TY - JOUR T1 - COmmunity health workers combat readmission AU - Kangovi S, Long JA, Emanuel E Y1 - 2012/12/10 N1 - 10.1001/2013.jamainternmed.82 JO - Archives of Internal Medicine SP - 1756 EP - 1757 VL - 172 IS - 22 N2 - Each year, 24.6 million Americans are hospitalized.1 Over 14% of all patients2 and nearly 20% of Medicare patients3 are readmitted within 30 days of a prior hospitalization. In 2004, unplanned readmissions cost $17.4 billion to Medicare alone. Low-income African American patients like Mr Alberts are up to 43% more likely than their higher-income white counterparts to find themselves back in the hospital within weeks of discharge.4- 5 As a result, the cost of care for these disadvantaged patients is high, as illustrated by the population of low-income patients who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. Dually eligible individuals cost twice as much as other Medicare beneficiaries largely because they are 4 times as likely to be readmitted to hospitals for ambulatory care–sensitive conditions.6 SN - 0003-9926 M3 - doi: 10.1001/2013.jamainternmed.82 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/2013.jamainternmed.82 ER -