Pay Attention: Medicare vs. ObamaCare and "Free Home Visits"

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Obama is planning to take some Medicare funds slated to pay for Medicare medical insurance things and transfer that over to help pay for ObamaCare type stuff. I recently got a form letter from my medical insurance company [the insurance company from where I get my Medicare replacement insurance] telling me that they have "partnered with" a firm which is offering me the wonderful and thrilling privilege of having a nurse practitioner visit me in my home "for free." This nurse practitioner from the firm is able to take my blood and my pee sample, perform a "non-invasive" medical exam, and I can talk to him or her about any  medical concerns that I am hesitant to tell my physician about.

I researched the firm offering me this service. The firm is called Matrix Medical. What I found was that several of the larger medical insurance companies are targeting their Medicare old people, Medicare disabled people, and their Medicare old disabled people for visits by Matrix Medical [and comparable other firms].

During this "free" visit [I found the form also], the nurse practitioner will be asking stuff like:
     You got a health care proxy?
     You got a living will?
     Have you ever drank too much?
     Have you ever taken drugs not prescribed for you? Which ones?
     When was your last _______________ ? [medical tests and exams]

and he or she will "inspect your home" for anything that indicates a risk for falling. And so on.

But see, the thing is, Matrix Medical is not offering this service out of the goodness of its corporate heart. Oh no. This is being offered to "us" to pick up more codes on what is wrong with us a.k.a. our medical conditions because each diagnostic code is worth money. Money that would otherwise be transferred to help pay for ObamaCare. Money which the Medicare replacement insurance company could get once the nurse practitioner calls our primary care docs in order to have them include these extra codes on our patient charts. It is basically a scheme to keep any "extra?" monies within the Medicare replacement insurance company system rather than have it be line item transferred to the ObamaCare system. Head spinning yet?

Of course there is also the collection of health data, and the tracking of old/disabled/old and disabled people into disease management and/or case management.

We had one hang-up call. The number when reverse traced belongs to Matrix Medical. Apparently when I didn't answer the robot thingy that was calling me fast enough, the connection terminated. Reports on the scam phone call sites indicate that this number allegedly called some people more than once. Then someone wrote that Matrix Medical is legit. But the old people are getting called repeatedly and harassed to allow the home visit. Once an old/disabled/old and disabled person says no to the home visit, they may be offered an appointment at some facility instead or pressured to sign a form that does not have any filled in information on it and send it back to Matrix Medical.

The comments on the "what is it like to work for ___________ ?" sites indicate some employees are happy at Matrix Medical while others acknowledge that the telemarketing job in particular leads to nowhere and that the nurse practitioners are overworked unless they are among the management favorites. One or two of the telemarketers feel badly that they were hired to pressure the old people into accepting these appointments.

A few news articles and investigative journalism pieces indicate that the firms offering this home visit "service" fought when Congress wanted to ban this crap and so it is currently still allowed.

Another article admitted that people in ObamaCare may be subjected to this same sort of code-inflating hunt thing but not for two years. Because ObamaCare wants to be evaluated without inflating the codes first. Great, huh?

Meanwhile, the medical insurance companies have targeted the old/disabled/old and disabled folks on Medicare replacement medical insurance part of their businesses for now and several of the larger medical insurance companies  have "partnered with" these firms.

radical sapphoq says: No, these people will not be allowed into my home, to make an appointment with me, or to pressure me into signing any sort of paper for them. I've included links so you'll can look up this stuff too if you want to. If you do nothing else, you should read some of the articles about this over at The Center for Public Integrity website listed at the end of this post.

References

http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-888-657-3998  Matrix Medical calls.

http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/8886573998  Matrix Medical calls.

http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/8886573998/2  Matrix Medical calls.

https://www.callercenter.com/727-260-5414.html  Matrix Medical calls.


       *Medicare Rights site*
http://www.medicarerights.org/about-us/



http://www.ibx.com/pdfs/providers/communications/update/supplementary/sample_health_risk.pdf Matrix Medical form to be filled out by nurse practitioner.


http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Matrix-Medical-Reviews-E399732.htm employees assessments of working conditions at Matrix Medical.

http://www.indeed.com/cmp/Matrix-Medical-Network/reviews employees assessments of working conditions at Matrix Medical.


https://www.logisticare.com/logisticare-news.php 2nd blurb down; another company to acquire Matrix Medical.

http://www.trademarkia.com/matrix-medical-network-76342013.html Trademark search for Matrix Medical Network.


http://www.managedcaremag.com/archives/0801/0801.coding.html  Why lax coding is bad.

http://managedhealthcareexecutive.modernmedicine.com/managed-healthcare-executive/content/michael-quilty-ceo-matrix-medical-network?page=full Matrix Medical C.E.O. speaks.

http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Health-Plans/MedicareAdvtgSpecRateStats/Downloads/Advance2014.pdf dated Feb. 2013

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120725006658/en/Matrix-Medical-Network-Provide-Medicare-Advantage-Home announcement of one partnership with Humana.

http://www.agentpipeline.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/In-Home-Health-Well-Being-Program-Assessment-FAQs-AP-503.pdf Humana's spin on Matrix Medical, for their medical consumers.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottgottlieb/2014/01/06/more-cuts-in-store-for-medicare-plans-heres-the-options-that-will-shrink-most-for-seniors/  Humana derives 70% of its business from Medicare.




     *list of articles re: Medicare Advantage Money Grab from The Center for Public Integrity*

http://www.publicintegrity.org/health/medicare/medicare-advantage-money-grab

http://www.publicintegrity.org/health/medicare/medicare-advantage-money-grab?page=1