California Department of Public Health inspectors examined records at four hospitals owned by Prime Healthcare Services and found that 22 of 120 patients diagnosed with septicemia showed few symptoms of the disease.
At one San Bernardino County hospital, a patient was diagnosed with septicemia even though records showed “no sign of infection,” inspectors found. At a Los Angeles County hospital, inspectors said seven patients diagnosed with septicemia showed signs of having urinary tract infections, a far less serious condition.
I've long said that incompetence, laziness, stupidity and greed are the four forces that rule the universe. Almost anything that happens can be explained with one of these four words, and this case is no exception.
Medicare pays bonuses of several thousand dollars per case for treating elderly patients with septicemia, federal records show. Prime Healthcare’s chairman, Dr. Prem Reddy, testified in a 2005 trial that his hospitals were reimbursed about $9,000 for treating a septicemia case – $6,000 more than a urinary tract infection.
What? You were thinking incompetence? No, no, no grasshopper. Greed is by far the most powerful of the four forces. Always assume greed is the driving force until you can prove otherwise.
I gotta say though, $3000 for treating a urinary tract infection? Really? I could diagnose and cure a UTI for $50 and still be making a fat-ass margin, and this fucker cooks the books for an extra $6K per case. Part of me admires that. The part that doesn't pay Medicare taxes.
To get some perspective, In my imagination I called Florida governor Rick Scott, elected last year after ripping off Medicare and Medicaid for over a billion dollars as head of the hospital chain Columbia/HCA.
"It's not a bad start" Scott didn't say. "But to assure he doesn't end up in jail, he should probably run for political office, and the amounts involved here are way too small to further one's political career. Stealing $18 million like this guy appears to have done is probably barely enough to get you elected to a city council seat, although the adamant denials he's done anything wrong are a good start. His next move should be an attack on the very programs he's profiting from if he ever wants to gain any traction with the voters."
"Or, considering he's in California, make a bad action movie or two, pretend he's fighting off aliens or something. Either way he needs to appeal to people's stupidity. because while greed is the most powerful force in the universe, stupidity is far more common."
I couldn't have said it better myself. I'm calling it today my friends. Get ready for Reddy for Governor in 2014, and be sure to think of him every time it hurts to pee.
3 comments:
Caaalifoornia MUST be getting desperate. Generally these sort of findings are studiously ignored. Doctors claiming monthly office visits for relatives all on the dime. No speekee engrish types w/fancy cars..phones..duds, all on the dime. All carefully protected from the light of day by the always useful HIIPA regs. Imagine that.
Hardeehar per
Hmm - I suppose that's why the rest of the world invented universal health care and salaried doctors.
But I'd be hesitant to point the finger just yet - UTIs and urosepsis can be notoriously difficult to diagnose (especially in the elderly). Sometimes septic old people don't show many signs of shock either - until it's too late.
Things like fever, reflex tachycardia etc are a luxury of the young.
So - it could be incompetent/greedy doctors, or it could be pencil-pushers using crappy guidelines. Just saying.
For ER admits, the gals at the admitting desk sometimes code whatever they can to get the patient seen right away, but if the patients are admitted, often it's the docs or the unit secretaries responsible to get the right diagnosis on the chart? What role did the CEO have in this? Just a question, no doubt major responsibility as the incorrect diagnosis ultimately affects bottom line, but, is this another case of casual corruption as a holdover from the era of deregulation?
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