[Gaffer]

Real compassionate people there. However, IMO, Hospice care isn’t what’s killing Medicare. I’d look first at all this ancillary medical equipment these daytime commercials try to get seniors to apply to Medicare for:

Hover Round
Fat Butt Scootie
Catheters delivered to your door
Blood testers delivered to your door
Electric stair escalators
Medical Transportation vans (for Dr appointments)

These are just a few, and if a company is willing to do all the paperwork for you at no charge, they are overcharging Medicare for it is my guess.

[Sacajaweau]

When my mother was dying at age 90, they performed every test on her poor little body in order to find out what was wrong with her.....despite the fact that they knew absolutely that she was dying.

My sister held the power and she did nothing to stop the tests. It was awful.

[REPANDPROUDOFIT]

I'm really bothered by people using scooters as transportation, "driving" them to the store, as they would a car. I've seen them on four and six lane roads, riding right along with the cars. In whose world is this possibly a good idea? They have no protection whatsoever, no insurance!

Go ahead! Call me cold-hearted if you want, but this is a perfect example of political correctness gone awry! These people are handicapped for Pete's sake. Most are elderly, many VERY elderly! The scooters are meant to be TRANSPORTED TO THE STORE in a vehicle!

[ilovesarah2012]

Another stupid thing is Medicaid/Medicare pay for equipment rental when it would be cheaper to just buy the equipment. My husband was severely injured in a wreck seven years ago. Medicaid paid for months a toilet and walker. The monthly payments would have been able to buy the equipment in two or three months.

I also work in a nursing home and we have about ten residents on hospice. One lady in particular has been on hospice since I started working there almost two years ago. As far as I can tell, her condition is still the same. She doesn’t talk or walk and she can’t feed herself but she has been in that condition for a long time. I really don’t see how hospice helps her at all. Just one example of many, I’m sure.

Sad so many millions are wasted by idiots in charge.

[ThomasMore]

Agreed Gaffer. Also, there’s a lot of fraud in Medicare...especially in the black community. Sorry, facts are facts. Like getting a ride with the ambulance to the city hospital only to say, oh wow... I feel so much better...and going to visit a friend. This cost the tax payers $400,000 over a period of one year. (some people have big balls and a lot of gall) Or getting a ride from NY City to Albany on the Medicare teat.

[cva66snipe]

Several points to your post. A Hover Round can be abused but ones who can not walk or stand long enough to do reasonably functions such as cooking, shopping etc should qualify. Fat Butt Scootie? Think for a minute. If a person can't walk then they can't exercise. Not everyone fat got that way from overeating. I walk with a cane for balance and toget up from a kneeling position. I do use a store loaned scooter in places like Wally World. I'm flat and club footed and have arthritis in my feet and knees. Yea I'm a bit overweight not real bad though. I can walk only on flat non paved surfaces per doctors {orthepedic} orders and only with corrective insoles. In about 10 years I'll need one.

Catheters delivered to your door? Uh all that means is USPS or UPS etc delivers them from a supplier. Wally World and even most drug stores do not carry them. Documentation of need should be required and in my caregiver experiences with Ostomy supplies is required for Medicare coverage and supplies are limited per month. IOW for Medicare to cover it takes a prescription, It also takes one for a Hover Round to bill Medicare. Blood Tester delivered to your door? I think Medicare does allow for a blood sugare level tester for Diabetics. Makes logical sense as an ER visit is a fraction of cost. The testers would be under $75. Do the Math.

Medical Transport Vans? Yea those are needed as well for many. We don't use one we have our own van with a hydraulic wheelchair lift. Now go out to a car lot and find a High Top Conversion Van. You can't find them. Our is a 1998. That was as new as we could find after a month lomg search. We bought then van and the lift was a hand me down from a cousin we've used for a decade.

In many places buses do not have wheelchair lifts. Also the transport {actual ambulance} service even with paramedics may be needed to transport the person from home where family does care to the doctor for such things as pressure sore treatment, doctors appointments, etc. Pressure sores happen for many reasons.

The ironic thing is you complain about the cheapest cost. Want to know what cost as in tens of thousands of dollars a year {in the neighborhood of about $50K-$75K just for a room and food? Try nursing homes. That doesn't include medications or any other supplies. They are the ones getting the biggest chunk of the medicare dollars. Persons on Home Health get the least. Home Health Services are very limited usually they are there to teach.

[Mom MD]

Hospice saves Medicare a great deal of money. It allows us to care for terminal patients in their home setting without several admissions to the hospital for pain or symptom control. Hospice care is a marvous thing in the right patient. Once we stop aggressive care and focus on symptom control patients blossom and often feel much better. Patients and families are given the gift of pleasant time at home rather than spending the last days/weeks with their loved ones sitting in a hospital

[managusta]

Hey, growing old is not for sissies.

Ps. You are watching too much television.

Bon anee, mon brave.