Is there an inherent bias in value-based care reimbursement models? A new Health Affairs study seems to indicate that there might be.

The study found that although hospitals with larger minority Medicare patient shares decreased hospital readmission rates an average of 0.44% per quarter between April 2010 and September 2012 — beating the nationwide average — they nevertheless received more reimbursement penalties than their peer provider organizations.

Safety-net care providers believe that current CMS rules unfairly target them for penalties, even though their patient populations experience higher morbidity rates and are challenged by more social barriers to care than peer consumers in majority white areas of the country.

Get the full story plus analysis here, from Modern Healthcare‘s Maria Castellucci.