Posted on 02/12/2013 3:21:13 PM PST by Nachum
Two hospice care centers are struggling to make ends meet, and Obamacares cuts to Medicare are to blame.
Hospiceshealth care facilities for the terminally illalong with other Medicare providers are facing Medicare pay cuts. Of the $716 billion in payment reductions, hospice care was hit by a $17 billion payment cut from 2013 to 2022.
Now, contrary to all of the misleading claims, this effect is already beginning.
San Diego Hospice recently laid off 260 workers, closed a 24-bed hospital, and has recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. San Diego Hospices financial condition is attributed mainly to reduced Medicare reimbursement, fewer patients, and a federal audit that hurt the centers reputation.
Another provider, Delaware Hospice, had to lay off 52 workers, citing lower federal reimbursement as the cause. The decision, said CEO Susan Lloyd, is a direct result of a consequential decline in census and the need to position the organization to meet additional changes and challenges that the hospice industry anticipates with health care reform.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.heritage.org ...
The second thoughts among youth and 30-somethings will begin when the costs and fees and penalties and overall consumer prices of everything become so overpowering as to strangle them in place. When they can't change jobs or can't move to new houses/towns or can't buy the products they desire (either because the products aren't available or because they're way too expensive) or can't take the vacations they've taken in past years or give their kids piano/sports/dance lessons, then they will know they've been lied to and had.
But by then it may be too late. Hopefully their Nanas and parents will still be alive to teach them about the REAL, free United States of America.
I hope and pray my analysis is completely wrong!
Far cry from what started out as a "conservative forum".
Ping!
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
It isn’t a coincidence, either, that the large majority of senior citizens are white.
I’ve jokingly said I’d be willing to miss the rapture just to see their faces. Jokingly, I said.
You have to figure nurses aides,nurses, and supervisors, 3 shifts. Then there is the kitchen staff, social workers (grief, spiritual, etc), pain management, pharmacy, administration, custodial, Medicare compliance record keepers, reimbursement personnel (Medicare and insurance), medical coders, accounts payable and receivable ... it all adds up, but 260 does still seem high.
We are all hostages.
I actually believe this has already started. My dad may have lung cancer. He's 84 and is very active. The docs have said they will not do any surgery at his age. He also has a knee problem--toally arthritic in his left knee. He had a right knee replacement more than 10 years ago. The docs say he's not a "good" candidate for a left knee replacement--so he's in pain most of the time.
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