Posted on 08/23/2012 8:52:05 PM PDT by grundle
Fox News reports:
A provision of ObamaCare is set to punish roughly two-thirds of U.S. hospitals evaluated by Medicare starting this fall over high readmission rates
Starting in October, Medicare will reduce reimbursements to hospitals with high 30-day readmission rates
“Among patients with heart failure, hospitals that have higher readmission rates actually have lower mortality rates,” said Sunil Kripalani, MD, a professor with Vanderbilt University Medical Center who studies hospital readmissions. “So, which would we rather have — a hospital readmission or a death?”
If this is really true, then it’s quite scary.
I googled the doctor’s quote to try to find a better source, because a lot of people don’t trust Fox News. None of the mainstream media seems to have covered it so far. Maybe that’s because it’s not really true and Fox is lying – or maybe it’s because it is true and the other sources haven’t reported it due to their alleged “bias.” I don’t know. I wish that the Washington Post would investigate this claim by Fox News to find out whether it’s true or false.
If this is true, it’s terrifying.
If it’s false, then shame on Fox news for scaring people like that.
I remember hearing about this some time ago.
The main problem with managing people with heart failure is they don’t listen to the advice of the health care providers. They go out and eat a big ham dinner or a huge Chinese meal and of course they end up back in the hospital. Whose fault is that?
The list, Ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
Anyone watch Royal Pains?
Better save your money for Concierge Doctors and care
And be prepared to bribe your doctors under the table.
There is definitely a provision which punishes hospitals for high re-admission rates. It is supposed to be to make sure they focus more on outpatient care and preventative services, to lower costs.
But it does have this obvious side-effect that people who die in the hospital will help the re-admission average. Also, it could encourage keeping people longer, rather than risking sending them home only to have them have to come back. In that case, the clause will actually drive up costs instead of lowering them.
It is in the end a typical example of how government is completely incapable of using laws to force outcomes. We all know that we want to reduce costs, but you can’t make a law that will dictate how to do that — if you could, then everybody would already have reduced costs.
Of course, if we just have the hospitals let old people die, that will “reduce the costs”. If people paid their own bills, that would actually be a negative outcome for the hospital, since a dead person can’t pay them any more money. But since the payee is the government, they have every incentive to cut care and let you die. Especially since the government will punish you for saving the patient and having them return later.
It is called, denied accessibility and it is common amoungst socialised care as in the UK.
That is why they claim a longer life/lower death rate over there. If someone is denied access to care and they die, it is not counted because they never got into the system.
Oh and BTW. Abortions are not counted either. Since the baby was never “Born” they arent counted. Then they claim a lower infant mortality rate.
This is the most immoral type of system ever devised by any man.
“And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.” ~Governor Sarah Palin
Good point.
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Remind me to use Spell-check s little more often. JJ. Or get new key board. This one seems listing to the left.
My deduction was she was 80, a 3 time cancer survivor, and now a stroke victim. They were through with her. She didn't fit their idea of someone worthy of any more funding.
If you look at the Government programs of any type, they all have regulations to handle all cases. If you try to get individual attention, you will not fit the funding. Sarah Palin spoke of a "Death Panel" in Obama Care and was roundly criticized. If you look at the 15 person appointed panel, there is no appeal, not even to a court. They will decide who lives and who dies. Telling a hospital that they can't readmit a patient is just a cost saving measure that will end up killing people. When someone talks of abortion, they always say the government CAN"T get between the doctor and the patient. With all others the doctor can't get between the government and the patient.
And bring coins to feed the parking meter attached to the bed post.
I posted something on this earlier. Hospitals/Doctors can be fined if their readmission numbers for certain conditions such as CHF. This will cause hospitals to either not admit or treat as outpatients some very sick people.
It IS true. My doctor told me about it last month.
Our local hospital is trying to find a way around the provision by dismissing fragile patients not to go home or back to the care of their family doctors, but rather into intermediate care at a facility adjacent to, and owned by, the hospital.
That way, the hospital both monitors their progress and can also claim that they were still patients, not fully dismissed.
I have no idea if it will work, but the scheme is cutting into the patient load of primary care docs, who are already hurting, and coming between them and long-time patients.
You are absolutely correct! I am a medical coding analyst for a regional hospital. In plain English, I read entire medical charts for a living.
Congestive Heart Failure is difficult to control in the best of circumstances. The are MANY reasons that a patient has CHF. However, some of the exacerbations of the condition can be controlled to a point. CHF requires a delicate balance of fluids in the body. Many older patients want a quality of life that includes “eating what they want”, and continue to eat sodium laden foods.
Conversely, hospitals are required to treat all patients - even ones that caused their own illness. Whether it’s an elderly man with CHF who ate a bag of salty potato chips or a drug addict who overdosed on heroin.
So Obamacare wants to punish/penalize hospitals for treating patients - patients that they are required by law to treat under all circumstances.
This makes me want to scream and bang my head on my desk!
Penalize enough hospitals and there won’t be any left to treat anyone!!
My wife is a PA in a heart failure clinic.
I really think they should come up with a different name for the condition. First time I heard it I thought if their hearts failed why are they still alive?
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