Maximum profitability is a focus for many long-term hospital companies when determining when a Medicare patient will be discharged, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.
A Wall Street Journal analysis, which looked at nearly 860,000 paid Medicare claims for treatment at long-term-care-hospitals from 2008 through 2013, shows that long-term hospitals discharged 25 percent of patients during the few days after crossing thresholds for higher, lump-sum payments — five times as many patients as were discharged the few days prior to the thresholds, according to the report.
The analysis also found that nonprofit hospitals discharged 16 percent of people during the most lucrative window, compared with 27 percent at for-profit facilities, the report reads.
The data does not include claims for Medicare Advantage patients, and the Wall Street Journal analysis did not include patients who died while they were in the hospital.
In the report, Tom Finucane, a physician and professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, called the pattern of discharging patients at the most lucrative juncture "troubling and disturbing." He and other medical experts told The Wall Street Journal that when patients stay at a hospital longer than they need to, it increases risks for medical errors, infection and unnecessary care.
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