The question to ask in the hospital so as not to run into a huge bill

Are you on Medicare? If so, ask this question the next time you seek medical care: “Am I admitted to the hospital or am I here for outpatient monitoring?” This could save you thousands of dollars. Why exactly - the publication told in more detail Money Talks News.

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To be clear, if the hospital decides that you are in an “outpatient” facility, Medicare will not bill for certain hospital services.

Medicare will also not pay for the care you get in a skilled nursing facility if you need to go to that facility after you leave the hospital.

To get Medicare coverage for hospital services such as x-rays and lab tests, or skilled nursing facility care, you first need to “go” to a hospital, which is an inpatient.

Margie Barry, insurance agent for ACSIA Partners, is aware of the potential danger of taking the wrong move. She recently wrote an article about the day her 98-year-old mother was rushed to the emergency room with heart failure.

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Barry's mother was eventually informed that she was being moved to a hospital ward. One of the hospital employees approached Barry's mother with several papers that needed to be signed. However, he said that these forms are common: “The first document is about authorizing Medicare to pay a hospital bill. The second says that my mother understands that she will be in the hospital for observation for 24 hours. When they handed the form to my mother to sign, I shouted: “Mom, don’t sign!”

Barry says various hospital staff tried to intimidate her mother into signing the forms. This continued until Barry uttered a few magic words: "I run a column in a national newsletter that has a lot of circulation."

After some additional debate and discussion of whether Barry's mother was being given oxygen in the emergency room or not, her mother's hospital status was changed from "observation" to "hospitalized."

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As it turned out, Barry's mother did end up in a physical therapy and rehabilitation facility after being discharged from the hospital. If the daughter had not insisted on changing her mother's hospital status, the nursing facility stay would have cost $650 a day—out of pocket.

Barry's parting advice to other people who find themselves in a similar situation or close to it is as follows: “Know these rules so that if necessary, you can challenge them. This discussion should take place in the emergency room. The reason is that when a patient leaves the emergency room, you cannot change their status. "

To learn more about the rules governing Medicare hospital status, see the Medicare overview "Inpatient or outpatient?"

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