Koszty pobytu w szpitalu.

[matrek]

Podobna sa fundusze, gotowe pokrywac czesc lub calosc kosztow pobytu w
szpitalu w USA. Korzystal moze ktos z pomocy takiego funduszu, badz slyszal
jakies konkrety na ow temat ?

[rhodeisland]

Jesli juz jest sie w szpitalu, to nie wiem, bo ja mam od lat prywatne
ubezpieczenie. Bez niego nie mieszkalabym w USA.

[samo]

rhodeisland napisała:

> Jesli juz jest sie w szpitalu, to nie wiem


To po co sie odzywasz?

[rhodeisland]

Zeby zniechecic ludzi przebywajacych w Stanach do liczenia na darmowa opieke
medyczna (znam duzo takich)

[tango45]

rhodeisland napisała:

> Zeby zniechecic ludzi przebywajacych w Stanach do liczenia na darmowa opieke
> medyczna (znam duzo takich)


To jest powiedzmy nie twoja sprawa.

[tamsin]

Mysle, ze wszystkie szpitale maja jakis "free care pool" albo "sliding scale
fee" i placisz tyle, na ile twoje dochody pozwalaja w/g kryteriow szpitala.
Zadzwon do szpitala i zapytaj czy kwalifikujesz sie na cos takiego.

[magda.recruit]

Kazdy non-profit szpital ma tzw. charity care fund, co oznacza, ze szpital jest
zobowiazany do udzielenia darmowej pomocy. Darmowa pomoc moze miec rozne formy
(darmowe szczepionki, znizki albo calkowite pokrycie kosztow szpitalnych dla
osob biednych lub bez ubezpieczenia, darmowe testy itp. itd).

Kryteria przydzielania darmowej pomocy, rodzaj, suma itp. roznia sie w
zaleznosci od szpitala i nie kazdy sie zakwalifikuje.

Po wiecej informaci proponuje porozmawiac z lekarzem albo bezposrednio ze
szpitalem (billing department).

Powodzenia

[rhodeisland]

Jesli juz jestes w szpitalu, to nic na to nie poradzisz. Mozesz jednak poprosic
znajoma osobe albo rodzine (jesli sam nie jestes w stanie) zeby pilnowali
szpitalnych rachunkow. Trzeba doslownie sprawdzac kazda pozycje na rachunku.
Osobnym tematem jest pilnowanie leczenia. Wiele ludzi umiera z powodu bledow
popelnianych w szpitalu.
Odradzam pojscie do szpitala jesli Cie nie stac na leczenie. Znajoma oglosila z
tego powodu bankructwo. Niektorzy wyjezdzaja z kraju uciekajac przed rachunkami.

[bella41]

rhodeisland napisała:
> Jesli juz jestes w szpitalu, to nic na to nie poradzisz.

mozna uciec

Mozesz jednak poprosic
> znajoma osobe albo rodzine (jesli sam nie jestes w stanie) zeby pilnowali
> szpitalnych rachunkow. Trzeba doslownie sprawdzac kazda pozycje na rachunku.
> Osobnym tematem jest pilnowanie leczenia. Wiele ludzi umiera z powodu bledow
> popelnianych w szpitalu.
> Odradzam pojscie do szpitala jesli Cie nie stac na leczenie.

nie ma jak to zabiegi chirurgiczne przeprowadzone w zaciszu domowym
i nadzor nad leczeniem jest, i lekarz-nieuk nic nie zepsuje

[aniutek]

rhodeisland chyba Ci sie strasznie nudzi, co?
gadasz byle gadac, myslenie nie boli !!
naprawde!

jesli czlowiek jest w szpitalu a nie moze za jego uslugi zaplacic to przysla do niego social worker,
kogos z medicaid, albo osobe z billing dept. aby omowila metody platnosci, wlasnie sliding scale,
extetnded payment plan etc. ludzi bez ubezpieczenia i bez kasy jest mnostwo i oni rowniez choruja!!!!

co robi czlowiek potracony przez samochod, polamany, pokaleczony z obrazeniami glowy ale bez kasy
i ubezpieczenia? budzi sie w szpitalu i ???? w/g Ciebie ma wyjsc? ma potulnie czekac na rachunek
ktorego nie bedzie mogl pokryc?
z kazdej sytuacji jest wyjscie, lepsze gorsze ale jest i czlek sie pyta bo potrzebuje pomocy a nie
durnych komentarzy.

