Washington: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services experts have said that new policies concerning hospital readmissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease will prove disastrous for vulnerable patients.

The COPD consider the rehospitalization rate of Medicare patients "excessive," with 1 in 5 being rehospitalized within 30 days of being discharged.

Last week, fines were announced by the federal government for over 2,600 hospitals because too many Medicare patients being treated for certain conditions are being readmitted within 30 days of being sent home.

An analysis by University of Michigan (U-M) lung disease experts, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, describes how hospitals where poor and minority patients get treated will be affected more badly by these penalties.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the current rehospitalization rate of Medicare patients is "excessive," with 1 in 5 being rehospitalized within 30 days of being discharged.

Elective hip and knee replacement readmissions and chronic lung disease are now also added by the government to readmissions to these penalties.

Dr. Michael Sjoding, a pulmonary and critical care fellow in the U-M Medical School's Department of Internal Medicine, says that experts are concerned that this policy would cause more harm than good. "Medicare is trying to improve patient care and reduce waste," he says, "but the hospitals they are penalizing may be the ones who need the most help to do so."

Dr. Sjoding and colleagues came to this conclusion after evaluating data from 3,018 hospitals looking at a period of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) care covering 3 years.