I didn't mean to criticise doctors. I have a lot to be grateful to them for :) But sending me home without a prescription for antibiotics, and instead, the words "of course you have chest pains and difficulty breathing, you broke your collar bone" (missing rheumatic fever, and then congestive heart failure) ended up costing the NHS so much more in treatment than it should. But I also know enough not to blame my GP. They just seem to be getting their hands tied more and more until the best ones (in the case of my surgery anyway) either leave to join doctors without borders, or take early retirement. It's not helped by the fact that in the last two years, the square half mile to a mile that I live in, now has well over a thousand new properties (all gated communities) housing a potential 4-6000 people, whilst the number of doctor's surgeries have been reduced to a third of what they were five years ago. These newbies on the block are also the kind who are much more likely to retain a lawyer, so it's not a surprise to me when I'm told I can't get an appointment for three weeks, while listening to someone else being given one for the following day, based on the address they confirmed they live at.
@Chris
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In the UK we have had a free at source National Health Service since 1948.
YAY Labour party :)
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If it is a visitor to the country, short term on holiday or study visa, their country's embassy gets billed from the NHS for the cost. At least that is what is supposed to happen.
Except the paperwork that has to be filled out by those already hard-pressed doing the treating, made the staff waive my sister's intention (when they were staying with me during a visit from Tanzania where they lived at the time) to pay for my nephew splitting his head open on my wall. Their reasoning went - well... it was an English wall...
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everyone moans about the NHS but they just don't realise how lucky they are
I know. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to moan.
Please wait here. Further instructions could pile up at any time. Thank you.
I had held my tongue on this until Mike made his comments so now I feel I need to throw in my 2 cents as well
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Oh. Are you allowed to have two things potentially wrong with you at the same time then?
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Aha ! That's what is known in "The Trade" as Salami Slicing ! :-) :-)
Here in the USA it's called HMO. (Having worked in Colorado {often referred to as East California})
Under their rules you are only allowed to bill for that complain on your appointment (only 1 complaint per visit). If you treat anything else they will refuse to pay the entire bill. If you continue to do so, they will drop you from the plan.
Seems like it's against the HMO's own interest. If the patient has multiple complaints, won't they just make multiple appointments, thus costing the HMO more money in the long run? Or is that not allowed either? (I don't know, I have a good PPO. Actually, this year I have a high-deductible gold plan: network discounts are figured as usual, then I pay the entire cost of my care up front for the first $2600/year (of which my employer gives me back $1000, but spread over the whole year), and then I pay nothing for anything the whole rest of the year. I could, today, have a heart attack, get a quadruple bypass, contract pneumonia while recovering, and anything else you can think of, and not have to pay a penny.)
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- likewise for the health bureaucracies that give out the awards for Good Stats eg. patient attendances, re-attendances, re-re-attendances, admissions, re-admissions, re-re-admissions and then The Final Discharge.
Ah yes, our favorite now here in the states.
Hello sir, how can I help you today?
You say your left hip is red and infected? you had it replaced 3 weeks ago in Maine? You went swimming in the Caribbean 2 weeks after surgery against your surgeons advice? But your now down here in Texas?
Couple of problems here. Mainly, No one is going to get paid for services on this gentleman. See, the government and thereby insurance companies no longer pay for readmission of any patient for a period of 2 months after the initial surgery. Not the new surgeon, not the old surgeon, not the new hospital, not the old hospital. Everyone associated with seeing this person will now not get paid. In fact, it doesn't even have to be related to the initial encounter. Lets say he develops a bladder infection 2 months after his shoulder surgery. If he returns to any hospital and needs to be admitted, everyone gets denied payment and payment already made will be withheld from all future payments to everyone involved.
So, readmission are going to soon become literally a matter of life or death.
I didn't know any of that. I assume you're talking about Medicare. My 70-year-old aunt has been in and out of the hospital at least three times in the last four weeks. She just retired from a hospital, too.
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And on that note, a new twist with Obamacare. If you come to the ER with a non life threatening conditions, you will been seen by a physician then a person will come in and say, you don't have an emergency, if you wish to be treated you need to pay us 250 USD up front in order to get treated. Otherwise you can leave.
I suppose that's part of encouraging people to get insurance instead of going to ERs for every little thing.
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It's already happening in many hospitals here.
(sort of reminds me of Ukraine, where the ambulance shows up and you have to pay the ambulance and doctor first before they take you to the hospital to be treated, Oh and family member take care of you in the hospital there, change your beds, clean you and the room and bring you food) Better hope none of the hospital CEO get wind of that.
