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

Add a Comment See all 142 Comments
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
Reply to this comment
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.
Reply to this comment
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.
Reply to this comment
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!!
Reply to this comment
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!!
Reply to this comment
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
Reply to this comment
by GARDEN12571 January 2, 2013 8:14 PM EST
This happens everywhere. Hospital administrators are over paid morons that make more money than the governor . We need more people out there that care for the patient and not the bottom line. It is a sad situation here in Kingston ,NY.
Reply to this comment
by AgentOrtega December 27, 2012 7:16 PM EST
It is my opinion Dr Seth Goldbarg MD, has been payoff, Dr Seth Goldbarg New York Hospital Queens(NYHQ), Arrhythmia Center, 3rd Fl, 56-45 Main st, Flushing, NY 11355. My mother was admitted to NYHQ around November 27, 2011 for a fall which the doctors had told me she had an pneumonia, at the emergency room Dr goldbarg ask about her fall and I mention my mother had Parkinson's Disease which cause unbalance and when unattented causes her to lose balance and fall. During my mother stay Dr Goldbarg had my mother removed from the 5th Fl, and brought down to a lower fall to perform a implant heart monitering devise, my mother had request Dr Goldbarg to call me, when he did I told him not to perform any operation till I get to the hospital and discuss this procedure. Dr Goldbarg had told me it was too late, she was already in the operating room. Dr Goldbarg might have look to defraud Medicare to implant the devise for patients who do not need the devise. My mother was readmitted to NYQH again on Oct 6, 2012 after found on the floor, while my mother was at the hospital she was assault by a nurse aide around Oct 8th, which the hospital claim was unintentional.Since I reported these incidents to the hospital, NYS Dept of Health, and NYC Queens District Attorney office, Ms Woods, Elderly care dept, I received a strange call from 517-318-5750 of footstep noise in the background and have and several occasions been followed, I have notifty FBI NYC Office. I hope no family has to endure the same hardship my mother has.
Reply to this comment
by December 16, 2012 9:26 PM EST
Greed pure and simple just think of the amount of money that could be saved
Reply to this comment
by Drewtazy December 8, 2012 5:21 PM EST
This segment could have been filmed here in Great Falls,Montana. Many of the issues you aired parallel what is going on here with Benefis Health Systems. The CEO has successfully created a monopoly in this town so folks do not have a choice of doctor they choose. Employees of Benefis Health Systems have an insurance policy that will not pay for care received at the Clinic. Benefis has also been investigated by the D.O.J ,The Medicare Fraud Department and the FBI. Many of us have written letters of concern to our former Attorney General and the systems board of the hospital only to not receive ONE reply about our concerns. Of course the CEO John Goodnow appointed himself to the board so no wonder no one replied. Last October our 8 board certified in emergency medicine physicians were basically thrown under the bus and their contracts not renewed and replaced by physicians willing to play ball with the CEO and senior management and admit, admit ,admit , and the list goes on and on. They couldn't find enough physicians to fill all shifts so one doctor was working 12 hours shifts for 23 days in a row. How safe is that? Our one and only local paper refuses to print anything negative about Benefis because of the advertising dollar they receive and our local television station is also reluctant to air anything negative about Benefis due to the advertising revenue they receive from them.

I will also add that there is a huge problem of understaffing throughout the hospital which directly relates to unsafe patient care but if you are one to voice these concerns you are told to seek employment elsewhere. A little difficult to do with only 1 hospital in town. So...what do you do when the attorney general won't respond ? the board won't respond?
Reply to this comment
See all 142 Comments
Recent Segments

60MinutesOverTime

60 Minutes Overtime is a weekly web show that begins where the weekly television broadcast ends

  • 48 Hours iPad App

    Big changes for the 2012-2013 season! Watch the current week's episode for FREE up to a week after it airs or subscribe for access to all shows, classic episodes and more!