Why is medicare going to be nonexistent?

I agree with you but an very, very confused about what this has to do w/ Medicare?

I think OP is saying that medicare is paying for the unnecessary bills - OP, why did your grandmother get the lab work in the first place? We don't have to get something done just because a doctor ordered it.

Defensive medicine doesn't dictate that those be done, medicare doesn't require or even encourage that they be done so I'm not sure what medicare has to do with it, your grandma doesn't have to agree to have these tests done if the doctor suggests it.

Did anyone speak with the physician regarding the patients goals?Is the patient alert,oriented and capable of making her wishes known?Is there an advance directive on file?Have you discussed these issues with her and the doc? It's a partnership,you can't blame the doc.Your mom may have consented to this and feels it is appropriate.Same as the family of the dialysis patient.And we can educate until the cows come home but in this country today we still have the right to pursue futile care....

Well, just got my grandma, who is 98 years old, (lives with me) bill in the mail for a simple office visit to the doctor. $48 for CBC $65 for CMP, $93 for a vitamin B12, $182 for a Vitamin D, $13 for a venipuncture total bill was $401. For lab work on a 98 year old. Come on people!!!!

Do not do this to me when I am 98 years old. My gosh!! Unbelievable. And its not the doctor's fault its skanky blood sucking lawyers that want to fault doctors for every little test they didn't do. I think it should be the opposite, we should start suing for dumb blood work that is ridiculous.

I told my two kids who are teenagers about this bill and my husband and I both said "do not do this to us!!!!" Save the $400 for my grandkids' medicare.

Stupidest thing in the world was a hospice visit I made to a family putting dad through the meat grinder on dialysis. $50,000 a month and he had absolutely no quality of life at all, pain, confusion, could not do one single ADL, family couldn't name one thing that is good about prolonging the inevitable, but they still refused to start hospice and stop the dialysis. Please don't do this to me, I have told every person I know not to do this to me!!

Why is your family or your grandmother doing this?

Medicare is the one that paid $400 for the bill. Thats only the tip of the iceberg I know that there are sooooo many treatments that are absolutely unecessary!! and bankrupting medicare.

I don't remember saying that medicare was to blame. I am not sure how you came to the conclusion that medicare was to blame. I am saying that no wonder medicare is going to be bankrupt. All of the senseless testing.

Did anyone speak with the physician regarding the patients goals?Is the patient alert,oriented and capable of making her wishes known?Is there an advance directive on file?Have you discussed these issues with her and the doc? It's a partnership,you can't blame the doc.Your mom may have consented to this and feels it is appropriate.Same as the family of the dialysis patient.And we can educate until the cows come home but in this country today we still have the right to pursue futile care....

The doctor knows. He knows we want no hospitals unless we cant' get her comfortable or if somehting we absolutely could not handle at home. He knows our goals. Of course we have an advanced directive POLST. She is A & O she makes her own decisions at this time. I am her medical POA. I was there during the entire appointment, she did not consent, the docs never ask, they just do it.

I don't remember saying that medicare was to blame. I am not sure how you came to the conclusion that medicare was to blame. I am saying that no wonder medicare is going to be bankrupt. All of the senseless testing.

Your thread title asks about Medicare's demise.

The doctor knows. He knows we want no hospitals unless we cant' get her comfortable or if somehting we absolutely could not handle at home. He knows our goals. Of course we have an advanced directive POLST. She is A & O she makes her own decisions at this time. I am her medical POA. I was there during the entire appointment, she did not consent, the docs never ask, they just do it.

So,respectfully,why did you let them draw those labs?

My grandmother, 88, at the time had a young PCP clearly trying to hit metrics pushing anti cholesterol drugs for a borderline level, Pap smear, mammogram, colonoscopy and other "preventative " testing. She was confused. I was called. She had terminal COPD. I found her a new PCP. The side effects from the Lipitor alone were unbearable for her never mind personal invasive testing that we would do nothing with positive results.

We refused routine labs as Medicare required an ABN notice as they were unnecessary. Doc ordered them as she kept a traditional BCBS plan at the time that would pay. (With a hefty deductible!). New doc tested and treated for comfort.