Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.

Re-admissions pose huge financial and quality of care problems for hospitals and patients. There are mounting pressures for hospitals to prevent patients from coming back days after a procedure. Our story took a close look at the issue– its financial impact and the impact on quality of care.

Judges' comments: Mark Taylor tackled an important policy issue - the need to cut down on hospital readmissions - that could, in other hands, have been dull. Instead, anyone from an industry consultant to a patient could have found the story compelling. He was gutsy enough to tackle the uncomfortable truth that hospitals and HMOs have long had a financial interest in letting people go quicker and sicker, and are acting on the problem now mainly because the feds are revising the payment system. He also found a good "face" who exemplified the patient point of view, which is an important but often missing piece in industry publications.

Read "The Billion Dollar U-Turn"

See the contest questionnaire about how this story was reported.