By Susan Jaffe  | Connecticut Health Investigative Team Writer | September 23, 2013  

A lawsuit filed by fourteen seniors, including seven from Connecticut, seeking Medicare nursing home coverage was dismissed Monday by a federal court judge in Hartford.

The seniors were among more than a million Medicare beneficiaries who enter the hospital for observation every year. Because they did not spend at least three consecutive hospital days as admitted patients, Medicare will not pay for their nursing home care.

In their lawsuit, they argued that there is little difference between observation and admitted patients, except when it comes to paying tens of thousands of dollars in nursing home bills. They asked the judge to eliminate the ‘observation care’ designation or at least set up an expedited appeals process so that their observation status would be reviewed. MORE

<a href=‘http://c-hit.org/2013/09/23/judge-dismisses-hospital-observation-care-lawsuit/