Medicare's Hospital Acquired Condition Reduction Program Disproportionately Affects Minority-serving Hospitals

Objective: To assess whether a hospital's percentage of Black patients associates with variations in FY2017 overall/domain-specific Hospital Acquired-Condition Reduction Program (HACRP) scores and penalty receipt. Differences in socioeconomic status and receipt of disproportionate share hospital payments (a marker of safety-net status) were also assessed. Summary of Background Data: In FY2015, Medicare began reducing payments to hospitals with...