Does it ever end?
Yesterday, I stopped by the grocery store I usually shop at; most of the people there know me, if not by name, at least by sight, and well enough to stop and talk for a few minutes. Most of them know P__ died, many of them know where he died, and quite a few of them know about the article in Sunday, March 18th's St. Pete Times.
Anyway, as I was paying for my items, the cashier casually informs me, "My mom went to Northside Hospital."
"Really? How is she now?" I asked him.
"She died." (Not sure if it was in the hospital or her death occurred later.) "But Dad got an itemized bill for her stay there. It came after she was cremated. By that time, it was really too late to check anything."
Check anything? "Like what?" I asked.
"Well, the insurance was billed for a pacemaker. Dad and I never heard anything about a pacemaker. The doctor never said anything about it, Mom never mentioned one, nothing. Seems to me that if you have a pacemaker put in, you'd know it. That's the kind of thing you'd mention to your family or your patient's family."
Exactly. "Did your dad ask about it?"
"He was still pretty torn up about Mom. Besides, he wasn't sure he'd get a straight answer from the hospital. And since she was already cremated, we weren't sure that we'd be able to find out anything there."
Which made me wonder. So I googled HCA -fraudulent billing. Here are a couple of links:
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2000/December/696civcrm.htm . This appears to be from the Department of Justice. The December 14, 2000 paper states: HCA - THE HEALTH CARE COMPANY & SUBSIDIARIES TO PAY $840 MILLION IN CRIMINAL FINES AND CIVIL DAMAGES AND PENALTIES; Largest Government Fraud Settlement in U.S. History. It goes on to talk about fraudulent billing practices.
And from our local St. Pete (FL) Times (you beautiful people!): http://www.sptimes.com/2004/01/05/Business/The_inside_story_of_H.shtml . In a quote from the January 5, 2004 article (titled "The Inside story of HCA's 'giantkillers'" by Kris Hundley), "It's been a year since HCA, the nation's largest hospital chain, agreed to pay a landmark $1.7-billion fine to settle government claims of Medicare fraud."
Another site about the 2000 case: http://www.againstcorruption.org/briberycase.asp?id=841 .
And another: http://www.billingprecision.com/Medical-Billing-Compliance-Qui-Tam-Whistleblower-Fraud-December42006pharma.htm . This article also mentions Tenent Healthcare's $900,000,000 fine (July 2006) under the False Claims Act, as well as fines against HCA, the Swiss biotech company Serono, Abbott Labs, SmithKline, et al.
Anyone having family members who have been hospitalized, etc., it would behoove you to make sure you get an itemized bill and read through it. If you have questions, you have the right to call and ask about something that looks wrong.
You wouldn't go to the store, come out with a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread, and expect to pay for someone else's 10-pounds worth of $6.49-a-pound meat, would you? Oh, heck, no. No matter how it happens--whether at the grocery store or in the hospital--it's wrong.
And that's my point.
Anyway, as I was paying for my items, the cashier casually informs me, "My mom went to Northside Hospital."
"Really? How is she now?" I asked him.
"She died." (Not sure if it was in the hospital or her death occurred later.) "But Dad got an itemized bill for her stay there. It came after she was cremated. By that time, it was really too late to check anything."
Check anything? "Like what?" I asked.
"Well, the insurance was billed for a pacemaker. Dad and I never heard anything about a pacemaker. The doctor never said anything about it, Mom never mentioned one, nothing. Seems to me that if you have a pacemaker put in, you'd know it. That's the kind of thing you'd mention to your family or your patient's family."
Exactly. "Did your dad ask about it?"
"He was still pretty torn up about Mom. Besides, he wasn't sure he'd get a straight answer from the hospital. And since she was already cremated, we weren't sure that we'd be able to find out anything there."
Which made me wonder. So I googled HCA -fraudulent billing. Here are a couple of links:
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2000/December/696civcrm.htm . This appears to be from the Department of Justice. The December 14, 2000 paper states: HCA - THE HEALTH CARE COMPANY & SUBSIDIARIES TO PAY $840 MILLION IN CRIMINAL FINES AND CIVIL DAMAGES AND PENALTIES; Largest Government Fraud Settlement in U.S. History. It goes on to talk about fraudulent billing practices.
And from our local St. Pete (FL) Times (you beautiful people!): http://www.sptimes.com/2004/01/05/Business/The_inside_story_of_H.shtml . In a quote from the January 5, 2004 article (titled "The Inside story of HCA's 'giantkillers'" by Kris Hundley), "It's been a year since HCA, the nation's largest hospital chain, agreed to pay a landmark $1.7-billion fine to settle government claims of Medicare fraud."
Another site about the 2000 case: http://www.againstcorruption.org/briberycase.asp?id=841 .
And another: http://www.billingprecision.com/Medical-Billing-Compliance-Qui-Tam-Whistleblower-Fraud-December42006pharma.htm . This article also mentions Tenent Healthcare's $900,000,000 fine (July 2006) under the False Claims Act, as well as fines against HCA, the Swiss biotech company Serono, Abbott Labs, SmithKline, et al.
Anyone having family members who have been hospitalized, etc., it would behoove you to make sure you get an itemized bill and read through it. If you have questions, you have the right to call and ask about something that looks wrong.
You wouldn't go to the store, come out with a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread, and expect to pay for someone else's 10-pounds worth of $6.49-a-pound meat, would you? Oh, heck, no. No matter how it happens--whether at the grocery store or in the hospital--it's wrong.
And that's my point.
Labels: avoid this Florida hospital, Department of Justice, False Claims Act, HCA, Northside Hospital (Tampa Bay), St. Petersburg Times
posted by feminist writer - Robin Shwedo | 7:55 AM
2 Comments:
Just an FYI about the pacemaker problem: If a person is cremated, the crematorium will remove a pacemaker because it will explode. The funeral home should be able to tell the family if she did, indeed, have one. You can then find out the manufacturer and ask them when it was implanted. It is possible that it was not a permanent pacemaker but a temporary one. Here is a web site that explains temporary ones. So, in theory, she could have had one and was thus billed for it.
http://library.umsmed.edu/pe-db/pe-temp-pace.html
Thanks, joanner. I'll check the link, and then let the cashier know. I'll also ask if there's any way he or his dad could ask the funeral home/crematorium if they did, indeed, find a pacemaker, either temporary or permanent.
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