The Home Health Conundrum

Here's what I've learned about home health care companies. Medicare hires companies that assume some liabilities while a patient is in their care. The process requires supervisors that do evaluations to grade the patient upon entry and re-evaluate to continue care. Therapists just do their job for an hour or less and the progress that's made is graded by the supervisor. Each month evaluations are done to see patient progress. Each evaluation is also counted as a visit or therapy for billing purposes. Here is how it goes.

For each type of therapy, Speech, Occupational or Physical...they each have a supervisor. So your first visit for each is wasted as it's only an evaluation. Nursing is included too and it's done in the same manner. If you have all four types, eight of your visits for 30 days are totally wasted on evaluations. If they only recommend 14 visits, you get a total of 6, one hour therapy visits. How will 6 hours of therapy per month help? It doesn't...it's a scam!

It's a whole bunch of bullshit for very little benefit, but the companies get paid. It's a waste of time and money and we should be able to hire therapists directly without all the crap that comes along with it.

Home health companies are money makers because patients can't get enough care to improve. They're all basically the same locally because the therapists are contractors. None are organized and they can't communicate with each other or keep schedules. It's a mess and I'm disgusted with them all.

Taking Care of Business

As a kid, my mother didn't want us to speak to her until 10 am. She would smack us in the mouth if we did it. Before I could even tell time, I would ask if it was 10 yet. I got smacked a lot.

In seventh grade, 1st period at school, I got sent to the office for corporal punishment, Going to get licks, another name for spanked. I was wrongly accused, so I refused...and said "call my Mom!" This was about 7:45 and I knew she wasn't going to listen to anyone before 10. I called her and said I was going to get a whooping and didn't deserve it.

She didn't even bother to get dressed. She showed up at the school about 15 minutes later in a robe and her nightgown, mad as hell! She asked me what was happening and I told her I wasn't taking a whipping for doing nothing. She chewed out everyone within earshot and yanked me up and took me home.

I still got an ass whipping, from her....but for a rule that I knew and understood. Don't speak to her before 10 am!

*NOTE: My sister corrected me, so I changed the time from 9 to 10.