[LesPaul]

Besides being in or out of the TVH, do our amenity fees contribute to the maintenance and upkeep of the TVH medical facilities ?

[rivaridger1]

Examples of being given " the boot ":
1. You are a major in the USAF with a family and have been up for promotion for Lt. Colonel two times and did not make the cut. You have served 20 years. Your next posting is a weather station in Northern Greenland for the next 36 months, if you do not retire. You have been given the " boot ".
2. You are a 50 year old Vice President of Advertising of a company headquartered in Dallas with a fat expense account recently acquired by a much larger one. You are offered a position in Missoula Montana as part the restructuring program managing a training program for high school drop outs or an early retirement package. You have been given the " boot ".
3. You use The Village Health model for your primary medical care and are told if you do not change your perfectly good insurance plan, which was perfectly acceptable when they first solicited you to be a patient, to one in which you have no interest whatsoever, you will have to find a new primary care physician. You have been given "the "boot ".

In each instance you had a choice as has been pointed out numerous times. It does not change the fact that a size 14 has just connected with your nether region.

[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by rivaridger1

Examples of being given " the boot ":
1. You are a major in the USAF with a family and have been up for promotion for Lt. Colonel two times and did not make the cut. You have served 20 years. Your next posting is a weather station in Northern Greenland for the next 36 months, if you do not retire. You have been given the " boot ".
2. You are a 50 year old Vice President of Advertising of a company headquartered in Dallas with a fat expense account recently acquired by a much larger one. You are offered a position in Missoula Montana as part the restructuring program managing a training program for high school drop outs or an early retirement package. You have been given the " boot ".
3. You use The Village Health model for your primary medical care and are told if you do not change your perfectly good insurance plan, which was perfectly acceptable when they first solicited you to be a patient, to one in which you have no interest whatsoever, you will have to find a new primary care physician. You have been given "the "boot ".

In each instance you had a choice as has been pointed out numerous times. It does not change the fact that a size 14 has just connected with your nether region.

Fascinating. In each instance you precisely laid out the available CHOICES, then proceeded to characterize it as being given "the boot", or no choice. Somewhere between getting from point A to point B you took an unscheduled left turn.

1) You can go to Greenland or retire----YOUR CHOICE
2) You can go to Montana or retire------YOUR CHOICE
3) You can change docs or insurance----YOUR CHOICE

Is there some new, secret definition of the word choice in the dictionary now that I am unaware of? Or is this common core vocabulary? Or maybe just fuzzy logic?

[OhioBuckeye]

Originally Posted by golfing eagles

Interesting opinion, considering they do over 5,000 cardiac catheterizations/year most with stent placement.

I never heard of that because my heart Dr. is right accoss 441/27 from TVH & he wants to put a stent in a bypass artery & he wants to do it in Leesburg, only because if there's any emergency that comes up while doing the stent the TV hospital isn't equip to handle it & personally I wouldn't want to be there if I had a heart attack or my heart stopped like it did when I had my heart bypass. If you want to let TVH work on you in a case like this go ahead. I've had to many people tell me TVH isn't the best place to be in an emergency. Leesburg I was told was the 5th best heart hospital in FL. TVH isn't even mentioned, I like life to much. TVH has lost a lot of Drs. Again just my opinion!

[rockyisle]

Thanks for the pdf.. Those of us who leave TV for the summer months won't receive this letter from VHS. We never received their "boot" letter either. Had to find out from our supplemental insurance company that we had been released from their care. VHS sends all their written communication via third class mail that isn't forwarded by USPS. Not the best way to reach out to your present and past customers. But it is what it is.
While we loved our doctor and NP at Santa Barbara, I've already written to the heads of VHS to express my opinions prior to the boot. There were so many other ways they could have handled this situation - but chose not to... So be it.
Thankfully, there are many other great doctors and groups in the area to fill the gap. I won't be returning to VHS even if they decided to reverse their decision to not use my supplemental - which is also from United Healthcare..

[OhioBuckeye]

Originally Posted by kandmroberts

Can't wait for the survey. I will be honest...........like where I told them to put their practice when they booted me. Now I have Michael Glick MD for my primary and do not intend to change. I sincerely hope they close up their fancy buildings and make more recreation centers out of them. LOL! MR

You know the first time I ever set foot in TVH, with someone playing the piano, I thought, WOW what a classy hospital. So I'm just wondering if the ones that see the inside of TVH are new residents here & just see the piano playing & how nicely the hall ways look are making their opinions about the care before really be admitted. When I first moved here I asked people about TVH that lived here 10 to 20 yrs. & most of them said it was just SO-SO. They might be able to put a stent in or a catheterization, but the real heart issues are actual heart surgery. Someone told me they do 5,000 stents a yr. so like most Dr. that only work out of 1 hospital will want to do stents before you actually have open heart. Again I'm only hearing old residents & they say go to Leesburg or Ocala for heart surgery.

