|
TUESDAY, June 5 (HealthDay News) — Federal governmentpressure has led to an increasing number of Medicare patients beingheld for observation instead of being admitted to hospitals, a newstudy suggests. Although this push to get hospitals to be careful about admittingseniors as inpatients may reduce costs to Medicare, it can lead tohigher out-of-pocket costs for the patients, according to theresearchers from Brown University in Providence, R.I. "The dual trends of increasing hospital observation servicesand declining inpatient admissions suggest that hospitals andphysicians may be substituting observation services for inpatientadmissions — perhaps to avoid unfavorable Medicare auditstargeting hospital admissions," the study's firstauthor, Zhanlian Feng, assistant professor of health services,policy and practice at Brown, said in a university news release. The researchers analyzed the records of 29 million Medicarebeneficiaries aged 65 and older in 2007, 2008 and 2009, and foundthat the proportion of those being held for observation increased34 percent over those three years. Observation stays rose from less than 815,000 (2.3 per 1,000beneficiaries) in 2007 to more than 1 million (2.9 per 1,000beneficiaries) in 2009. Inpatient admissions fell from 23.9 per1,000 in 2007 to 22.5 per 1,000 in 2009, the investigators noted. And, the number of patients held for observation longer than 72hours increased from less than 24,000 in 2007 to nearly 45,000 in2009, according to the study published in the June issue of thejournal Health Affairs . Although a patient's experience of being held forobservation, especially for days, may seem exactly the same asbeing admitted to the hospital, the difference is apparent when itcomes time to pay the bill, the researchers noted. Patients held for observation are classified as outpatients and,under Medicare rules, outpatients may face higher co-payments forin-hospital services and won't be covered for subsequent carein skilled nursing facilities. The practice has angered patient advocacy groups, one of whichlaunched a class-action lawsuit against the federal government lastyear. More information The AARP has more about Medicare . – Robert Preidt SOURCE: Brown University, news release, June 4, 2012 Last Updated: June 05, 2012 Copyright 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Remy Human Hair Wigs , Cosplay Wigs, and more. For more , please visit Dog Hooded Sweatshirts today!
Related Articles -
Remy Human Hair Wigs, Cosplay Wigs,
|
