California Department of Industrial Relations and California Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation.

Black patients admitted to hospitals with and without coronary revascularization services are less likely to receive coronary revascularization. The higher long-term mortality of black patients may reflect the lower use of revascularization or other aspects of AMI care.

Key Points Question Does a safety-net hospital definition based on uncompensated care identify different types of hospitals compared with other definitions? Findings In this cross-sectional study of 2066 hospitals, the Medicare Disproportionate Share Hospital index identified larger teaching safety-net hospitals, whereas a definition based on uncompensated care captured smaller, rural safety-net hospitals at greater financial risk. Bad debt and charity care were approximately twice as high for safety-net hospitals as for non–safety-net hospitals, unreimbursed costs were 38% higher, and operating margins were more than 6 times lower. Meaning Medicare Disproportionate Share Hospital payment formulas are evolving to emphasize uncompensated care, and hospitals may experience funding changes as a result.

IMPORTANCE Excess 30-day readmissions have declined substantially in hospitals initially penalized for high readmission rates under the Medicare Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP). Although a possible explanation is that the policy incentivized penalized hospitals to improve care processes, another is regression to the mean (RTM), a statistical phenomenon that predicts entities farther from the mean in one period are likely to fall closer to the mean in subsequent (or preceding) periods owing to random chance. OBJECTIVE To quantify the contribution of RTM to declining readmission rates at hospitals initially penalized under the HRRP. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTSThis study analyzed data from Medicare Provider and Analysis Review files to assess changes in readmissions going forward and backward in time at hospitals with high and low readmission rates during the measurement window for the first year of the HRRP (fiscal year [FY] 2013) and for a measurement window that predated the FY 2013 measurement window for the HRRP among hospitals participating in the HRRP. Hospital characteristics are based on the 2012 survey by the American Hospital Association. The analysis included fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries 65 years or older with an index hospitalization for 1 of the 3 target conditions of heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, or pneumonia or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and who were discharged alive from