How To Remedy Being Discharged From A Hospital Prematurely As A Medicare Patient?

By John Harvey

Perhaps you have an individual within your family who has been hospitalized, though they will be discharged rather soon. What does one do in this situation? Maybe you're not sure about assisted living, home health care, or even nursing facilities. Chances are you didn't even know that the person would be released from the hospital in such a short amount of time.

Now you might be panicking, and you might be trying to figure out exactly what it is you should be doing in this situation. Fortunately the hospital will probably give you a list of rehab clinics. Unfortunately they are not going to help you choose a clinic. You might feel like you have no time to render this decision, and you might even feel like you're being rushed. This may push you into making a fast decision, but you really have more time than you think.

Medicare as a government health insurance plan is under pressure from the US Congress to cut expenses and discharging patients too early is one of the most efficient ways to cut cost. In hospitals there is the so called Notice of Non-coverage, which means that the hospital has to let you know 3 days before the patient can be discharged.

If they haven't done that, you should insist that they do. And if you are persistent, they will give you that time. Remember you are here for your loved one and want to get the best care possible. You know that you will need the extra time to choose between the different rehab options and you will come to a much more informed conclusion.

It's going to become clear to you soon enough that hospitals try to discharge their Medicare patients as soon as possible. This has become a growing trend over the past forty years. Seniors have had hospital visits that dropped in time from fourteen days to six days. It will keep dropping if nothing is done.

The problem that hospitals have is the fixed fee system from Medicare. This means that a Hospital will be billed the same amount for every patient, no matter what happens to be wrong with them. The longer a patient stays, the more money the hospital will have to pay. If the stay is shorter, the hospital will be making much more money.

Patient care is no issue in the face of money. So when you enter the hospital there will be a paper that you sign. The paper will acknowledge your patient rights, and one such right is the right to not be discharged on a whim. You need to make a copy of the document: "An Important Message From Medicare -- Your Rights While You Are A Medicare Hospital Patient.".

The rights include the Notice of Noncoverage, and having this will stop the hospital from discharging you early. You will have the three days, and they will not be able to charge you. So long as you have not been provided the Notice of Noncoverage, you will be able to stay in the hospital.

In the meantime, you can appeal the decision of the hospital. This can be done by contacting the PRO in charge of filing appeals, but you need to make sure you do it as fast as possible. The claims take some time to process. Knowing your rights and having some nerve will take you a long way. - 32502

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