An article in the 26 Feb., edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, by Julian Gray and Frank Petrich, was entitled “Elder Law Guys: Doublecheck when they say the rehab center doesn’t have room”.
Federal Law and Medicaid and Medicare: Responsibility for Hospital Discharges
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Gray and Petrich cite significant occurrences surrounding hospital discharges, “In two recent examples, patients were told that the facility to which they wanted to go and with which they were familiar had ‘no available beds.’” Additionally, the authors indicated that, “Another patient — not in a position for himself to decide — had two hours for his family to choose the hospital-offered facility that was not convenient for the patient’s family and also was a low-rated Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services facility (two stars out of a five-star rating system).”
“Federal law requires,” as stated in the article, “that hospitals have a process to identify and plan for Medicare patients’ needs after they are discharged.” The examples provided in the article demonstrate significant potential for violations of these policies.
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