I got this review of Terri's facility from HHSIS' website. I would think (read = hope) that they would be interested in this action. And yes, they have a HOTLINE!!! The number follows at the end of my post.
This was in .pdf format, and I will e-mail it to anyone who wants it. I'm doing some comparison research that I think will be very telling and will post the results when I have it.
This is what the executive summary of the study/review of Suncoast had to say:
Our review included a medical evaluation of Suncoast's eligibility determinations for 364 beneficiaries who had been in hospice care for more than 210 days. Of the 364 cases, 237 were active in hospice at the time of our review and represented 26 percent of the total active Medicare hospice beneficiaries at Suncoast as of April 30, 1995. The review showed that:
176 of the beneficiaries were not eligible for hospice coverage; and,
for 118 beneficiaries, we were unable to conclusively determine their terminal illness.
and further down....
We believe the identified problems occurred for the 176 beneficiaries because hospice physicians made inaccurate prognoses of life expectancy based on the medical evidence in the patients' files. FOR THE 118 BENEFICIARIES, the evidence in the patient's medical files was not sufficient to determine that the beneficiary was terminally ill.
Disturbing, huh? Perhaps they would be interested in knowing just how disturbing that is to us. They have a hotline -- Contacting the HHS OIG Hotline
By Phone: 1-800-HHS-TIPS (1-800-447-8477)
By Fax: 1-800-223-8164
By E-Mail: HHSTips@oig.hhs.gov
By TTY: 1-800-377-4950
By Mail: Office of Inspector General Department of Health and Human Services Attn: HOTLINE 330 Independence Ave., SW Washington, DC 20201
All HHS and contractor employees have a responsibility to assist in combating fraud, waste and abuse in all departmental programs. As such you are encouraged to report matters involving fraud, waste and mismanagement in any departmental program(s) to the OIG. To assist you, the OIG maintains a hotline which offers a confidential means for reporting vital information.
INFORMATION IS FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY (For information on confidentiality please contact the hotline and ask about our confidentiality source program).
Each caller is encouraged to assist the OIG by providing information on how they can be contacted for additional information but CALLER MAY REMAIN ANONYMOUS.