- Target:
- United States Representatives and Senators
- Region:
- United States of America
Extended Observation Stays Constrain Medicare Beneficiaries’ Access to Medical Services. Medicare covers 100 days of SNF care per episode of care, following a qualifying three-day hospital stay. Medicare beneficiaries’ access to SNF care is being constrained by the increased use of observation stays.
The observation status used by hospitals is technically deemed an outpatient service, while often patients are in the hospital for several days. Between 2007-2009, hospital use of observation stays increased 25%.
Observation patients also remained in the hospital longer with an 88% increase in the amount of patients staying at least 72 hours, well past Medicare’s recommended 24-48 hours for this status. H.R. 1543 / S. 818 would deem an individual on observation status as an in-patient with respect to the three-day stay requirement.
As long as acute care providers increase the utilization of observation stays for Medicare beneficiaries in an effort to prevent undesired hospital readmissions, we the undersigned, call on Federal Legislators to support the provisions of Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act of 2011 [H.R. 1543 / S. 818] that would waive the Medicare requirement of a 3-day qualifying hospital stay.
S 818 - http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112s818is/pdf/BILLS-112s818is.pdf
HR 1543 - http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr1543ih/pdf/BILLS-112hr1543ih.pdf
Thank you for your time and support to this important matter to our seniors.
Brian S. Brown
brianbrown@sharonlane.com
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The Improve Access to Health Care for Observation Stays petition to United States Representatives and Senators was written by Brian S. Brown and is in the category Law Reform at GoPetition.