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- boosting shares of Undertakers-R-Us ...
Maybe but hopefully not...
On a serious note, I hope you get to feeling better with your back and hip. Might need a Rheumatologist as well if the Ortho can't find anything.
Everyone have a good week....
Yesterday it wasn't bad. I just had to be careful of the angle my leg was at when I sat in front of the home computer last night. Today it's killing me in almost any sitting position. On top of that, the toothache that went away last week has come back, even though I didn't eat anything sweet.
And in what may well be TMI, I had a Big Mac for lunch yesterday (which I hardly ever do) and it came out the other end within 2.5 hours. How do I know? I haven't eaten anything else in quite a while that looks like shredded lettuce.
David
Miserable old git
Patiently waiting for the asteroid with my name on it.
A friend of mine is a competetitive powerlifter. A couple of years ago, he was at a competition in Toronto and something happened which caused him severe damage to both his thumb and his knee. The Canadian doctors, acting under their system, wouldn't do anything but amputate the thumb and something less-than-satisfactory to the knee. He refused and had someone drive him home to the Chicago area (in intense pain all the way), where appropriate treatment was done under his insurance plan. After a lot of rehab, he's back to competing.
David
Miserable old git
Patiently waiting for the asteroid with my name on it.
A friend of mine is a competetitive powerlifter. A couple of years ago, he was at a competition in Toronto and something happened which caused him severe damage to both his thumb and his knee. The Canadian doctors, acting under their system, wouldn't do anything but amputate the thumb and something less-than-satisfactory to the knee. He refused and had someone drive him home to the Chicago area (in intense pain all the way), where appropriate treatment was done under his insurance plan. After a lot of rehab, he's back to competing.
Not sure. Other than my nephew, I know of no other foreign nationals that have used the NHS. Many come here with medical insurance as part of their travel plan nowadays anyway. I know a lot of British people who have received very good care while abroad though, and some not so good. In my nephew's case they glued his head instead of stitching it, and the glue was completely rubbish. In this instance, amputation would have been more expensive I suspect... erm...
:)
? maybe...? :)
Please wait here. Further instructions could pile up at any time. Thank you.
Seems like it's against the HMO's own interest. If the patient has multiple complaints, won't they just make multiple appointments, thus costing the HMO more money in the long run? Or is that not allowed either?
ah, but here is the trick, how long is it going to take you to get that new appointment? 3-4 weeks? 6-8 weeks? They do this with the expectation that you will give up and not go to your doctor.
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I didn't know any of that. I assume you're talking about Medicare. My 70-year-old aunt has been in and out of the hospital at least three times in the last four weeks. She just retired from a hospital, too.
Where Medicare goes, insurance companies follow. They look at how government limits access then decide on how they will institute new approaches. One of their newest ideas? Reviewers like Medicare, with 1 exception. The more the reviewer refuses payments, the more the review gets paid....Anyone see something wrong with this? Evidently the insurance and government doesn't.
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I suppose that's part of encouraging people to get insurance instead of going to ERs for every little thing.
Actually it had the opposite effect just like we told them it would. Since everyone thinks they have insurance, they came to ERs right after it passed and wanted everything treated. Volume increase dramatically for the first few weeks but fell back to normal after they found out it doesn't work that way. Or worse, got sent a bill from medicaid for the ER visit as it wasn't an urgent or emergency. Lot of angry people coming back to the hospital wanting to know why they got a bill only to be told it came from the state not the hospital.
As to seeing their primary care provider. No one takes it, so they end up back at the county clinics. Even worse, before there was a system to get uninsured people to doctors and clinics for care. Now with Obamacare, that's not allowed, forcing all those individuals over to the county.
As far as Medicare, 70% of PCP stopped taking it in this city. Was a very bad time. It's gotten better but there is still waiting times of 3 months to see providers.
The shift has been huge opening of urgent cares and free standing ERs.
But you are right, we could dwell on this for a long time.
Hope you get what's wrong figured out and fixed. Drinking your meals is not enjoyable.
Seems like it's against the HMO's own interest. If the patient has multiple complaints, won't they just make multiple appointments, thus costing the HMO more money in the long run? Or is that not allowed either?
ah, but here is the trick, how long is it going to take you to get that new appointment? 3-4 weeks? 6-8 weeks? They do this with the expectation that you will give up and not go to your doctor.
That figures.
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The shift has been huge opening of urgent cares and free standing ERs.
My coworker is on the employer's insurance committee. She says visiting an urgent care costs us just as much as an ER.
David
Miserable old git
Patiently waiting for the asteroid with my name on it.
