The Accident

At the age of 81 my mother had an accident breaking her neck and causing injury to her spine. My mother was in good health for a woman of her age and doctors determined that she could survive an operation, without becoming paralyzed. The surgery was a great success and within two day she was gaining the use of her hands and feelings were returning in verious parts of her body.

Everything went great until her insurance company got into the act. Mother had insurance from her job through Kaiser Permanente who had taken control of her Medicare. She also had insurance with United Health Care through my father's retirement benefits. She lived near Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she was taken by paramedics. The operation was performed there. Mother received excellent care from great doctors and medical staff. She stayed in ICU for only one day, doctors felt she would be walking again within six months.

The nightmare started, Kaiser Permanete wanted their patient at their hospital. They refused to pay for Cedars-Sinai's services and took my mother in the middle of the night to one of their facilities. Within a week she had a stage four decubitus ucler. Our fanily's hands were tied, we could not get her away from Kaiser because they controlled her medicare. We had to wait three months until the end of the year to disenroll her from Kaiser, all the time her health was declining. Are HMO's taking advantage of our aging loved ones?