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LifeSecure Insurance Company has come up with a new hospital indemnity insurance policy that can help policyholders cope with a new trend in health care delivery: Hospitals' growing tendency to keep patients in beds in "observation status," without formally admitting the patients.
Observation status may give hospitals a chance to monitor patients who are not clearly in need of inpatient hospital care, but it may expose patients to big bills that fall in a gray area between outpatient care coverage inpatient hospitalization coverage, and convalescent care coverage.
Traditional Medicare, for example, will pay for skilled nursing facility care for a patient recovering from a serious illness or injury, but only if the patient has been admitted as an inpatient for at least three days.
LifeSecure — a Brighton, Michigan-based company best known for its long-term care insurance policies — says its new Hospital Recovery Insurance with Observation Coverage includes many benefits that can help a patient cope with hospital care, even if the patient has not been formally classified as an inpatient.
The policy pays flat cash benefits that patients can use for many purposes, such as paying for transportation, or making up for lost wages.
