need to add title here

Hospitals: The cost of admission

December 2, 2012 4:42 PM

Steve Kroft investigates allegations from doctors that the hospital chain they worked for pressured them to admit patients regardless of their medical needs.

Hospitals: The cost of admission

60 Minutes OverTime1993: Mike Wallace reports on ER docs

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by seentoomuch June 13, 2013 9:40 AM EDT
You missed the worst of the problem---57% of people have less than $25,000 for retirement purposes including those now on SS--when the Medicare fraud charges are submitted a bill to patient is also issued for non-covered Medicare charges. If patient can't pay they are turned over to collection agencies and credit ruined. If they do pay their fund is minus the money for other needed items. All patients who think they were charged by computer initiated unnecessary tests and put in hospital should contact a lawyer for refund. Maybe even group together for Class Action lawsuit. And again if we don't put people in jail this will continue--they have already made millions so a fine just won't do. These CEO's and board members understand exactly what is going on to make their large salaries and fringe benefits and should be held accountable with jail time. If this is not stopped we will lose our Medicare benefits in the future.
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by Wazzy0709 June 10, 2013 6:12 PM EDT
Sickening.
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by Noseynurse June 10, 2013 11:02 AM EDT
As a current HMA associate I see this every day. The new thing is a Case Management model change telling case managers to make everybody "inpatient" even if you have to change your UR Plan. That's certainly not appropriate.
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by xJeweIx June 6, 2013 1:42 PM EDT
I am a former RN at HMA. The nurses are stuck between a rock and a hard place there. Trying to sell this load of crap to the patient. The doc writes orders without even explaining to the patient why and how. Then in we walk to follow the order and the patients are shocked because they knew nothing of it. So we had to do a little song and dance to keep the patient from flipping out on us. The doc won't come back and discuss it with the patient. One doc gave a patient pain meds just so they would cooperate with treatment. Another promised a patient a colonoscopy @ 7AM and he left town. Returned around 5pm to do the procedure. The whole time the patient was not allowed to eat. Our calls were not returned until I contacted another physician who I knew would give a damn. All day doing a song and dance to keep this family from beating my behind.
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by chipster1954 May 8, 2013 9:34 AM EDT
Mike Wallace: RE: ER costs HMA Hospital - Wuestoff in Melbourne, FL prime example of overcharging insurance and people. Colonoscopy and Endoscopy chgs in 2011 were $5k this yr 2012 $15K. My portion is almost $1K. they quoted ins. co total of $5K. Wont give itemized bill since Oct.2012 now sent to collections during negotiations. Dr. calls them a mafia run hospital. Interested in doing a story. I pulled all med records no time difference. Dr. says bill is Bogus. Mary R. Harper 321-917-3776
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by DSY99 February 24, 2013 9:26 PM EST
My dog just got killed by those greedy Vet.

I would rather kill myself if I ever got sicked. Never step in hospital.
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by jrich6041 January 31, 2013 6:27 PM EST
Dear 60 Minutes,
Regarding your investigative report on the Health Management Associates corporation:

