Health Insurance Can Keep Seniors from Receiving Optimal Care

Consider yourself fortunate if you have Medicare or other non-HMO as your primary insurer. A leading cause of hospitalization of seniors, congestive heart failure (CHF) patients are being discharged before they have fully recovered from the illness. Medicare wants to make sure you stay healthy. It pays for treatments that get you up and functioning as independently as possible. Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO's) usually have provisions in their plans that limit hospital stays.

Sometimes it's more than just the heart and lungs that are affected, other organs like the kidneys are often compromised as well. That's why you have to know what your plan covers and for how long. The course of treatment and its duration are predetermined by an HMO. Statistics and other formulas are used; and very little or no consideration is given to you as an individual with specific needs. So if you don't get better in that time frame, you go home too soon and have to fend for yourself as best you can. Often, the results are tragic.

Many patients soon develop symptoms that got them hospitalized in the first place: water retention and subsequent swelling of body parts, shortness of breath, irregular heartbeat, dizziness, etc. The regimen of pills that are prescribed for CHF often have side effects that can put a senior at risk, as in the case of a fall. For example, Coumadin, given to thin the blood and which has to be monitored regularly, could cause a person to bleed to death. 

The take away is simple: Read your policy and get advice from reputable professionals that work with seniors.  If you have family and friends to check up on you daily, consider yourself blessed.