More than $600 million in Medicare costs could be saved by adopting a different payment policy on the government’s share of costs when a patient transfers from a hospital to hospice care, according to the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General.

The savings would come by a new payment policy that would transfer costs for patients’ that discharge early from the hospital in order to go into hospice. About 30 percent of all such discharges should become “per diem” payments – or per day payments, according to the IG.