Cutting repeat hospital trips: A simple idea, but hard to pull off

The government spends an estimated $12 billion a year on "potentially preventable" readmissions for Medicare patients, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, an independent congressional agency. U.S. leaders are trying to reduce such costs as they wrangle this week over how to retool the country's healthcare system. Lawmakers agree on the need to drive down readmissions, but not on how to do it.