I spotted this story on MM and I read the linked articles carefully to make sure this was not just an attempt to smear the name of our First Lady.
Unfortunately, it appears that Michelle Obama caved in to the pressure from the powerful board of the University of Chicago Medical Center, and helped create a program to divert poor, black patients away from the hospital’s emergency room to poorly funded hood clinics where they would receive substandard care.
Sen. Barack Obama’s wife and three close advisers have been involved with a program at the University of Chicago Medical Center that steers patients who don’t have private insurance — primarily poor, black people — to other health care facilities.
Michelle Obama — currently on unpaid leave from her $317,000-a-year job as a vice president of the prestigious hospital — helped create the program, which aims to find neighborhood doctors for low-income people who were flooding the emergency room for basic treatment. Hospital officials say such patients hinder their ability to focus on more critically ill patients in need of specialized care, such as cancer treatment and organ transplants. [You know, where the real money can be made]
To be fair, many hospitals are accused of turning away uninsured patients. But patient dumping schemes like Michelle’s tend to fail because the patients don’t receive quality care at the poorly staffed and poorly funded hood clinics. The result is their health deteriorates and they end up back at the emergency room where they started.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 at 10:32 am and filed under Controversy, Health & Medicine, Michelle Obama, Politics . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed or Trackback from your own site. This site is Gravatar enabled. Sign up to upload your own avatar.
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This is an old story and Michelle looks FAB in that pic!!
LMFAO
317,000 a year where is this source from sorry not believing it
Sandra whatever happend to ciara getting sued
*EMAILING YOUU*
stop it SANDRA!
Sandra are you going to post the video of the ATL Ocean 5?
Has anybody seen it on the other site? It’s hillarious.lol
Ok … the company I USED to work for is a FOR PROFIT hospital management company .. MY job WAS to verify a paitents insurance PRIOR to them coming to one of the facilites for a procedure… Soooo .. If you didn’t have insurance before you got there .. the hosp was notified WELL in advance .. and you were advised how much said procedure was goin to cost… Yes .. folk were turned away LEGALLY with a letter showing the cost.. there were financial intake co-ordinators ready and waiting to take a pymt OR make arrangements … and Guess who OWNS that company … Sen. Frist … google him …
So .. Mrs. Obama was doing what she was paid to do .. Protect the HOSPITAL’S bottom line …
shaking my head
Most ppl without insurance use the emergency room for a cold or a sore thumb because they don’t have a doctor to call and fit them in their schedule. This is nothing new. Hospitals are deverting ppl so they will see a doctor for non emergency visits thus this builds a rapport for them to visit a doctor not just when they are sick, but for regular checkups.
I could careless about this story, it’s old news. What I AM MORE SHOCKED ABOUT IS SANDRA CALLED MICHELLE OBAMA OUR (THUS MEANING HERSELF) FIRST LADY…Way to go Sandra that’s something I could never say about the Bush’s though Laura seems to be a nice enough lady.
$317,000.00 a year …..wow! sweet jesus ..i can just imagine that paycheck …they are so well grounded …they lived in a modest home ..even though they made tons of cash
Michelle Obama doesn’t actually have to do anything for the black community. All we ask is that she look fly and smile for the cameras.
That picture is awesome!
Working on the administrative end of a hospital, often times there are funds that are alotted for special projects that target specific genres. Also, insurace companies are cracking down on reimbursements for certain visits. Seeing one in a clinic is sometimes more suitable and guarateed paymnt for services VS an ER visit. Sandra you are a nurse and you know they do all kinds of unnecessary stuff in an ER visit.
Give Michelle a break - and I’m on my way to find a dress like that.
This is something that ALL hospitals do, look at Piedmont if you are shot in the Buckhead area they do not take you to Piedmont you go to Grady. Where do all people(black, white whatever) go to here in the ATL if you don’t have insurance? You go to Grady. This is so old and stupid the bottom line is all hospitals or medical facilities send poor uninsured patients somewhere because they are allocated so much money a year to treat uninsured patients and after that everything else is free and who wants to work for FREE?
I don’t see anything wrong with it. Patients do flood emergency rooms with colds, sore throats and ear aches vs. going to a clinic or a urgent care facility. They don’t have insurance and can’t/won’t/don’t pay for the procedures. Why not do a story on how many hospitals in America have gone under because of their emergency rooms being flooded with non-emergency cases and not receiving payment.
Working for a hospital I can say I agree, you have to send those patients to the correct place, now what I don’t understand is why is it only mentioned about black people, primarly poor, because where I work baby it’s primarly all races. There a lot of races that come up here with no insurance. I work in a clinic, but especially for the emergency room that is for emergencies.
Dang $317,000 a yr I wouldnt live modest but well within my means…
@daisy
yes I saw that JD,johanta & usher video, even though none of them have the right to talk about anybody but that ish was too too funny! especially johanta when he said “She (christina milian) couldnt even get a ride to the bus stop from him” But I couldnt believe that ursh was talking about anybody when Maneka almost died trying to fix herself up for him.
Michelle Obama did not single out poor African-Americans. A lot of hospitals do these because people without insurance - black, white or otherwise - tend to flood the ER with things that are not really emergencies.
Dang, we still reaching for dirt on the Obamas, huh?
@Mizz yes I hollered when he said that she has to know thats NOT a good look but she wants to be seen right now and its working. She is a cute girl though. I wish ppl would stop calling Chris the modern day Ike so not right.
This is the best I’ve ever seen Michelle look.
Back to the story at hand, this wouldn’t even be newsworthy if Michelle weren’t the first lady. Have other white hospital administrators been taken to task for what has long been the standard policy of most hospitals? As a former practicing nurse, Sandra, I am sure you are aware of this virulent racist policy; but, I bet that didn’t stop you from cashing your paycheck — did it???
MzTee Says:
As a former practicing nurse, Sandra, I am sure you are aware of this virulent racist policy; but, I bet that didn’t stop you from cashing your paycheck — did it???
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Who said I was a “former practicing nurse”? My RN license is current and I am still a practicing nurse.
To answer your other question: no patient has ever been turned away from any facility that I worked in. That usually only happens at so-called “private” hospitals in “certain” neighborhoods.
Makes since imagine the emergency room filled with Black people who’ve experienced violence due to their own doing and community, what happens to patients who are victims of illnesses or other serious cases having to be overlooked or their care diluted. -
Isn’t that standard practice? Hospitals need money and certain hospitals get more funding than others to take care of the uninsured. That’s part of the reason. Its about money, not skin color.