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Only if it helps the bottom line, such as drive-by birthing. Forcing doctors and hospitals to extend hospital stays will cost private insurers more, so I wouldn't count on it. Besides - they don't have fining power, only the government does.
Fail on your part. If a person has to be readmitted to the hospital second time in the span of only 30 days, it'll cost the INSURED more money and the INSURANCE company more money. It's cheaper to the Patient if the hospital keeps them in the hospital. That's why this this was challenged in the 70's and 80's because Hospitals were using it as a way to make money.
Fail on your part. If a person has to be readmitted to the hospital second time in the span of only 30 days, it'll cost the INSURED more money and the INSURANCE company more money. It's cheaper to the Patient if the hospital keeps them in the hospital. That's why this this was challenged in the 70's and 80's because Hospitals were using it as a way to make money.
Having dealt with sick relatives through this time period, I'm pretty sure what people were fighting in the 70's and 80's were shorter stays - not longer ones.
Some version of this rule must have been around a long time. The hospital practically imprisoned my mom when she was dying. She wanted to die at home. They kept her 3 weeks. We asked 4 or 5 times a day when could she go home. Everybody knew she was dying.
They wanted to put a 92 year old woman dying from heart and kidney failure on dialysis. She refused. The hospital and the doctors were just collecting money from the government.
The incompetance of the Obama administration is astounding. Soo, rather than discharging patients that can and should recover at home, hospitals will keep patients longer to avoid fines. Thereby running up costs for the taxpayers. How long before hospitals decline to accept Medicare patients?
They need to start switching now. Private hospitals that do not take medicaid or medicare.
To see something disappear all one needs to do is price control it. Not unlike Jimmy Carter tried to do with the cost of gasoline.... government could mandate gas sells for $1.50 tomorrow but tomorrow you wouldn't be able to find a gallon of gas to save your life.
Happened throughout history yet progressives never seem to grasp the lesson.
Can't find a doctor that will take medicare unless you were a patient before you moved to medicare.
As far as medicaid goes the nearest doctor that will take medicaid is 65 miles away. That's 130 miles round trip.
Often times, as Medicare goes so goes the private insurers.
Sometimes I enjoy reading threads like this where there is actually only one person that is providing accurate analysis and information on a topic. Congrats.
Starting tomorrow (10/1) another Obamacare law takes effect.
Hospitals will be charged for medicare readmissions within 30 days of discharge.
The average fine is $125K per facility.
Only three conditions though are being monitored for these fines: heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia.
What I don't get though is that hospitals will be held accountable if the patient doesn't do what they are supposed to do or if the patient doesn't take their medicine. Even if it's 100% the patient's fault they are readmitted the hospital will get the fine.
Hospitals to be fined for readmitted patients
As of Monday, Medicare will start fining hospitals that have too many patients readmitted within 30 days of discharge due to complications. The penalties are part of a broader push under President Barack Obama's health care law to improve quality while also trying to save taxpayers money.
About two-thirds of the hospitals serving Medicare patients, or some 2,200 facilities, will be hit with penalties averaging around $125,000 per facility this coming year, according to government estimates.
It goes back to the core beliefs of Dems the individual is never responsible but the community has to be made to be responsible for someone. I work in hospital finance in Maryland this program won't apply to us although the state has a similar readmission program.
So medicare has been pushing to get people out of the hospital quicker, will now penalize hospitals for doing exactly what they wanted done when the patient invariably comes back to the hospital at a later date for the same ailment.
Things are really going to get interesting when the hospitals form ACOs under Obmacare and get paid a set amount of money per patient signed up with them (basically they will be an HMO) regardless of what procedures are performed. The incentive will be to deliver no care at all.
Get ready for Lasix pushes in the ER for your chronic CHF patients. Don't dare risk admitting them as CHFers notoriously get readmitted often and it will cost you dearly.
We've got some fun times ahead in the health care system
LOL the real fun will come with your private insurance as companies figure out it's cheaper to pay the penalty than offer insurance to their employees. Or companies only keep on 49 full time employees as to not cross the 50 mark.
Sometimes I enjoy reading threads like this where there is actually only one person that is providing accurate analysis and information on a topic. Congrats.
The incompetance of the Obama administration is astounding. Soo, rather than discharging patients that can and should recover at home, hospitals will keep patients longer to avoid fines. Thereby running up costs for the taxpayers. How long before hospitals decline to accept Medicare patients?
Actually staying longer does not always mean more money. Hospitals get paid by what is called the DRG- diagnosis related grouping system. It consisted many variables but basically if a patient comes in for let's say pneumonia, the hospital gets one set amount, whether they stay five days or seven days. So it does pay to release earlier.
They do have a three day rule in place that if a patient is re-admitted within three days for the same illness, the. both admissions are combined and the hospital still only gets one payment.
It's against the law for Hospital to not admit those that need attention. are you suggesting that hospitals will now get rid of their emergency rooms?
Again that would be against the law (the law that has been in place for the better part of 50 years)
If a hospital has to pay many more $80,000 a year nurses and $300,000 a year hospitalists to take care of these long-term patients, it has to get the money somewhere. Or shut down.
Maybe the 3 day readmission being rolled into one will be extended to 30 days -- but with DRG's that doesn't increase the payment to the hospital. What happens if the hospitalists -- who are hospital employees after all are instructed not to admit certain types of patients from the ER -- and the patient is elderly and goes home and dies? The hospital saves a whole lot of money.
And more and more the patients' own physicians don't care for the patient while in the hospital. The patient is turned over to a hospitalist who does not know a thing about the patient and as the hospitalist works for the hospital - who knows how much a hospitalist would stand up to his/her employer.
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