My wife suffered a freak fall recently that fractured two vertebrae and broke her collarbone. The ambulance took her to the local hospital where she was treated, and then sent home.

She was provided with no plan for therapy either at home or in a skill care facility. After three days of lying flat on her back unable to move or be moved by me and my family, we decided to take her back to the ER and start over.

The ER said call an ambulance but the ambulance wouldn’t take her out of the county and Blue Cross wouldn’t accept the local Vanderbilt hospital so we took the thirty minute trip in our car.

The hospital corrected their oversight and in five hours the insurance company agreed to a stay in the adjacent skill care facility.

Then came PASRR, a federal mandate that must approve any admittance into a nursing facility. In Tennessee this function has been privatized and is done in the least expensive way to maximize profits for the screening company.

They kicked out her request saying her SS# was already in use! After eight hours in the ER, the hospital put her up for the night. The screening company promised to fix their mistake the next day.

In Italy we know from personal experience, there are no middle men or clerical workers, and there’s no charge.

Don’t ever get medical treatment in a foreign country. It will only hurt more when you have to deal with the healthcare system in this country.

David Clark