Seems like it's against the HMO's own interest. If the patient has multiple complaints, won't they just make multiple appointments, thus costing the HMO more money in the long run? Or is that not allowed either?
ah, but here is the trick, how long is it going to take you to get that new appointment? 3-4 weeks? 6-8 weeks? They do this with the expectation that you will give up and not go to your doctor.
Ah, VA care!
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I didn't know any of that. I assume you're talking about Medicare. My 70-year-old aunt has been in and out of the hospital at least three times in the last four weeks. She just retired from a hospital, too.
Where Medicare goes, insurance companies follow. They look at how government limits access then decide on how they will institute new approaches. One of their newest ideas? Reviewers like Medicare, with 1 exception. The more the reviewer refuses payments, the more the review gets paid....Anyone see something wrong with this? Evidently the insurance and government doesn't.
Why would that be a problem in a for profit company. From the board room the more they refuse the better an employee they are, make them eligible for profit sharing bonus too!
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I suppose that's part of encouraging people to get insurance instead of going to ERs for every little thing.
Actually it had the opposite effect just like we told them it would. Since everyone thinks they have insurance, they came to ERs right after it passed and wanted everything treated. Volume increase dramatically for the first few weeks but fell back to normal after they found out it doesn't work that way. Or worse, got sent a bill from medicaid for the ER visit as it wasn't an urgent or emergency. Lot of angry people coming back to the hospital wanting to know why they got a bill only to be told it came from the state not the hospital.
As to seeing their primary care provider. No one takes it, so they end up back at the county clinics. Even worse, before there was a system to get uninsured people to doctors and clinics for care. Now with Obamacare, that's not allowed, forcing all those individuals over to the county.
As far as Medicare, 70% of PCP stopped taking it in this city. Was a very bad time. It's gotten better but there is still waiting times of 3 months to see providers.
?? Medicare or Medicaid?
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The shift has been huge opening of urgent cares and free standing ERs.
Yes. And all these people new to insurance have no idea what a deductible is. Why after paying their premium they have to cough up another $6000.00 before they see a dime. Many of them have no idea what a co-pay is either, but those are smallish compared to the shock of the lab bill!
The damn shame is for 90% of the ones who picked up Obamacare they would have more spending money if they paid out of pocket and paid the penalty for not having insurance.
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But you are right, we could dwell on this for a long time.
Hope you get what's wrong figured out and fixed. Drinking your meals is not enjoyable.
I didn't mean to criticise
)
I didn't mean to criticise doctors. I have a lot to be grateful to them for :) But sending me home without a prescription for antibiotics, and instead, the words "of course you have chest pains and difficulty breathing, you broke your collar bone" (missing rheumatic fever, and then congestive heart failure) ended up costing the NHS so much more in treatment than it should. But I also know enough not to blame my GP. They just seem to be getting their hands tied more and more until the best ones (in the case of my surgery anyway) either leave to join doctors without borders, or take early retirement. It's not helped by the fact that in the last two years, the square half mile to a mile that I live in, now has well over a thousand new properties (all gated communities) housing a potential 4-6000 people, whilst the number of doctor's surgeries have been reduced to a third of what they were five years ago. These newbies on the block are also the kind who are much more likely to retain a lawyer, so it's not a surprise to me when I'm told I can't get an appointment for three weeks, while listening to someone else being given one for the following day, based on the address they confirmed they live at.
@Chris
YAY Labour party :)
Except the paperwork that has to be filled out by those already hard-pressed doing the treating, made the staff waive my sister's intention (when they were staying with me during a visit from Tanzania where they lived at the time) to pay for my nephew splitting his head open on my wall. Their reasoning went - well... it was an English wall...
I know. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to moan.
Please wait here. Further instructions could pile up at any time. Thank you.
RE: I had held my tongue on
)
Seems like it's against the HMO's own interest. If the patient has multiple complaints, won't they just make multiple appointments, thus costing the HMO more money in the long run? Or is that not allowed either? (I don't know, I have a good PPO. Actually, this year I have a high-deductible gold plan: network discounts are figured as usual, then I pay the entire cost of my care up front for the first $2600/year (of which my employer gives me back $1000, but spread over the whole year), and then I pay nothing for anything the whole rest of the year. I could, today, have a heart attack, get a quadruple bypass, contract pneumonia while recovering, and anything else you can think of, and not have to pay a penny.)
I didn't know any of that. I assume you're talking about Medicare. My 70-year-old aunt has been in and out of the hospital at least three times in the last four weeks. She just retired from a hospital, too.
