Race and location of care feed into racial disparities in readmission rates, according to a study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, HealthDay News reports. After being discharged from a hospital, the study finds, older black people face a higher chance of readmission within 30 days than older non-blacks.

The news comes as health policy analysts look for ways to cut readmissions as a way to reduce healthcare costs in America. Overall, roughly 20 percent of older patients admitted to a hospital with heart failure, myocardial infarction (MI), or pneumonia are readmitted within 30 days.

Older black patients, however, are 13 percent more likely to be readmitted to the hospital, and patients who get treated at hospitals serving primarily minority populations are 23 percent more likely to be readmitted than their white and non-black peers. To align with other research, the study's authors considered any non-black patients white, meaning Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans were were added to the white category.

The study is based on Medicare data for more than 3 million hospital discharges for heart attack, congestive heart failure and pneumonia.

The time period immediately following discharge--when patients have to adjust to new meds, new physicians and new follow-up plans--has proved to be a particularly vulnerable time, lead author Karen Joynt, MD, PhD, of Brigham and Women's Hospital said, according to MedPageToday. "And that's a time when we're really seeing a disparity between patients who may have more resources to support them once they come out of the hospital" and those with less back-up, she said.

To learn more:
- read the JAMA abstract
- here's the MedPageToday story
- read the HealthDay News story

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