By Susan Jaffe | Kaiser Health News in collaboration with National Public Radio | May 21, 2014, 9:35 a.m.
The federal government may be paying hospitals $5 billion too much as a result of an 18-month moratorium on enforcement of Medicare rules that tell hospitals when patients should be admitted, an independent Medicare auditing company told a congressional panel yesterday. The controversial rules were intended to reduce the increasing number of seniors hospitalized for observation but not admitted. If they have not been admitted to the hospital for at least three consecutive days, they are not eligible for follow-up nursing home coverage and may have higher out-of-pocket expenses while in the hospital. Medicare pays hospitals more for admitted patients than observation patients. MORE from NPR and Kaiser Health News