Spanning over two years of research, the latest findings from the Florida Hospital Association (FHA) report that many Floridians are seeing longer waiting times to be discharged from local hospitals,
The FHA report highlighted more than 780,000 avoidable hospital days, with nearly one out of every 10 patients having to wait to be discharged, and 41% of these patients were waiting for their health plan to authorize their follow-up care, according to the data.
Mary Mayhew, president and CEO of FHA, said the consequences of these delays are significantly impacting patients’ recovery and access to appropriate care, exacerbating stress on the family, and causing bottlenecks in emergency departments (ED) for patients needing an inpatient hospital bed.
These delays generate additional costs to the system, with estimated preventable healthcare spending totaling $2.5 billion in 2025.
“No one should be in a hospital any longer than is appropriate for their medical care needs. Patients deserve timely access to the next level of care or critical services and supports to aid in their recovery and healing,” said Mary Mayhew, president and CEO of FHA. “Our data tells us that for many patients, they are delayed leaving the hospital because of a lack of timely insurance authorizations.”
Some of the key findings;
- 243,000 patients who were medically cleared had to remain in the hospital due to delays beyond the hospital’s control
- Delays in getting health plan prior authorization account for 41% of discharge delays
- Almost half of the patients who were delayed were covered by a Medicare Advantage plan, and 52% of their delays were tied to prior authorization, with nearly 4,000 of these patients waiting more than a week for placement
- The delays resulted in 781,000 unnecessary hospital days and $2.5 billion in preventable healthcare spending
- 158,000 or 7.4% of ED patients waited more than 12 hours for a bed; causing a downstream effect on other patients
- 41% of patients were waiting for a bed in a skilled nursing or rehabilitation facility.
