NO MASK, PAIN CONTROL & VOMIT

I was admitted to the Milnerton Mediclinic on 26 June to have major surgery done on my ankle - an osteotomy and synovectomy was done and the doctor had to use *****s. This was open surgery. It was an extremely painful procedure and the recovery is slow.

To my surprise I'm left with a substantial amount to pay the hospital because of the following: 1) I'm always extremely nauseous after surgery and to prevent me from vomiting the anesthesiologist always give me an antiemetic. She opted to use Droperidol. DROPERIDOL (droe PER i dole) prevents nausea and vomiting after surgery or other procedures. It works by blocking substances in your body that may cause nausea and vomiting. It belongs to a class of medications called antiemetics. Momentum does not want to pay for this even though a letter of motivation was sent to them. 2) The anesthesiologist had to use a mask during the surgery. This is now for my account. 3) A PCA (pain) pump was given due to the painful nature of the surgery. A patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) pump is a safe way for people in pain to give themselves intravenous pain medicine (analgesia) when they need it. The PCA pump holds a container that's filled with your pain medicine. Using a PCA pump gives you the ability to control your pain. Momentum wants me to pay for this.

What I find strange is that similar surgeries were previously performed where EXACTLY the same items (with the same nappi codes) were used and they were fully covered by Momentum Health. Simply compare the nappi codes of what you are rejecting now to previous hospital accounts you paid in full.

It is an absolute shame that you expect patients to vomit after surgery and be in agony due to not covering the necessary medication and PCA pump.

Please supply me with a letter explaining why you refuse to cover these items. I need this to file a complaint with the CMS.