Hospitals See Drop in Paying Patients

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/business/07hospital.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Hospitals See Drop in Paying Patients

By REED ABELSON
Published: November 6, 2008

In another sign of the economy’s toll on the nation’s health care system, some hospitals say they are seeing fewer paying patients — even as greater numbers of people are showing up at emergency rooms unable to pay their bills.

While the full effects of the downturn are likely to become more evident in coming months as more people lose their jobs and their insurance coverage, some hospitals say they are already experiencing a fall-off in patient admissions.

Some patients with insurance seem to be deferring treatments like knee replacements, hernia repairs and weight-loss surgeries — the kind of procedures that are among the most lucrative to hospitals. Just as consumers are hesitant to make any sort of big financial decision right now, some patients may feel too financially insecure to take time off work or spend what could be thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket expenses for elective treatments.

The possibility of putting off an expensive surgery or other major procedure has now become a frequent topic of conversation with patients, said Dr. Ted Epperly, a family practice doctor in Boise, Idaho, who also serves as president of the American Academy of Family Physicians. For some patients, he said, it is a matter of choosing between such fundamental needs as food and gas and their medical care. “They wait,” he said. The loss of money-making procedures comes at a difficult time for hospitals because these treatments tend to subsidize the charity care and unpaid medical bills that are increasing as a result of the slow economy.

[DesertFlower]

1. is anyone surprised?

i recently put my mom into a group home that specializes in dementia care. it costs $3,000 a month for a private room. she has about $30,000 in savings and when that's gone the state will take over. she will have to move into a semi private room and they will pay $1900 a month. i chose a home that was contracted with the state so she won't have to be moved.

my point is: the state will take over. wouldn't it make more sense to just have socialized medicine?

[SmileyRose]

2. Point of fact

I don't know if it's state by state, but in Georgia and Michigan both - every time you pay the nursing home the $3000 you can also pay your family $3000 out of her estate. This was originally done so that spouses were not left destitute and the meager savings a couple worked so damn hard to amass was not completely lost before their children were able to benefit. Please talk to an accountant and/or social worker to find out what the rules are.

[DesertFlower]

3. i did speak to a social worker.

can't be done here. she's allowed to keep $95.00 a month from her social security when the state takes over.

[curse of greyface]

4. Depends on the socialized system.

Believe it or not this is a huge problem in England. You have to be destitute before you will receive any elderly care.

[bemildred]

5. Maybe this whole for-profit medical care idea needs to be re-thought?

Do we want to make lots of money, or do we want to give people medical care based on need? Which is the higher priority? Could the government not help balance those issues by proper regulation? Have the HMOs not clearly failed to carry that out? Is that not what HMOs were created to do? Hmmmm.