five years ago, October 16 to be exact, I received a call from the hospital telling me my parents had been in a very bad car accident.
The information I got: my dad was conscious; my mom was not.
I obviously drove the three hours from my home to the hospital.
Both parents passed away.
But it is what I found out about what the hospitals did to my mom that was an eye opener.
When the paramedics first brought my mother to the hospital, they called a Medivac Helicopter to rush her to a bigger hospital.
The bigger hospital rushed her into surgery, removing her spleen, a lung, and some ribs.
She was placed on a ventilator and when she flatlined, she was resuscitated time and time again. I finally put a stop to this and allowed her to pass.
But it took two days.
Then I got the bills: Medicare wanted the money spent on my mom back. Seems if you die in an accident, Medicare won't cover anything.
I was going to write the check: $175,000 - but was stopped by my lawyer, who informed me that all of this money was Medicare fraud, initiated by the hospitals.
Seems that as soon as the ambulance got her to the first ER, the doctors knew there was massive internal bleeding. They knew two ribs had been pushed, piercing her heart. Hence, they had her flown to another hospital.
Yet they charged for two CAT Scans and x-rays and blood tests and three MRIs.
Problem is- none of that happened. She wasn't there long enough. But after speaking to a nurse who was present, the hospital knew her injuries were so bad that survival was not possible.
The second hospital did more CAT Scans,blood work, x-rays, and put her on a ventilator. Then they took her into surgery. Even though they knew she was not going to survive.
And they kept resuscitating her until I stopped it.
My lawyer fought the hospitals, spoke to Medicare about the fraud that was done.
And the lawyer didn't charge me. He deals with this kind of fraud all the time.
So if there is ONE thing to be fixed in Medicare, it is this fraud that, according to my lawyer, is happening all the time.
So yeah- there are parts of Medicare that need reforming. Maybe keeping hospitals accountable for procedures could save a lot of money.