We recently elucidated risk factors for early hospital readmission (EHR) following kidney transplantation (KT). We now sought to quantify the independent associations between EHR and post-KT outcomes, including late hospital readmission (LHR: 1 year after EHR window), death-censored graft loss, and mortality, among Medicare-primary KT recipients (2000-2005). Of 32,961 KT recipients, 7.7% had a least one readmission within 3 days of discharge, 14.8% within 7 days, 22.4% within 14 days, and 30.5% within 30 days of discharge after the initial KT hospitalization. KT recipients who experienced EHR within 30 days of discharge after the initial KT hospitalization were more likely to have experienced LHR (29.6% vs. 9.0%, P