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Yes. When Medicaid recipients turn 65, they enroll in Medicare.
None of that means Medicaid recipients ever paid into the system.
And it has nothing to do with the fact that Obama is limiting and restricting readmissions for Medicare patients, but NOT for Medicaid 18-64 year-olds who actually have HIGHER readmission rates than Medicare patients.
Correction: Some of them enroll in Medicare. Some have not paid into medicare. Some continue to get both Medicaid and Medicare. However, since Medicaid is funded through state taxes, most of them have paid in something.
Anyway, all this talk about Medicaid is irrelevant, and an attempt to move the goal posts, once again. The thread topic is about Medicare recipients. Medicare. Medicare. Medicare.
Private insurers already question every single readmission within a specified time-frame, and, will absolutely withhold payment if they determine that care was not satisfactory the first (second, third...) time.
This was true when my husband was in and out the hospital back in 2002-2004 so, it has nothing to do with the ACA.
Isn't witholding payment similar to fining? Insurance companies have their ways.
Not in this case. Medicare is going to pay less for the readmittance and also fine them.
But you know what ? Hospitals will get fined even if the readmittance is not their fault (i.e. it was not a preventable readmission).
What percent of readmissions are preventable ? From what I tried to google it's really an unknown with anywhere from 9-50% of readmissions being given.
There are readmissions that are not preventable but the hospitals are going to be charged $125K regardless.
And the chances of that happening are pretty high in high retirement population cities.
Before you drink the conspiracy Kool-Aid, you should know the facts. Readmission has been a problem for years, tied to the "Quicker and Sicker" discharge policies. I think it's good to get hospitals, and doctors, who are the ones who write the discharge orders, to look at this issue.
You do realize the provisoons also don't take into consideration unrelated readmissions. Go in for pneumonia and discharged then two days later fall and break a hip, it counts againts the physician and hospital as a readmission. This is what happens when a group makes laws without including medical specialist input.
A provision of ObamaCare is set to punish roughly two-thirds of U.S. hospitals evaluated by Medicare starting this fall over high readmission rates, according to an analysis by Kaiser Health News.
Starting in October, Medicare will reduce reimbursements to hospitals with high 30-day readmission rates — which refers to patients who return within a month — by as much as 1 percent. The maximum penalty increases to 2 percent the following year and 3 percent in 2014.
Doctors are concerned the penalty is unfair, since sometimes they have to accept patients more than once in a brief period of time but could be penalized for doing so — even for accepting seniors who are sick.
“Among patients with heart failure, hospitals that have higher readmission rates actually have lower mortality rates,” said Sunil Kripalani, MD, a professor with Vanderbilt University Medical Center who studies hospital readmissions. “So, which would we rather have — a hospital readmission or a death?”
Good question? Right after the question, there’s this.
But according to federal government figures, nearly one in five Medicare patients is readmitted to a hospital within 30 days of release, costing taxpayers an estimated $17.5 billion.
“Readmissions has been a low-hanging fruit for Medicare,” said Jordan Rau, a staff writer with KHN, an editorially independent program of the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation. “They’ve been very unhappy that about 2 million Medicare beneficiaries are being readmitted every year between 30 days of discharge.”
Medicare evaluated readmission rates at 3,367 of the nation’s hospitals and will impose penalties on 2,211 starting in October, according to KHN.
What’s the priority here? If you want care for every single citizen, then don’t penalize hospitals for repeat visits. Now if costs becomes priority #1, then you appear to be OK with dying patients for the sake of the dollar.
What’s interesting is that this was the basis for the ObamaCare argument to begin with – people who are uninsured who are dying without sufficient care. So now the insurance barrier is removed and now the government starts penalizing the care providers. So you are taking money out of the hospitals ability to care for the patients.
Government needs to be removed from the revenue stream of the health care industry.
No sympathy from me. Hospitals should quit pushing critically sick people out the door and they would not have so many readmits. I have a friend who has a lawsuit going on right now over her daughter that was sent home with a 105 fever throwing up blood and told to see her doctor next week. She died 2 days later from a bowel failure. That is what hospitals do and it needs to stop.
There is nothing in this legislation that would prevent any family member from getting private medigap insurance for their family member. They can provide whatever care the family deems fit.
No. Those 64 and under may be eligible for Medicaid.
Quote:
The Affordable Care Act of 2010, signed by President Obama on March 23, 2010, creates a national Medicaid minimum eligibility level of 133% of the federal poverty level ($29,700 for a family of four in 2011) for nearly all Americans under age 65.
Those 65 and over are enrolled in Medicare. Medicaid benefits may also available for low-income no-asset seniors on Medicare, but it is the secondary payer. Medicare is the primary payer for hospital services for those 65 and over.
Quote:
Anyway, all this talk about Medicaid is irrelevant
It most certainly IS relevant. Medical care is NOT being restricted for those under 65 on Medicaid even though they have a HIGHER readmission rate and are NOT required to have paid into the system to be eligible. THEY are getting priority while the seniors who have paid into the system for years will have restrictions and limits placed on their medical care.
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