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dofstad_gw

Hospice and emergency hospitalization

dofstad
10 years ago

My Dad was enrolled in Hospice with Lewy Body Dementia. He was doing well enough that he was close to being unenrolled. He was unable to ambulate on his own however and we had caregivers helping with his physical care. In August, he somehow got himself out of bed, walked back to the bathroom and fell. He was coherent but hurting. We had been told we're always supposed to call hospice first before an ambulance. We called the number we'd always been told to call and the nurse we usually worked with was out of town. We were told by the hospice program answering service that they would try to reach a nurse and have her call us. We waited for about 30 minutes with no call back while Dad lay on the floor. I finally called the ambulance and we had him transferred to the emergency room. I'll spare the details, but after determining he most likely had a broken hip, he ended up vomiting and aspirated. He passed away the next day. Mom now received a denial of all the claims for scans, emergency room, all tests, hospital stay etc. from the Medicare Advantage plan he was on. Now in the midst of her grief, Mom is absolutely beside herself with worry about this. As of now, I only get voicemails when I try to call and figure it out. I'm hoping someone can shed some light on this and how we straighten it out. Did we really mess up by calling the ambulance ourselves? I don't feel that this was trying to cure him for the condition he was enrolled in Hospice for, but I'm scared of red tape fiasco. Help!!!

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