Comments on: Legislative Fixes

By: March 7 roundup

March 7 roundup — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 05:26:12 +0000

[...] Washington state says it won’t pay for “unnecessary” Medicaid ER visits. Can you see the unintended consequences coming? [White Coat] [...]

By: Volunteer Nurse Advocate

Volunteer Nurse Advocate — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 01:37:38 +0000

Many docs send their patients to the ER because they are not available. In this case the ER doc serves as the physicians’s agent, not the patients. The patient goes to the ER. The ER runs a bunch of tests, does an exam, finds nothing yet tells the patient to go back to their physician who couldn’t see them in the first. The ER gets to bill Medicaid, Medicare, private insurance etc. The patient then gets bounced back to their doc because after all they want a piece of the pie that they missed the first time around not to mention the fact that the ER gets to protect their liability. The patient goes back to their doc in a few days and they do more tests and bill Medicaid, Medicare, private insurance etc for another visit all the while protecting their liability. There is something wrong with this picture. Legislators, clinic administrators, doctors and patients all need to be educated about the proper use of the Emergency Room.

By: Linda

Linda — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:03:54 +0000

I realize that patients making unnecessary trips to an emergency room are a huge problem for hospitals. There use to be charity hospitals for those in need of medical care that could not afford it, now that those are gone, if a person is sick, and the doctor won’t see them without payment in full, those patients turn to emergency rooms because that is the only way they can get help. Instead of having a one hundred or so dollar bill they can’t pay, they have a 500.00 or so bill they can’t pay. I use to have great insurance, but because of cut backs, I am now considered on call. One day of doctor visits cost me two weeks of my pay. I can’t survive like that, but have no choice because decent paying jobs are limited. Even Walmart is cutting it’s workers benefits and making them all on call to avoid health care benefits.