Mmmmmmm.....torte reform.
Posted on 06/17/2009 11:16:48 AM PDT by Baladas
A recent study by the Integrated Care Collaboration (ICC) of emergency room visits in Central Texas discovered that, over the past six years, nine individuals have made 2,678 ER visits to local hospitals, at a cost of $3 million. One of these people visited 145 times last year and 554 times in the past five years.
Reading these stats reinforces my conviction that any unified national health care program will have to include that ugly word, rationing. Nine people should not be able to run up a $3 million tab when so many others lack basic services such as vaccines and prenatal care.
These nine are the poster people for wretched excess, but the problem of people using the ER as a clinic for non-emergency complaints is widespread. According to a CDC study, of the 119.2 million ER visits in 2006, only 15.9 million could be classified as true emergencies. A staggering 11 percent of all non-emergency medical care visits in the U.S. now take place in the ER rather than doctor's offices or clinics.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailyfinance.com ...
Perchance they claimed they were in “pain” and needed their meds.
People do all kinds of things for attention, or for drugs.
Oh, lots of these stories. All different scams. Makes me sick.
Cost of healthcare rises. If we have a socialized program for this I can just see the taxes going up, to say the least. Imiagine how everyone will dump into the hospitals.
I’m not particularly saavy about this stuff, it’s just that I work in the field and see it, everyday, for years. You have to learn it that way.
I’m sure we don’t want the government paying, because the obvious question is ‘where will they get the money’.
From us.
Robert, are you trying to make my head explode? Where is the outrage?
In Wisconsin if you called 911 the ambulance would show up and take you to the hospital, two or three days later you would get a bill from the ambulance company for $275.00, insurance would not pay it.
. . . and the money keeps coming in and the relative is out of their hands.
Follow the money.
I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that the patients are either drunks or drug addicts.My bets on the drunks.
Forgot to mention, in most of these cases the patient has no insurance, and is placed, or has been placed on state aid, paid out of state taxes.
They have no insurance otherwise. If it’s an illegal it’s ‘emergent fund’ paid for by the Feds, out of our taxes.
One, She should be refused because she's an known addict. I wouldn't worry about being sued by a drug pusher/addict who doesn't need the drugs.
The problem with the system is at the pharmacy level; There is no pharmacy records/database that can detect if a person is abusing prescriptions, and getting multiple prescriptions from multiple sources far exeeding a prescribed dose.
All that is required to make it work is a persons name and SS number, and all retail pharmacies be required to use this database.
No SS- no drugs, simple as that.
Someone bouncing from ER to ER collecting prescriptions would be caught when trying to fill them at the pharmacy.
Once they realize they can no longer do this, they will no longer bounce from ER to ER trying.
It may not stop all abuse, such as illegals, but it would stop a lot of it. All that is required is for each state to legislate pharmacies use a state wide datbase.
It would also help get prescription drugs off the streets.
I think doctors at ERs stand just as much a chance being sued by giving out prescriptions to obvious addicts who make themselves known by their frequent ER visits for drugs.
When their bodies are returned to their families after found dead on the street from an oxy abuse overdose, and they find that the doc at the ER knew this person was an addict abusing the drug, the family stands a pretty good chance of winning a law suit.
They shouldn't, but they could none the less. Another reason we need torte reform.
mark
The trouble with such a database is that government computer and network security is an absolute joke.
The hospitals make money from all of this. They get paid pretty good from state aid.
They don’t want to refuse them.
Eventually they got arrested for drug/prescription fraud.
After several turns in the prison system for repeated offense, my brother ended up eating dirt one night when he got too high and came after the police with a few knives in his hands. Plastic knives.
Sad ending. I don't blame the cops. What were they supposed to do with a clearly violent person charging at them around 3am. 3 bullets and it was over.
Mmmmmmm.....torte reform.
Munchausen syndrome was suspected.
I think she’s certifiably crazy...
No doubt he had become an addict, with the help of our “Healthcare” system.
How is enabling an addictive personality health care?
I’m not saying he shouldn’t have taken responsiblity for himself and his problem, but as for the ability to make more and more drug addicts happy with the healthcare providers making it available so often, what about the responsiblity of the ‘pusher’, the healthcare system itself.
I’m sorry for the loss of your brother and what you and your family have gone through.
The only one responsible is/was my brother. He'd been to treatment, AA, and all the other stuff. The one treatment center which only took the worst of the worst...would no longer take him.
We all knew that night would come. And it did.
Thank you for your condolences.
They are probably hypochondriacs, drug-seekers, or both.
I'm sure aliens are a big part of this, but I've known people who weren't aliens who run to the ER everyday for no reason other than they want "attention". They never go to a family doctor for followup or any other reason, they just go to the ER all the time and never pay a dime.
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