One-Day Stay Project (ODS)
Reducing unnecessary hospital admissions provides an important opportunuty to save Medicare dollars. According to the Office of Inspector General (OIG) documentation, these unnecessary admissions occur more frequently during one-day stays than discharges greater than one day. In Missouri, the vast majority of Medicare admission denials (~75%) were from one-day stays.
To address this issue, Primaris has initiated the One-Day Stay Project (ODS) as part of the Hospital Payment Monitoring Program (HPMP). Working intensively with 20 hospitals selected across the state, Primaris is collaborating to identify and reduce medically unnecessary admissions in patients with a one-day stay. Case reviews will be used to help identify instances of unnecessary admission. Selected hospitals will examine processes in place to prevent billing unnecessary admissions or admissions that do not contain valid physician orders for admission.
Similar programs are anticipated that will target hospitals with a high incidence of one-day patient stays.
Be proactive! If your hospital would like to voluntarily work on reducing innappropriate one-day stays, Primaris is making ODS tools and resources available to all. They can be found at the Primaris Products Page.