From CRE’s DME Hotline: 1-800-613-7678 (South Windsor, CT)
“I am calling from South Windsor, Connecticut. I am a 41 year old woman who is caring for her 73 year old mother who has dementia, who is bed ridden, has a trache in her throat, a catheter for urine, and a feeding tube for her food, water and medicine. She currently is on Medicare and has home health care service. She has two durable medical supply companies and a company that provides the jevity that she uses for her feeding tube. I am outraged by the fact that I may not have a local company that to service my needs. My mother cannot speak for herself, she is at home with me, and by me taking care of her full time, I am saving the government literally $8,000 a month because were she in a nursing home, it would cost approximately $10,000 a month of poor care, risk of infection, and everything else. She is here at home.
I should have the right to speak for my mother and go with a company that is, number one, local. If I have a problem with any of the medical supplies, be it her compressed air that she has to have on 24 hours a day, someone will come out 24 hours to help me. If I have a problem with her kangaroo pump that services the jevity that goes through the feeding tube, I can have somebody come out to take a look at that 24 hours a day because they are local. I won’t get that type of service if I have to deal with a big box company that comes from Colorado or Minnesota or somewhere else. I won’t get the same delivery person who knows how to fine tune that compressed air machine to pump at 40% exactly right. I would speak to someone locally and not run the risk of speaking through an outsourced call center. This is outrageous.
It is time we stopped trying to fix everything with one fell swoop of a pen and start looking at some of the individual cases because I represent thousands of caregivers who don’t feel like they have a voice. And I am so sick and tired of everybody doing things and not listening to the people. I am outraged at many things that the caregivers go through. But I am more outraged that a person like my mother who doesn’t have a voice, her voice is now being reduced even more by these changes. You are free to call me back at any time. I will be happy to state my case in a calmer, more intelligent way to anyone who cares to listen. And I hope someone cares to listen. Thank you very much for having this hotline for us to express our concerns. I hope I can be some sort of help to make change or to stop this from hapenning because this is outrageous. This woman is saving the government money and it seems like she is going to be pushed for it and that punishment could risk her health and cost her life. Thank you very much and have a blessed and wonderful day and God bless America.
