This is important! Everyone might know this but I was surprised. Dh was admitted to hospital thru Er after a fall. He was admitted as in patient and the following day his status was changed to observation. This status will affect your billing and the 3 day stay I thought would qualify him for nursing home rehab not going to happen. Hope someone else with a better understanding can explain it more in detail. I've been dealing w hospital and dr and the social worker all day. I'm going to go to sleep. Thank you to all who post.
This happened to my brother down in Florida. He was in the hospital for 3-4 days. He was billed co-pays for the hospital and doctors as well as for the maintenance drugs they gave him that he usually took at home. When he questioned the bill, the hospital told him that Medicare will only approve "inpatient" status if you need intense services due to a severe illness. They told him that it was his responsibility to ask what his status was each day since it can change from one day to the next. Apparently, If you are not considered an inpatient, your bills are paid by Medicare B not A , which causes problems especially if you are transferred to a rehab facility. They also told him feel free to appeal the decision with Medicare. Not sure if that is an option for you, but maybe you could look into it.
I am so sorry you are having all of these additional problems. I hope you got some rest.
This is a bureaucratic racket in which the patient is a pawn between the hospital and Medicare. It's not really a medical decision; it's an administrative one. The hospital just gets the doctors to do their dirty work. Our family experienced it when my mother was hospitalized in 2013 and my sister fought it successfully with the hospital bean-counters (not as an appeal but while my mother was still in the hospital).
Here are some articles from the New York Times. The first article explains "observation" status and the second one tells how to fight it.
I'm posting a link to this article about "under observation" status because it provides new information about what Onewife told us about earlier this year. If the link doesn't work, go to nytimes.com and click on the tab for the "Health" section.