****WCGreen Update -- Sunday, December 21, 2014****

[CaliforniaPeggy]

From his wife:

A Christopher Green update:
Last night Chris and I watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, A Wonderful Life and Forest Gump. Talk about the ridiculous to the sublime! We also were visited by two nurses from the Colostomy department. They are talking about Chris getting a temporary Colostomy so that his pressure wound on his coccyx can heal without being infected by stool. We want to talk it over with the transplant team and will talk to them tomorrow.

They are also talking about Chris moving to an LTAC (Long Term Acute Care) facility fairly soon, specifically Kindred. This is the place he was going to back in May, before some problems.
As Chris has been in the ICU for some time now, they moved the contents of his room to storage. I have gotten his guitar, phone, glasses and art supplies so he can use them. You can bet I will get the Christmas tree and bring it up to Chris' tiny room on Christmas.

[spanone]

1. Merry Christmas WCGreen & CaliforniaPeggy!!!

[longship]

2. Wishing you the best, Christopher.

[Bertha Venation]

3. Merry Christmas, Christopher

You're in my thoughts.

[femmocrat]

4. Wishing you Christmas blessings.

And improved health this holiday.

[Horse with no Name]

5. May you continue to heal

You are still in my thoughts and prayers.

[w8liftinglady]

6. Peggy,give Chris a hug for me

If it helps, I will be working in the ICU at Kindred here. Nurses there tend to be older,more experienced and more laid back.We actually treat our patients like people.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

10. Sounds good, my dear w8liftinglady!

He would definitely benefit from such treatment. He'll be going to the Kindred in Cleveland.

[lunasun]

7. Good Holiday memories WCG

Thanks for the update

[babylonsister]

8. Thanks for the updates, Peggy, and to

WCGreen aka now known as Christopher, and his lovely wife... you are both in my heart. Merry Christmas!

[herding cats]

9. Merry Christimas to Mr & Mrs WCGreen!

I hope things work out and you're able to move to LTAC soon. May the new year bring you nothing but good things!

As always, my thanks to you, Peggy for sharing these updates. A very happy holiday and a beautiful New Year to you as well!

[MADem]

11. What a fighter! He looks pretty suave in those pics...kind of has a "Dos Equis" vibe working...

"I may not always have a long transplant recovery, but when I do, I prefer the Long Term Acute Care facility!"



Health, health and more health in the New Year!

[brer cat]

12. Please pass along

my wishes for Chris to have a very Merry Christmas, and a successful healing season for 2015. He is one tough fighter...an inspiration to us all.

Thanks for the update, CP, and Merry Christmas to you.

[wildbilln864]

13. merry Christmas! n/t

[pnwmom]

14. News for WCGreen or any other Medicare recipient about to enter a skilled nursing facility:

A major Federal legal settlement almost two years ago might affect you. Jimmo v. Sebelius.

After a three day hospitalization, Medicare will pay for up to 100 days of skilled nursing (100% for the first 21 days and after that at 80%).

But it used to be that Medicare would stop paying before the 100 days was up if the facility determined that the patient had "plateaued" or was not showing improvement. At that point, the patient would either have to pay out of personal funds or be discharged, even if he still needed nursing care.

Thanks to the settlement reached after Jimmo vs. Sebilius, the standard has changed. Now, as long as the care is reasonable and appropriate, the care will be covered if it is needed to maintain the patient's condition or to slow the patient's decline. This means that millions of chronically ill people who were being cut off Medicare nursing home benefits because their condition wasn't improving are now able to keep the benefits for the full 100 day period.

We recently had to educate my mother's skilled nursing facility, when they were about to discharge her from a skilled nursing facility after only a few weeks, saying that she had "plateaued." She had clearly not plateaued -- her condition had finally started to improve -- but without the new Medicare policy they would have discharged her anyway. Instead, she remained for another five weeks and when she left, she was in far better shape than when they first wanted to discharge her.

There is still a lot of outdated information on the web about this, and many nursing homes haven't noticed that the Medicare manual was updated last year to include the new policy. Bottom line: if a person has a hospital stay that qualifies him for Medicare skilled nursing care, he can continue to get that care paid for by Medicare for 100 days, even if he isn't improving -- as long as he's still benefiting from it and the care is reasonable and appropriate.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

18. thanks for sharing that!

You're another one of my favorite people around here

[pnwmom]

20. Aw, thank you, BlancheSplanchnik.

The feeling is mutual.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

21. thank you....

That makes me quite glad.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

19. Thank you for this important post. I will make sure his wife sees it.

That was very thoughtful of you!

[pnwmom]

22. I had intended to write an OP about it after Christmas,

hoping to share what I had learned the hard way. Your post reminded me. We were certainly grateful for the additional Medicare coverage and I know it could be important to lots of people.

Of course I hope WCGreen gets better soon, but if he has to stay in rehab longer than three weeks, he shouldn't have to fight for his facility to follow the law. And no one's family needs the additional stress of trying to figure out how to pay for skilled nursing, on top of everything else.

[Rex]

15. Thank you for the update and you guys have a great

Christmas Peggy.

[malaise]

16. Thanks for the uodate

Happy Holidays to Chris, his wife and family

[BlancheSplanchnik]

17. thank you for the update, Peggy! Hi, Chris and Mrs. Chris!

BIG smiles, warm thoughts to you all