Medicare Will Settle Short-Term Care Bills.

[elleng]

Sharply criticized by Congress and others, Medicare quietly announced on Friday that it would settle hundreds of thousands of hospital appeals over bills for short-term care, by offering deals that could add up to several hundred million dollars.

The decision is an effort by the government agency to end a protracted battle with thousands of hospitals over the amount they should receive for treating patients who stay just a day or two. So many hospitals have filed appeals with Medicare that a backlog now stretches for 18 months or more before the disputes are being resolved.

The proposed settlement, which was quietly posted on the agency’s website late Friday afternoon before the holiday weekend, represents a considerable concession by Medicare. The financial payout that it is offering to individual hospitals would be a little more than two-thirds of the amounts they have insisted they are owed.

Medicare “is offering an administrative agreement to eligible hospitals willing to resolve their pending appeals in exchange for timely partial payment,” said Aaron Albright, a Medicare spokesman. Mr. Albright described the offer as an opportunity for the hospitals “to alleviate the administrative burden of current appeals on both the hospital and Medicare system.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/30/business/medicare-will-settle-appeals-of-short-term-care-bills.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpHeadline&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

[cbayer]

1. This is good. They need to get this settled.

The Medicare rules about short stays are excessively complicated and don't make sense much of the time. They interfere with appropriate care, which is a problem.