Make sure you know the hospital in advance that will serve your parent in the case of emergency. Hospitals serve up many types of specializations. Look for the following:
- a location within a 10 minute drive from your parent’s home or care facility
- a specialty in Geriatrics along with specialty care in:
- Cardiology, Pulmonary, Vascular Health
- Alzheimer’s/Dementia
- Urology, Orthopedics
- the ability to treat key issues that tend to be the most common in seniors including but not limited to:
- immobility, instability
- Incontinence, as well as memory Issues
Make sure the hospital has an affiliation with Home Health Care, Physical Therapy, Hospice, Palliative Care and Mental Health.
Symptoms
Hospital visits are the last choice on a check list of any healthy individual. Stay informed by the Geriatric Care Manager and General Practitioner that your loved ones are seeing in order to determine the necessity of non-obvious reasons to be checked into a hospital.
Specialization
According to Forbes Magazine, there are various ways you can find out about a hospital’s reputation. Here are some great sources:
- The Joint Commission tracks performance of types of care, and allows users to compare six hospitals at once using its Internet database.
- The Leapfrog Group is a consortium of corporations and public agencies that purchase health care for their employees. They survey more than 1,300 hospitals across the country on four quality and safety practices, including ICU staffing and computerized records. Consumers can search its online database to see how various hospitals performed on 10 different procedures.
- HealthGrades, a private company based in Golden, Colo., charges a fee to access performance data at individual hospitals. It distills the many statistics into ratings that reflect safety and quality of the facility.
Preparation
- Not all physicians accept Medicare. Make sure if your parent does not have a healthcare supplemental policy that the attending physician is part of the Medicare network.
- Look for the availability of a geriatric department.
- Do they provide a complete network of specialists for your parent?
- Check out the emergency room well in advance to observe process, procedures and staff.
- Carry at all times a copy of your loved ones current medications.
- Keep a copy of your Durable Power of Attorney close by.
- Proof of Medicare/Medicaid and/or Healthcare Supplemental Insurance cards will be required for submission.
- Upon discharge, a transfer to a rehab facility is a choice you can make. Check out these types of facilities in advance, as well.
Evaluation
- Ask to obtain a copy of their state survey on the facility.
- What is the hospitals rating compared to other hospitals within a geographical acceptable distance from home.
- Referring doctors and patients should be interviewed about the hospitals process, procedures and staff.
- Learn about the triage and check-in process of a hospital.
Doctors & Hospitals Radio Show Segments
- Focus on Preventative Measures: Primary Care
On behalf of Humana, gold sponsor of the Vitality Revolution Podcast Series, Lori Hutson joins Suzanne. Lori is owner of LJ Hutson Insurance LLC in Washington state. Regarding physical wellness, this segment focuses on the evolution of primary care. The overall landscape has changed with the advancement of tele-heath, being able to do visits from home.
Lori says, “If there’s a silver lining in our industry with COVID, it forced people to use technology. Because when you’re working with older folks, we’re resistant to change, and I don’t want to have to learn something new. And then, with the COVID restrictions, we had to. Tele-health has really added a new element to it. So you can be sitting in the comfort of your own home, set up the appointment, and have your primary care visit that way. I remember maybe 10 years ago being down with bronchitis, and I knew it was bronchitis. I had it once before. I called my doctor and they said no, we can’t prescribe anything, because we have to see you. Well, my husband was working full time. I didn’t want him to take time off. I couldn’t drive, I was too sick. So by the time I felt well enough to stand up, I thought, well, I’m on the way to get better anyway. And so I think that, for some of those types of things, tele-health has really helped.
“I want to talk a little bit about our future. There are less and less primary care doctors available. What’s happening is in the medical schools, the students now, for the most part, they’re going for specialties, they want to be a cardiologist or an anesthesiologist. Primary care is suffering right now. And so I just think in another 10 years, what the heck is gonna happen, because there’s not many students coming out, the older doctors are retiring. The insurance companies are really recognizing that. There’s gotta be some innovative ways to help resolve some of these issues. One of the things that people are doing is this concierge doctor system, where you pay a monthly fee to have a primary care doctor on call. That could be $2- to $10,000 a year. If people can afford that, then they’ve got their doctor on call at any time.
Suzanne mentions now that One Medical has been purchased by Amazon, you can sign up through Amazon. Lori adds, “And the thing about One Medical is that is a national program. And so they have their One Medical, and then they have their One Medical Seniors. If you’re looking at Amazon, and you see the One Medical, that has a monthly fee, but the One Medical Seniors does not have a monthly fee. That’s embedded into your health care. That’s one of the ways that some of the insurance companies are are trying to come up with some ways to help people. It’s kind of a hybrid between having that concierge doctor on call all the time, and then having your normal primary care physician that you go in and you sit in the waiting room.”
Contact Lori through her website LJ Hutson Insurance LLC.
- Care Options After Being Discharged, with Chris Strand
What happens after a patient is discharged from a rehab center or a hospital? Chris Strand at Careage takes us through caring options. Home care is meal preparation, grooming, and light housekeeping, and is paid for as a fee-for-service, Medicaid, veterans benefits or private pay, which. Outpatient service is similar, but more limited as you have to drive to the service, and is a Medicare Part B benefit for therapy only. Home health is nursing intervention and rehabilitative health, and is covered by Medicare Part A and private insurance, and there are no annual caps.
- About Medicare
Beth Deems at Mission Health Care discusses Medicare. Medicare Part A covers inpatient hospitalization and inpatient skilled nursing rehabilitation on a short-term basis at 80%. Part B (an option for which you pay extra) provides outpatient coverage, including doctor’s office visits. Part D covers prescriptions. And Plan F is a supplemental policy you can buy to help cover things such as co-pays and the 20% that Medicare may not cover. Like all Federal programs, it is subject to change.
