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

I took the photograph, tubed it, modified the background, and added the phrase. You can save it to somewhere on your computer and you can also re-upload it to any social media site. Link-back to this blog is not required.
If you are a copyright troll, I have no use for you so go away.

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

Yes, Virginia, There are Politicians Who Want You to Be Shamed into Keeping Your Baby

Virginia may be the next state to require a shamogram sonogram replete with a graphic description of the fetus before allowing an abortion.  Today, Virginia.  Tomorrow Pennsylvania.  Sometime after that, Rick Santorum who is against testing for fetal abnormalities-- specificially amniocentesis, although there are other tests that a couple at risk for birthing a child with deformities may also undergo-- being included in the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" [frequently abbreviated to "Affordable Care Act" or "ObamaCare"] touted by Obama.

Although some sort of sonogram is included in the gold standard of what happens before an abortion, the required "script-reading" by a physician that Texas has passed and that Virginia probably will pass next is not.  In some places, the script-reading laws will exclude women who are pregnant by rape as well as women carrying non-viable fetuses or deformed fetuses.  Ah, a touch of compassion there.  Meanwhile, presidential candidate Rick Santorum has added fuel to the fire by coming out against amniocentesis because he believes that finding out that a baby is not healthy leads to more abortions.

radical sapphoq says: Politicians, get the hell out of our doctors' offices.  Pregnant females should have a right to healthy and respectful prenatal care, including termination of the pregnancy if that is the decision made.  Take your scripts and shove them up the vacuum of Bad Laws. 
Abortion is a terrible tragedy.  I do not believe that an embryo or a fetus is akin to a tumor.  Yes, a life is taken when there is an abortion. 
At the same time, I am not willing to ascribe personhood rights to the embryo or fetus over the rights that a woman has to self-determination.  I still believe in a woman's right to choose, and even in a couple's right to choose if the woman wishes her partner's involvement. 
I remember the days of wire hanger abortions.  [No, I've never had one, nor have I ever been pregnant].  I also think that if we don't want women to use abortions as the default birth control option [note: I don't know what percentage of teens and young women do that], there should be easier access to services like those that Planned Parenthood has to offer.
In the heyday of the AIDS crisis, I was in a small group of activists who used to hand out condoms in a local park where men went to pick up other men.  We also used to hand them out to college kids near bars.
I am beginning to think that we should have a single-payer healthcare option or possibly a system in place instead of the mess that we have now.  The money currently being wasted  utilized by health insurance companies to ensure that we don't get care to administer their plans can be channeled to actually giving healthcare to people.  This may be the cheaper and more viable option which I don't hear anyone up on Capitol Hill talking about. 

radical sapphoq signing off with a final p.s.: Yes I took the photo and modded it myself.  So go away copyright police.


http://www.womenshealth.gov/pregnancy/you-are-pregnant/prenatal-care-tests.cfm

http://www.americanpregnancy.org/unplannedpregnancy/abortionprocedures.html

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/jan-june12/abortion_02-23.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jess-coleman/post_2989_b_1275962.html

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/02/23/single-payer-health-care-is-coming-to-america-are-we-ready/

http://www.healthcare-now.org/whats-single-payer/

http://www.healthcare.gov/law/timeline/full.html

http://www.healthcare.gov/law/index.html

http://www.whitehouse.gov/healthreform/healthcare-overview

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Protection_and_Affordable_Care_Act

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/22/obama-pulls-back-part-affordable-care-act/

http://www.northern-iowan.org/mobile/obama-adds-stipulation-to-affordable-care-act-to-deal-with-religious-opposition-1.2703337

http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/01/rob_cornilles_says_affordable.html

http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/31/10279932-the-efficacy-of-the-affordable-care-act

http://www.dailytargum.com/news/obama-includes-coverage-for-contraceptives-as-part-of-affordable-care/article_398243f0-55ff-11e1-aa44-0019bb30f31a.html

http://www.thenation.com/article/165864/spoonful-sugar-affordable-care-act

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57380887-503544/santorum-attacks-obama-on-prenatal-screening/

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3460_162-57381041/santorum-stands-by-prenatal-screening-opposition/

http://blogs.babble.com/strollerderby/2011/02/09/dan-patrick-says-sonogram-bill-is-misunderstood/

http://lubbockonline.com/texas/2011-02-24/texas-house-committee-passes-bill-requiring-abortion-sonograms

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57382162/is-a-required-ultrasound-a-barrier-to-abortion/

http://www.care2.com/causes/breaking-in-texas-no-abortion-without-a-sonogram-first.html

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/19/santorum-prenatal-testing-is-to-encourage-abortions/

http://www.livescience.com/12886-abortion-sonogram-research.html

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/bob-schieffer-and-santorum-clash-over-his-belief-that-prenatal-care-leads-to-abortions/

