Categories
Disability and Elderly Issues

Appeal to Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt: Please correct Medicare violations at Mt. Nittany Medical Center and Health

Attention please Medicare Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt, correct violations of Medicare regulations and the essence of Medicare

Andrew Slavitt, group executive vice president for Optum/QSSI testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013, before the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing with contractors that built the federal government's health care websites. The contractors responsible for building the troubled Healthcare.gov website say it was the government's responsibility _ not theirs _ to test it and make sure it worked. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
Andrew Slavitt, currently Acting Medicare Administrator. Slavitt’s previous government experience includes fixing Obamacare roll out. This photograph by way of Politico’s excellent reporting. Politico’s caption, “Group executive vice president for Optum/QSSI testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013, before the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing with contractors that built the federal government’s health care websites. The contractors responsible for building the troubled Healthcare.gov website say it was the government’s responsibility _ not theirs _ to test it and make sure it worked. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Dear Administrator Slavitt

Steven E. Brown, CEO and President of State College PA’s excellent hospital...

ultimately is responsible for ensuring the admission practices at his hospital are not merely legal but proper. For a variety of reasons, admitting me to the hospital is more expensive than for most patients. Hence, after waiting to be admitted last Friday night, I was presented with a paper to sign. The paper said that I understood that I was being admitted on “observation status.”
http://www.statecollege.com/news/local-news/steven-brown-leads-mount-nittany-medical-center-into-the-future,1183750/
http://www.statecollege.com/news/local-news/steven-brown-leads-mount-nittany-medical-center-into-the-future,1183750/
Politely, I demurred. “You don’t mind if I do not sign this?” I asked the excellent physician who presented it to me. He said that signing it was not obligatory. He then gave me a copy of the form with the notation that I had not signed it.
I was then admitted to the hospital and enjoyed the benefits of an excellent hospital room, superb food, sensitive nurses, and an understanding physician. When I was expelled from the hospital against my will, my case manager explained that I had no recourse to file an appeal with Medicare because technically I had not been formally admitted as a patient.
I am not an attorney. Given the nature of Medicare regulations and the understandable concern of hospital administrators that costs be kept to a minimum, whoever is responsible for this flimflam may get away with it. However, this slight of hand is not only a sin, it is foolish. Forcing a patient out of the hospital before he has been properly treated (against the wishes of his physician) has negative short-term and long-term consequences.
Best wishes,
Joel Solkoff
Categories
Architects for Change Disability and Elderly Issues

“Ain’t Nobody’s Business But My Own”–Health update with Taj Mahal, Physical Therapy & The Pennsylvania Housing Research Center

“Man I don’t care what in the world that you do
As long as you do what you say you going to”

Today is Sunday August 30, 2015. How it got to be 1 PM I do not know.

  1. I do know that this ambitious posting will be under construction for a while. Consider the host of categories above which includes everything from Health Crisis to the Department of Architectural Engineering at Penn State to Joy of Motion.
  2. Why I begin this full disclosure  [see footnote (1)] account with a lie: “Ain’t Nobody’s Business But My Own” can and cannot be explained.
  3.  Here the overriding intent is to disclosure my plan for the future which I grandiosely refer to as “my life’s work.”

This posting is under construction. Put on your hardhat and exercise caution.
This posting is under construction. Put on your hardhat and exercise caution.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Footnotes