Healthcare Update Satellite — 05-14-2015

Morally corrupt and illegal at any other hospital, but the VA system will sweep it under the rug and absolutely nothing will happen about it. Patient in car just a few feet outside the emergency department calls emergency department for help getting out of car so that he could come in for treatment of his broken foot. Seattle VA Hospital tells him ”No, we’re not going to come get you. You’re going to have to call 911 and you’ll have to pay for that.” A fire captain and three firefighters end up coming to help him out of his care and wheel him into the emergency department. Meanwhile, the VA changed its story about the incident several times. The best quote was the VA didn’t consider the vet’s condition an “emergency.” Because you can really differentiate emergency from non-emergency over the telephone. Idiots. Don’t worry, though. The patient has government insurance! Uninsured rate has decreased under Obamacare, but for some strange reason, the number of emergency department visits keeps rising. Wasn’t this expansive new legislation supposed to stop the problem of emergency department overuse? The Unaffordable Care Act strikes again. I’ve been harping on the difference between healthcare “insurance” and healthcare “access” for years. Now people are finally starting to understand … when they have insurance and can’t afford care because of insurance copayments. In th...
Source: WhiteCoat's Call Room - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Healthcare Update Source Type: blogs