The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania has written to the state’s Department of Human Services about DHS’s proposal to establish a payment policy for hospital observation services covered by the state’s Medicaid fee-for-service program.
While SNAP has long supported the concept of a Medicaid fee-for-service rate for observation services and welcomes DHS’s decision to create such a rate and associated policies, it expressed a number of concerns about DHS’s proposal, including about:

• the proposed observation rate
• the classification of observation care as an outpatient service
• the manner in which the state proposes financing observation care
• program integrity issues

To learn more about SNAP’s concerns, see its entire comment letter to DHS here, on the SNAP web site.