[rhodeisland]

Emergency to co innego. Oczywiscie, ze szpital nie odmowi pomocy, ale jesli nie
znajda przy ofiarze karty ubezpieczeniowej, to zabiora ja do gorszego szpitala
i oczywiscie jak najszybciej beda sie go chcieli pozbyc. Szpitale w Stanach, to
nie hotele jak w Polsce gdzie ludzie siedza tygodniami.
Dziwie sie, ze nie slyszeliscie o bledach lekarskich. Coraz wiecej sie o nich
mowi. Naiwne sa osoby, ktore wierza bezgranicznie lekarzowi i innym pracownikom
szpitala. Trzeba wszystkiego pilnowac. Poszperajcie na Internecie jesli nie
wierzycie. Jesli bedzie mi sie chcialo, to zalacze pozniej linki.

Jak przezyc szpital

[rhodeisland]

trzecia czesc artykulu. Na tej stronie sa linki do poprzednich
health.msn.com/general/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100148519

[matrek]

Chodzi o koszty zwiazane z pobytem w szpitalu, w przypadku zagrozonej ciazy w 7
m-cu, zakonczonej c-section. Transfer helikopterem, kilka dni "walki", na koniec
cesarka, w jednym z najlepszych szpitali non-profit w USA. Razem koszt ok
$45,000. Nie ma finansowego problemu z dzieckiem, jednak sami musimy pokryc
"koszty matki". Rozmawialem z jakims Catholic Charities, ale oni twierdza ze
charities nie sa w stanie pokrywac rachunkow medycznych, szpital moze nam
zaproponowac jedynie rozlozenie na raty, a operator helikoptera medycznego po
prostu przyslal rachunek?.

Jakies pomysly? Probowalem wciagnac w sprawe MedicAid, ale odmowili finansowania
kosztow osoby nie posiadajacej SS#.

[tamsin]

tinyurl.com/y5sjuh
Przypuszczam, ze taxpayers zaplaca za te $45,000 pobytu w szpitalu, a jezeli
przeczytasz ten powyzszy artykul, szpitale nawet placa za przelot do ojczyzny
aby tam rodzina mogla sie zajac pacjentem. Nie wiem ile czasu jeszcze bedziecie
tutaj siedziec, ale po prostu naskladacie stos rachunkow, ktorych i tak nie
jestescie w stanie zaplacic, wiec czym sobie glowe zawracac?

[matrek]

Sek w tym, ze wcale nie mamy ochoty ani na wyjazd stad, ani na pozostawienie tej
sprawy ugorem.

[edytkus]

teraz to juz chyba musztarda po obiedzie, ale na pewno mozesz dogadac sie ze szpitalem co do
rozlozenia splat w czasie

[edytkus]

swoja droga bardzo niskie te koszty

[edytkus]

tamsin napisała:

> tinyurl.com/y5sjuh

nie skonczyam wczesniej czytac a teraz juz nie moge wejsc :(, ale byl podobny artykul niedawno w NY
Daily News tyle ze pisano w nim o kosztach opieki medycznej nieubezpieczonych a nie nielegalnych. W
zeszlym roku ten koszt w skali krajowej wzrosl az o 7 miliardow w stosunku do roku poprzedniego. Nie
wiedzialam ze szpitale praktycznie same musza pokrywac te wydatki i nie dziwie sie ze Tylko w samym
NYC maja zamknac chyba az 7 szpitali, w mojej miejscowosci zamknieto niedawno odremontowany za
pare milionow oddzial polozniczy - rodzily tam prawie tylko kobiety ktorych oficjalnie nie bylo stac na
porod (ja bym sie chyba ze wstydu spalila gdybym miala napisac na swiadectwie urodzenia "ojciec
nieznany").

tresc artykulu

[samo]

When an illegal immigrant suffers a serious illness or injury, it can cost
hospitals tens of thousands of dollars a day, compounding an already mounting
pile of uncompensated- and charity-care expenses generated by the uninsured at
U.S. facilities.

And when illegal immigrants have no family in the United States to take them in
to convalesce, it's common for hospitals to spend $25,000 or more to fly them
back to their home countries such as Mexico, Poland, the Ukraine or South
America on medically equipped jetliners.

Hospitals can seek some relief through a $1 billion federal program that offers
reimbursement for emergency room costs associated with undocumented immigrants,
but inpatient and extended care are not covered, and those costs add up quickly
and put a strain on hospitals.

"If you talk to any hospital executive and ask them what their problems are,
the whole issue of uncompensated care is the first issue out of their mouths,
and illegal immigrants are certainly a part of that," said Kevin Scanlan,
president and chief executive of the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare
Council. "Any care you render illegal immigrants does become uncompensated
care. It becomes bad debt if you cannot collect, and it is a growing problem."

Hospitals in neighborhoods with large populations of undocumented immigrants,
such as Mt. Sinai Hospital on Chicago's West Side or trauma centers like
Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center on the North Side, say it's common to
have three or more undocumented immigrants in their facilities on any given
day. That's more than 1,000 a year per hospital.

One patient, a 32-year-old Lithuanian construction worker who suffered a severe
head injury when he was hit by a car, has run up a bill of more than $500,000
so far at Mt. Sinai, where he has been cared for since March 14.

Already, U.S. hospitals say they provide more than $26 billion in uncompensated
care annually, or the equivalent of 5.6 percent of total hospital expenses,
according to the latest figures provided by the American Hospital Association.

Uncompensated-care costs at U.S. hospitals soared more than 60 percent, or by
$10 billion, from 1994 to 2004, the most recent year for which the hospital
association has figures.

The association has not tallied the full extent of undocumented immigrants'
impact on uncompensated-care costs, but representatives say they are certain it
reaches into the billions of dollars annually, citing several regional studies
completed in recent years. The association often quotes a 2002 study that put
the annual cost of emergency hospital services and transportation costs at more
than $200 million for hospitals along the border with Mexico.

The report commissioned by the U.S./Mexico Border Counties Coalition, which
used cost data from 2000 for hospitals in just the 24 counties adjoining the
Mexican border, represents a fraction of today's total spending. Even that data
only represents patients who were facing medical emergencies, an expense for
which hospitals can get some minor reimbursement through a federal program
created three years ago under a Medicare reform bill.

The program pays for emergency care until the patient is stable, which
hospitals say is usually two days. After that, hospitals say they must eat the
costs for the balance of the patient's inpatient hospital stay.

Costs for uncompensated care are generally accrued by the nation's nearly 47
million uninsured Americans, or about 16 percent of the total U.S. population,
a U.S. Census bureau report in September stated.

Some states, and even businesses, have begun to set up mechanisms to pay for
health benefits or establish policies that let hospitals receive payment for
uninsured U.S. citizens through extensions of state Medicaid health insurance
programs for the poor.

But such a safety net does not exist for undocumented immigrants. Because they
often do not have identification or do not want to reveal their identities, it
is difficult for care providers to submit bills to the government or other
special programs for the poor and uninsured to get reimbursed for services.
About $97.5 million, or less than one-third of the money available in the first
eight months of the emergency care program, was used by hospitals and other
providers, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said.

Some hospitals are uneasy with the requirement that they document whether their
patients are eligible for the federal money, and it can be difficult to
convince illegal immigrants to share any identifying information, such as their
passport or birth certificate.

"Almost all the time they do not want to give any information to help us try to
get payment from Medicaid" or other programs, Scanlan said. "If they are
totally unknown to us, then we have to assume they do not qualify for anything
and then they become a cost and an expense for the hospital to provide."

And when immigrants put off medical care for fear of being detected, it creates
a situation that often festers for the immigrants and the hospitals, public
health officials say.

As medical conditions worsen, the sick eventually return to the hospital with
more complex and costly medical problems--problems that have no one to pay for
them.

"When you are too sick, you show up at the emergency room because they do not
ask too many questions," said Edward Mensah, associate professor of health
economics at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public
Health. "Usually, they will end up in the emergency room, and the cost of
treatment in the emergency room for even simple problems is very expensive."

