A case management protocol: reducing unnecessary Medicare admissions in Florida.

The Florida Medicare quality improvement organization implemented a case management project with 20 acute care hospitals to reduce unnecessary Medicare admissions. The project called for hospitals to implement a protocol to assign patients to observation or inpatient admission status. Results of the project showed a 67% reduction in the denial rate for the participating facilities. This relative reduction in denial rates was nearly 3 times greater for the participating facilities as compared to the control facilities. The protocol can easily be adopted by hospitals.