HHS Inspector General Scrutinizes Medicare Rule For Observation Care

By Susan Jaffe | July 30, 2013  |  Kaiser Health News  in collaboration with 

Medicare patients’; chances of being admitted to the hospital or kept for observation depend on what hospital they go to — even when their symptoms are the same, notes a federal watchdog agency in a report to be released today, which also urges Medicare officials to count those observation visits toward the three-inpatient-day minimum required for nursing home coverage.

The investigation, conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General, was based on 2012 Medicare hospital charges. Its findings, which underscore several years of complaints that the distinction between an inpatient and observation stay isn’t always clear, come just days before the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is expected to issue final regulations intended to address the problem. [Continued in Washington Post and in KHN]