Goltz DE, Burnett RA, Wickman JR, et al. - This study was undertaken to investigate whether short stay after shoulder arthroplasty does not increase 90-day readmissions in medicare patients compared to privately-insured patients. Researchers enrolled 4,723 total shoulder arthroplasties (2,459 anatomic, 2,264 reverses) from two large, geographically-diverse health systems having either Medicare or Private insurance. They analyzed 40 preoperative variables to correlate overall health burdens, with Chi square and Wilcoxon Rank-Sum tests used to investigate for statistical significance. Medicare patients undergoing short-stay shoulder arthroplasty did not experience a significantly higher rate of unplanned 90-day readmission relative to privately-insured patients, despite a substantially more severe comorbidity profile. In Medicare patients, a higher incidence of reverse shoulder arthroplasty does increase their overall readmission rate, but a similar increase also appears in privately-insured patients, indicating that Medicare populations may be similarly appropriate for accelerated care pathways.