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.
Hospitals feel they have to do it because of the fixed fee system that medicare enforces. No matter what condition a patient is in, the hospital will be charged the same fee. Now if the patient’s stay is much shorter, then the hospital will actually make more money.
When it comes to this policy, care is the last thing on their minds. More likely they are thinking about money. Now when you enter a hospital, you sign a paper. This paper acknowledges your rights as a patient, and one of those rights is the right to not be discharged early. Make sure you copy the document entitled: “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.
If you wish, you can appeal the hospital’s decision simply by writing or calling the PRO in charge of filing the appeals for Medicare. Now you want to make sure that you do this rather quickly because these claims take a while to process. Know your rights, and don’t feel bad about complaining!
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Tags: health, health insurance, insurance, medicare