in bush's america and jeb's florida ...

[flordehinojos]

a dear friend's niece is having surgery today for a partially ruptured cyst on her ovary. the procedure is going to be done on an outpatient basis. the hospital demands/require that she bring with her the 20% not covered by her insurance--they will otherwise refuse to do the surgery. They are sending her back home after a period of rest in the outpatient recovery room.

unthinkable. unheard of, except in the deepest and farthest jungles of brazil, peru and other third world countries. it is happening here in jeb's florida and dubya's america

[ixion]

1. sorry to hear that, flordehinojos

hope the surgery goes okay. :hug:

[flordehinojos]

7. thanks ...

:loveya: i appreciate your concern.

[Doctor_J]

2. We're a thrid world country

where only the affluent get even life's neccessities. Insurance companies will be big contributors to the eventual demise of the US.

[flordehinojos]

9. it is so sad ...

it may have not been a perfect system under the clintons (and newty had a lot to do with not letting it be a perfect or a better system) but under the bush family evil empire it is very sad!

:cry:

[Crazy Dave]

3. Here in Florida

You actually see spare change jars in convenience stores collecting money for people who need that part of that the insurance won't cover.
I tried to Google an old story from a couple of years ago. There was a local woman (a mother and wife) who was going to die without a needed surgery but since they couldn't afford the part the insurance wouldn't cover they were pretty much told tough shit. Get your affairs in order. It wasn't something Jeb is too proud of. Something he couldn't use as a right wing agenda like the Terri Schiavo ordeal.

It's also pathetic that if the mother lived in a communist dictatorship like Cuba she could have had the surgery. But we're told we have it so much better because we're allowed to complain about not having government health care. That's the Bush family's idea of freedom and democracy.

[flordehinojos]

11. interesting

story ...and the irony of this is that this girl's mother, they come from Cuba, they came here escaping the dictatorship established there and this girl was born here and so have her two little kids.

[Crazy Dave]

16. I always use Cuba as the best example against the US for not....

...providing health care to it's citizens. The majority (all?) of the developed and wealthy nations do have free health care for their citizens. Cuba is a very poor nation under an oppressive communist dictator but even they think that their citizens are entitled to it. But not our nation, no way Jose.

It's disgusting that I pay over $19k a year in taxes and my fellow citizens don't even benefit from it.

[flordehinojos]

20. to some extent we did have programs funded by tax dollars to help people

in so many different ways (Medicaid being one among them) before this bushiite grabbed power and cut, cut, cut funding to Medicaid, Medicare, and on, and on, and on.

the man is a chamber of horror in his soul with a fake persona on the outside.

[SPKrazy]

25. kick n/t

[Patiod]

4. Not that the 20% thing isn't INFURIATING

but I've completely changed my mind on the concept of hospital stays after doing tons of (work-related) research on the bacteria and fungi that inhabit the average hospital. One of my friends came very close to losing her leg last summer to a hospital acquired staph aureus infection she acquired during hip surgery. The less time spent in a hospital if you don't need to be there, the better.

Recently, I had what was supposed to be a same-day procedure done, and elected to stay overnight because of uncontrollable vomiting. I would NEVER make that choice again -- the IV anti-emetics didn't work at all (the only reason I wanted to stay), the IV anti-inflammatory wasn't great, and between bouts of getting sick, I was wakened regularly by people shouting "Mrs. Jones! Mrs Jones! It's Dr. X!" Do I look like an 80-year-old with emphysema, kidney and liver failure? (they were looking for my roommate, who was closer to the door - so why did they wake ME?) At one point, I was shaken awake by a volunteer, asking what I wanted for lunch the following day. "Nothing - I'm leaving this morning". "Okay then, what would you like for dinner tomorrow?"

Your friend's niece may be safer and may get much better rest at home.

/funny story, off-topic. One of the docs, a Dr. Ngo was drawing fluid out of my roommate and telling her a story to keep her mind off what he was doing. He said that his high-school principal was called Mr. Bond. One day, the doctor's father, who was also a doctor, had to call the principal's office for something. The secretary hung up on him when he said it was "Dr. Ngo calling for Mr. Bond".

