Has Health Care Reform Legislation Reduced the Economic Burden of Hospital Readmissions Following Primary Total Joint Arthroplasty?

Abstract

Background: The purpose of this study was to determine whether the cost of readmissions after primary total hip and knee arthroplasty (THA and TKA) has decreased since the introduction of health care reform legislation and what patient, clinical, and hospital factors drive such costs. Methods: The 100% Medicare inpatient dataset was used to identify 1,654,602 primary THA and TKA procedures between 2010 and 2014. The per-patient cost of readmissions was evaluated in general linear models in which the year of surgery and patient, clinical, and hospital factors were treated as covariates in separate models for THA and TKA. Results: The year-to-year risk of 90-day readmission was reduced by 2% and 4% (P