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It may very well be propaganda.

However, after dealing with my parents’ medical situations and bills I know for a fact that they have been billed by doctors who never saw them or were involved in diagnostics behind the scenes. I have tracked these people down and confronted them on their bills and they have backed down.

This problem is rife in Medicare.

Another problem is hospitals not releasing records of what was done during a stay in the hospital ... test results etc. They tell the patient to “follow up with your doctor” after discharge but there is nothing to follow up with without the information. So the doctors have no information and have to re-order the tests ... sometimes this makes no sense since you don’t have the same problem after your hospital stay as during it.

I’ve had to keep detailed journals of what tests they SAY they are taking my parents out of the room to perform. There is no evidence whatsoever that these tests were performed and the medical records are difficult if not impossible to get to take to the regular out of hospital doctors afterwards.

In one case when my mother was in rehab I and other relatives noticed a man with a white coat come to the door of my mother’s room every couple of days, peer in, and leave. Then weeks later we received bills from some doctor who said he ‘examined’ her on 10 occasions at $111 per exam. Maybe his job is just to diagnose whether the patient was still living or not and he could determine that by just looking in?

The system is corrupt.

That is not to say that the New York Times might be engaging in propaganda ... but some of this stuff goes on I know for a fact. I never would have believed it if I hadn’t seen it for myself.

I really fear getting old and burdening my child with having to keep an eye on things for me when I’m ill as you should NEVER EVER under any circumstances go to a hospital without a personal advocate keeping track of what goes on, especially if you are older.