"Costly ER still draws many now insured; Patient advocates seek shift in habits, behavior" by Kay Lazar, Globe Staff | October 6, 2008
Doctors and counselors working the front lines of emergency care say a major reason patients still flock to their doors for routine care is that there are too few primary care physicians in Massachusetts. Some newly insured patients are waiting months for their first visits.
A number of medical centers have added telephone help lines, counselors, and social workers in their ERs to answer insurance questions, enroll uninsured people, and find them a primary care doctor. UMass Memorial Medical Center has gone further, sending counselors to laundromats, barbershops, farmers markets, and churches. Armed with BlackBerries, portable scanners, and laptops, they sign people up for insurance, as well as food stamps, Social Security disability coverage, and other programs that can provide financial stability and help keep people out of emergency rooms.
Which is a GREAT THING -- if they were doing it for HUMANITARIAN not $$$ reasons (which they are not)!!!!
Francine Fitz, a 57-year-old Worcester widow who relied on the ER for routine health problems until she was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, is one of the patients the counselors helped enroll for subsidized health insurance. A telemarketer paid $10 an hour, she could not afford her employer's plan, she said.
Routine care in ERs is considerably more expensive than at a doctor's office or community health center. The average charge for treating a non-emergency illness in the ER is $976, according to a 2007 report by the state Division of Health Care Finance and Policy, which estimated that the total bill for non-urgent ER care in Massachusetts exceeded $1 billion in 2005.
Which just so happens to be the amount of giveaways to the bio-tech industry!!!
In comparison, it costs between $84 and $164 to treat a typical ailment such as strep throat in a primary care doctor's office, according to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the state's largest private insurer.
So this is ALL ABOUT $$$ and PROFITS, not about PEOPLE, huh?
I mean, it DOESN'T SEEM to matter much when it is WAR LOOTING going on!!!!
Yup, TRILLIONS for WARS and BANKS while YOU must keep HEALTH CARE COSTS DOWN!
Several healthcare leaders said they are finding that the state's youngest adults are among the most reluctant to change their habits. --more--"
Oh, GOD BLESS the young ones for REFUSING to be BRAINWASHED!! Maybe there is HOPE for us yet!!!!
