- 7 - patient agreements. The hospital generally requires each patient to agree to pay for all charges incurred while in the hospital upon demand by the hospital. Medicare,7 Blue Cross, health maintenance organization (HMO), and some other insurance plan patients, however, are responsible only for a copayment.8 For acute care hospital patients, the nurses and patient attendants perform a wide variety of services, including, but not limited to, assisting physicians during patient examinations and medical procedures and treatments, administering medications, preparing and operating specialized equipment used in treating patients, monitoring patients' conditions, serving meals to patients and regulating and monitoring their food intake, assisting in bathing patients, and helping them into and out of bed. Nurses and other hospital personnel also are involved in surgical procedures performed at a hospital. If an acute care hospital maintains a delivery room and obstetric care and newborn care units, delivery room nurses and other staff employees assist the physician in the delivery of newborn infants, provide daily 7 During the years involved, petitioners received reimbursements from Medicare equal to 35 percent to 43 percent of the total operating revenues reported on the Forms 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 8 When Medicare is the third-party payer, hospitals can collect only the "Medicare co-payments" from patients. Should the total payments from Medicare and the patient not equal the total amount billed to the patient, the hospital is not allowed to collect the difference from the patient.Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011