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Article: A Prescription for Common Sense
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- February 27, 1996
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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Staff writer Amy Goldstein's Feb. 16 article, "Md. Hospital's
Maternity Freebie Has Complications," gave an unusually lucid
picture of the absurd policies and departures from common sense that
arise when government bureaucrats are provided legislative authority
to control the cost and process of health care.
When St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore tried to offer a free
second day of hospitalization to maternity patients as a way of
bypassing the often inhumane 24-hour inpatient restriction mandated
by most insurance and managed-care companies, the hospital was
challenged by the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission.