7/6/99

Our fifth annual Medicare Patient Freedom Day is coming up on July 30.

To that end, we are collecting stories of "Bureaucratic Malpractice" inflicted by HCFA & Medicare carriers to include in news releases for Medicare Patient Freedom Day. We need your help to collect stories -- and this is your chance to let the public know just how difficult, absurd, and potentially dangerous to patients HCFA and its policies can be.

We’re looking for instances of HCFA nightmares -- examples of bureaucratic intrusion or foul ups so dangerous or ridiculous that if they weren’t committed with the force of the government immunity behind them, they would be grounds for a "malpractice" suit. Examples of what the government calls medically unnecessary, prolonged delays, Kafkaesque billing problems -- all are fodder.

Please keep them as brief as possible -- we’ll have to digest them to about 200 words.

PLEASE SEND YOUR STORIES BY JULY 17:

Fax to (520) 326-3529 or (520) 325-4230 or e-mail to: kaserkes@worldnet.all.net

PLEASE REMEMBER TO SEND IN YOUR MEDICARE SURVEY.

If you lost your copy, call (800) 635-1196.