SPEAKOUT

Accept or not?

We are hoping that someone will respond to this speakout. Hopefully, this speakout by some will be considered a public service. We continue to see TV commercials and newspaper ads for the two hospitals in Cape Girardeau and the one in Sikeston. Recently, the St. Louis Post Dispatch ran a page one story on how much the two Cape Girardeau hospitals spent on advertising and how much their high cost of patient care is. One of the Cape hospitals has an advertising director that doesn't even live in Cape Girardeau. I believe she commutes from out-of-state by plane from Wisconsin four days a week. My question is very simple. Why don't any of these newspaper or TV ads for these three hospitals, two in Cape Girardeau and one in Sikeston, state and print that they do indeed accept Medicare patients? None of the three hospitals state or print that they accept Medicare patients. Does anybody reading this now if they do indeed?

We called Southeast and St. Francis hospitals and both accept Medicare patients. Missouri Delta Medical Center takes Medicare and has a Charity Care Policy that gives discounts to patients who do not have adequate financial resources to pay for their care. The income of the responsible party for the prior twelve months is assessed against the federal poverty guidelines to determine the amount of assistance provided. The total cost of services will be forgiven for patients who are determined indigent. In 2012, Missouri Delta provided over $1.3 million in Charity Care. Missouri Delta Medical Center's total marketing expense in 2012 was $252,000 which includes a local marketing director. This expense is fractional compared to other hospitals in our region.

Zimmerman was right

Regarding the Trayvon Martin-Zimmerman case, I think Trayvon Martin got exactly what he deserved. He was trying to beat somebody to death. He was beating their head into a concrete wall. He was sitting on top of somebody. The guy could not defend himself. He pulled out a gun and defended himself. I would have done exactly the same thing. Trayvon Martin was a violent, 6-foot tall athlete and criminal. He got exactly what he deserved.