Thursday, December 10, 2009

Here's a post from a former UCLA anesthesiologist. Somewhat hidden in the post is another example of the same pattern I've noted before at the University of California: billing for things that were not actually done. In particular, there's this passage:

"the O.R. cut–off time for elective dental surgery at UCLA was 4 p.m.

Translated, that meant the patient had to be out of the room and in the recovery room by that time.

That was so everyone could go home by 5 p.m.

...

So part of my job was to inform them at 3 p.m. that they needed to finish up so I could wake the patient up and get her/him to recovery by 4 p.m.

Frequently this would result in abandonment of some crucial part of the procedure or a shortcut to get done in time."



(bolding and ellipse mine).

Just another data point.