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A coworker is a volunteer EMT. The majority of his calls involve going to various homeless encampments. Once there, they have to walk around and figure out wh
by tomohawk 5y ago
A coworker is a volunteer EMT. The majority of his calls involve going to various homeless encampments. Once there, they have to walk around and figure out who needs help. More often than not, it is a malingerer who is good at pretending. They cannot refuse transport to the emergency room. Once there, the malingerer gets free food and a respite from the heat/cold, which is what they wanted. After the trip, the crew has to delouse themselves and the ambulance, which takes a long time.
I'm not a fan of United Healthcare, and would never subject myself to their tender mercies, but why should they and other insurers end up holding the bag for colossal policy failures like the above?
- whoknowswhat11 5y agoThis might explain my SF general experience
- QuesnayJr 5y agoMalingers in homeless emcampments have insurance through United Healthcare?
- eyeball 5y agoYeah, lots of them do. United Healthcare administers Medicaid for many states.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- djakaitis 5y agoYou think these folks are submitting claims to United Healthcare?
- thallium205 5y agoWho do you think runs many state medicaid programs?
- matthewdgreen 5y agoAnd in fact, one of the major criticisms of this arrangement is that it provides an opportunity for private firms to rake in big profits based on fixed fees paid by taxpayers and reduced service offered by the administrating company. United Healthcare is extremely profitable in this area. https://www.macpac.gov/subtopic/managed-cares-effect-on-outcomes/ https://www.macpac.gov/subtopic/managed-cares-effect-on-outc...
- cableshaft 5y agoYeah, I guarantee United Healthcare getting to deny paying for these is not going to stop the homeless person from making these calls. It's just going to stick the hospital with the bill, most likely.
- netizen-936824 5y agoWow, sounds like the issue at hand is that these people are homeless and have no way to provide food. But let's focus on ER visits I guess?
- matthewdgreen 5y agoSeems like a pretty good argument for building an alternative and less-expensive infrastructure for feeding the homeless, rather than yanking up the ladder for ER visits.