Sugar Land’s Memorial Hermann Surgical Hospital First Colony will see its federal funding reduced after recording above average rates of preventable injuries and infections among patients for the second year in a row. Nationwide, 769 hospitals, including 61 in Texas, will be penalized under requirements spelled out in the Affordable Care Act, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has announced. The ACA guidelines call for those hospitals whose rates of preventable injuries and infections put them in the bottom 25 percent out of roughly 3,300 hospitals nationwide, to have their funding reduced. Memorial Hermann officials declined to comment. Illnesses such as infections, bed sores and injuries from falls are counted among what federal regulators consider “hospital-acquired conditions.” Those hospitals will see their Medicare payments reduced by 1 percent for fiscal year 2017, from October 2016 through September 2017. The government did not release the dollar amount of each hospital’s funding cuts, but the Association of American Medical Colleges estimates the total payment reductions at $430 million. The ACA’s penalty guidelines took effect three years ago. Memorial Hermann Surgical First Colony was penalized last year as well but not in 2015.