I read this story today and it just makes me so mad. The jist of the story is that Medicare is overpaying by $1,200 for wheelchairs and if there had been competitive bidding they could have cut the cost by that much. Instead the suppliers are getting exhorbinant payments for wheelchairs that cost them much less to buy.
This story reminded me of the births of my children. I nursed all 4 of my kids from the moment they were born. The charts say so, my husbands were there and guess what? I remember it too.
We also had insurance for all four births. What annoyed me was on every single insurance bill we received that was marked "PAID" they listed pain killers for after birth pain control. Four times I called four different hospitals and four different insurance companies to inform them that they were not to charge for pain killers [hospital] and the insurance company needed a refund for monies paid because as a nursing mother I most certainly was NOT taking pain killers - it was always tylenol with codeine and the cost was ridiculous! It worked everytime, but I sure did piss off a lot of hospital billing offices by pointing out their mistake. They couldn't even be bothered to check my records to see I was breastfeeding and therefore was not taking pain killers - they just added in on as habit because it was assumed a post birth Mother was in pain.
It wouldn't have bothered me if it happened once, or heck even twice - but for all the births? Stupid and criminal. They were doing it on purpose to recoup money they didn't deserve.
And everyone wonders why healthcare costs so much in this country. What a joke.
1 comment:
Health care reform is a necessary solution here. It's unfortunate that no one (in power) can agree on how to go about bringing that change.
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