More than 2,200 hospitals face penalties under ObamaCare rules

[WFT]

They are going to weed out us old farts.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...spitals-face-penalties-for-high-readmissions/

"Starting in October, Medicare will reduce reimbursements to hospitals with high 30-day readmission rates -- which refers to patients who return within a month -- by as much as 1 percent. The maximum penalty increases to 2 percent the following year and 3 percent in 2014.
Doctors are concerned the penalty is unfair, since sometimes they have to accept patients more than once in a brief period of time but could be penalized for doing so -- even for accepting seniors who are sick"

 

[Lurker66]

This should help prevent doctors from discharging patients before they have fully recovered.

Last year my wifes grandmother was sent home 4 times in 1 month after being admitted for dehydration and pnuemonia. She was always discharged on friday and re-admitted on monday or tuesday.

 

[angsniper]

1 problem is that hospitals are only reimbursed for a certain amount. If you come in for an appendectomy the insurance dictates that you only get 1-2 nights. Doesn't matter if you don't feel like you're ready to go home or not. You don't get any longer than that covered due to insurance. Hospitals aren't in the business of letting you stay for free. (Not defending the outrageous charges)
2. Is that there are tons of whack jobs out there who come in for no good reason at all. We get filthy patients come in for surgery. The only time soap has touched their body in the last 2 weeks is when we scrub them for surgery. Then they go home and don't bathe again for another 2 weeks. Next thing you know they are back with an infection. They blame the doctor and the treatment and stay are "on the house". Really on the paying patients. You would be surprised what people want to blame on their doctors... it's your fault I can't get up and walk to rehab my knee - nevermind that I'm 250# overweight and that's why my knee is toast in the first place. I can't breath, nevermind that I've smoked 3 packs of cigarettes a day for the last 30 years. Oh and, I can smoke 3 PPD at a cost of $450/month but I can't afford insurance. blah, blah blah.
People go to emergency rooms because they have a history of not paying their bills and they know that by law they can't be turned away where they can if they were to try a Dr's office. This right here is a huge reason the healthcare is so screwed up. Those of you with some responsibility and pay your bills get the pleasure of paying extra to cover the lazy asses who have no intention of paying for anything.
People need to start taking responsibility for themselves!
Hope that wasn't too sugar coated.

 

[Lurker66]

Yep even with Obama care, the best we can do is patchwork an overloaded system. Like alot of social issues the healthcare system will get too big to fail, then it will be crisis managment until it crashes.

Healthcare, Welfare, Social Security, VA, disability, houseing, banking, insurance, it will all crumble or get too expensive to afford someday.

 

[UnSafe]

Angsniper nailed it. The actions of the irresponsible force the responsible to pay more.

As for the so called "Bounce back" penalties- There's a fine, ever flexible line between discharging an inpatient too early or keeping them too long. Hospitals and Docs have all sorts of policies, algorithms and "score lists" that help to predict who/ what should stay or go, but it's an imperfect science.

"Street" them too early and without an adequate outpatient treatment plan and they'll be back. Keep them too long and the risks of "Hospital acquired" infections (note- not necessarily hospital "caused" infections), venous thrombosis (vein blood clots), bed sores, muscular deconditioning, etc., all tend to rear their ugly heads more often.

Maybe we'll just transfer all of our bounce backs to MDT's hospital, for a higher level of care!

 

[rapidsequence]

Hardeeharhar!!!! Nice try Dr UnSafe!!!!!!! Transfer all you want...you know as well as i do, us ER docs simply hit up the nice hospitalists to take over care upstairs My 12 hours always ends!!!!!

But...you are correct. The Medicare penalty is a joke. Bounce backs happen. Sick people are sometimes sick. It has NOTHING to do with evil hospitals or mean doctors sending you home before you're ready. Sometimes you've simply reached the best you're gonna get. When they say "follow up with your family doctor AS SOON AS POSSIBLE after you've been released....they MEAN IT.

 

[cichlid-dave]

What sucks for the medical industry is the mandated government insurance all seniors earn. Seniors don't get me wrong you earned it if you worked for it. What's sucks is all the folks that abuse the system and this does not only apply to medical..... It applies to all aspects of our lives.. Home/auto insurance what you purchase at wallyworld and so forth.