at the lab waiting room a woman walked up to the window ...

[flordehinojos]

when she gave her MEDICARE CARD to the receptionist filling out the lab request at the window, the receptionist told her, MEDICARE NO LONGER COVERS URINE CULTURES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Medicare drug coverage is a scam ... Healthcare is out the window in this country. You either have the money to pay for healthcare, or you die. or you find a truly compassionate hospital that won't kick you out the door if you happen not to have health coverage, or if your health coverage won't cover what they are supposed to cover.

Having been referred to the hospital emergency room by his primary care physician, my hairdresser had his claim denied because his HMO said the physician had not run the request to send him to emergency room by them first.

DEMOCRATS you have a lot of work to do to right the wrongs inflicted on America by the Bubble Boy and his Bleating Father.

[Karmageddon]

1. 50 million Americans without health insurance - the equivalant of the populations of....

the states of:
Wyoming, District of Columbia, Vermont, Alaska,North Dakota,South Dakota, Delaware, Montana, Rhode Island, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Maine, Idaho, Nebraska, West Virginia, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, Iowa, Connecticut, Oregon, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Kentucky - Combined.

Pull out a map of the US and imagine every person in every one of those states with no health insurance. This, in the wealthiest, most powerful nation in the history of the planet.

Appalling, inexcusable, reprehensible, embarrassing.

Now that we are in control of Congress, it's more important than ever that every one of us writes our Congressmen and lets them know that we're watching them, and we expect results for our efforts and our votes.

[brook]

4. I've had two

doctors refuse to take me as a patient this month. Why? Because my job doesn't offer any benefits, I qualified for MediCal as well as my Medicare. Doctors are refusing what they cal "Medi-Medi" patients because of low reimbursements and other hassles. Naive me said: "Oh,but I'll pay any balances". That's when I was told that that is against the law! Can't pay out of my own pocket! How asinine is that?

[flordehinojos]

5. those asinine doctors ought not to have taken the hypocratic oath. they do not deserve to be

doctors. they got a degree not because they want to help people. they got their degree because they wanted to make money, exploit people, and live la vida loca.

somewhere there has got to be justice.

(my own husband ended up in the emergency room a couple of days ago. their finance department came to collect his insurance co-pay before the emergency room doctors would even consider releasing him).

bush lets the HMOs. Medicare. etc. get away with providing zero coverage ... the treatment facilities make sure they get paid, out of our pockets!

[Target_For_Exterm]

17. It might be against the law in CA, but it's what they do in Utah.

More than once I've been told by a doctor that I'd need to sign a form saying that costs may be beyond what Medicaid/Medicare pays and I'm responsible for the rest.

It's how doctors here get paid what they want, and not what DC dishes out.

Of course, doctors here also refuse to see you. Or just ignore you and never tell you whether they'll see you or not.

Medical care in Utah is pretty poor. I was shocked when I moved here.

So it's REAL comforting to know I get to pay through the nose for substandard care. :sarcasm:

[Cleita]

19. I've had to sign a few of those even here in California. n/t

[flordehinojos]

21. once upon a time (clinton was president) i needed to see a doctor

whose receptionist would not let me in to see him if i didn't sign such a paper stating that i would pay him whatever difference difference (balance) there remained between his fee, the HMO payment and my co-pay. I told them that his contract with the HMO was to receive as payment just whatever fee he had agreed with the HMO to receive for his services plus my copay and not a penny more. I told them I REFUSE TO SEE THIS DOCTOR. WHEN I GET HOME I WILL CALL THE HMO, which i did, and they seemed then to be taking information on this doctor. whether they ever did anything, or not, i don't know, but they gave me the name of another doctor who was working by the rules.

the rules have, of course, changed these days. these days under the bush family evil empire THERE ARE NO RULES other than those which benefit the bushes, the well to do, and the corporations!

[Hekate]

20. Mom suffered the torments of the damned in the last year & a half of her life because...

...she had the misfortune to contract rheumatoid arthritis in Salt Lake City, where no rheumatologist will take Medicare patients. Her primary doc did his very best.

She finally consented to move to assisted living near my brother in SoCal, where there are rheumatologists who WILL take Medicare patients,
but by then she had lost all will to live and died before my brother's wife could start taking her to see them. That was October 14.

I know people with RA, and I know people who have family with RA, and I know it can be managed. But to an 80 year old woman who had just had triple bypass heart surgery and couldn't get to see a specialist for a brand-new ailment it was devastating and ultimately destroyed her.

The heart surgery? She was railroaded into it and Medicare paid for the whole thing.

This is a sin. This is immoral. This is shameful. Words to describe my rage at my own impotence fail me.

