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During Tuesday’s presidential debate, Mitt Romney said the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), also known as a “death panel,” was one of the reasons he would repeal Obamacare. And President Barack Obama continued to defend his controversial death panels.
“It puts in place an unelected board that's going to tell people, ultimately, what kind of treatments they can have,” Romney said. “I don't like that idea.”
“It — when Governor Romney talks about this board, for example — unelected board that we've created — what this is, is a group of health care experts, doctors, et cetera, to figure out how can we reduce the cost of care in the system overall, “ Obama said.
Obama continued to say death panels would make “the cost of care more effective.”...
Those are the people who many see as the "Death Panel".
Starting today, Medicare will start fining hospitals that have too many patients readmitted within 30 days of discharge because of complications.
The penalties are part of a broader push under President Barack Obama's health care law to improve quality while also trying to save taxpayers money.
Why does the hospital usually send the patient home? Because the insurance folks tell them they are done paying, therefore the hospital sends them home!
Why are the hospitals being fined versus the insurance companies?
I don't think that precious resources should be used to keep me barely alive when others could use those resources and recover and lead a productive life.
First off, this is Medicare, not private insurance.
And no, hospitals don't send them home because of that, you obviously don't work in the healthcare industry. There is one big number hospitals are concerned about (at least in the business offices) and that is throughput. The more throughput, the more money. Hospitals make the most money on patients in the first few days of their visit. Hospitals actually have it calculated to what the desired lenght of stay is for each type of patient based on their problems or diagnosis. So Hospitals will push people who have been there longer to be discharged so they can open the bed for a fresh paying customer (yes, patients are customers).
Plus, Medicare pays lower than most other insurances, so there is an added incentive to get the Medicare patients out of the beds faster.
So yes, the hospitals should be fined because they shouldn't be sending the patient home until they have correctly diagnosed the patients issue and putting them on the correct treatment that will prevent them from having to be re-admitted to the hospital. In short, they should be doing their job correctly instead of having profit drive their decisions.
But GOOD GOVERNMENT for having some paid off government officials making life and death decisions
I have elderly loved ones on Medicare, and they get better treatment than most on private insurance do. Yes, that evil government providing them with excellent care. And to make it worse, the evil government is now looking into ways to keep costs down further for all Americans by asking some of the top experts in healthcare to come up with some ideas on how to bring down costs to the patient. Yes, evil things going on here.
I'm sorry, but I just can't buy into Palin's paranoia and fear mongering. And it's a shame her idiotic rhetoric is still around.
I have elderly loved ones on Medicare, and they get better treatment than most on private insurance do.
Originally posted by seeker1963
Starting today, Medicare will start fining hospitals that have too many patients readmitted within 30 days of discharge because of complications.
The penalties are part of a broader push under President Barack Obama's health care law to improve quality while also trying to save taxpayers money.