Posted on 08/23/2012 8:52:05 PM PDT by grundle
Since they are writing the rules as they go any thing is possible.
To many repeat visits to your doctor could be next, or routine tests they order every 3-6 months to monitor the meds you are on.
Then you have the hypochondriac, the drug addict, etc that use the hospital a lot more than most people. And all the illegals using it as a doctors office. But instead of punishing them, it is the hospital that will be punished.
Some of this is from 1 day surgeries on high risk seniors who should stay the night at least for monitoring, but Medicare nor secondary ins. does not cover it.
Medicare has a set number of days for any illness you are admitted for and many are sent home before they are ‘ready’ to go home. And end up back in rather quickly.
A step down facility would be more the answer to this issue that was less expensive, but would provide monitoring better, one would think. Sort of a half way hospital setting, not a nursing home or Hospice setting.
So you punish the hospital or doctor for the situation Medicare and Congress has created instead of the fixing the issues by thinking outside the traditional box.
“I really think they should come up with a different name for the condition. First time I heard it I thought if their hearts failed why are they still alive?”
You are absolutely correct. Dumb name for the condition. Many people don’t understand what it really is...
I describe it as trying to blow up a balloon underwater. The fluids around the heart make it difficult for the heart to function - the heart isn’t failing...it’s been “squished” by fluids around it. (of course there’s other conditions that cause it too)
Your wife must be a saint dealing with people who won’t follow the medical advice on diet and salt!!
Well when the death panels kick in that won’t be a problem anymore, they will be denied treatment.
Not surprising, especially with the Obama Administration. Medicare has been chiseling away on doctor and hospital reimbursement for decades. The Medicare cuts integral to Obamacare are predictably accelerating the process. Anytime you have government rationing of health care, you almost inevitably run into perverse monetary incentives encouraging death as opposed to prolonging life.
I think she would say the BEST part of the job is dealing with the people.
Thre was a story (quoted on FR) about British hospitals that were being judged on the basis of the speed with which patients were moved thru the ER. Therefore, they were being held in their ambulances too long, and the in-ambulance death rate went up. But, that metric was not being judged by NHS.
Outside the US, for very premature babies, they are often counted as miscarriages and no care is even attempted.
My mom went through that, too.
This is why it's very important for the elderly to do financial planning, and get major assets out of their name BEFORE they get sick.
Thanks justiceseeker93.
I’ve found out the hard way when you go into a hospital setting to take bleach wipes, cell phones, and have a relatives who can be with the person in the hospital 24 hrs a day and know enough about medical care to see to it that the person who is in the hospital gets the needed care and to watch the meds they are given like a hawk. And to have enough legal knowledge to know when your relative us being given poor treatment, lack of treatment or getting screwed.
Hospitals are short of nursing staff and full of germs, it is bad enough during the day, even worse at night. ER’s have become so slow they might as well be Minor Meds, even the private ones.
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