Readmissions cost all payers up to $44 billion; Medicare's cost is put at $15 to 26 billion

Yearly cost of hospital readmissions as the figure is quoted, next to estimates of what all readmissions and avoidable ones cost Medicare, in billions of dollars

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Method
Each figure is as its source states it. The quoted $44 billion is the top of an up-to range for unplanned readmissions across all payers, inside a $355 billion yearly estimate of US healthcare spending wasted on failed care delivery, poor care coordination and overtreatment.
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Sources for the figures above: 42 CFR 512.550, Reconciliation process and determination of the reconciliation payment or repayment amount (opens in a new tab); This healthcare AI use case will grow 320% by 2026, survey finds (opens in a new tab); Canellas MM et al., Measurement of Cost of Boarding in the Emergency Department Using Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing, Annals of Emergency Medicine 84(4) (opens in a new tab).

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