Heart House News
Letter to the Editor: Hospitals Shouldn't Have to Pay
Stephen Weinberg, M.D.
Philadelphia Inquirer | August 1, 2011
Your July 25 article "Not so many unhappy returns" reports how hospitals are now spending substantial money to hire nurses and social workers to monitor discharged patients in hopes of preventing readmissions. These expenditures are draining sorely needed money that could provide care for inpatients.
Those who benefit from the outpatient monitoring by saving on rehospitalizations - patients, private insurers, Medicare, and Medicaid - should pay for the programs.
As it stands now, hospitals are being penalized for most repeat hospitalizations after 30 days. It is totally unreasonable that hospitals should pay for outpatient monitoring and also be penalized for a readmission. Neither should occur.
What responsibility does the hospital have if the patient is noncompliant, does not take medications, and does not follow instructions regarding diet and follow-up with his or her physicians?
Noncompliant patients should pay more for health insurance, as they do for auto and life insurance, if they are higher-risk because of their own poor choices.
Stephen Weinberg, M.D., Cherry Hill, NJ
seweinberg@gmail.com
[Read this letter to the editor online here.]