; findings (a) Short title This Act may be cited as the Healthcare Outcomes Act of 2017 . (b) Findings Congress makes the following findings: (1) Payment penalties for hospital acquired conditions under section 1886(p) of the Social Security Act, as added by section 3008 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, are based on a limited number of hospital acquired conditions but are applied to all Medicare inpatient prospective payments to a hospital (as defined in section 1886(d) of the Social Security Act), resulting in payment penalties that are not proportional to the financial impact of the hospital acquired conditions. The method of risk adjustment used to determine the hospital acquired conditions performance of hospitals does not adequately account for the chronic illness burden and severity of illness of Medicare beneficiaries. (2) Payment penalties for hospital readmissions under section 1886(q) of the Social Security Act, as added by section 3025 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, are based on a limited number of clinical conditions, including readmissions that are not related to the prior discharge and are not proportional to the overall financial impact of the readmission performance of the hospital. The method of risk adjustment used to determine the readmission performance of hospitals does not adequately account for the chronic illness burden and severity of illness of Medicare beneficiaries. (3) Payment penalties and bonuses for hospital Value Based Purchasing under section 1886(o) of the Social Security Act, as added by section 3001 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, are overly complex and burdensome, are based on arbitrary weighting factors, and are not proportional to the overall financial impact of the value based purchasing performance of the hospital. The methods of risk adjustment used to determine the value based purchasing performance of hospitals does not adequately account for the chronic illness burden and severity of illness of Medicare