Has anyone had any experience with appealing to Medicare under the provision allowing such an appeal when the patient or authorized party disagrees with a doctor's decision to discharge?
The PCP has decided to discharge my father tomorrow even though he (a) can't stand (b) has heart rate, BP, and SAT rate that are higher than normal, (c) lives alone (d) won't get any home care until the day following discharge?
I intend to call the Medicare specified contractor tomorrow to appeal the decision, but honestly expect a runaround or support of the doctor's irresponsible decision.
Anyone have any experience with this short term rapid appeal process?
It was one of the few times I lost my patience. I asked if she thought I really had all this time on my hands, running to hospitals, losing work days, not caring for my husband with serious cardiac issues. I told her we had to get the problem FIXED so that she could get back to leading a semi normal life.
She never complained about my handling of her medical issues after that. Sometimes you have to stand up for YOU as well as for the patient.
OR, you can call the doctor, inform him/her of the missing details.
Call the hospital administrator next.
GA, you are there or caregiving from a distance?
I know what you mean about getting caregivers out to the house. The agency I use need 24 hour notice and they charge 1.5x for the first day because everything is so last minute. So I had to stay over with my Dad at my parents house one night and got maybe one hour of sleep because I don't have the strength to help Dad upstairs.
I tell ya, I really hate what my parents are putting me through. It wasn't a life well planned on their part. They should have been in independent living or assisted living years ago.
But a B-29? Who is going to sue? Boeing? I admire that bakery's integrity, but I think they don't have a good grasp of intellectual property laws. I guess their motto must be "better safe than sorry."
Getting a bakery to do an airfield and placing a model plane or a plane-style pencil sharpener or a toy, etc. is a good alternative. I've known many home-based cake decorators who will do a lovely beach scene with seashells and big rock and then the mother takes it home and places a Little Mermaid doll on the big rock. I once did a lovely park scene, and placed a hinged porcelain box of Madeline on it.
You may or may not be able to find someone to print a B-29 on rice or frosting paper for a cake, depending on the picture. No one wants to get into trouble with copyright infringement! But there must be thousands of photos of that plane that are in public domain and you can use Bing to find them. Just limit your search to "public domain" on the license drop-down list.
(I once took an invitation I had designed into a nice copy place for many copies. The clerk told me he could not put that photo on the invitation, because of copyright concern. I asked for the manager. I said, "This is a picture of MY son. I took it with MY camera, in a public place. I OWN the copyright. And I want copies!" I got them.)
You can't blame businesses for being careful, but there are ways to get what you want on a cake, without necessarily becoming a cake decorator. :)
It was explained by one of the chemo nurses that even a small amount of bacteria that can get in the system during the flush rushes through the body and causes the reaction.
Those bacteria are bad bugs!
I can imagine the discomfort of the bi-pap; my father was on a vent mask and he hated it. I remember when I wore a respirator while doing some sanding and then painting, and I felt so confined, so trapped, and almost disoriented.
Thanks so much for sharing your experience. If Dad gets a chest tap and something happens very quickly in his breathing, I'll understand and not panic.
A cousin's nephew was a submariner cook; I may contact him to see if he has any military patterns. Guess I'll have to learn how to decorate cakes and be forced to eat all those tempting samples and experiments.
On the issue of the discharge, it's now been resolved, but in retrospect, I am so glad I replaced the PCP with a hospitalist. It was shocking though how unprofessional the PCP became in his comments about other medical specialities.
Re pleural effusions, my mom has had her chest tapped several times. Last time they did it, she had some terrible breathing difficulties and the ER personnel wanted to intubate. We said no (she's got a dnr/dni), so they used a bi-pap and that worked.
See All Answers