Posted on 09/01/2011 5:17:03 PM PDT by moonshinner_09
Twenty-two former Grady Memorial Hospital patients, many of them uninsured illegal immigrants, had potential life-saving dialysis treatments discontinued Thursday after a contract between the hospital and a national dialysis provider expired.Most of the patients, because they are in the country illegally, don’t qualify for Medicare, which covers dialysis for most Americans with end-stage renal disease. Without regular dialysis, experts say, people suffering from the disease can die within weeks.
The emergency room is now the immigrants’ only option, said Dorothy Leone-Glasser, president of the nonprofit Advocates for Responsible Care.
“These patients are left in a very dangerous situation,” she said. “We’re asking them to decide, ‘When do you think you’re critical enough to go to the ER?’”
Last year, Grady agreed to pay Massachusetts-based Fresenius Medical Care $750,000 to provide dialysis for 25 uninsured immigrants for a year. The deal followed the 2009 closure of Grady’s outpatient dialysis unit, which officials said was losing roughly $4 million per year. The hospital faces a shortfall of up to $25 million this year.
Negotiations between Fresenius and Grady broke down on Wednesday, said Jane Kramer, a Fresenius spokeswoman.
“It is disappointing,” she said. “We were negotiating in good faith.”
Fresenius continues to provide free care to four additional patients, all immigrants, but Kramer declined to comment on whether the company would treat any of the other patients who received treatment under the contract on a charity basis. Emory Healthcare and dialysis provider DaVita Inc. also provide free care to an additional eight former Grady patients.
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
Opps headline should be .......Dialysis patients lose access to treatments..sorry my error
Pack them up and send them home unless their home countries pay their hospital bills. There is no “free” medical care and the USA is worse than broke. We owe trillions to every man and his dog.
Pay for a ticket home. Let their home countries deal with them.
-——The emergency room is now the immigrants’ only option,——
They could go to a hospital in Satillo or perhaps Cancun
Honestly, isn’t that obvious? I’m not taking you to task either. For crying out loud, this has reached the point where it’s damned absurd.
No, those hospitals can’t work for free. So what they do is charge you or your insurance a higher rate to cover those who can’t pay.
They either do that or start using the cheapest ass stuff they can find to fulfill your medical needs.
They either do that, or they close the service.
We had seven trauma centers close in the Los Angeles area over an eighteen month period about five years ago.
Now citizens can’t get services either. They have to be transported farther distances risking death, because the illegals closed those trauma centers. I will say that our own indigent populace was pulling the same routine the illegals were too. They couldn’t pay, and were helping to bleed these centers dry.
It’s maddening to watch this play out.
If socialism is our future, let’s at least limit the benefits of socialism to American citizens and legal, tax-paying residents.
incorrect headline alert!
Gee and papers wonder why they’re losing customers.
Accuracy and bias.
Better headline: “22 Illegals lose free dialysis access; begin looking for free medical care elsewhere in US.”
Don’t forget the ER doctor is a separate bill ,billed by dr’s, so went the dr sents out their bills, they do not get paid.They are making them work for free.
Here’s a thought: Why don’t the illegals just stay in their own f***ing countries and get their medical treatment there?
medivac to mexico sounds like a mercy operation
luckily these folks hail from an OPEC nation
Regardless of what you have heard, there are some excellent hospitals in Central and South America. Send them there quickly to save their lives!!
Wouldn’t an airdrop be more efficient?
Hell, parachutes are a lot cheaper than dialysis.
That’s true. Good point. Ah but doctors don’t need to be paid. They’re rich. /s
Dialysis is not life saving..it is life extending.
Kidney transplant is life saving but only temporarily.
Death.. one to a customer, you can only affect the timing sometimes.
“It is disappointing,” she said. “We were negotiating in good faith.”
That's funny. Fresenius won't do it for free, but they expect Grady to. Strange definition of "negotiating in good faith."
If government had not interfered in health care and made it so expensive and put such regulatory burdens on doctors and hospitals, poor patients would be helped by charities, religious groups, ordinary citizens, and doctors and clinics that would have the time and wherewithal (freed from government burdens). Socialism screws up everything and pits groups of people against each other as they compete for shrinking resources.
Ping!
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