You need to rethink that. If you need 20 minutes, you should stay out of the alley .
Posted on 03/22/2010 8:52:30 AM PDT by Wontsubmit
For nearly a decade, Paula Oertel's brain tumor was kept at bay by a drug that was not approved to treat her condition.
Then Oertel did something she never imagined would jeopardize her good health.
She moved -- less than 30 miles -- from one county in Wisconsin to another.
That move triggered a review of her health insurance from Medicare, which eventually led to a loss of coverage, including the drug.
And the tumor returned within four months.
What happened to Oertel stunned her doctor, Dr. Mark Malkin. Nothing he learned in medical school prepared him for what now is too often a sad and frustrating part of his job as an oncologist: fighting Medicare and private insurance companies over life-or-death decisions.
Doctors aren't supposed to get emotionally involved in the cases of their patients, but tears well up in Malkin's eyes when he talks about Oertel, the 40-year-old Oshkosh woman he has been treating for several years.
"I wish Paula would have a second chance," he said, choking up.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Depends on the state & the drugs they consider experamental. The key to this article is the drug wasn’t developed for this treatment. It was the audit that caught her not the change of address.
She didn’t have much longer anyway (1yr maybe 2) once the EMR (electronic medical records) are all linked Medicare would have caught that the Diagnosis didn’t match the drug & they would have cut her off then.
I WISH we could write off our bad debt. If they did that and capped lawyers you'd have everybody covered. The point is to make the system collapse so the government can "solve" the disaster it created.
I'm sorry if I sound disheartened but I just finished seeing that punk Stupak mealy mouth on Fox and then Alan Combs spew his mindless lies about the Tea Party being racist and saying the "N" word... what a little bitch. I wish I was in an alley with that punk for 20 minutes.
Just as long as it is not counted as earned income.- But I understand your frustration.
I'm sorry if I sound disheartened
No need to apologize. I sell health insurance and we are watching more than 20 years of work go down the drain.
You need to rethink that. If you need 20 minutes, you should stay out of the alley .
At her age she doesn’t qualify for medicare, but she would qualify under certain conditions for medicaid....medicaid is for those on welfare....
Your right and I just wrote the same thing...she could have been on medicaid, which is health care for those on welfare...The earliest you can get on medicare is at 59 1/2 if you are a widow...but you take a big % cut in what you will receive....the cut is 30%...otherwise its 62 with a 30% cut. 65 gives you full benefits without a discount..
She’s already ON Medicare! They will pay for a more expensive, ineffective treatment but not the one that is less expensive and doesn’t work!
you're assuming I wanted a fight to end fast. I'd really like a couple of hours but I'm sure I'd get tired and then who would mop up the mess.
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