Medicare’s three day stay rule encouraging unnecessary spending

The findings from a new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests, the three-day hospital stay rule required for Medicare to cover subsequent skilled nursing facility stays may have generated up to $447 million in extra payments to SNFs. Medicare will not pay for care provided in a SNF unless the patient has stayed in a hospital for at least three days but according to research, this could be costing the program money by encouraging hospitals to utilize the service simply because they can after the three-day window. Read article here…

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