being observed

[dhol82]

just saw this in the aarp bulletin from october. have not personally had this problem but it gave me a major heads-up for the future.

http://www.aarp.org/health/medicare-insurance/info-08-2012/medicare-inpatient-vs-outpatient-under-observation.html

Jean Arnau spent five days in the hospital with a fractured spine — lying in a hospital bed, wearing a hospital gown and ID bracelet, eating hospital food and receiving regular nursing care.

But when she was discharged and needed to transfer to a skilled nursing facility for rehabilitation, her family learned that she had never been formally admitted as an inpatient to the hospital at all. Instead, she'd been classified as an outpatient under "observation" — a status that would cost her thousands of dollars.

[hobbit709]

1. Looks like time to get some lawyers involved.

[Scuba]

2. Another failure of "the world's best healthcare" system.

Bottom line: in an effort to improve quality of care, Medicare has imposed rules that punish hospitals for unnecessary and frequent re-admissions, so hospitals are declaring patients "observational" instead of "inpatient" to head off any potential fines.

And the patient then gets screwed.

Hope the lawsuit is successful. This disgusting glitch in the rules is punishing our citizens rather than the offending hospitals.

Hospital administrators who implement such "observation" policies to circumvent the rules might also be sued.

[lonestarnot]

3. Good gawd.