2 Questions & 3 Surprises

Remember when surprises were a good thing?

Well, I've had three surprises and only one of them was good.  A few weeks ago, Gary was having chest pain.  Nitroglycerin didn't help.  Per the hospice nurse's instruction, I gave him morphine.  When that didn't work, the nurse contacted the on-call doctor who suggested we go to the ER.

Surprise #1:  It took 4 people almost a full hour to get Gary from the bedroom to the front door.  If he was having heart attack (surprise #2 - the good one - he wasn't), the results of that delay could have been catastrophic.  I understand he has no use of his legs and limited use of his arms, but it's been so long since he was out of bed at all, I did not realize the extent to which he was totally helpless.  That came as quite a surprise.

Surprise #2: (The good one).  He wasn't having a heart attack.  They believe it was likely muscle strain from the progression of his disease. And they made that determination after we arrived in an ambulance, had a chest x-ray, 3 EKGS, and a ton of bloodwork.  After they determined it wasn't his heart, they send us back home in an ambulance.

Surprise #3:  We have received a letter from Medicare denying payment for the whole trip.  The ambulances.  The doctors.  The x-ray.  The EKGs.  The lab work.  All of it.  Why, you ask?  Well, because they are already paying for him to be on hospice.  And if they buy him a pack of pull-ups every now and again, you certainly can't expect them to pay for cardiac care.  I guess once you're on hospice, you're supposed to die.  And I guess he isn't dying fast enough to suit them.

And that leads me to my 2 questions:

1.   How the hell are we supposed to pay that?

2.  What are we supposed to do the next time he has chest pains?