On December 19, 2016, the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) posted a report examining the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS’s) “2-Midnight Rule.” The OIG concluded that although the number of inpatient stays decreased and the number of outpatient stays increased under the 2-Midnight Rule, Medicare paid nearly $2.9 billion in fiscal year 2014 for potentially inappropriate short inpatient stays. The OIG recommended that CMS improve oversight of hospital billing.
