mr. cavanaugh, mr.mcdermott asked you a question, talk a little bit about three people entering the hospital and i just was interested in a response but you said i would hope that the patient receives all the benefits they are entitled to. i want you to keep that in mind when we go through a couple of questions i have for you. more and more medicare beneficiaries are losing out on skilled nursing coverage. the oig found beneficiaries had over 6000 hospital stays the last three nights or more and did not qualify them for skilled nurses and facility service. i spent a record of micro almost 25 years in long-term care, industry i've recognize barrier to access the current three-day inpatient requirement has created for our seniors. for this reason i've introduced legislation h.r. 3531, that not only removes this very but also encourages hospitals and nursing facilities to committee with each other before discharge. mr. cavanaugh, disenius in my district are often unaware of the three-day inpatient requirem

mr. cavanaugh. now recognize rank member dr. mcdermott for five mints. >> thank you, mr. chairman. from a patient standpoint you walk into the emergency room or whatever, and you get put in one of these statuses or the other. does it make any difference to the patient to the by-we, which status they're put? as to how they're treated? >> as to how they're treated front a benefit perspective? >> i'm talking how they're treated as a patient. i would hope not. >> i would hope not. i hope patients receive all treatments medically needed. >> so the difference is in the payments that is received by the hospital or that the patient has to make depending on which category their in. is that correct? >> certainly the statute creates a stark difference between inpatient and outpatient care. >> give us the amount of difference for a hospital, what they receive and what the patient has to pay? so we get some idea who is bearing the weight here. >> these will be -- the amounts both that the hospital receives and t