Hospitals will lose up to 1 percent of the next year's Medicare payments if they readmitted too high a proportion of their patients from 2008 to 2011. While 26 Colorado hospitals escaped the sanction, a Cheyenne Wells hospital will lose 1 percent, and five Centura hospitals are being fined up to a quarter of 1 percent of Medicare bills.

Exempla Lutheran Medical Center took a 0.42-percent penalty, according to a list compiled by Kaiser Health News. The penalties were launched by federal Medicare officials as part of national health-care reform Oct. 1.

Though a small portion of future bills, the penalties add up as Medicare payments often constitute half of a hospital's overall revenue. On a $10,000 inpatient bill, a 1 percent penalty would cost the hospital $100 of the Medicare reimbursement.

Centura said the penalties at its hospitals would cost the system about $250,000 in the next year, out of $2.7 billion in revenue. Chief financial officer Dan Enderson said the hospitals take the penalties seriously.

Read more of Michael Booth's article in the Denver Post.

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