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/02/15/425944/chief-sponsor-of-virginia-personhood-bill-calls-the-affordable-care-act-rape/?mobile=nc

A Modest Proposal for Health Care for Americans

I propose these things in order to ensure basic health care for every United Statsian citizen:

(1). That there be public health clinics in every county which would provide health care for anyone who is unable or unwilling to pay for insurance.
(a). These clinics would be staffed by medical personnel who have just graduated. Thus every physician would be required to work for say two years full-time in these public health clinics before being allowed to go on to group or private practice.
(b). These public health clinics would provide the following: medical exams, urgent care facilities, eye exams and cheap glasses for those who require them, audiology services and cheap hearing aids for those who need them, prescription drugs which are bought wholesale at discounted rates the generic versions only.
(c). Available at the public health clinics via referral would be the services of other specialists-- also physicians who have just graduated-- mental hell, podiatry, internal medicine, gyn, gut docs, diabetes specialists, obesity specialists, bone docs, neuro docs, pain docs...etc.

(2). That there be charity hospitals available in every state which would provide hospital services for anyone who is unable or unwilling to pay for insurance.

(3). That those of us who are able and willing to pay to get out of the public health care system thus affording more choice and more experienced docs will be able to choose to do so.

(4). That abortions only be provided when there has been rape, incest, or genuine medical necessity (i.e. carrying to term will result in death of the mother, fetus lacks brain stem...).

The public health clinics and charity hospitals would be paid for via:
A). redirection of funds from faith-based office (eliminate it), faith-based "grants" (eliminate it), and school voucher programs (eliminate them).
B). medicaid funds (eliminate medicaid).
C). taxes on alcohol, tobacco, and gun ammo.
D). a fat tax (anyone who is above optimal weight and has not lost weight in the last fiscal year).
E). a foodie tax (all fast foods, candy, ice cream, sweets, butters...).


The newly graduated medical personnel would be paid minimum wages for their time in the public clinics and charity hospitals.

Any other practical details would have to be worked out by folks who are more knowledgeable than I am about such things.

Harsh? Yeah, it's harsh. But these are trying financial times.

radical sapphoq

Health Care Reform the Obama Way

By now everyone has heard about the thousand page packet of Health Care Reform being advocated by President Barack Obama. The dems for the most part are backing it and the repubs for the most part are crying foul. From the news coverage alone, I was unable to pick up exactly why there was a bunch of folks talking about killing off grannies. So I turned to my friend Jeremy Crow who wrote back to me this answer:

A quote by Obama that you should look up on the internet, is his statement
"we aren't going to give a 100 year old man a pacemaker, we are going to send
him home with morphine" .. This was in response to an article about how evil
"Anthem" gave a 92 year old man authorization for a pacemaker after his doctor
called them and told them personally that the guy had a high level of life enjoyment
and was willing to pay for it out of pocket (which he didn't have to in the end). The
topic was brought up because under Obamacare he would have voided his insurance
by paying for it himself because he was "interfering" with the Government-approved
method of action...

The law NOW is that all people that crawl into an emergency room have to be treated
regardless of ability to pay or money already owed (or in the case of all the illegals,
ability to prove legal address .. Thus completely FREE) but under Obamacare like all
Socialist plans, you can be denied and the Government backs it as THEY wrote the
rules.

The argument here is that it will finally start denying illegals access to healthcare BUT
as we know, the politicians are lying to us and will change that the second they get us
to believe they won't .. I use seat belt laws as the example for this .. They always say
"we won't pull you over for seat belts alone" and then within a year they ALWAYS
change it .. It is the same type of lie that scares us here ...

Oh as far as the killing granny thing .. It is written in the healthcare bill that they
will have life expectancy requirements for care, and in the event that it isn't
cost-effective to prolong life they will prescribe pain killers, life end therapy,
and on request life decision specialists {Dr Kevorkian in other words} .. Ask
[a mutual blogging buddy from Australia] about eye surgery and cancer
treatments in one of those wonderful socialized medical places :(


This issue is problematic and I continue to believe that there aren't any "easy answers" to the mess that healthcare in the United States has become. I remember the birth of the health maintenance organizations. I even remember what healthcare was like "before" in the days when
we basically paid for services and the insurance company would provide reimbursement by mail later on.

To the charge that what is being proposed is socialized medicine, I can only nod and say, "Yes of course it is." That in and of itself is not a reason to say no. What is bothersome to me is the government meddling in healthcare in the first place. I dislike what healthcare has become. I dislike the HIPPA Laws which supposedly are for our "protection" but have further made a mess
of things. (For example, supposedly because of the HIPPA Laws, our dentist's office no longer allows anyone but the patient to be in the examination room. The idea that any particular agency which supposedly has a good reason for wanting my medical files can get them without my permission is nauseating to me. And the idea that some folks have of encoding our records into a chip implanting into a shoulder or wherever makes me want to move to anywhere that this will not be done. Okay, that is three examples).