:cry:

Hekate

[flordehinojos]

23. i hear and understand your rage ... the republican senator just said a few days ago that Bush's iraq

occupation may be criminal...he and all other senators, democrat and republican alike fail to see or say that what bush is doing to people right here in the united staes is EQUALLY CRIMINAL!!!!!!!!!

and i believe that protest marches need to be had not only to protest the occupation of iraq. they need to be had to also protest the criminal undoing of our american way of life by the bush family evil empire!

i share your rage. bush is a sinner. a criminal, an immoral character along with many others who have joined his bandwagon.

(and stepping out of my rage for a moment ... i am sorry to hear what your mother had to go through and the pain, physical, moral and spiritual she suffered that had her give up on life).

(and maybe if you could get some democrat's ear, or newspaper editor, to hear you (albeit too late to help your mother) it might help you channel some of your rage into feeling that you are doing something to stop that feeling of impotence).

[rodeodance]

35. sorry to hear about your mom. I hear so many similar stories.

[azurnoir]

2. Medi-care doesn't cover UC's?!?!

That is pure stupidity, UC's save both time and money, by narrowing down specifically what organism is causing the infection but also if the "sensitivity" part is done what antibiotics will effectively treat it.

[flordehinojos]

7. "Medicare doesn't cover urine cultures" is exactly what the receptionist from the lab told the woman

who was there to have precisely just that! She had to pay out of her own pocket--in her case, though, the lab agreed to send her a bill. they know she will be back. she knows that if she has an unpaid balance they will refuse her service.

[Rosemary2205]

15. May I suggest

your friend needs to contact the referral coordinator at the medicare doctor that ordered the test. Or she can call the medicare 800# or she can visit the website. One of those sources will be able to direct her to the nearest lab that still takes medicare payment for her needed labwork.

It's a crime that medicare coverage is so difficult to obtain. Especially considering most of the people who use it are almost always older and have tired brains that have difficulty getting forceful and creative enough to negotiate such a complicated system.

Someone may need to help your friend figure out where to go for her labwork.

[nebenaube]

14. no doubt

in most cases, they just prescribe the most potent broad spectrum antibiotic they can give you...

[Rosemary2205]

3. For the sake of correct information

I contacted my primary care office and found out Medicare did not change anything concerning labwork on urine. The only test they do not cover are drug screening on urine. It's possible this particular lab got tired of the low payment they recieve from Medicare and has stopped accepting Medicare for urine cultures.

More and more doctors and testing facilities are dropping medicare because of all the processing and payment problems. Medicare is much deeper crisis that Social security has ever been.

[flordehinojos]

8. your explanation makes more sense but it is still shameful!

[windbreeze]

12. I'd like to drop Medicare

right on it's head...I have two insurances, Medicare, and Cobra/retiree coverage....know what they do??? They spend their time refusing payments...you bill both, both say it's the other's responsibility...and I am sick of the bullshit...It costs my husband and I almost $700 a month...only to have everyone say, sorry, not our bill, we are secondary the other insurance is primary...contact your other insurance co...so next time, I am going to do the same thing...send them a copy of both medical cards, and tell them, please don't contact me, contact the other insurance company...I figure between the two of them, someone will eventually pay...and as long as my premiums are paid I won't worry..it's killing us to pay that out of our pocket every month, just so I can have a stroke fighting them to pay the bills...
windbreeze

[flordehinojos]

25. stroke of genius i think is what you've had by deciding to send them the bills and let them fight

over who is going to pay!

Here is hoping that for once they are the ones who get blue in the face!

:)

[LSK]

6. K&R

[thingfisher]

9. Health care is one of those things

you don't think much about when you are emplyed and have a decent plan through your employer.

But, once you lose it and realize that you can't afford to maintain it at the COBRA cost and have to go without, well you learn to be very careful and hope for the best.

All the medicare, Medicaid plans that I have read about are plagued with problems, most of which are related to the sheer volume of paper work required to process.

Surely America can figure out some decent universal plan that will do away with the bureaucratic mess that hinders care and create a system which will at least provide a minimum of care that everyone can depend on.

I don't think that health care can be a purely profit driven enterprise. A healthy population is of value to the nation as a whole. The health industry should be regared as a necessary public service in order to promote the general welfare.

[flordehinojos]

10. in bush country profit, greed, and corporate pocket filling is the important thing.

[MountainLaurel]

39. Absolutely

I'm in that spot now, working part-time and spending 1/3 of my salary on COBRA, which is still providing spotty coverage on my office visits. (I'm having to pay $180 out of pocket for a Pap smear and "well woman" visit that was always covered before now.

[nam78_two]

11. K&R.nt

[IndyOp]

13. I no longer have hospitalization in my hometown - I have to hope if I get hit by a bus

it will be out of town. Seriously. My local hospital -- for perfectly valid reasons -- is refusing a contract with my health insurance company. It would cost me $6,000 out of pocket to go to an out of network hospital. I don't have $6K. I have a decent-paying job at a Big 10 University and I don't have hospitalization.

:thumbsdown:

[flordehinojos]

26. the bastards will be back knocking on your door, just wait and see when they no longer

have people subscribing to their HMO/Insurance Health plans in high enough numbers for them to make a killing out of!

