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Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care.

Today, I want to specifically address our audience in the United States, and I want to talk about Medicare appeals or insurance appeals in general. When ICUs, for example, want to send your loved one to an LTAC or when LTAC (Long Term Acute Care) want to send your loved one to a skilled nursing facility, basically, when any ICU or LTAC is trying to take your loved one to a lower level of care, you can appeal that.

I can assure you, I’ve just come off a podcast with one of our clients that I will publish in the next couple of weeks but we’ve helped one client to win an appeal just by simply looking at medical records, telling them and showcasing to them what they need to pay attention for, what needs to go into the appeal because we are highly qualified intensive care nurses with decades, if not hundreds of years of experience combined in our team. We can help you filing an appeal and you will find that many appeals are successful, but you actually need to make the appeal.

Once again, the biggest challenge for families in intensive care is that they don’t know what they don’t know. They don’t know what to look for. They don’t know what questions to ask. They don’t know their rights and they don’t know how to manage doctors and nurses in intensive care.

Now, I can tell you after having worked in critical care for nearly 25 years in three different countries where I also worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years in intensive care. I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care since 2013 here at intensivecarehotline.com. I’m talking to families in intensive care every day. I’ve been looking after thousands of critically ill patients in intensive care over the years as a nurse. I can tell you the devil is in the detail, and you need to have someone on your team who understand intensive care inside out so that things can be broken down into the very fine details.

Once again, the biggest challenge for families in intensive care is that they don’t know what they don’t know. When someone is critically ill in intensive care, there are dozens of things happening simultaneously, blood results, diagnostics, x-ray results, ventilator settings, medications that’s going in and the list goes on. Unless you can piece together this puzzle and make sense out of it, not much will make sense.

As a matter of fact, and we also know that intensive care units want patients out as quickly as possible. Unless you do your research from Day 1 and unless you make sure you have someone handhold you from Day 1, interpreting everything that is happening around you, making sure that you manage intensive care team so they don’t manage you, you will be fighting an uphill battle.

Now, again, other things on that note, while I’m talking about Medicare appeals or insurance appeals, we also know of many cases where ICUs say, “Oh, your loved one needs to go to an LTAC because the insurance will stop paying for ICU.” Well, you should never trust that. Never.

If the insurance doesn’t contact you directly and says, “Hey, if you are not agreeing to having your loved one being moved to an LTAC because otherwise you’re out of pocket”, I wouldn’t believe a single word that the hospital is saying.  Why would the insurance not contact you directly? Because at the end of the day, you as the next of kin or power of attorney would be responsible for it.

So, you really have to use common sense here to make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment because here is what can happen if your loved one is in the wrong environment.

Like I said, I’ve just recorded a podcast with the client that we will publish in the next couple of weeks once it’s been transcribed. One of our clients’ mothers went to LTAC without her consent and then went to a skilled nursing facility without her consent. Then, she ended up in ICU not even 10 hours after she went to a skilled nursing facility with another stroke and brain bleed. That is what happens when you are going into the wrong environment. You can’t afford having your loved one going in the wrong environment.

On the other hand, we’ve helped many families to keep their loved ones in ICU with very good outcomes. The minute they go to LTAC (Long Term Acute Care) or skilled nursing facilities, there’s often a downward spiral going on that is difficult to be stopped.

Another thing that many of you watching this know is that when ICUs are trying to send patients to LTAC or skilled nursing facility, it’s often hours away from the family or it’s sometimes even in a different state. That’s how broken the system is.

How can people at their most vulnerable state being sent away hours away from their family? That does not make any sense to me whatsoever, the system is so broken that all we can do at the moment is highlight how broken the system is. But you need to do your part and you need to share these videos with everyone, and you need to do all the right things to avoid disaster for your critically ill loved one in intensive care. Like I said, you can look up our testimonial section. We have helped families to go from LTAC back to ICU?.

But it all comes down to making the clinical argument and looking at medical records, talking to doctors and nurses directly, getting all the critical information that is needed when someone is critically ill in intensive care.

So, I hope that helps you managing and navigating this incredibly difficult territory that is intensive here in the United States in particular. Not that it’s perfect in other countries, don’t get me wrong but the United States with the system of ICUs, LTACs, skilled nursing facilities, it’s just a disaster area and it needs to be fixed. The first thing that needs to happen is it needs to be highlighted so people know that the system is broken.

I have worked in critical care for nearly 25 years in three different countries. I have worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years. I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care since 2013 here at intensivecarehotline.com.

We have saved many lives with our consulting and advocacy. You can verify that on our testimonial section at intensivecarehotline.com. You can also verify it on our podcast section at intensivecarehotline.com where we have done client interviews.

That’s also why we’ve created a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care. You can become a member if you go to intensivecarehotline.com if you click on the membership link or you go to intensivecaresupport.org directly. In the membership, you have access to me and my team, 24 hours a day, in the membership area and via email and we answer all questions intensive care related.

In the membership, you also have exclusive access to 21 e-books and 21 videos that I have personally written and recorded sharing all my decades worth of ICU nursing experience with our clients and their families.

I also do one-on-one consulting and advocacy over the phone, Skype, WhatsApp, Zoom, whichever medium works best for you. I talk to you and your families directly. I handhold you through this once in a lifetime situation that you can’t afford to get wrong. I also talk to doctors and nurses directly on your behalf. I ask all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking when you have a loved one in intensive care. I also represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams. I make sure you make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment.

We also do medical record reviews in real time so that you can get the second opinion in real time. We also do medical record reviews after intensive care if you have unanswered questions, if you need closure, or if you are suspecting medical negligence.

All of that, you get at intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or send an email to [email protected] with your questions.

If you like my videos, subscribe to my YouTube channel for regular updates for families in intensive care, click the like button, click the notification bell, comment below what you want to see next and what questions and insights you have from this video, share the video with your friends and families.

I also do a weekly YouTube live where I answer your questions live on the show and you will get notification for the YouTube live if you are a subscriber to my YouTube channel, or if you are a subscriber to our email newsletter at intensivecarehotline.com.

If you want your questions answered quickly here, if you send us an email, leave a small donation on the Super chat button here at YouTube and I will get to your email as quickly as possible. I have email sitting in my inbox from last year and from early this year so I can’t keep up with making videos or if you want to leave a small donation on the Super chat button that will help us to make as many videos as possible and help as many families in intensive care as possible.

Thank you so much for watching.

This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and I will talk to you in a few days.

Take care for now.

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