Inpatient/outpatient issue a travesty

I am a 71-year-old woman with a chronic health problem. After reading the article in the Nov. 14 edition titled, “A $13,000 problem,” I am angry and afraid.

A woman stays two months in a nursing home after a three-day stay hospitalization for care until recovered. Medicare won't pay, because she is labeled as an outpatient, not an inpatient. How much more “in” do you have to be?

Shocking, and I feel, fraudulent. Now she has to pay $100 a month out of her disability money. I'm sure it was a struggle before this disgrace, and she should be reimbursed for money spent; the rest of the bill dropped.

Same for the elderly couple showcased. If you are labeled an inpatient or outpatient on admission and are told “out,” assuming you are in need of continued care, what are you to do? After all, if they can't label you correctly on admission can they be trusted to change it? Are you to go home and die because no one can care for you?

This is shameful and an embarrassment for our current health care system.

Ruth A. Kramer

Carpentersville