This is a big one folks. In recent years, hospital stays and costs have been reduced by the introduction of home iv therapy: antibiotics, even chemotherapy. Small companies have sprung up all around the country to serve this need, and the system has generally been a good thing. Now, in transitioning to the Medicare
Grade Part D, the meds are covered (theoretically, good luck making it through the computer/phonebank maze),
but the necessary equipment/services somehow got lost along the way.
Just a bump in the road, right. Not exactly. The LA Times tells us these people have little choice: a)die or b)go to the hospital.
The new Medicare drug program is denying supplies that seriously ill patients need to administer intravenous antibiotics and other medications at home. As a result, some patients are being referred to nursing homes, and others have had to go into hospitals.
One Anaheim pharmacy says 200 of its patients are having trouble.
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For those of you who haven't recently gone to the hospital emergency room and seen a bill, it costs 400 bucks just to have them stop yer freakin nosebleed. If you want some sort of real service, like starting an iv, blah blah, you are asking for a backbreakin bill; a thou or more. Plus you get into the issue of whether they are gonna have to use their own medications, as opposed to what the patient brought with them. So I could see this little escapade costing several thousand dollars a day, especially when you consider that some meds are given more than once a day, seven days a week.
Home infusion pharmacies say they are overwhelmed trying to help patients deal with the problem. "It's like I'm doing triage in a MASH unit," said pharmacist Michael Rigas, vice president for clinical affairs with Crescent Healthcare in Anaheim.
For Kathleen Senna, 68, a retired cannery worker living in West Sacramento, the policy has meant she can't get intravenous medications at home to fight a lung infection. ...Paulette Bryson of Escondido said she had to take her daughter, Kimberly Tyler, back to the hospital after Tyler was unable to get intravenous medications to treat a blood and spinal infection....Bryson said. "Unfortunately, it's the small person who does not have pull, and they have to beg for their medicine."
Senna and Tyler previously were covered for intravenous medications at home under Medi-Cal, the California healthcare program for low-income seniors and disabled people. But despite emergency help ordered by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for Medi-Cal patients whose prescription coverage was switched to Medicare on Jan. 1, Senna and Tyler were not able to get their medications.
... On average, the medicines represent a little less than half the cost of treatment, which can run thousands of dollars a month, according to a pharmacy industry group.
Say, has anyone suggested that Bushco is just trying to let some folks die, to reduce the pool of people who are gonna campaign to get him impeached for his disasterous policies on Social Security, Iraq, Katrina, mining safety, Abramoff, domestic spying...etc...??????? I'm not serious, folks;
like Ann Coulter, saying I'm just kidding allows me to say anything I want, right?
I have to say, all in all I would be surprised if there aren't a number of people who are gonna either die or get hospitalized because of the idiots who put this little package together. Doing a heckuva job....