Medicare: Inpatient or Outpatient?

Staying in the hospital without being formally admitted can cost you thousands of dollars

ean Arnau spent five days in the hospital with a fractured spine — lying in a hospital bed, wearing a hospital gown and ID bracelet, eating hospital food and receiving regular nursing care.

But when she was discharged and needed to transfer to a skilled nursing facility for rehabilitation, her family learned that she had never been formally admitted as an inpatient to the hospital at all. Instead, she'd been classified as an outpatient under "observation" — a status that would cost her thousands of dollars.

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