I am a health care industry investor and unlike the doctors you interviewed who care for people, I do not. I care for profit. And the CEOs of all of the health care companies in which I invest, work for me the stock holder. Our goal is to make the most money we can, while providing service in a way that keeps us in business and within the law as our attorneys interpret it.
Why is there such shock when it is discovered that profit drives our policies and practice, rather than what is good for patients and the nation.
The old time highway robbers used say "Your money or your life", and many of them were caught and hung. We can take your money and your life, and remain respected pillars of the community.
Our nation has socialized military, socialized police departments and socialized court systems, because we know that if those institutions were profit based it would subject America to great harm and expense perpetrated by people like me. For profit health care is no different.
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by fig2c1 January 30, 2013 2:44 PM EST
Tip of the Iceberg. I am a former IT Director and what you have uncovered is minimal to what goes on there. From un-credentialed physicians taking care of patients to areas of facilities ridden with MRSA; to racially biased hiring practices. The place is a rats next. I worked at several facilities that purposely hid issues from JAHCO and AHCA. Facilities that did not meet government standards for patient safety. Complaints were hurriedly swept under the rug. Anyone who brought issues to Administration were often reassigned or let go without reason. Doctors and nurses constantly harassed by management about meeting unrealistic goals. HIPPA issues throughout multiple areas. All administrative meetings were based on cost-cutting and increasing profit. Barely any mention of patient care or following regulations. STAY AWAY from HMA facilities. I wouldn't take my worse enemy there for care. All they care about is the bottom dollar and they sure won't care about you!!
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by fig2c1 January 30, 2013 2:38 PM EST
Tip of the Iceberg. I am a former IT Director and what you have uncovered is minimal to what goes on there. From un-credentialed physicians taking care of patients to areas of facilities ridden with MRSA; to racially biased hiring practices. The place is a rats next. I worked at several facilities that purposely hid issues from JAHCO and AHCA. Facilities that did not meet government standards for patient safety. Complaints were hurriedly swept under the rug. Anyone who brought issues to Administration were often reassigned or let go without reason. Doctors and nurses constantly harassed by management about meeting unrealistic goals. HIPPA issues throughout multiple areas. All administrative meetings were based on cost-cutting and increasing profit. Barely any mention of patient care or following regulations. STAY AWAY from HMA facilities. I wouldn't take my worse enemy there for care. All they care about is the bottom dollar and they sure won't care about you!!
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by announcer January 26, 2013 12:45 AM EST
I work as a news reporter for a radio station in North Carolina. Last may 5th, my mom passed away, and after I planned and completed her funeral, I then got the shock of my life. I am an only child, and mom's personal representative and executor of her will. In addition to working as a reporter I also volunteer with my local county emergency services as a traffic control officer. I am CPR certified, and I started CPR on my mom the day I found her unresponsive. Mom was transported to our local "non-profit" community hospital which by the way was found to be one of the most PROFITABLE hospitals operated by Blue Ridge Health Care in North Carolina. The Charlotte Observer did an investigative 5-part report last April, showing our "non-profit" community hospital enjoys at least a 7.8% profit margin, while paying NO INCOME TAX as a non-profit hospital ! After my mom was later 'airlifted' to a Charlotte, NC hospital about an hour away, I learned several hours later she had passed away. That hospital and all of the creditors acted with genuine concern, but back home at my 'local' hospital, not only did I NOT receive a "BILL" for the remaining balance after Medicare and State Health Plan, I got a "postcard" telling me to visit my local post office an pickup a LARGE envelope. This was a month after mom passed away. I was grieving the loss and Grace Hospital filed a "claim" against mom's estate for $ 320.31 ! I called to question this and was told by an employee that a LIEN had been placed against the estate, and if I didn't pay the $ 320.31, my credit would be ruined, and I would be turned into a "collection agency" The bill generated by my local "non-profit" hospital for LESS then TWO hours mom was there before being airlifted to Charlotte, NC, was $ 9,513.00 ! The hospital was paid more than $ 9,200.00 dollars by Medicare and State Health Plan. Since I work as a news reporter, and was experiencing grief, I went to the hospital to pay the $ 320.31. This was not my debt, but I didn't need any additional harrassment or embarrassment at that time. I have submitted this to my North Carolina Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division and a host of other agencies, and I have spoken with a dozen or so people in the community who have had similar billing issues, and in one case, a friend told me about a situation two years ago in which his wife developed a staph infection during out-patient surgery due to a nurse dropping medical instruments onto the hospital floor, and continuing to use them without re-sterilizing them or getting "new" sterile instuments to complete the surgery. My friends wife has been in a wheelchair for about two years as a result of this, and cannot walk on her own. The irony of all this is the fact that my mom, a retired nurse, worked almost thirty years as a nurse and her first job as an RN was in the same hospital that has harrassed and prevented me from grieving the loss of the only mom I will ever have in this life. How can anyone be this heartless? In 1996, I was employed by this same hospital as a postal mail clerk, and later worked in the Business Office as a "filing employee" submitting accounts to a collection agency for Grace Hospital. Like another comment posted here, our local EXCUSE for a newspaper, has REFUSED to print a letter to the editor, because most of the INCOME the newspaper receives is advertisement from Grace Hospital and the MANY owned properties that are a MONOPOLY in the area since we are small in size. The local newspaper even refuses to assign a reporter to investigate and report on Grace Hospital, but I have gained interest from a Charlotte, NC TV station. I have been interviewed and others have been interviewed. I still believe this situation deserves attention from 60 minutes in the same manner Mike Wallace reported on issues just like this for decades. I hope this story sees the 'light of day' in the near future. Our local hospital just retired the current CEO after a ten year run. His salary was a reported $ 850,000.00 dollars a year. So the rest of us are absolutely in the the wrong line of work if were looking for the "pot-of-gold" at the end of the rainbow !

Richard Garrison

News Reporter for Cooper Broadcasting, Inc. - WMNC AM / FM
Morganton, NC

website: www.bigdawg92fm.com
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