Last year, 320,000 patients in Illinois were received at hospitals for observation-a figure ten times greater than that of 1998.  People with chest pains, asthma, kidney stones, and mild trauma often are too unstable to be sent home from an emergency room, but not clearly sick enough to be admitted. So, they may be observed (tests, images, stabilized) over a 24 hour period.  CMS scrutinizes these observations and won’t pay if the period lasts longer than a day-passing the cost for any longer stay to the patient.  Hospitals are not required to tell patients whether they have been admitted or are simply under observation.  The linked story-to Kaiser’s Daily Health Policy Report-describes the problem, without mentioning the possible solution of telecare.     MORE