Estimated Impact Of Medicare Two-Midnight Policy Using IDR Data

In this document released in February 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) presented background about changes to the Medicare “Two-Midnight Rule,” which has been in effect since October 1, 2013. It requires hospitalized beneficiaries to stay at least two nights before the stay would be covered under Part A. The rule was intended to respond to an increase in observation claims. CMS believed that hospitals may have been using outpatient observation to avoid retroactive claims challenges to short inpatient stays . . .