Long Term Care Hospitals-Within-Hospitals
July 2004 Long Term Care Hospitals-Within-Hospitals Medicare regulations define long-term care hospitals as having an average length of stay greater than 25 days. Medicare excludes these hospitals from the acute care hospital prospective payment system. Long-term care hospitals-within-hospitals (HwHs) are physically located inside acute care hospitals (host hospitals). The co-location of an HwH and its host hospital creates potentially inappropriate financial incentives. As a result, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) imposes payment limits on HwHs that readmit more than 5 percent of patients discharged to their host hospitals over the . . .
