how can we fix healthcare if ppl keep abusing the system?

ItsTheDude · Mar 8, 2010

the major abuses of health care aren't on the consumer end (questionable calling off an ambulance by powerless low end nuts), it's the massive frauds (powerful & wealthy people/orgs) on the provider end (docs, healthsouth, hospitals, home health, maimi florida area and the list goes on).

oramar · Mar 8, 2010

For every person who uses ambulance incorrectly there are probably two who don't call when they should. If I had a nickle for every MI who had someone drive them in even through they were having alarming symptoms I would be rich.

KungFuFtr · Mar 8, 2010

I think calling for prior authorization should be mandatory for non emergency ER visits. I have to pay more out of pocket if I do so, why doesn't the same apply for Medicaid pts?

Bella'sMyBaby · Mar 8, 2010

:rolleyes:Talk about Abusing the System.......

How about Residents in LTC who are at the end of life & they get picked up by Rehab....for what???? What can Rehab possibly do for them when there's NO Rehab potential???? Or how about the insane families that insist on every test possible for their 90 year old mother....Will it really affect the outcome????

itsmejuli · Mar 8, 2010

Lack of primary care and affordable medications force people such as diabetics or hypertensives to seek far more expensive emergency treatment when symptoms flare. Then these same people need to be hospitalized for days.

The current healthcare reform will drive up the cost of premiums and out of pocket expenses. Until healthcare is treated as a right and not a business, nothing will change.

pennyaline · Mar 8, 2010

i just read a post where a nurse said that many ppl abuse the ambulance system by calling for cold symptoms and minor burns. how will we ever fix healthcare is ppl keep abusing the system causing the costs to rise? remember in the news the lady called 911 because Mickey D's would not give her the chicken nuggets she ordered?? i personally don't want to pay for health insurance for ppl like this.

Nobody called an ambulance over McDonald's speed of service. The police were called. It snarled up the 911 emergency system, but it didn't raise health insurance costs.

Calling 911 for what we consider to be minor complaints doesn't effect health insurance either. Dispatchers ask questions that assess and triage the callers' complaints and respond to the situation accordingly. I haven't seen an ambulance response for cold symptoms, ever, unless there was another medical problem also at play. I have seen it for "minor burns" because burns are judged by depth of tissue damage and extent of involvement. Age and overall physical condition also matter: for chemical and thermal burns, what's minor for people in their twenties and thirties is less minor for those in their fifties and sixties, and probably not at all minor for folks in their seventies and eighties or for little ones still in the single digits.

RedCell · Mar 9, 2010

healthcare is treated as a right and because of this, individuals will always now and forever continue to "abuse the system". one of the places i work is in a tertiary institution. we provide healthcare to anyone. just today i gave an anesthetic to some cocaine abusing cigarette smoking and alcoholic homeless dude so that he could get a cuppla new coronary vessels plus a mitral valve (endocarditis from chronic iv abuse). yep, he got the full workup too...echocardiogram (transthoracic and esophageal), dobutamine stress (too lazy to run on a treadmill) and cardiac cath. does anyone really think he is going to pay even a penny from his hospital bill? of course not, because we the tax payers will! that is bs. this guy's only contribution to society is assisting with the proliferation and continued survival of scabies and lice. when i asked him what his mets were (in a nonjargon way) he actually told me he is able to stand without fail all day asking for money from a street corner, "high as hell and working the crowd" so that he can "stay high as hell".

the emergency rooms are no different. they have to see and provide care for any dude that walks through those doors. the majority of chronic 911 callers and/or ed citizens will continue to visit their family physician (er md/do) because even if they had health insurance, taking the initiative to see a true primary care doc would be more responsibility than they would be willing to accept. besides, the ed always has free turkey sandwiches and the hydromorphone flows like niagara falls. i should have quoted the previous sentence because i had an er patient tell me precisely that one time when he was being seen for "kidney stones". actually that dude was pretty smart. he was pricking his finger and dropping the blood into his urine specimen cup to "confirm the diagnosis". oh yeah, he was allergic to toradol and 'ketorolac'....like i said, a smart dude who really really liked dilaudid.

the united states of america is a capitalistic system and that is what makes us such a great country. anytime the government gets involved in any type of free enterprise it turns to crap. i.e. medicare/caid, mail, retirement savings etc... i can list more but is it really necessary? you name it and government involvement has probably screwed it up. what makes you think government funded healthcare will be different?

i agree that something needs to be done for those poor bastards who actually do work and cannot afford healthcare. i do not think the president's solution is the answer, however i do think that other options previously mentioned by the "conservatives" would be a good start.

Jolie, BSN · Mar 9, 2010

It will never be possible to completely eliminate abuse from the healthcare system. But that shouldn't stop us from trying.

We must demand payment of some amount from each and every user. When consumers perceive that they are getting "free" care paid by "someone else" they have absolutely no incentive to use resources responsibly. Until every consumer is forced to put some skin in the game, we have no hope of reducing waste.

itsmejuli · Mar 9, 2010

Drug abuse, homelessness and this great country having the highest incarcerated population in the developed world will continue until something is done about the lack of mental health and addiction treatment and counseling.

Not everyone is perfect, some need more help than others...who's there to help them?

RedCell · Mar 9, 2010

Drug abuse, homelessness and this great country having the highest incarcerated population in the developed world will continue until something is done about the lack of mental health and addiction treatment and counseling.
Not everyone is perfect, some need more help than others...who's there to help them?

Like I said, Emergency Rooms...they are open 24/7, provide free turkey sandwiches and if you know the right words...a quick fix. Government funded social programs do not work for these dudes. It has been proven time and time again.

Maybe we (the taxpayers) could save a few bucks and go the route of the UK. Free needles and diamorphine to anyone with an addiction. At least the incidence but not prevalence (unfortunately) of blood borne diseases would go down slightly. Kind of wonder what the cost/benefit ratio would be though, especially in an economy in the midst of a DEEP recession? :eek:

pennyaline · Mar 9, 2010

Like I said, Emergency Rooms...they are open 24/7, provide free turkey sandwiches and if you know the right words...a quick fix. Government funded social programs do not work for these dudes. It has been proven time and time again.
Maybe we (the taxpayers) could save a few bucks and go the route of the UK. Free needles and diamorphine to anyone with an addiction. At least the incidence but not prevalence (unfortunately) of blood borne diseases would go down slightly. Kind of wonder what the cost/benefit ratio would be though, especially in an economy in the midst of a DEEP recession?

But isn't that still a government funded social program??

Anyway, it's been suggested that the government go into the business of supplying clean syringes and drugs for addicts in the interest of their health. But whenever it's brought up, tea partiers eyes roll back in their heads, and they start chanting "why should I support drug addicts" and "why should I pay for other peoples' health care and my own too," progressing from there to "why should the government have to pay for addicts" and "why should the government pay for health care," then they start murmuring about "socialism" and "get government out of my medicare" until they foam at the mouth and pull their hair out, then they start to shriek "God" this and "God" that, and "remember the golden rule" and "do unto others as you would have them do unto you," then emit a final unintelligible shriek before collapsing to the floor in a fit, then swoon. It's just plain difficult to talk to these people.