I received a tip today that Landmark inadvertently admitted Medicaid patients who didn’t have the proper type of Medicaid insurance. Approximately ten recent admits are being discharged with nowhere to go. The patients have been at LR for less than five days. They are in the middle of detoxing. One potential female admit was sitting outside in a wheelchair while staff tried to determine who would foot the bill for her Uber.
How does LR admit people with improper insurance? Was this a mistake or a colossal screwup? It remains to be seen.
It was a collosal screw up to fire all but one insurance specialist. The remaining specialist left the company a few weeks ago. Without an experienced insurance specialist this will continue to escalate putting patient’s lives at risk.
Agree with the last comment. Before I left TYS, it was the facility staff, specifically the patient navigators’ responsibility to verify the admitted patients’ insurance coverage. Admissions is supposed to attach a certified VOB (verification of benefits) to the face sheet but they weren’t doing that consistently anymore and they’re was no home office insurance specialist anymore. We had several patients we needed to release within days of admit and LMR was not going to get reimbursement for the days they stayed. Seems a little stupid for a company hemorrhaging money and unable to pay employees to make those risks, but whatever. Landmark.