Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Medicare

I am taking aim on wasteful medicare spending. Bill had an appointment for an aorta scan, a 6 month occurance. Then he went to find out what it showed. Then 2 weeks later he had an appt for blood work that was a 6 mo occurance. Then he goes back to find out what that showed. Now, why couldn't the blood and aorta have been done together and the two conferences combined? It would have saved the price of one drs. appointment. No only for the govt but for our co-insurance.
Then the clinic where we got his CPAP machine for his sleep apnea told us that it would be rented by Medicare (and our co-insurer) and that would be the simplest way to handle it. As it turns out, the machine which would have cost about $500 to buy has now cost the American taxpayer and our insurance company over $3600 for last year. And again for this year and the next and so on. There is no reason that a machine could not have been bought through Medicare and our Insurance...except that I don't think they do it that way. You can buy it yourself or let Medicare pay for it.
I am sure this is but a drop in the bucket when it comes to Medicare and Insurance Waste. But someone needs to do something about it. The worst part of this is that I can't find anyone to speak to about this and find a way to make it work better. If I could just improve our situation in this regard I would feel better.
If anyone knows how to address this nonsense to the proper authority, please let me know!!!