Here’s what you should know.
1. The OIG said Medicare paid $2.9 billion in 2014 for potentially inappropriate short inpatient stays.
The office also said that Medicare is paying more for short inpatient stays than for short outpatient stays and that hospitals continue to bill for a large number of long outpatient stays.
The OIG also found that an increased number of beneficiaries in outpatient stays pay more and have limited access to long-term care services following hospitalization than they would as inpatients.
2. ABC believes hospitals will have their billing practices scrutinized more closely as a result of these vulnerabilities.
3. CMS created the two-midnight rule to control healthcare costs while protecting beneficiaries by reducing the number of long outpatient hospital stays.
4. ABC said although the rule will most likely not impact anesthesiologists, they should “understand and be sensitive to their partners’ concerns.”
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