​Amidst the congressional debate on how to pay for a temporary delay in physician payments slated for March 1, long term and post-acute care advocates are proposing new methods to stave off billions in Medicare payment cuts by keeping discharged hospital patients from being readmitted.

The American Health Care Association (AHCA) said it has developed a plan to incentivize fewer readmissions and discussed the proposal with House Ways and Means Committee staffers and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Hospital readmissions within 30 days of a patient being discharged cost the Medicare program more than $17 billion in 2010, AHCA said. Of those readmissions, 25 percent of those readmitted to the hospital within that 30-day window come from recovering patients in skilled nursing facilities.

AHCA wants to prevent proposed cuts in bad debt coverage from the federal government, which would cause the nursing homes to lose about $2 billion between 2014 and 2021. The provision helps health care providers pay for care for patients who cannot pay for care, either through insurance or on their own.

AHCA’s plan instead would commit nursing facilities to agree to save the Medicare program at least $2 billion by cutting readmissions. If the plan does not result in the targeted savings, then facilities would see their Medicare reimbursement trimmed by the corresponding amount.

The House in 2011 approved a part of a bill that would have reduced Medicare “bad debt” payments—the payments for those who could not pay—to skilled nursing facilities. The Senate did not pass the House legislation.