Coverage denied: Why is the government letting chronically ill die??

[The Village Idiot]

http://www.newhavenadvocate.com/featured-news/health-care-coverage-denied-why-is-the-federal-government-telling-the-chronically-ill-they-deserve-no-help

Why is the federal government telling the chronically ill they deserve no help?

excerpt

Almost every week for several years, Anne Marie Maffuid received a yellow piece of paper saying that the Medicaid-provided care for her mother would be terminated.

The reason: Maffuid’s mother has ALS and her condition wasn’t improving. ALS is a chronic disease, which, almost by definition, means that her condition is not expected to improve. There is no cure for ALS. Wheelchair-bound, Maffuid’s mother needed help showering and feeding herself, among other things; Medicare paid for a visiting nurse and therapy.

“The whole thing was very upsetting,” Maffuid says.

Maffuid is just one of many people who’ve received similar termination notices, says Gill Deford, an attorney with the Connecticut-based Center for Medicare Advocacy, a group that represents Medicare patients and lobbies to improve Medicare policies.

Deford wants to know why Medicare has been using the so-called “Improvement Standard” — which seems to require a patient to be improving to continue receiving certain benefits — to stop giving people Medicare-provided therapy (they’d still receive Medicare coverage for things like routine hospital or doctors visits).

However, there is no such thing as the “improvement standard,” Medicare regulations dictate that improvement is “not the deciding factor in determining whether skilled services are needed.”



excerpt

[rich_t]

Just wait until Obama-care kicks in.

[Boudicca]

Just wait until Obama-care kicks in.

Then "improvement" will only be a pill away.  I wonder how many of those receiving these notices were Zombie voters.

[Lacarnut]

Although Medicaid is a federal program, the states have to pony up most of the money (around 70 to 80%). The level of care may be different from state to state. Since the states are @sshole to appetite in debt, they are looking for ways to cut their budgets.

[zeitgeist]

http://www.newhavenadvocate.com/featured-news/health-care-coverage-denied-why-is-the-federal-government-telling-the-chronically-ill-they-deserve-no-help

Why is the federal government telling the chronically ill they deserve no help?

excerpt

Almost every week for several years, Anne Marie Maffuid received a yellow piece of paper saying that the Medicaid-provided care for her mother would be terminated.

The reason: Maffuid’s mother has ALS and her condition wasn’t improving. ALS is a chronic disease, which, almost by definition, means that her condition is not expected to improve. There is no cure for ALS. Wheelchair-bound, Maffuid’s mother needed help showering and feeding herself, among other things; Medicare paid for a visiting nurse and therapy.

“The whole thing was very upsetting,” Maffuid says.

Maffuid is just one of many people who’ve received similar termination notices, says Gill Deford, an attorney with the Connecticut-based Center for Medicare Advocacy, a group that represents Medicare patients and lobbies to improve Medicare policies.

Deford wants to know why Medicare has been using the so-called “Improvement Standard” — which seems to require a patient to be improving to continue receiving certain benefits — to stop giving people Medicare-provided therapy (they’d still receive Medicare coverage for things like routine hospital or doctors visits).

However, there is no such thing as the “improvement standard,” Medicare regulations dictate that improvement is “not the deciding factor in determining whether skilled services are needed.”



excerpt

My sister had ALS ( Lou Gerig's).  It is pretty much an orphan disease, always fatal but then so is life I guess. ALS is not a plesant way to check out. I swear watching it kill my sister also hastened my mother's death as well as her husbands.  I suspect as the disease progressed my sister would have chosen the Kivorkian solution had it been available. 

But lets keep fully funding Aids research.  Yeah, there's the ticket, loud mouthed faggots need to be saved from their own bad behavior far more than innocent victims of orphan diseases and things like ovarian or pancreatic cancer.     

[Boudicca]

My sister had ALS ( Lou Gerig's).  It is pretty much an orphan disease, always fatal but then so is life I guess. ALS is not a plesant way to check out. I swear watching it kill my sister also hastened my mother's death as well as her husbands.  I suspect as the disease progressed my sister would have chosen the Kivorkian solution had it been available. 

But lets keep fully funding Aids research.  Yeah, there's the ticket, loud mouthed faggots need to be saved from their own bad behavior far more than innocent victims of orphan diseases and things like ovarian or pancreatic cancer.     

OMG, zeitgeist, what a horrible disease your sister endured.  My mom died of early onset Alzheimer's, very cruel also, and also underfunded, but as you say, let the innocent be unheeded.