[champion6]

Originally Posted by OhioBuckeye

I lost all respect for TVH when we first moved here 6 yrs. ago I just had a 5 way heart bypass in Ohio where I lived. It was only 6 weeks afterward that I had an issue in my mouth due to breathing tubes during my heart surgery. I was told never be around people that had any kind of viruses. When I went to the waiting room I sat in there for 5 1/2 hrs. with 3 people having puke buckets for severe cases of the flu. I told the them about it & they said they couldn't do anything about it. (that was their exact words) Then when I did see someone it was a PA & he said I had a cold sore, wrong. We got into see the CEO of the hospital & told her the lot longer story, my $4,000+ dollar bill was forgiven. So Tampa can improve them all they want but if want good health care go somewhere else. Besides TVH can't do anything to your heart, all they can do is stabilize you & send you to another hospital, if you can make it!

Originally Posted by OhioBuckeye

I never heard of that because my heart Dr. is right accoss 441/27 from TVH & he wants to put a stent in a bypass artery & he wants to do it in Leesburg, only because if there's any emergency that comes up while doing the stent the TV hospital isn't equip to handle it & personally I wouldn't want to be there if I had a heart attack or my heart stopped like it did when I had my heart bypass. If you want to let TVH work on you in a case like this go ahead. I've had to many people tell me TVH isn't the best place to be in an emergency. Leesburg I was told was the 5th best heart hospital in FL. TVH isn't even mentioned, I like life to much. TVH has lost a lot of Drs. Again just my opinion!

Originally Posted by OhioBuckeye

You know the first time I ever set foot in TVH, with someone playing the piano, I thought, WOW what a classy hospital. So I'm just wondering if the ones that see the inside of TVH are new residents here & just see the piano playing & how nicely the hall ways look are making their opinions about the care before really be admitted. When I first moved here I asked people about TVH that lived here 10 to 20 yrs. & most of them said it was just SO-SO. They might be able to put a stent in or a cauterization, but the real heart issues are actual heart surgery. Someone told me they do 5,000 stents a yr. so like most Dr. that only work out of 1 hospital will want to do stents before you actually have open heart. Again I'm only hearing old residents & they say go to Leesburg or Ocala for heart surgery.

OhioBuckeye, I just want to point out that this thread is about a survey which will be sent by TVH - The Villages Health, which provides services by primary care physicians.

All of your observations are about TVRH - The Villages Regional Hospital.

These two businesses are separate and have different ownership, administration and staff.

[villagetinker]

Originally Posted by rockyisle

Thanks for the pdf.. Those of us who leave TV for the summer months won't receive this letter from VHS. We never received their "boot" letter either. Had to find out from our supplemental insurance company that we had been released from their care. VHS sends all their written communication via third class mail that isn't forwarded by USPS. Not the best way to reach out to your present and past customers. But it is what it is.
While we loved our doctor and NP at Santa Barbara, I've already written to the heads of VHS to express my opinions prior to the boot. There were so many other ways they could have handled this situation - but chose not to... So be it.
Thankfully, there are many other great doctors and groups in the area to fill the gap. I won't be returning to VHS even if they decided to reverse their decision to not use my supplemental - which is also from United Healthcare..

It looks like they learned their lesson, ours was preprinted in the stamp area "Presorted FIRST class US postage paid, Ocala, FL, permit #100", so you should get it forwarded, if you do not, I would complain to the post office.

[NYGUY]

Originally Posted by golfing eagles

Fascinating. In each instance you precisely laid out the available CHOICES, then proceeded to characterize it as being given "the boot"

It should be noted that being given choices and being screwed are not mutually exclusive.

[rockyisle]

Thanks for the info. We will look for it in our forwarded mail and report in if it should come our way. I'm not holding my breath -

[rivaridger1]

Originally Posted by golfing eagles

Fascinating. In each instance you precisely laid out the available CHOICES, then proceeded to characterize it as being given "the boot", or no choice. Somewhere between getting from point A to point B you took an unscheduled left turn.

1) You can go to Greenland or retire----YOUR CHOICE
2) You can go to Montana or retire------YOUR CHOICE
3) You can change docs or insurance----YOUR CHOICE

Is there some new, secret definition of the word choice in the dictionary now that I am unaware of? Or is this common core vocabulary? Or maybe just fuzzy logic?

