When they discharged Fred from the hospital, they told Wilma, his wife, that Fred would need to go into a nursing home for rehab. Wilma asked which nursing homes were good, and the hospital discharge planner gave Wilma a list of every nursing home in town and told her that they couldn’t make any recommendations.
Seem helpful to you? Of course not. But here’s what the law says: “During the discharge planning process, the hospital must inform the patient of his/her freedom of choice to choose among Medicare-participating post-hospital providers and must not direct the patient to specific providers…” So, if the hospital discharge planner told Wilma the names of the 3 best nursing homes in town, a case could be made that the hospital was “directing the patient to specific providers,” which would be illegal.
But that law only applies to hospitals; not law firms. And at Gilsoul & Associates, we offer something called LIFE CARE PLANNING; a service that helps families find good and appropriate medical care. When families seek out information on care, they face what the Assistant Secretary for Aging called “a complex and often mind-boggling maze of publicly supported and private options, administered by a wide variety of providers operating under different, sometimes conflicting and often duplicative, rules and regulations.”
We can help.
Gilsoul & Associates
318-524-9966
55 Years of Legal Experience!
