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Health care law unfair to seniors, lawsuit alleges
(Credit:
CBS/iStockphoto)
(CBS) Unfair! That's what a group of Medicare patients and their families think about the new health care law. They're suing the Obama Administration alleging that elderly patients were deprived of Medicare coverage during long hospital stays.
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"We've decided we can wait no longer and have turned to the courts for fairness," Judith Stein, executive director of the Center for Medicare Advocacy, told Reuters.
Her group and the National Senior Citizens Law Center filed suit on behalf of two 90-something Medicare beneficiaries and the families of five deceased patients.
Just what's their gripe? That doctors keep some older Medicare patients in the hospital for "observation" instead of formally admitting them to the hospital for inpatient care. Inpatient hospital care is covered under the Part A section of Medicare, while observation status is relegated to Part B, which covers outpatient costs. That means elderly folks who stay in hospitals for days might be hit with big out-of-pocket costs.
Tom Spelman, of Spring Lake, Mich., was very pleased with the quality of treatment after his 88-year-old mother fell and broke her arm, and stayed in the hospital five days, the Detroit Free Press, reported. Then he wasn't so pleased when the hospital informed him that her grown children would have to foot the bill.
"We were shocked," he told the Free Press.
The policy was created to make sure hospitals were properly billing for Medicare, and not admitting patients it shouldn't, and to protect hospitals from Medicare penalties for admissions made in error, according to Reuters.
"We can't comment on any pending litigation," Brian Cook, spokesman for Medicare, told CBS News.
Learn more about Medicaid coverage from Medicare.gov
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