Okay, not quite a " Sophie's Choice " situation. Perhaps more of a Cornelian Dilemma. I got the " Cornelization " from Villages Health just does not sound as good as the " boot " though.

[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by rivaridger1

Okay, not quite a " Sophie's Choice " situation. Perhaps more of a Cornelian Dilemma. I got the " Cornelization " from Villages Health just does not sound as good as the " boot " though.

Looks like we just found the common ground that we agree upon

[Dan9871]

I don't want to make light of the choice VH gave a lot of their patients. But, as GE says, it's just a choice even though VH handled presenting the choice poorly. But it's a choice my wife an I have been given a number of times before we came to the Villages and how it is presented doesn't make it any less stressful.

I don't think the survey is being done because VH is thinking about moving away from Meidcare Advantage only. My guess, pure speculation actually, is that when they started VH based on the patient centered medical home concept they didn't realize that it wouldn't be viable based on orignal medicare. Once they finally did realize that they had to drop original medicare patients who didn't switch to MA.

And, more speculation, once they did realize this they hemmed and hawed and denied to themselves that they had a problem until at the last minute they had to executed a poorly planned transition to MA only.

And, as GE noted, doctors and insurance companies do this kind of thing all the time. All the management of VH are physicans who in the past had probably dropped or been dropped by insurance companies. There might be a few patients that gave them heartburn when that happened but they had survived that before.

Any yet more speculation... the survey is being done by VH because the heartburn was more than they expected and they wanted to know why. Any good company wants to do a post mortum, i.e. understand why, a process they used didn't work as expected.

I think the problem they had was that never clearly explained the patient centered medical home. That is they never gave a non-academic, non-conceptual explanation in terms of the practical benefits to patients, like same day appointments, hospitalists, the practical value of a PHP + team vs. a fee for service physician and so on.

To potential patients is was just another medical practice and all they had over other medical practices in the area was a nicer looking building. Why would anyone give up original medicare for that?

For my wife and I the transition to UHC MA actually was no big deal, but that's probably because of our life experience with health insurance.

In past 40 or so years before we came to the Villages the seemingly annual "Pick your health insurance event" we and a lot of other people go through due to employment changes or company policy changes or mergers and out of business events was always stressful and seemed to always resulted in less choices and more costs.

In that time we were given the "change your doc or change your insurance" choice 3 or 4 times. If the doc was our PCP we changed our insurance even if it cost more or had less options. If it was one of the specialists we saw we changed our doc.

Originally our insurance covered virtually any procedure from virtually any provider in the country. After a number of these "choice events" my wife had a serious medical problem but our coverage by then had restricted our choices and she couldn't go to the specialist she wanted. That was stressful but in the end the results turned out great and I doubt we could have found a specialist better that the one we ended up with from the insurance company's network. Over the years the limited selection of specialists never was an issue... maybe that is why we didn't view the limited network of UHC MA as a problem.

I thought most people have gone though the "change your insurance or change your doc" choice a number of times before coming to the Villages, but maybe that is not the case. I know we have some close friends who worked for a large utility for their entire working careers and we envied their health coverage and it's continuity. But most people we knew were in the same boat as us.

And one last piece of speculation, maybe wild speculation. I think VH's patient centered medical home and the change to MA only will be very successful. In fact... this is the wild part... at some point in the next 3 to 5 years all new patients of VH will have to switch to UHC MA. Yup, no under 65 patients any more except those that were "grandfathered in". The survey is going to help VH better explain what it is they are selling to make it attractive to potential patients. And until other practices in the area start patient centered medical homes new Villagers will be waiting in line to join.

[Villageswimmer]

Originally Posted by villagetinker

It looks like they learned their lesson, ours was preprinted in the stamp area "Presorted FIRST class US postage paid, Ocala, FL, permit #100", so you should get it forwarded, if you do not, I would complain to the post office.

DH and I received ours yesterday in PA.

[gomsiepop]

My husband chose to remain in a job for 42 years knowing full well that the tradeoff in his lower salary allowed us to retire with benefits which would more than compensate us. One of those benefits was our current healthcare which is far, far superior to Medicare Advantage. To those of you who claim patients that refused to change their insurance to MA made a choice to do so should remember the promises The Villages made. It was published in their newspaper, The Daily Sun, that their healthcare would replicate that of a "Marcus Welby" philosophy. From what I remember from long, long ago, Marcus Welby was not only professional, he was an extremely thoughtful, knowledgeable physician who cared more about his patients than the almighty dollar. IMO The Villages didn't treat their patients with a caring attitude. First, they informed patients that although the healthcare was changing they would grandfather those people that already were being cared for by the VH. Again, I will say I for one am looking forward to a mutually, positive outcome of the "survey".