Remember, the Dormouse Says Medicare Is the Best-Working Part of Our Health Care Financing System: Not the Jefferson Airplane Weblogging
Ann Marie Marciarille:
Missouri State of Mind: Go Ask Alice: Alice… a friend… octogenarian… had fallen outside her home, broken her hip, had surgery, and was now in rehab for her Medicare-sanctioned 21 day stay… during Medicare’s open enrollment this past fall, financial exigencies had pressed her to abandon fee-for-service Medicare for a Medicare Managed Care plan. And, you guessed it, the Medicare Managed Care plan kicked in mid-treatment on January 1, 2013….
Disenrolled from fee for service Medicare – and unable to keep the surgical follow-up appointment from a surgeon who takes Medicare assignment but does not participate in Medicare Managed Care – and moved to a Medicare Managed Care rehab funded facility, Alice was advised that this was her problem to unravel. Her new Medicare Managed Care insurance plan vacillated between advising her she was not an enrollee in their plan and advising that, even were she an enrollee, no follow up post-surgical appointment was necessary….
Bear in mind that Medicare is that portion of our health care system that ranks highest in patient satisfaction data.
