Every hospital has a Managed Care Caseworker, and his/her opinion overrides the opinion of the attending physician.
Scary.
Socialized Medicine scary.
I’d prefer my own doc make the choice.
Have had to fight tooth and nail, for loved ones, with these MCCs.
Actually it isn't related to socialized medicine. It's related to insurance companies wanting to minimize expenses.
The dirty little secret is that hospitals want to prolong the death of a person in his/her final illness to milk Medicare and gap insurance to the maximum possible. There is no malice in the hearts of the medical profession when they do this. There is nothing personal. It's just business, and damn good business.
The purpose of the Managed Care Caseworker is to minimize the hospital's rake-off.
It is the duty of the family to insist that the medical profession explain in layman's terms what is going on. The family has to hammer the medical profession constantly to get a straight answer. Failing to do that plays into the hands of the hospital.
The physicians just want to prescribe drugs instead of finding out what is causing problems. Then they make decisions based on statistics which comes from insurance and pharmaceutical companies. And what brings in the most money. No individual care.