalition on Monday that nonprofits can play a pivotal role in reducing readmissions.
“It starts in the hospital, but it has to go out into the community if it’s to be successful,” said Backer, whose organization serves more than 4,000 nonprofit organizations in the San Fernando Valley, including Glendale and Burbank.
