Observation status-and what to do about it.
By Kim Dayton
August 28, 2013
There’s been a lot in the news lately about the trend in hospitals characterizing even longer stays by older patients as “for observation” rather than as an inpatient hospitalization. This creates major payment problems for Medicare beneficiaries, as Medicare Part A doesn’t cover observation status. In addition, days spendtin “observation” won’t count towards the three day hospital stay