Healthstyles Today: “Observation Status”–Policy Gone Wrong?

Across the country, people on Medicare who become ill are being admitted to hospitals on what is called “observation status” or “admit to observation” to provide regular assessments to ensure that the patient’s condition doesn’t deteriorate and require a higher level of care. Medicare pays less for observation status since it’s assumed that the patient needs less care. It makes sense, but in reality it’s creating huge problems for some of the patients, their families and the hospitals. The issue has become a national concern and New York State has responded with legislation aimed to provide some protection for Medicare patients who are admitted to the state’s hospitals.

Today on Healthstyles on WBAI 9.5 FM (www.wbai.org), producer and host Diana Mason, RN, PhD, talks about this issue with Toby Edelman, Senior Policy Attorney in the Washington, DC, office of the Center for Medicare Advocacy. You can listen to the interview here:

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The program will open  with HealthCetera, Healthstyles’ highlights of health news that today includes information about Ebola; followed by a discussion with new Healthstyles producer, Kenya Beard, RN, EdD, ANP, about the recent report on health disparities by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. You can listen to this interview here:

Today’s program opens with HealthCetera, Healthstyles’ highlights of health news.

So tune in today at 1:00 to WBAI, 99.5 FM.

Healthstyles is sponsored by the Center for Health, Media & Policy at Hunter College, City University of New York.