In the meantime, here is hoping: stay safe. stay healthy! God Bless.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

16. Have you considered that the persson at the

window was an idiot?

Not the patient, the worker.

[flordehinojos]

27. i don't think she was ... i think she was relaying whatever message she was told to relay from the

lab's head honchos and the Medicare rules. (are you covered by Medicare? Do you have good coverage?
Does not the testimony of everyone who has made a posting on this thread say or mean anything to you?) ... far be it from me to think that you are a bush supporting republican.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

41. Well, I won't alert on this obvious baiting, but

I will tell you my wife, my mother and father and I all work in health care. I would guess we have something like 200 years experience between us.

Anyway, never underestimate the stupidity of people at desks.

[mentalsolstice]

18. A lot of Drs. won't take new Medicare patients!

That's scary because it's the health care plan relied on by most of our senior citizens. Folks, Medicare isn't about being poor, it's about being at that age (or being so disabled you can't work) where you're GOING TO HAVE HEALTH ISSUES, and no other insurer is willing to cover you. Medicaid hasn't been accepted by most health care providers for a long time, and that's a crime in itself.

Where is this country going? I've said for a long time that the upper class will try to weed out the lower class on health issues (but they don't believe in Darwinism), and they'll scare the middle class to death.

Oh, don't even get me started...

[Nickster]

22. When I used to work the ER Triage area, I used to take care of my HMO patients by

either having one of the people with them call the HMO once I had gotten the patient in to see the Doc, of course and tell the HMOthat their primary had referred them to the ER and that they were on their way to the ER. Then once they had the HMO approval, I'd actually enter their info into the system. I just knew that the last thing someone thinks about when going to the ER is to call and verify insurance coverage, why would you? So I always made sure to help them get covered the best that I could.

[flordehinojos]

24. Nickster you are a God sent and I am sure (i hope anyhow) that you continue to be that

wherever it is that you are working now.

God Bless (should you believe in God) ... if not, God Bless anyhow and may the Universe be Good and Kind to you!

:)

[Tracer]

28. Balance Billing is illegal in Massachusetts.

Even so, I've never been refused as a Medicare patient; have received prompt appointments and have had the good fortune to have excellent and caring physicians.

[flordehinojos]

29. my 97 year old father has had the same good fortune as you, but he was their patient when MEDICARE

was stil the JOHNSON/KENNEDY take care of the elderly that MEDICARE was meant to be.

[bleedingheart]

30. If I was the patient I would have told the person that they violated

the HIPPA agreement by discussing my treatment outloud and where should I file the complaint....

Seriously...all those forms you sign are to protect your privacy and to have someone screech at you about your insurance and your urine culture at the same time is in poor taste..

[flordehinojos]

32. poor lab design too...it is more like a cattle pen.

and so far as privacy these days? what is privacy, pray tell? anything you sign these days regarding privacy really gives the bushes and their tentacles the right to invade your privacy.
the poor woman at the window couldn't have helped herself, unless they design a different set up in that lab.

[bleedingheart]

36. technically the laws are to protect people from having their

information spread about...

do you remember the days when hospitals would publish the admissions and discharge lists in the local papers so people could know who was in the hospital...? I think it was to encourage visitors...but today you can't even get a confirmation of an admission unless the patient allows for that information to be discharged.

[flordehinojos]

37. no. i don't remember those days. i do remember the days when no information could be given out on a

patient unless the patient had signed a specific Release of Information Form. Today, whatever paper I sign, gives anyone the right to go into anyone's medical records and pull whatever information they want from them...anyhow, that is how i understand what the privacy papers that you sign today, do.

[bleedingheart]

38. when I was a kid I got a flood of visitors to the hospital

because my aunts and uncles read the paper and had found out I had been admitted...it was like christmas...loads of visitors bearing gifts...today they wouldn't even dare...

[Goblinmonger]

31. I cannot imagine being without heath insurance

I am a teacher and though there are downsides to the job, health insurance is a very large positive. I was recently diagnosed with sleep apnea which, after being on treatment for a mere 3 days and feeling better than I have felt in decades, was tearing my body apart.

My point is that I just got my EOB from the insurance company and the bill for the sleep study was $4000 (of which I paid $0 because I had already met my $100 deductible). Many people are going to not be able to be treated for the same condition which will likely lead to an early death.

We gotta do something.

[flordehinojos]

33. I am with you ...

Medea Benjamin has Code Pink. Cindy Sheehan has Gold Star Moms for Peace (which i support both!) maybe we could start Code Green and march on washing dressing in Green Healthcare Outfits!

just a thought...but maybe worth considering!

[rodeodance]

34. if she does not get a culture done to prove she has an infection she will

not get antibiotics.

whow. whow

[warrens]

40. Single-payer universal health insurance

And let's all gather round the insurance companies and laugh as they hold their breath til they turn blue, scream and kick on the floor, and threaten to run away from home.