Fraud Scheme Using The Homeless
Federal authorities raided three medical centers in
Los Angelos and arrested a hospital CEO for fraud.
Authorities claim that men would walk up the down the neighborhoods where the homeless were known to be and shouting out “are you hooked up with the red, white, and blue?”. That is in reference to the Medi-Cal card that entitles you to government paid health care.
They told homeless people that they could make easy cash by coming to the hospital with them. Once there the homeless were looked at by doctors and stayed in the hospital for up to three days for conditions that did not require hospital stays. The medical centers would then bill the government for the hospitalizations and be reimbursed millions for unnecessary care.
Comments by the authorities were that it was a disgrace to use and abuse homeless people that way.
Are they nuts? First it was a crime of fraud what the medical centers did and they should certainly be punished.
Having said that, I ask again are they nuts? Let’s look at this from the homeless persons point of view.
You live on the streets, your meals come from soup kitchens or missions. You have no access to health care or even an address that would entitle you to receive government assistance. Someone comes up to you one day and takes you to a hospital where a doctor looks at you, treats your ailments, provides you with shower and bathroom facilities, a TV to watch, music to listen to, three hot square and nutritious meals plus a snack, and on top of all that they give you cash when you leave.
Now if that’s abuse, sign me up!
More Heart Attack Education Needed
A recent study suggests that many people who have heart disease still don’t know the symptoms of a heart attack. Lives can be saved if someone who is having a heart attack can get help within the first hour of having the symptoms. However it was found that most people don’t seek help until more than two hours have passed, and that means lives are being lost.
A few of the symptoms are pain in the jaw, left arm, or chest and can also include nausea. Of course most of us reason that there also can be many other reasons for these symptoms so we don’t run right to the ER, especially if we are uninsured.
The key seems to be that we all need to be aware if we are at risk for a heart attack. If you know you are at risk than these symptoms could certainly be telling you what is happening.
Doctors say that shorter hospital stays and more outpatient treatments could be a factor in not being educated enough about heart attacks, and right now no one is sure about how to better inform people about their risk. What they do know is that this is costing many lives that could otherwise be saved with early and prompt treatment.
Talk to your doctor about your risks and the health of your heart, it may save your life one day.
Hospital Compare, A New Website
Hospital Compare is a new website by the department of Health and Human Services. It lets consumers compare 26 quality of care measures in about 4,000 hospitals nation wide.
Patients rated hospital services such as how quickly they were given care and how well the communication was between them and the medical staff. In all there were ten main areas of experiences that patients had.
The purpose of the site is to help consumers make more informed decisions about where to go for care and treatment of certain ailments and illnesses. It is hoped that it will also allow hospitals to see where there strengths and weaknesses are so that they all can offer the best care and experience for their patients.
The site gives a lot of useful information, so if you are faced with a hospital stay, check the site before you are admitted. It will help to answer a lot of questions you may have and possibly relieve some anxiety about how you will be treated and cared for.
Location and Medicare
A study that’s done every two years has concluded that Medicare is paying wildly different amounts depending on where in the United States you live. Some are four times as much as others.
They looked at ill seniors and disabled people and the care and length of hospital stays in their last two years of life. What they found was that doctors seemed to tailor the care they gave with the resources they had available. For example, if a city typically had few beds open, hospital stays where short and many would be treated as outpatients or in the doctors offices. Cities that had many beds open would have sick people staying a lot longer in that hospital.
This might seem logical and maybe not even worth a study. After all, if you don’t have beds for patients they can’t stay in the hospital. That seems to make sense. My question is why are people not staying in the hospitals for the amount of time they need to and no more? Why are people who are in need of hospital care being sent home, while those who could be treated at home are in the hospital?
I’m also wondering if these stats will be ever changing. What I mean is if you have an area where beds are tied up with lengthy stays won’t doctors start shortening those stays to free up beds? In time won’t there be many open beds because of shorter stays, which will in turn encourage doctors to keep patients longer and repeat the cycle?
Sounds like a game I don’t want to play.