fewer people are returning to the hospital “for costly readmissions” under the Affordable Care Act, “according to a new study by the Department of Health and Human Services.

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/270712-obamacare-reducing-extra-hospital-stays-study-finds The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, credits the law’s Hospital Readmission Reduction Program with preventing 565,000 hospital readmissions over five years. The Hill explains that the program creates an incentive to reduce readmissions by penalizing hospitals with high readmission rates. HHS economist Rachael Zukerman wrote in a blog post, “The Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program is just one part of the Administration’s broader strategy to promote better care, smarter spending and healthier people by paying providers for what works, unlocking health care data, and finding new ways to coordinate and integrate care to improve quality.”