Even if you have a prescription for medical marijuana, it can’t be filled at Cook County North Shore Hospital (CCNSH). Nor can it be filled at Sawtooth Mountain Clinic.
This would seem to counter the state of Minnesota’s new law, which legalized medical marijuana on January 1, 2016.
Under the legislation, Minnesotans diagnosed with intractable pain (when no relief or cure of the cause of pain is possible, or none has been found after reasonable efforts) are now eligible to receive medical marijuana to treat their pain.
However, CCNSH Director Kimber Wraastad said to the hospital board on January 21, “To our knowledge there is no nonprofit hospital or nursing home in the state that allows this.”
The problem, said Wraalstad, is that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) “can exclude providers for payment for breaking the federal law,” because medical marijuana isn’t legal nationally.
Until the federal government changes its stance on medical marijuana, Wraalstad said the hospital/ care center couldn’t risk providing cannabis to patients for fear of losing its Medicaid/Medicare payments.
Another new bill, said Wraalstad would allow a patient to bring action against a hospital “that used extraordinary collection efforts and has not provided, in plain language, a summary of the financial assistance policy.”
Although the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) now requires hospitals to tell patients about financial assistance options before beginning what are known as “extraordinary” bill collections (things like garnishing wages or turning the account over to a debt collection agency) it didn’t give relief to the patient if the hospital didn’t follow the rules and used excessive measures to collect bills.
That changed in Minnesota on January 1, when the state passed a law that now allows patients to bring action against a hospital if their bill isn’t explained to them in plain language. If the patient wins his or her claim, they will be entitled to having their legal fees paid.
“Do we follow the new law?” Board Member Tom Spence asked.
“Yes,” said Wraalstad, telling the board that the billing department takes time to discuss and explain charges to patients in understandable terms.
Wraalstad went over a litany of other new—or fairly new—pieces of legislation affecting the medical field, such as: . Effective August 1, 2015, terminal patients have the “Right to Try” U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigational drugs. . Nursing homes can now conduct bingo more than two times a week. This got a positive response from Board Member Sharon Bloomquist who said bingo was one of the care center resident’s favorite activities. . Enforcement of the physician supervision requirement was delayed through December 21, 2015, said Wraalstad. The problem for small rural hospitals is that this proposed law change calls for a hospital to provide a doctor to be on hand for simple procedures, such as when a patient is getting an I.V., that a doctor doesn’t necessarily have to be in the room for following initial monitoring.
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