>> He also said that my father’s blood pressure was high, but not high enough to admit him. I continued to call the ER and was told by a male nurse that they were still doing different tests to try to find something that would allow them to admit my father.
This really is the problem today. In January, 1965, if a person showed up at a hospital and a doctor thought he needed to be in the hospital there was no bullshit, it just happened. And the person would pay the bill (probably $10/day) if he could, and if he couldn't, taxpayers would pick up the bill.
Then, came Medicare & Medicaid. And price controls. And just as price controls have done in every instance where they've been deployed, they caused convolutions in the market place. And now, there is "outpatient", "inpatient", and various categories of "in between" (observation), and there are SNFs and ASCs and ERs and we even have special facilities for ESRD, Rural Health Clinics, Public Health Clinics, and every last one of them has different rules for how, when and why patients can be treated for one thing or another, when they are "admitted", how they are "discharged", how long they can stay before they have to be moved here, or there, and you-name-it: ALL DETERMINED BY WHAT IS NECESSARY TO MEET THE PAYMENT REQUIREMENTS from government payers.
A certain amount of regulation is necessary, but it was ridiculous BEFORE Obamacare and 10x as ridiculous now. |
