[brian]

Nursing home patients losing attention, some say.

Kelley Jolivette-Thomas is surrounded by paperwork. Two large binders are stacked on her desk, filled with formularies, letters and other documents from the federal government. Nearly every piece of paper has something to do with Medicare Part D.Jolivette-Thomas is the social service director for Amelia Manor Nursing Home in Lafayette. Since November, she has been working on behalf of the facility's 108 patients to try to ensure that they continue to receive vital medicine under the new Medicare guidelines.



"It's so much paperwork," Jolivette-Thomas said. "It's definitely taking people away from their other duties. I mean, this whole binder here took me a day to put together."
To choose a plan, Jolivette-Thomas said residents or their family members had to sort through mounds of paperwork and dozens of lists of medications to see which plan covered most of their prescriptions. Most residents are physically and mentally incapable of doing such a complicated chore, she said, and many have family members who are unwilling or unable to take care of the problems.That means nurses, aides and other nursing home employees are left waiting on the phone for hours trying to make sure residents' medicines still will be paid for.
Cassandra Wimbly, an LPN at East Ridge Nursing Center in Abbeville, said many nurses and aides have to spend hours on hold, trying to get through to the appropriate personnel.

Full Story: Nurses fight Medicare Part D woes [The Daily Advertiser,LA]

[soliant12]

Government run healthcare at its finest

[elkpark]

Originally Posted by soliant12

Government run healthcare at its finest

Actually, the problem is that the Repugs insisted on setting this whole boondoggle up as a big give-away to all the private insurance companies (and pharmaceutical companies), who are being heavily subsidized by our tax dollars to induce them to take on the job (which they initially announced they didn't want, because they wouldn't make enough profit from it -- so their friends in the GOP fixed that little problem for them) ... If Rx coverage under M'care had been set up the way it should have been, as a single-payer system administered by CMS like "regular" M'care, the overhead costs would be a fraction of what they are with the private companies, private companies would not be siphoning off US taxpayer dollars as profits to their shareholders, and seniors would not be having this "figuring out which one of the 40 available plans will actually meet my needs" nightmare that they are going through ... The problem with Part D is that it's NOT "government run healthcare" ...

[soliant12]

Yawn.

Originally Posted by elkpark

Actually, the problem is that the Repugs insisted on setting this whole boondoggle up as a big give-away to all the private insurance companies (and pharmaceutical companies), who are being heavily subsidized by our tax dollars to induce them to take on the job (which they initially announced they didn't want, because they wouldn't make enough profit from it -- so their friends in the GOP fixed that little problem for them) ... If Rx coverage under M'care had been set up the way it should have been, as a single-payer system administered by CMS like "regular" M'care, the overhead costs would be a fraction of what they are with the private companies, private companies would not be siphoning off US taxpayer dollars as profits to their shareholders, and seniors would not be having this "figuring out which one of the 40 available plans will actually meet my needs" nightmare that they are going through ... The problem with Part D is that it's NOT "government run healthcare" ...

[sanakruz]

...Keeping you awake, caring health professional?

[elkpark]

Originally Posted by soliant12

Yawn.

"Let them eat cake," eh??

[CseMgr1]

Originally Posted by soliant12

Government run healthcare at its finest

And if their medical conditions don't kill these poor souls, our government's mindless bureaucracy will.

[grannynurse FNP student]

Originally Posted by CseMgr1

And if their medical conditions don't kill these poor souls, our government's mindless bureaucracy will.

Actually, our Congress and some state legslatures will. In my state, Florida numerous disabled and elderly are unable to obtain their medications because of the system that our Congress set up. And my governor, unlike other states, has refused to step in and ensure they receive their medications until this mess is sorted out.

Grannynurse

[soliant12]

Let me get this straight. They were getting medicine before but now since the taxpayers are footing the bill they are not? Wanna rephrase the Bush bashing statement again?

Originally Posted by grannynurse FNP student

Actually, our Congress and some state legslatures will. In my state, Florida numerous disabled and elderly are unable to obtain their medications because of the system that our Congress set up. And my governor, unlike other states, has refused to step in and ensure they receive their medications until this mess is sorted out.

Grannynurse

[steelcityrn]

If you wanted to see the full impact of this monumentous disaster, one could have turned into the house hearing on this on c-span. They had a half dozen or so people from different walks of life telling thier personal stories, which by the way were done very well, on time tables of pure" hell stories" they went through to fill their prescriptions. Funny how the very senators who signed these bills without reading between the lines or having lawyers pick this apart first, were no where in site! How about this little tidbit, the pharmacutical company can increase the cost of their medication every 3 months, and even knock the drug right off of the formulary at any time. Lets say you have M.S., and are on weekly avonex injections. Lets say these meds are not improving the quality of your life, but may be keeping you out of bed all day. Do you think your assessment can be reviewed to take this medication off of you one day and replaced with a tylenol for discomfort? You betcha. If the cost of the medication taps into their profits,and of course im talking about your lower income families, who have been placed on these advantage plans,you are in for some very troubling times. You do have a grace period to change your plan,of course at a cost, but after that your stuck there until the next sign on period a year later. Along with truckloads of paperwork, 800 numbers to reach computers only, seldom a person, complicated decisions like "do you have any idea what medications you may be on one day", or how about picking a bracket of spending that you are anticipated to stay within. I ask you all, do you know how to predict the future? Well, our great gov' thought you could.