[flordehinojos]

12. thanks for the post ... i am glad to see you got better and i had to laugh

at the Dr. Ngo and Mr. Bond story.

:)

[Obamanaut]

17. I can relate to your experience. I was hospitalized for stomach

ulcer. I was awakened from a sound sleep by a voice saying "Mr usnret, I need to check your catheter." I didn't have one, and told her this. "Your chart says you do, so we'll need to put one in." I was wide awake then - turned out they were supposed to be checking my roommate, different name, and it wasn't really in my chart at all. I checked out at first light, and we did remaining tests as outpatient.

Sounds like same hospital.

[Patiod]

19. Oh, I could write a comedy about how awful my stay was

It was a MAJOR teaching hospital in Philadelphia. My doctor was great, the procedure went flawlessly, and everything else was a clusterf#$k.

- I started vomiting, and they gave me a 1" deep dental spit-tray. When my S.O. got there, he had to pester them to get a BASIN.
- The physician's assistant in the recovery room kept screaming at me "stay flat! stay flat! If you sit up, the incision will open up!!" Sorry, but it's hard to vomit from a flat position, my friend.
- Once I was admitted, S.O. noticed my saline IV dripping. He pointed it out to the nurse who said "Ha ha ha!!!! I must of spiked it!!" She went away and came back with a latex glove to repair it.
- S.O. had to harrass the staff to get me a commode, since I couldn't walk to the bathroom with all my IV stuff.
- The anti-emetic and pain drip ran out (ibrupofen, not narcotic) and it took HOURS for anyone to get more.
- In between vomiting, I tried to sleeep. I was woken up THREE times by people thinking I was my 80-year old roommate.
- I called the nurse at 8am and said "I've stopped vomiting, and I want to go home," and then I fell asleep. They woke me at noon for lunch, and told me "we didn't want to wake you up, so we didn't bother to contact your doctor to get you signed out".

Arrrgggh!!!!

At least they didn't try to put in a catheter, although it may not of been quite as, uh, painful.

Hope the ulcer is better.

[flordehinojos]

21. it's a good thing somebody realized that hospital worker was making a

mistake before he or she made it!

[retread]

5. It's NEVER 20% of the bill. It's 20% of what the insurance company

says the bill should be.

[barb162]

10. oh yeah, and they interpret that very broadly these days

reasonable and customary, those infamous words will work against the patient

[flordehinojos]

13. right --- it is the girl's copay.

however (you pay or you don't get treatment) ... i think--eventhough i may be contradicting some of my original post-- that doesn't happen even in third world countries...your post has somehow made me focused on the fact that in many third world countries they have universal health care.

edited to add:
well,thinking about it a little bit further, the girl's aunt said, the 20% of what the insurance won't pay. that doesn't sound like a co-pay, but more like an insurance which will only pay 80% of the hospital cost. A hospital which knows what the cost for that procedure is--since they probably have calculated already (much like a mechanics book that tells you such-and-such a repair takes an hour, therefore you will pay so much,even when the actual work may take them only 10 minutes)...and
a girl who is having to fork out a couple thousand dollars to take care of health even before they take care of it ... not to mention doctor's 20% and everything else that may be added to it.

[donsu]

6. we only have bits and pieces of the american health care services

health care has already crashed but is still burning.

good luck to us all.

[flordehinojos]

14. yes.

good luck to us all. we need it. and may God bless us all with good health!

[leftofthedial]

8. health care in Murka is a travesty

fucking corporations

[flordehinojos]

15. the bushiites have really given a free hand to disrespect humanity and

human beings.

[watercolors]

18. husbands surgery for hernia

Also was told to make sure he had his co=payment, in at6:30 a.m. and I brought him home at 9:30 a.m.!
I was stunned, last time ( a few years ago, he spent four days). We are just lucky he is healthy at 72, but I"m still in shock about the way they just rush a patient out!

[flordehinojos]

22. they will continue to do that until a few people die because they should

have stayed in and they get hit with a few malpractice suits. except of course, the bushiite's evil son has thought about that and i think there is a law that no award for malpractice can go over a certain amount of insignificant dollars.

edited to add: glad everything went well with your husband's surgery.

