Observation and inpatient status: Clinical impact of the 2-midnight rule

In response to growing concern over frequency and duration of observation encounters, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services enacted a rules change on October 1, 2013, classifying most hospital encounters of <2 midnights as observation, and those ≥2 midnights as inpatient. However, limited data exist to predict the impact of the new rule.To answer the following: (1) Will the rule reduce observation encounter frequency? (2) Are short-stay...