New Medicare Observation Status Toolkit from Center for Medicare Advocacy!

We have blogged several times about the issues for Medicare beneficiaries who are not admitted to the hospital but instead are on observation status. The Center for Medicare Advocacy (CMA) has released a toolkit for those Medicare beneficiaries.  Here’s some information from CMA about their toolkit along with helpful links.

The information in our Toolkit can help beneficiaries, families, advocates and providers understand and respond to an “outpatient” Observation Status designation.  The Toolkit contains our Observation Status InfographicFrequently Asked Questions Fact Sheet, Summary & Stories from our partners in the Observation Coalition; A Sample Notice (the MOON); our Recorded Webinar (slides in the printable .pdf); Beneficiary/Advocate Q&ASelf-Help Packet.

The Toolkit can be downloaded in its entirety or browsed online at http://www.medicareadvocacy.org/medicare-hospital-outpatient-observation-status-toolkit.

There’s a great infographic explaining the observation status dilemma. You could post it or hand it out to clients. Get permission from CMA to post it on your website in the client info section! Check out the FAQ as well as the self-help packet. In addition to accessing the toolkit online, you can download the toolkit as a pdf, by clicking here.

Full disclosure-I’m a member of the CMA board.