Medicare
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
This last summer my husband was admitted to the hospital under “observation stay” for chest pain. He was there overnight and dismissed the next day. He has traditional Medicare insurance with an AARP medicare supplement policy, He received a bill from the hospital for $469 for “self administered” medications that was ordered by the physician and given by the nurse at the hospital. These are prescribed medications that he needed on a daily basis for other medical conditions. In questioning medicare and the hospital we have discovered that under “observation stay” medicare does not cover these medications. This is also true for an “outpatient stay.” These two stays are billed under Medicare part B and are not billed under Medicare part A.
There are articles in the October and November 2012 AARP Bulletin magazine about this Medicare trap. If we had been informed of this Medicare rule at the time of the admission to the hospital under the observation stay status, we would have used his medications from home and would have followed the hospital’s protocal. The hospital has given him a 50 percent discount on this bill. For that we are appreciative.
The purpose of writing this letter is to inform physicians and seniors of our community about this rule which does apply to all hospitals who admit Medicare recipients to an outpatient or an observation stay in a medicare provider hospital.
Nancy Derry
Warsaw
Warsaw[[In-content Ad]]
This last summer my husband was admitted to the hospital under “observation stay” for chest pain. He was there overnight and dismissed the next day. He has traditional Medicare insurance with an AARP medicare supplement policy, He received a bill from the hospital for $469 for “self administered” medications that was ordered by the physician and given by the nurse at the hospital. These are prescribed medications that he needed on a daily basis for other medical conditions. In questioning medicare and the hospital we have discovered that under “observation stay” medicare does not cover these medications. This is also true for an “outpatient stay.” These two stays are billed under Medicare part B and are not billed under Medicare part A.
There are articles in the October and November 2012 AARP Bulletin magazine about this Medicare trap. If we had been informed of this Medicare rule at the time of the admission to the hospital under the observation stay status, we would have used his medications from home and would have followed the hospital’s protocal. The hospital has given him a 50 percent discount on this bill. For that we are appreciative.
The purpose of writing this letter is to inform physicians and seniors of our community about this rule which does apply to all hospitals who admit Medicare recipients to an outpatient or an observation stay in a medicare provider hospital.
Nancy Derry
Warsaw
Warsaw[[In-content Ad]]
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