US health insurance craziness pt 23,592

[firecat]

Hospital patient status: observation vs. inpatient

http://magazine.angieslist.com/hospitals/articles/patients-paying-more--under-observation-.aspx

If you're on Medicare, nursing home costs following a hospital stay are covered if you are "admitted" to the hospital, but are not covered if you are in the hospital for "observation."

The first comment on the article, by one Edwin Bradley MD, states "In general the care one receives in 'observation' is not as good as in the fully staffed hospital bed." I wonder if that is true generally.

Comments

[aquaeri]

When I was travelling in the US back in 1990, my (Aussie) travel friend was in an accident and had some insane problems getting travel insurance to cover her treatment because the policy was written on the assumption that outcare would only apply to minor incidents, whereas the hospital she attended daily for about a week had chosen not to admit her in order to significantly reduce the total bill. (I don't believe her particular treatments were of lesser quality because she was an outpatient.)

This sounds like a similiar sort of dissonance.

[firecat]

Argh!