[Texas Songwriter]

It is a violation of EMTALA and/or Medicare law to allow patients to 'work off a bill'. That is the wisdom of your elected representatives. The theory is if you (a physician) will do free work or for barter or for an agreed-upon price the Feds say you cannot charge the Federal Government (Medicare) less than you charge another party. If you do you have violated the law and can be fined $10,000 per claim. So, if my poor neighbor needed her gallbladder out and she has no means of paying and has no insurance, for me to say , "I will do the surgery for nothing" violates EMTALA.

My suggestion to you is to go to an orthopedist, tell him your situation, tell him you will pay the best you can. He will still be required to bill you, but if you have a prior agreement he will give you latitude. The real problem for your situation is being admitted to the hospital for elective surgery. I do not know what their position would be.

[Texas Songwriter]

I should have included HICFA in my rant. Please add at the appropriate places.

[crz]

How would they know? She is hired for a bit, paid, and the money is paid back for the billing..how the hell would they know?

We have done the latter...to no avail. Many will not even look at the Xrays and refused to even see her.

So sadly, she waits till she gets on medicare next Feb. What a GD scam this all is.

All we want is to get her hip resurfaced, since they cant do a typical hip joint operation on her. She has had her femur broken twice and it isnt straight enough to get the pin in.

You should see the XRays.