My father was visiting from the USA and requried emergent surgery for an infected surgical incision. Of note, the quality and timeliness of care were excellent!

He is on Medicare with a supplement and will be paying approximatley 20% of the charges out-of-pocket.

He arrived at the hospital early evening on a Tuesday and was discharged on the Thursday around 10am. This is being billed as 3 hospital days. In the USA, this would be 2 hospital days. Any insight?

first insight?.. this is Switzerland, not USA and things are done differently, right down to billing rates.

(I've had to have certain "procedures" which in order to be covered by insurance required a 24hr. hospital stay... My doc explained to me not to worry, as long as my arse was in bed for one night, I was there for 24 hrs. )

second insight? ... give the hospital billing agent a call and explain the situation.. your dad on Medicare etc... and maybe they will cut you a break.

good luck, hope your dad recovers fully.

They bill any part of a day as a complete day. I had a colleague who turned up at hospital to deliver her baby at 23:50 and was billed the whole of that day. She was sorry that she didn't wait outside the hospital doors for an extra 10 minutes, but as she said when telling me the story, she was thinking of other things at the time!
Scam - probably, as they're billing a lot of beds twice. Can you do anything about it? Nope - it's certainly written that way in the T&Cs which you signed but didn't read, because you were in a hurry, on admission.

....any part of one day is cOunted as one. But, just if it makes you feel better, i've noticed that the cost of procedures and medications tends to be 30 to 50% cheaper in CH...

That sounds about right... and I fully sympathise. I get social aid (here in Switzerland) which covers all medical costs except the 15chf daily supplement you have to pay when hospitalised for food etc. I have had several stays in psychiatric hospital. Despite the fact that once the crisis has passed the staff consistently told me to take days 'out' (e.g. leave after breakfast, return by 9:30pm), I found that the number of days that the bill stated I'd been 'out' was always far less than the number of days I'd actually spent 'out'. This meant I had to pay the 15chf for these days. When I queried it, pointing out that I hadn't been on-site to consume any food, I was told that an absence only counted as being 'out' for billing purposes if I wasn't on-site at midnight.

If paying the bill in one go is going to be a problem, is there any chance of setting up a payment schedule?

This is correct, my wife was induced when our last son was born. The Hospital reccommended to come in at midnight to save a day charge. So with baby sitters in place, we dropped her stuff off at the hospital, went out for dinner and saw a movie. She checked in at 00.10 all her things were packed away, bed laid back, took the pill and hey presto - we had a new boy by 8.00 in the morning, very civil.

On the "goodolusa way" is it true that you are only covered by insurance 48hrs after childbirth (I have heard this from a few sources) so if you give birth at 03.00 - out you go at 03.00?