CMS To Look At Hospital Short Stay Policy In Outpatient Pay Rule

CMS says it plans to address a broad set of issues around short inpatient stays and the two-midnights hospital admissions policy in the hospital outpatient pay rule this summer, including recent recommendations from Congress' Medicare payment advisers and hospitals' complaints. The agency acknowledges that stakeholders for years have raised concerns about short inpatient hospital stays, long outpatient stays with beneficiaries under observation, and “Medicare policies with respect to when payment for short hospital stays is appropriate under Medicare Part A.”...