Former CMS Head Berwick Blasts States for Restricting Hospital Stays

Several states are severely restricting hospital stays in an “nonsensical” effort to hold down costs, and that amounts to health care rationing, says Dr. Donald Berwick, who recently resigned as administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. “The amount of care that a Medicare beneficiary should get should be the amount of care they need. Otherwise, isn’t that rationing?” he asked in an interview with Kaiser Health News. Berwick also expressed concern about the arbitrary way Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers decide what to cover and what not to cover. “I think an informed public ought to want to know what they can get, what they cannot get, and who is making that decision, so that those people can be accountable for those decisions,” he said.