I was visiting family and taking a solo walk around the neighborhood. This late 20-something year old guy was just hanging out in front of building where my family's flat was. I immediately became concerned. I didn't feel threatened. He asked if could have some water. I told him to wait there on the sidewalk and went to the flat got a bottle of water and a half sandwich and brought it down to him.
I sat with him and he explained to me that he was in the hospital the previous day, but they kicked him out after he was "stable" (no, he was in distress still). He still had the hospital ID bracelet on.
After talking with him for 10ish minutes, I called EMS and explained what was going on. They showed up along with LE.
I was pretty adamant that this patient should not have been released like this. They did put him the ambulance.
So it is not just red-states that will kick patients to the streets... Liberal NYC does it too also.
Healthcare Behaving Badly
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 4:41 pm
by Sequoia32
Was going to put this in the bad results from Dobbs thread as it has to do with our fragmented healthcare system and leaving stuff to the States, but this works too.
My 33 year old niece is going blind. We (the family) have decided she can't live alone anymore. She also needs very specialized care as they think it is an autoimmune thing and maybe genetics.
Since losing her job due to the loss of sight, she is on Medi-Cal, California's version of Medicaid. Every state administers Medicaid differently, and of course many red states flat out won't cover many people in need.
She has been living and working in Ventura, Ca. We live in Sacramento, Ca. Her Mom is in Mississippi and/or Floriduh. Dad is in Southern Oregon, nearest "big" city is Medford. When I worked in NICU in Portland, transports from Medford were called "Medford messes". Not good care there.
She can't live with either parent because of the lack of access to care/insurance.
Well, today another shitty example of this fragmented system:
She is in Oregon with her father for a short visit. They discovered she is out of her eye drops. Mom is scrambling to get her prescription transferred, but since she has Medi-Cal, it can only be filled in California. So Dad or someone, has to drive to Yreka, Ca to get it.
We need a REAL national healthcare plan that will cover all of us, everywhere. Let people/employers pay for fancier stuff, but come on, this is getting worse and worse instead of better.
Healthcare Behaving Badly
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 7:41 pm
by MsDaisy 2
I do not understand why this great USA doesn't have a NHS. I was born at Walter Reed and raised in the Air Force, my first Mister was a clarinet player in the Army Band for 20 years and when I divorced him I lost my military health insurance then having to get it through the private system. What a fucked up system! The cheapest I could get then was $900. a month and it covered very little, not that I ever had many medical issues, mostly sinus infections and allergies. Thankfully now I'm old enough for Medicare and the supplement is nothing as bad as that. Also luckily I still have no medical issues, other than allergies & ADHA. I was prescribed meds for both but generally only take the allergy meds when my face slams shut and I only take the ADHA meds when something is coming up that I need to pay attention to.
Healthcare Behaving Badly
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 8:14 pm
by Sequoia32
I don't understand why employers aren't clamoring to get rid of the HR departments bloated by all of the issues and expenses with providing health insurance.
And people having to mess with HSAs and other crazy crap?!? Deductibles! Co-pays!
I worked one night with a nurse who was being treated for breast cancer. She looked like death warmed over. I heard she had to work to keep her health insurance, not only for herself, but for her husband and 2 kids. Never saw her again. She died. Her name was Rosemary. I can still see her in my mind. Makes me cry.
Thank goodness I didn't get diagnosed until I had not only Medicare, but Medicaid. I would have had to just die without both. I would not even have been able to afford what Medicare didn't cover.
Chemo: 1500/tx 1 x per week for 18 weeks. Radiation: 750/day, 5 days per week x 7 weeks. Plus $750 Md appts and much, much more. I have no idea what my anti-cancer pills cost. Or pain pills, or ... all of the rest.
Yeah, I get mail that tells me how much I'm costing, but it is just too much to deal with. I'm just now able to get out to the kitchen to get my own friggin' OJ that I need due to my critically low potassium, that hopefully is normal now that I am able to eat/drink.
Healthcare Behaving Badly
Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2023 8:14 am
by Ben-Prime
Sequoia32 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 02, 2023 8:14 pm
I don't understand why employers aren't clamoring to get rid of the HR departments bloated by all of the issues and expenses with providing health insurance.
Because some employers are saturated in the pre-Affordable Care Act mindset that locks you into a job because of the health insurance. I stayed at my old hated job for 10 years in part because of that, and it was my ex-wife's insistence that I stay at it so that she could have health insurance when she quit her job to go back to school that in part ended our marriage ... or at least led to the marriage ending fight.
But I digress, as I am wont to do. The point is that to some employers, the cost of HR bloating is an acceptable cost of locking in a compliant, needy workforce.
Healthcare Behaving Badly
Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2023 4:56 pm
by Sequoia32
Hmmmm ... that makes sense ... and another reason it's got to change.
I haven’t heard the claim that “the U.S. has the best healthcare in the world!” claim lately, which is good because it isn’t close to true. But what country’s IS on top, and where does the U.S. really fall? (69th!) A fairly eye-opening and quick read at Statista: The Healthiest (& Unhealthiest) Countries in the World. It’s in recognition of the 75th anniversary of the U.K.’s National Health Service, which is also nowhere near the top, but significantly higher than the U.S. To see their source data and where every country ranks, look at the Legatum Prosperity Index; click the healthcare header to sort by that column (third from right). You’ll find there that the U.S. is nowhere near the top for “Personal Freedom” either. But hey! We’re at #17 for “Investment Environment”!