It is certainly admirable to want to ensure that basic healthcare is available to all citizens (NOT to illegal aliens). It is necessary that we continue to seek ways to make basic healthcare practical and affordable. The insurance companies have their own vested interest in this thing as does the medical profession. The insurance companies are basically interested in insuring the healthier people who are likely to stay healthy and not require expenditures. The doctors (who would have vastly preferred the pay-as-you-go system to remain in place) do not want to be forced to take less money and less money from the insurance companies (and here I am thinking of Medicaid rates especially).

For some time now, the health maintenance organizations have tried over and over again to dictate to doctors what tests they may order and when, what drugs they may or may not prescribe, when a sick patient can be referred to the more expensive specialist. And yes, we have "death squads" now, in the form of review committees within the insurance companies who can and do deny care to the most sickest by labeling expensive treatment as "experimental." It is not just granny being killed off these days. Having been forced to take on the sicker people, the insurance companies take measures to keep their own costs and risks down. Because the bottom line for any insurance company is that writing policy for any individual is a gamble. No one wants the sick or the disabled on their rolls.

I see nothing wrong with providing end-of-life counseling to those who wish it. Such counseling is available now through hospices. Although Jack Kervorkian is a whack job [ever read his interview in Playboy magazine some years ago?] who perhaps delighted in his helping people to kill themselves a bit too much, I think that there will continue to be terminally ill patients who wish assisted suicide for as long as there will be inadequate pain relief provided to them. I worked in a nursing home once where there was an elderly woman with end-stage leukemia who was refusing all pain meds. She was screaming in pain and the nurse was crying, begging her to allow some relief. The woman kept refusing and she died in mid-scream. That woman refused pain meds by her own choice. There are people in hospitals being denied pain relief because the nurses are afraid that they will become addicted. One of my close friends with a severe leg fracture (right above her knee prosthesis) was denied pain relief for that reason. I had to fight for her to get pain meds before an ambulance ride to another facility 90 miles away!).

And yes, more research is needed in the areas of pain management for all of us (here I am thinking of those of us who have fibromyalgia and are usually classified as "drug-seeking" because what is currently available does not address the pain adequately) and not just the terminally ill. If an insurance company refuses to pay for "experimental treatment," there is a process of appeal (and the patient is usually dead before getting through such a process). Perhaps alternate funding for experimental treatments can be developed.

radical sapphoq says: The name-calling by all sides of this issue can stop anytime now. People who oppose healthcare reform as it is currently written certainly have valid objections. Those who are in favor of it also have valid reasons for liking it.

Insurance companies base their profits on predicting the odds of having to pay out large sums of money for any individual policy. It is part of capitalism and a free market economy. We need competition between insurance providers in order to continue to have choices.

There are pros and cons to socialized medicine. I am not convinced that socialized medicine is the way to go. (And I also suspect that the health care reform bill in its' present state will not pass due to the powerful insurance and medical lobbies).

I dislike the idea of government meddling in healthcare. I don't trust the politicians to do what is correct for the average citizen nor for disabled folks.

I believe that every citizen (but not any illegal aliens) have a basic right to basic health care. I would support basic health care for all citizens (via the use of "clinics" perhaps) paid for by our taxes with the option to purchase more comprehensive coverage and choice of providers available to those who are willing and able to pay for such coverage.

My opinions may change as I get better informed. I do intend to read the entire thousand page document probably sometime next week.


Obama and the cardiologists and other docs:
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2009/06/15/text-of-obamas-speech-before-the-ama/
http://cardiobrief.org/2009/06/15/dr-barack-obama-speaks-out-on-cardiology/

http://www.acc.org/advocacy/weekly/archives/july_09/072909.cfm#2
http://qualityfirst.acc.org/Pages/default_new.aspx
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aRqnpw9ZInJ4


anti-Obama health care reform:
http://www.michnews.com/J_Grant_Swank_Jr/jgs82009.shtml
http://proteinwisdom.com/?p=15209
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/08/11/little-girl-at-obama-town-hall-has-not-so-random-political-connections/
http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/malden/2009/08/a_girl_from_malden_asked.html?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed2 <---see letters especially


pro-Obama health care reform:
http://voices.kansascity.com/node/5718
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/08/22/obama_decries_outrageous_myths.html
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/08/06/healthcare/

we already have death squads built in our current health insurance plans:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/08/11/denial_of_care/?source=newsletter


recommended for news that effects us oldsters and others:
http://www.seniorsworldchronicle.com/
http://lewinreport.acc.org/