I suppose that's part of encouraging people to get insurance instead of going to ERs for every little thing.
Yesterday it wasn't bad. I just had to be careful of the angle my leg was at when I sat in front of the home computer last night. Today it's killing me in almost any sitting position. On top of that, the toothache that went away last week has come back, even though I didn't eat anything sweet.
And in what may well be TMI, I had a Big Mac for lunch yesterday (which I hardly ever do) and it came out the other end within 2.5 hours. How do I know? I haven't eaten anything else in quite a while that looks like shredded lettuce.
David
Miserable old git
Patiently waiting for the asteroid with my name on it.
Is the Canadian NHS similar
)
Is the Canadian NHS similar to the British one?
A friend of mine is a competetitive powerlifter. A couple of years ago, he was at a competition in Toronto and something happened which caused him severe damage to both his thumb and his knee. The Canadian doctors, acting under their system, wouldn't do anything but amputate the thumb and something less-than-satisfactory to the knee. He refused and had someone drive him home to the Chicago area (in intense pain all the way), where appropriate treatment was done under his insurance plan. After a lot of rehab, he's back to competing.
David
Miserable old git
Patiently waiting for the asteroid with my name on it.
RE: Is the Canadian NHS
)
Not sure. Other than my nephew, I know of no other foreign nationals that have used the NHS. Many come here with medical insurance as part of their travel plan nowadays anyway. I know a lot of British people who have received very good care while abroad though, and some not so good. In my nephew's case they glued his head instead of stitching it, and the glue was completely rubbish. In this instance, amputation would have been more expensive I suspect... erm...
:)
? maybe...? :)
Please wait here. Further instructions could pile up at any time. Thank you.
RE: Seems like it's against
)
ah, but here is the trick, how long is it going to take you to get that new appointment? 3-4 weeks? 6-8 weeks? They do this with the expectation that you will give up and not go to your doctor.
Where Medicare goes, insurance companies follow. They look at how government limits access then decide on how they will institute new approaches. One of their newest ideas? Reviewers like Medicare, with 1 exception. The more the reviewer refuses payments, the more the review gets paid....Anyone see something wrong with this? Evidently the insurance and government doesn't.
Actually it had the opposite effect just like we told them it would. Since everyone thinks they have insurance, they came to ERs right after it passed and wanted everything treated. Volume increase dramatically for the first few weeks but fell back to normal after they found out it doesn't work that way. Or worse, got sent a bill from medicaid for the ER visit as it wasn't an urgent or emergency. Lot of angry people coming back to the hospital wanting to know why they got a bill only to be told it came from the state not the hospital.
As to seeing their primary care provider. No one takes it, so they end up back at the county clinics. Even worse, before there was a system to get uninsured people to doctors and clinics for care. Now with Obamacare, that's not allowed, forcing all those individuals over to the county.
As far as Medicare, 70% of PCP stopped taking it in this city. Was a very bad time. It's gotten better but there is still waiting times of 3 months to see providers.
The shift has been huge opening of urgent cares and free standing ERs.
But you are right, we could dwell on this for a long time.
Hope you get what's wrong figured out and fixed. Drinking your meals is not enjoyable.
RE: RE: Seems like it's
)
That figures.
My coworker is on the employer's insurance committee. She says visiting an urgent care costs us just as much as an ER.
David
Miserable old git
Patiently waiting for the asteroid with my name on it.
RE: @Chris - In the UK we
)
About the only thing they have ever done right!!
Your house should be condemned as a public health hazard!!
Waiting for Godot & salvation :-)
Why do doctors have to practice?
You'd think they'd have got it right by now
RE: RE: Seems like it's
)
Ah, VA care!
Why would that be a problem in a for profit company. From the board room the more they refuse the better an employee they are, make them eligible for profit sharing bonus too!
?? Medicare or Medicaid?
Yes. And all these people new to insurance have no idea what a deductible is. Why after paying their premium they have to cough up another $6000.00 before they see a dime. Many of them have no idea what a co-pay is either, but those are smallish compared to the shock of the lab bill!
The damn shame is for 90% of the ones who picked up Obamacare they would have more spending money if they paid out of pocket and paid the penalty for not having insurance.
Yes David, get well soon!
RE: ?? Medicare or
)
Medicare...They cut payment to PCP at the same time to pay for Obamacare, so many elderly suddenly found themselves without their physicians.
Obamacare is basically Medicaid.
David, let us know how you are doing..
RE: Obamacare is basically
)
Not, I paid into it since it was started, it is sorta like an annuity and I continue to pay a monthly premium.