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Political Meme - Cartoon/Joke Thread...Part XXVI

CrimsonJazz

CrimsonJazz

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TIDE-HSV said:
I believe my nominal bypass bill was in excess of $120K, and that was almost ten years ago. Of course, Medicare paid pennies on the dollar. I paid nothing...
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My last heart procedure rang up at a cool $266K. Of course, it would have been much higher if BCBS hadn't balked at the idea of me being kept overnight for observation. When I found out about this and questioned the obviously tired and overworked nurse about it, her contribution was simply this: try not to have a stroke. I couldn't take my first dose of post-op Eliquis fast enough.
 
TIDE-HSV

TIDE-HSV

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CrimsonJazz said:
My last heart procedure rang up at a cool $266K. Of course, it would have been much higher if BCBS hadn't balked at the idea of me being kept overnight for observation. When I found out about this and questioned the obviously tired and overworked nurse about it, her contribution was simply this: try not to have a stroke. I couldn't take my first dose of post-op Eliquis fast enough.
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An independent estimator tool places it about the same for the hospital cost as when I had it done. This is normally about half the total cost. The surgeon's fee, anesthesiology, etc. are still to come, so it would easily equal or exceed your procedure. In addition, a bypass is still a several day stay. When I had it, the minimum stay was three days, but it depended on the number of laps you could make with a walker. I made 17 and pled with my surgeon to let me out at 3, but he said that that was for 35-year old marathon runners. (I didn't remind him that they seldom had MIs, to begin with.) He did let me go at 4, as I kept increasing my laps. Out of the corner of his mouth, over his shoulder, he said "And you don't need to go to cardiac rehab, either. You know what to do." Actually, CR had shown up on day two, in pink scrubs. She stopped, startled and stared at me, sitting up in a chair and using my tray as a desk for my laptop. She exclaimed "Well, I certainly didn't expect to see this!" I asked what. She made a posture as if she were in bed with arms akimbo, and said "I mean sitting up working on a laptop." I started paying more attention to the other patients, as I passed their doors making my walker rounds, and, by golly, she was right. Those folk were in bad shape.

A little aside on being your own advocate when confined in a hospital - the guy in the room next to mine had MRSA. They had the danger sign up and the nurses were following procedure and dumping their temporary clothes, booties, etc. outside his room. Then, they were wheeling his walker back out and lining it up with the other walkers. There were no gloves. He was gripping the walker with his bare hands! It happened that my cardiologist dropped by for a social visit (we're old friends), and I told him about the walker. It happened that he was actually on the Health Authority board at the time. He just declared that it would stop, and it did. They wheeled his walker into his room and it became dedicated to him alone...
 
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