John Oliver does a segment on Dialysis

[MooseMom]

Well, this is scathing!  I don't know what led John Oliver to do an investigative piece on the dialysis industry, but I'm glad he did.  When Congress talks about Medicare "reform", perhaps they should start by putting Kent Thiry in jail. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw_nqzVfxFQ




MERGED Topics - Rerun, Admin.

[pagandialysis]

He REALLY pokes fun at Davita.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw_nqzVfxFQ

[Simon Dog]

Thanks.  That was a wonderful way to while away 26 minutes while dialyzing.

[kitkatz]

The description of expecting a full tricked out Lamborghini as your treatment plan and getting a drunk donkey on roller skates instead had me laughing. 

[Jean]

WOW!!!!

[MooseMom]

Thanks.  That was a wonderful way to while away 26 minutes while dialyzing.

Yeah, I know, right?   Ugh.

[Rerun]

That was awesome!  And for those in RioLinda... Richard Nixon was a Republican...

   

[Rerun]

 

[Rerun]

I'm going to go to youtube and under comments put a link to IHD. 

Go read some of the comments.  Pretty interesting.

[MooseMom]

I'm going to go to youtube and under comments put a link to IHD. 

Go read some of the comments.  Pretty interesting.

Great idea!  I've read some of the comments, and I've seen some people on dialysis making comments that might be grateful for a resource like IHD.

[pagandialysis]

Opps, sorry I didn't see that there was already a post about this.

[Michael Murphy]

First I should add is Nixon is the first President I voted for.  The reason I felt the ship of state was better off with Captian Bligh at the Helm instead of Bozo the clown.   Nixion actually did more then just fund dialysis.  Opened relations with China'. Started environmental concerns. Got us the hell out of Vietnam Nam. Reality he was both a crook and  a  decent president.  Now we do have bozo the clown as president who makes me nostalgic for a  president like Nixon.  .

[plugger]

Nixon could be a jekyll and hyde.  Hopefully we won't get a governor creepy clown here in colorado.

Anyway, one of the many things that cracked me up in Oliver's piece was the talk of "community".  I don't know, when I walked into my daughter's fresenius clinic I remember feeling I had walked into a third-world country: "You will do as we say", "You will not question authority!", and "sign ze papers!".  But hey, that's me.

[PrimeTimer]

As angering and sickening as this video may be and as weird as Kent Thiry is, I still do not want a single-payer healthcare system. 

[MooseMom]

As angering and sickening as this video may be and as weird as Kent Thiry is, I still do not want a single-payer healthcare system.

The irony here, though, is that dialysis is supposed to be covered by a single-payer healthcare system, ie, Medicare.

But when you have profit-centered entities defrauding Medicare, that's really a case of defrauding all of us, the American taxpayers  So when the likes of Paul Ryan promise to "reform" Medicare, he needs to start with putting the CEOs of DaVita and other fraudsters in jail.  But that's not going to happen with a governing party who sees "business"  and profit as God and as the only thing that matters in the world.

[PrimeTimer]

I don't expect that Paul Ryan or anyone working inside the govt to put any fraudsters in jail. Sometimes the biggest crooks are those working for the government. Sometimes the very people in the govt whose job is to find fraudsters are the very ones who look the other way when they do find them. It's maddening and literally makes me sick to my stomach. 

[plugger]

As angering and sickening as this video may be and as weird as Kent Thiry is, I still do not want a single-payer healthcare system.

Might check out this then:

http://www.coloradoan.com/story/opinion/2017/04/26/letter-heres-health-care-system-promise/100946694/

[Michael Murphy]

Two things this made clear to me, first the quality of your care depends on the quality of the techs and nurses.  I go to a Fresenius center tat is half owned by a hospital  and the techs and nurses are hospital employees and work under hospital rules.  Love the place.  The second is I am glad I didn't see this before starting  dialysis it would have scared the crap out of me.  Great show.

[iolaire]

Two things this made clear to me, first the quality of your care depends on the quality of the techs and nurses.  I go to a Fresenius center tat is half owned by a hospital  and the techs and nurses are hospital employees and work under hospital rules.  Love the place.  The second is I am glad I didn't see this before starting  dialysis it would have scared the crap out of me.  Great show.

I believe my DaVita center is basically a franchise I assume owned by the nephrology group that I go to.  There is another DaVita center within a mile that they don't send people to, instead they send it to a center under the same ownership that is about 7 miles away - with whom the share employees. 

Because of that franchise like setting I'm sure there is a huge difference in the quality of care, everyone is trying to match the minim requirements of CMS standards but the individual ownership decides who they hire, train and how or if they go above and beyond the minimum. 

Secondly I assume that the ratio of insured to non insured patients has a huge effect on the center.  My close to urban setting with tons of employed people mean that a nice number of insured patients are in the center at any one time helping to boost the Medicare revenue and give them extra flexibility in center cost management.  I assume that centers without many insured patients probably have to skimp and cut costs to maintain service under Medicare, and for that reason they might be more scary...

[plugger]

I believe there are a lot of good people at both fresenius and davita - just wish more of them would find their way into upper management!  Over the years though I've continued to believe those good people are facing more of a head-wind at the for-profit clinics.  The temptation to dance for the stock market while scamming as much for one's self has proven too great for people like thiry - clinic staff and patients have paid the price!  Not to mention the tax payers.  The first day I saw the video I had a great laugh!  The next day I had a great cry when I thought about all the pain that has cumulated with those jokes. 

[plugger]

 I assume that centers without many insured patients probably have to skimp and cut costs to maintain service under Medicare, and for that reason they might be more scary...

I assume they are gouging Medicare, then gouging the private insurance companies even more.  Medicare pays the biggest bulk of dialysis, would be surprised to find out revenue from private insurance is more than a drop in the bucket.  Gouging Medicare might be easy to do if a dialysis company's board members also wind up in government positions which I know occurs (Thomas Scully, Nancy DeParle).

Yeah, I've read about problems with for-profit nursing homes and hospitals - thinking kidney dialysis might be the poster child for abuse of the system though.

[plugger]

Wondering if this could be the biggest Medicare/insurance scam in the history of the U.S.?  Just thinking out loud today.