Healthcare Behaving Badly
Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2023 1:04 pm
by MN-Skeptic
I don't know if there's a separate thread for this, so I'll put it here -
-
Complete text of twitter thread -
Robert Weissman
@Rob_Weissman
Major blow to Big Pharma's bad-faith effort to block Medicare drug price negotiation, as a federal judge rejects a preliminary injunction request to block the Medicare drug negotiation program. 1/4
It's not just that the 6th Circuit judge requested the preliminary injunction motion filed by the Chamber of Commerce ... He eviscerated the core argument Big Pharma is making in lawsuits across the country. 2/4
Big Pharma claims that the negotiation process constitutes a "taking" under the Fifth Amendment and that drug companies are entitled to be paid the price-gouging, monopolist rates they currently impose on Medicare ... as a matter of constitutional right. 3/4
There are many reasons this is wrong, but the judge focused on the most basic: Medicare is a voluntary program. If drug companies don't like the negotiation process, they are free not to sell to Medicare. Thus, no taking. 4/4
Healthcare Behaving Badly
Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2024 11:27 am
by raison de arizona
Rokhanna takes it to Johnson & Johnson re: above lawsuit.
Healthcare Behaving Badly
Posted: Tue May 07, 2024 4:32 pm
by RTH10260
Houston residents charged 'facility fees' when visiting doctors
KPRC 2 Click2Houston
2 May 2024
Unexpected, unexplained fees are driving up the cost of doctor visits for families across Houston.
Healthcare Behaving Badly
Posted: Tue May 07, 2024 5:01 pm
by sugar magnolia
My daughter's doctor (billing dept) told her yesterday that her - pre-approved- surgery wasn't covered. When she called about it to find out why it was approved in the first place, the woman literally said "ooops" but had no idea how it got through the system. Some issue about her insurance covering pregnancy but not the surgery which was a direct result of the pregnancy, too My insurance initially denied coverage for my lymphedema as "not cancer related" when, duh, I didn't have it before the mastectomy and it is a known result of removing lymph nodes. I appealed that one and never heard another word from them. I hope the same is true for my daughter.
Healthcare Behaving Badly
Posted: Tue May 07, 2024 5:33 pm
by Slim Cognito
Typical medical insurance protocol.
Insurance: Deny
Patient: Fight
I: Deny again
P: Fight again
Yada yada yada
I: Oh, all right.
Healthcare Behaving Badly
Posted: Tue May 07, 2024 8:13 pm
by p0rtia
Meant to post this eons ago, so please know that this is not in reaction to any given post--just a function of the fact that the thread popped up on the first page.
Anyway -
Seems like it's by far and away Health INSURANCE that is the thing that mostly behaves badly. Not the medicos or facilities. (Mostly, she repeats.)
I'd be dead several times over without my docs and nurses and surgeons and techs. Thought I'd put in a word.
Healthcare Behaving Badly
Posted: Tue May 07, 2024 10:28 pm
by neonzx
The for-profit "healthcare" insurance companies have always been the ones with death panels. Not the ACA/Obamacare.
Healthcare Behaving Badly
Posted: Tue May 07, 2024 11:16 pm
by AndyinPA
That's appalling. So far, I have not heard of this around here.
Healthcare Behaving Badly
Posted: Tue May 07, 2024 11:37 pm
by raison de arizona
Healthcare is kinda catch all thread title, but I get your point. It’s generally the insurance companies taking the piss.
Healthcare Behaving Badly
Posted: Wed May 08, 2024 4:27 pm
by RTH10260
Nurse whose boss and co-workers failed to give her CPR for more than 7 minutes has workers' comp claim denied Her family is questioning how it’s possible she didn’t receive basic life support at a facility connected with a highly regarded cancer center. Her medical bills and caregiving costs are now in the millions.
By Carolyn Johnson •
Published April 30, 2024 • Updated on May 3, 2024 at 10:15 am
Andrea Morris lived an active life, working as a nurse, running marathons and raising her three children as a single mom.
But all that changed May 14, 2020 when Morris arrived to work at the City of Hope cancer infusion center in Upland.
Court records show she told her supervisor, also a nurse, that she didn’t feel well and worried she might have Covid-19, a constant concern in those early months of the global pandemic.
“She was really worried about her kids and getting it from a patient or another medical professional and then giving it to one of her children,” explained Pam Bertino, Morris’ sister. “A lot of anxiety and stress, just all the time.”
The symptoms that Morris worried were Covid-related turned out to be the first signs of sudden cardiac arrest.
Nursing supervisor Karen Serna recorded Morris’ medical emergency on her cellphone as she called 911. Both recordings were shared with the I-Team by Morris' attorney .
“I can’t get a blood pressure on her. She is completely moaning right now. It looks like she is having a seizure,” Serna told the 911 operator.
It’s really scary to think that your boss would take a videotape of you, essentially going into cardiac arrest and having agonal breathing, instead of reacting and giving CPR
Serna mistakenly and repeatedly referred to what was happening as a seizure, but she did not take a blood pressure reading, even manually.
Dr. Glaucomflecken, the extremely funny alter ego of an actual ophthalmologist, has a YouTube channel with funny/cynical skits about health insurance, private equity in health care, and medical specialties.