[SPKrazy]

23. No Offense, but should they do the surgery for free?

Hospitals have payrolls to meet, outpatient surgery centers do too.

I don't like it when I have to pay out of my pocket, and I'm surprised that they ask for it all up front. But they aren't in the business of giving loans either.

I work for a hospital and I know that the business of hospitals and healthcare in general has created a harder line on collections.

What we need is national health insurance, a single payor system. We could easily afford it as we spend more per capita on health care than any other country in the world, yet we get less for our health care dollar because we pay for: layers of bureaucracy in insurance companies that want to make 20% profit margin, pay for high cost malpractice insurance, pay for indigent care and health care business losses.

I'm sorry that your friend's niece is having to have the trauma of surgery. And it is a shame that poorer countries have better health care systems than we do.

[flordehinojos]

26. no one is saying that they should do the surgery for free.

#1). the insurance is already paying them a good bit of money--whenever it is that insurances pay after the hospital submits a claim.

#2) i think the issue is that they are asking for the patient's 20% up front.

#3) they already seem to know what the procedure is going to cost.

#4) how do they know what that 20% of a given total for services rendered is foing to be before hand?

#5) hospitals have a tendency to charge for products and services a particular patient never received. X-rays that were never performed on a patient. Medications that were never given to a patient. and then, they charge hundreds and thousands of dollars at a very inflated price/cost to the patient and the insurance company.

It is one thing to bring to the hospital your $20. or $30. or even your $125. co-pay before you get serviced it is another thing to have to bring your 20% or a procedure that will cost thousands of dollars and that has not yet happened.

[SPKrazy]

28. Okay, but.....

The insurance is paying 80%, I bet they know what the insurance will pay as usually contracts with insurance companies are in place.

They want to getthe 20% because who the hell knows when the f*cking insurance company will pay them?

Again as I said, health care providers aren't loan corporations. Why should they front the procedure without adequate payment?

They are asking for 20% of what they know it will cost. Any additional costs will be factored in later.

I would always get an itemized statement, because they do make "mistakes", and I've been outraged at how common these "mistakes" are and how much they end up costing.

I sympathize with your friend, and if you read my post you would see that I support universal health insurance for everyone with minimal co-pays so that no one is in the position of having to fork over a lot of money for a procedure. Also, lots of insurance companies have out of pocket limits and your friend I hope checked to see that he wasn't paying money that he wouldn't have to pay anyway. He could always contact his employer about the surgery center (assuming the employer provides the insurance) and tell them about this situation and I bet if the surgery center is customer service oriented they would figure something else out.

From someone who has billed insurance companies for services that I provided, I can tell you that many insurance companies don't pay very fast, and I wasn't working in a situation where I had the capital to float a loan while I waited for the insurance company to get around to paying.

Our health care system is a wreck and I predict that it will crash soon.

Then someone (pray it is the Democrats) will have to put it back together.

B*'s solution seems to be having people buy their own health care and insurance through "medical savings accounts" which will be a disaster to those who don't have the income to save in those medical savings accounts.

Peace

[kineneb]

24. had the similar surgery when I was 19

sommmme years ago. The cyst had ruptured and the surgery lasted 1.5 hours. I was in the hospital for 4 days, two of those on an IV with my digestive functions "turned off." Endometriosis sucks.

I wish your friend's niece all the best. Depending on her case, outpatient surgery might be rushing it a little. Be sure someone is home to care for her, she is not going to feel well for a while. The insistence on the copay is absurd; not doing the surgery could have been fatal! Ruptured ovarian cysts can cause peritonitis.

[flordehinojos]

27. thank you for understanding the seriousness of the situation and the

absurdity of the hospital in question. thank you also for understanding the danger in sending someone home who has had surgery for a situation which needs care. the girl's husband will be home, but so will their four and her two year old...and that can be pretty nerve racking if you are needing rest and care.

I am thankful that you are alive and with good health (considering the possibilities) after your surgery--even when "endometriosis sucks".

I thank you for your post. I appreciate it.

take care :loveya: