Medicare's three-day inpatient hospital stay

[left-of-center2012]

Study puts Medicare's three-day inpatient hospital stay in focus
Medicine has changed a lot since the 1960s, but Medicare still has in place a policy created in 1965 that requires that patients spend three days as an inpatient before they can be moved to a skilled nursing facility.

“The concern is that the policy may be unnecessarily extending the length of hospital stays. We know that every day in a hospital carries some risk, whether it’s for an infection, blood clots or some other risk,” said health policy researcher Amal N. Trivedi.
“Reshaping the mandate could shorten a lot of those hospital stays, avoid medical complications and curb costs.”

He estimated an overnight hospital stay can cost thousands of dollars, while the same night in a nursing facility can run several hundred dollars.
Dr. Trivedi said he didn’t know how much hospitals and the government might save by amending the hospitalization mandate.
Shorter stays cited in his study saved around $1,500 on average.

http://www.post-gazette.com/business/healthcare-business/2015/08/06/Study-puts-Medicare-s-three-day-inpatient-hospital-stay-in-focus/stories/201508060073