Patty* helps a variety of medical specialists at Bronson Hospital as a part-<\/p>\n
time assistant. She takes care of patients after surgery, works with casting and<\/p>\n
splinting or other wound care, helps with patient pain management, and monitors<\/p>\n
drug use. She is also a retired hospital administrator who used to be in charge of<\/p>\n
quality management, regulatory bodies, and joint commission; in addition to the<\/p>\n
certification of health care facilities. Given her experience with health care and<\/p>\n
hospital administration, she has seen a wealth of patients and has a broad<\/p>\n
knowledge of the Affordable Care Act and its provisions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Patty immediately got into problems concerning the insurance system,<\/p>\n
mentioning that there are several groups of patients: there are people who are<\/p>\n
insured and educated, people who are unaware, people who know how to obtain<\/p>\n
insurance but choose not to, and people who are borderline eligible \u00e2\u20ac\u201c those who<\/p>\n
want to obtain insurance but do not qualify. When discussing the general lack of<\/p>\n
knowledge about insurance opportunities, she stated, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really not enough<\/p>\n
education out there for people to navigate the system. Most of the people I know<\/p>\n
said that they couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very hard for the elderly. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a big change for<\/p>\n
them with technology and everything, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard for them to transition\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She<\/p>\n
claims that this issue is one that the government cannot fix. There is also a problem<\/p>\n
in the insurance system regarding patients with preexisting conditions. In 1995,<\/p>\n
Patty had an experience where she got dropped from her insurance plan. Being<\/p>\n
involved in health care, she called the state and fixed the problem. But this is not<\/p>\n
possible for everyone. She stated, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Me knowing the healthcare system, I [knew]<\/p>\n
what to do. Other people wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what to do to correct the situation.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
She believes that many uninsured individuals do not take care of their<\/p>\n
medical conditions properly. She claims to see a lot of patients with conditions that<\/p>\n
could be easily managed by a primary care provider, such as diabetes, mild pain,<\/p>\n
carpel tunnel syndrome, or simple colds. However, these patients are uninsured or<\/p>\n
unable to afford health care and they go to the Emergency Room instead. There,<\/p>\n
they receive free treatment. According to Patty, hospitals do a lot of charity care<\/p>\n
with money that they do not have. She noted that, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Healthcare facilities lose too<\/p>\n
much money; especially the little hospitals because they can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford to do all of that<\/p>\n
charity care.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It is difficult for Emergency Room physicians to turn down these<\/p>\n
patients because of litigation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Patty is optimistic about the ACA and its perceived benefits, though. She<\/p>\n
believes that charity care will go away and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153everything will be scrutinized more,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
with the ACA improving the way the government spends money. She thinks that the<\/p>\n
fact that the ACA expands Medicaid is a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153big plus\u00e2\u20ac\u009d because \u00e2\u20ac\u0153[she] think[s] that<\/p>\n
[borderline uninsured people] are the people who suffer the most.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Speaking from<\/p>\n
firsthand experience, she thinks that the coverage for preexisting conditions is a<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153huge plus.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She also thinks that the ER will become more efficient. She said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re<\/p>\n
so used to just taking care of everything\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and it will take people time to get used to<\/p>\n
waiting for the treatments of minor ailments.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Patty believes that Kalamazoo is a special city that has a lot of potential for a<\/p>\n
transition into a healthier community. She noted, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think Kalamazoo for health care<\/p>\n
is very progressive for being the size town it is by virtue of having Stryker and Pfizer<\/p>\n
and then all the other companies like MPI that are leaders. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re supportive for<\/p>\n
their supplies and research. And I think as far as the health care, they have a lot<\/p>\n
more to offer in this size town than in most towns. [Kalamazoo has] two big<\/p>\n
hospitals, [it] has Stryker, and [it] has Pfizer that compliment the health care<\/p>\n
services for the hospitals.\u00e2\u20ac\u0153 She refers to Kalamazoo as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the other Michigan\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as far as<\/p>\n
the resources it has to offer compared to the rest of the state. She thinks that the<\/p>\n
ACA will affect everyone in the same fashion, but it will \u00e2\u20ac\u0153make Kalamazoo even<\/p>\n
better\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the people who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have anything now will have something.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
*name changed to protect confidentiality<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An interview with Patty* a health care worker in the City of Kalamazoo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":289,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235\/revisions\/289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}