Having worked at ‘the knife and gun club’…. that is, the ER of city hospital where gunshot wounds and lacerations are more prevalent than broken bones… I sense there is more to the young woman turned away from the hospital story… for these reasons:
Anyone who has been to the ER of a large hospital , who afterward, goes back to retrieve even a simple paper record, knows you can spend hours and days and even weeks trying to get accurate info about your own contact there.
The HIPAA laws protecting patient confidentiality can be invoked even with all kinds of written permissions from next of kin, even though the patient is deceased.
The hospital for self-protective reasons can release only a part of, or redacted records, or a brief summary.
Being a journalist doesn’t mean you can break the law and barge into private records. (I can hear some snorting.) But, most journos will file whatever requests needed and put themselves in the pathways of those they hope will speak freely.
The only person who would likely know if person X was turned away on the particular day, whether they had insurance or not, whether they were adequately insured, whether THAT hospital took THAT particular kind of insurance if the young woman had any…. the person remembering the circumstances would not be a nurse or doctor, but a single registration clerk whose job is to process paperwork;
name, addy, social security no, next of kin, who will be responsible for payment, signing documents wherein patient variously agrees to pay ’til doomsday if need be, or else insurance card must be registered, along with driver’s license, and parent’s ok if patient is underage.
This so-far phantom patient registration clerk, would have to be contacted and produce non-redacted hard copy showing the patient’s application and her being referred or turned away for whichever reasons. Some docs at some hospitals, too, will not accept certain kinds of insurances.
The registration clerk would have to be able to remember, describe and have total recall amidst the hundreds of patients she/he processed that month, to prove or disprove Clinton’s third-hand story. The original hard copy and the clerk’s witness would be the smoking gun. But, we have no smoking gun.
Many hospitals have ‘patient advocates.’ These are not specifically ‘for’ the patient, they are PR and risk reduction people for the hospital; they often see patients or families who are threatening litigation. A hospital ‘advocate’ or a spokesperson for the hospital cannot be able witnesses about registration, for they were not present: only the person who processed the young woman who wished to be a patient.
Anyone who has gone to a large hospital ER knows that you could arrive sicker than a dog– the ER works on triage… bleeding to death, heart attack, babies comatose… all those afflictions go first, and a supposed broken bone, a person slammed by the flu, and other plaints go middle or last. Regardless, a clerk will corral a family member if they cannot get to the patient, in order to take down all info.
The hospital’s mission is to help and to heal. The hospital’s mundane goal is line up the money, the money, the money…. for without the money, the hospital cannot pay residents to study/work there for a pittance, cannot provide professional services, supplies, admin salaries, cleaning people’s salaries, OR costs.
Some hospitals, especially religious ones: Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Jewish, often have programs that are supported by the church, as well as hospital income… and these programs are geared directly to serve, gratis, the indigent, un-insured, under-insured, wrong kind of insurance people, and the very poor. But, not all hospitals have these.
It may be too, that the first hospital in Senator Clinton’s story turned the young woman away, for there was a deductible to be paid on her insurance; it is not uncommon for these to be at least a couple thousand dollars out of the patient’s pocket before the insurance kicks in. She may have been asked to make a “co-payment” before they saw her; some health plans require this upfront.
And if she’d been turned away or discouraged for ANY reason, it would be ethical that she be referred by the contact hospital to another hospital or treatment group which they thought could help her. There may be several hospitals involved, as people know who have no insurance and keep getting sent from door to door looking for help.
There’s something at the core of Clinton’s story about the young woman that seems accurate.
What it is, we have to wait and see while various investigative journos onsite pry it out.
In the meantime, it’s interesting to see what ‘facts’ the MSM passes on, such as one apparently given to Obama today… his claim that he knows more about foreign policy that McCain or Clinton…. doesn’t that beggar belief? Isn’t he the fellow whose had two years in State legislature and only 2 years as Senator? (**please see first and third comment below)
It’s interesting to see how and what we all jump at. Or don’t.
Maybe a little less jumping and a lot more investigative journalism?
The thing that over-rides the details of this story is that a young woman lost her baby, a crushing crushing blow, from which many walk dead for YEARS after. Then, the young woman died shortly after. A mother and father lost their grandchild and their daughter within a few weeks’ time.
That’s a story for the ages. The Rock of Ages.