Mt. Sinai, at California Avenue and 15th Street on Chicago's West Side,
reported that between 5 percent and 25 percent of its patients are uninsured.

"What it does to the system is it takes resources from other patients, and
there is a cost associated with it," said Larry Volkmar, Mt. Sinai president
and chief executive officer. "We have two to three patients that are
undocumented on any given day."

Getting home not easy

Mt. Sinai officials are still trying to find a home for Sergej Jakolev, whose
head injuries have left him unable to walk since being hit by a car near 24th
Street and Western Avenue in March.

The nature of the injuries left him unconscious and made it difficult for Sinai
staff to even identify him. The hospital turned to Russian radio stations to
help find friends or family when they initially thought he was Russian or
Polish. As his condition improved, hospital officials were able to learn that
he was Lithuanian, and they are working with the Lithuanian Embassy in the
United States to get him home and admitted to a facility in that country.

While functioning "like a low-level brain injury patient," he will need special
transportation by an air ambulance to get him back to Lithuania and admitted to
a long-term care facility. Costs for such trips run $25,000 or more, hospitals
say.

"The reality is, we cannot get him placed anywhere," Volkmar said. "We might
have three people in the hospital who do not have that same story, but there
are two or three patients that are undocumented that are difficult to place
somewhere."

In the Lithuanian patient's case, the driver who hit him had insurance, but the
driver's policy had a $25,000 cap on bodily injury coverage, Volkmar
said. "That is a drop in the bucket."

Sinai officials say the Lithuanian Embassy in the U.S. has contacted the man's
mother, and officials hope they can get him home soon.

Similar stories are playing out elsewhere. At Advocate Illinois Masonic, the
hospital estimates at least 6 of about 100 patients who come through the
emergency room each day are undocumented. Beyond the emergency room, there is
no reimbursement for the

[samo]

Similar stories are playing out elsewhere. At Advocate Illinois Masonic, the
hospital estimates at least 6 of about 100 patients who come through the
emergency room each day are undocumented. Beyond the emergency room, there is
no reimbursement for the three of those six patients that end up being admitted
and staying for at least one night and likely longer, the hospital said.

"Not all patients recover to the point where they can return home
independently," said Kenneth Laube, director of care management service at
Advocate Illinois Masonic, one of eight hospitals operated by Oak Brook-based
Advocate Health Care.

Transportation costs thousands

If the patient is returned to his or her home country, Advocate said the cost
of transportation can vary from a medically-equipped air ambulance at more than
$25,000 to a commercial flight that costs $2,000 plus the cost of a health-care
worker the hospital must send along with the patient.

Earlier this year, Masonic discharged a Ukrainian construction worker who had
two neurological surgeries and had been in the hospital for 103 days. He was
able to walk out of the hospital, said Advocate officials, who described him as
in his mid 40s but would not name him, citing federal privacy laws.

"We arranged for a commercial flight back," said Alberto Godinez, a social
worker at the hospital. "We also sent an employee who spoke the language and
was able to help him."

Because undocumented immigrants do not have health coverage, they often have to
be sent home--even when they have loved ones in the United States--if relatives
cannot afford to take them in, hospitals say.

Jeff Welch, a social worker at Advocate, said a Mexican restaurant worker in
his mid-40s had a stroke and was bedridden for several weeks, but his daily
rehabilitation needs were too much for his support network outside the hospital
to handle.

"He had a wealth of support here, but because of the extent of his needs, his
friends here could not meet his needs," Welch said.

[zyta2003]

Jesli nie chcesz sobie psuc swojego wizerunku w Ameryce, a tak to wyglada z
twojej wypowiedzi, to pozostaje Ci negocjowanie ze szpitalem. Na pewno obniza
Ci rachunek, a to co bedziesz mial do zwrocenia rozloza na raty. Szpital majac
do wyboru odzyskanie nic lub troche, wybiera troche. Temat byl tu wielokrotnie
walkowany, wielu Amerykanow splaca swoje rachunki szpitalne - bo nie ma innego
wyjscia.