BUTLER TWP — Butler Memorial Hospital is one of six hospitals in a test program to reduce hospital readmissions and reduce costs.

The independent hospitals in medium-to-small markets have been recruited by the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative to participate in the Primary Care Resource Center Project, according to a statement released by Butler Memorial Hospital.

Under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Medicare payments that otherwise would be made to hospitals will be reduced to account for excess, preventable hospital admissions. This is a concern to community hospitals in Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia, that serve an unusually high number of Medicare recipients.

For community hospitals to remain viable, they need to reduce the demand for acute care services, which requires a shift in how hospitals operate. This project will help these institutions experiment with new ways to do that.

It will bring state-of-the-art care support for reducing preventable admissions and readmissions to these six hospitals.

The goal is to slow, stop, or reverse chronic diseases for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure, or coronary artery disease, shifting the focus of care from inpatient to outpatient and home settings.

According to the hospital’s statement, better care will result in both better health and in lower costs, an estimated $40 million plus to the Medicare program alone, over the three-year grant project, which is funded by a Health Care Innovation Award from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.

The prototype of this model was established at Monongahela Valley Hospital in 2011-12. By the second quarter of operations, Monongahela Valley had 47 percent fewer 30-day readmissions than in the comparable quarter in 2011. The procedures implemented at Monongahela Valley will be customized for each hospital.

The other five hospitals involved are the Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center, Johnstown; the Indiana Regional Medical Center, Indiana, Pa.; Sharon Regional Health System, Main Hospital, Sharon; Uniontown Hospital, Uniontown, and Wheeling Hospital, Wheeling, W.Va.

The Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative is a group that seeks to improve health care safety and quality.