plugger
Joined: 11 Jan 2003
Posts: 258
Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2003 3:09 pm Post subject: Advice from Drs. Lockridge and Blagg
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Dear patients, relatives of patients and friends<
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>On Fe
uary 27th Jim McDermott (D) together with 16 co-sponsors introduced HR 1004, the Kidney Patient Daily Dialysis Quality Act of 2003. The wording is the same as the bill in the last Congress and covers both short daily and long nightly dialysis both at home and in a center.<
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>Now is the time for you to call to speak to your Congressional Representative or their Health Aide, both in their local and their Washington offices, and urge them to support this bill by co-sponsoring HR 1004. Follow up with an email or fax. If you wish, you might try doing the same with other Representatives from your state. Also, please ask your family members and friends who live in your state or other states to do the same with their Representatives. Do not send a letter by regular mail as this may take weeks to get through because of security. <
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>In your own words, stress the numerous patient benefits of daily dialysis that include many fewer symptoms during and between dialyses, much better quality of life in every way, greater opportunity for rehabilitation, fewer days in hospital, the need for less of the expensive drug, EPO and the reduction or elimination of the need for drugs to treat high blood pressure. Any personal experiences you can describe would be wonderful.<
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>Point out that the extra costs of doing more frequent dialysis are more than offset by the considerable cost savings from fewer days in hospital and less EPO use. The number of dialysis patient is expected to double in the next 10 years, meaning a need for a lot of new dialysis units, and the nursing shortage will not go away. Home dialysis and less costly and better treatments therefore will become more and more important. <
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>Above all, emphasize the many improvements in patient well being.<
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>More than 300 reports worldwide all say the same good things about this treatment. <
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>Please let us know who you have contacted and their response.<
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>Timing is critical. We need as many co-sponsors of HR 1004 as we can get if it is to have a chance of passage this year.<
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>If you have questions also feel free to email either of us.<
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>Christopher R. Blagg MD Robert S. Lockridge MD<
>blaggc@hotmail.com rlockridge@lynchburgnephrology.com<
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>
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ridgerunner
Joined: 11 Jan 2003
Posts: 101
Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2003 3:12 pm Post subject: more frequent dialysis
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i will give you some of my conserns about the bill as it is written. i for one know the benfit of and more frequent dialysis. my objection is the are no specific standards or guide lines in the bill. it would destroy self care and home dialysis. yes this is a strong statement. in my opinion the major problem and the destruction of home dialysis in the US CAUSED BY THE GOVT FAILURE TO SET STANDARDS AND ADAQUACY OF TREATMENT. THIS BILL IN MY OPINION WOULD ALLOW THE INDUSTRY TO CUT THE TREATMENT TO LESS THAN TWO HOURS AND WITH THE FIVE DAY TREATMENT YOU WOULD GET ABOUT THE SAME CLEARANCE YOU GET WITH THE THREE DAY JIFFY LUBE. in my opinion they would increase their income about 70 percent. which would put home dialysis out of the reach of patient except the ultra rich.
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jfwag
Joined: 11 Jan 2003
Posts: 140
Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2003 4:46 am Post subject: This is Great...
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Simply put, this is great!!!!Let's do it!!!
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Cautious
Joined: 22 Feb 2003
Posts: 2
Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2003 6:58 am Post subject: another scam?
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plugger, Jfwag and whoever,<
>Why would you trust this legislation when there are no standards? Didn't the Senate hearings
ing out the coruption and doesn't that have to be dealt with before the Industry can be trusted? This bill is just more spin..it's an illusion! <
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>I go to a big for profit. They put out a newsletter that is total propaganda. Its all about wonderful ways of this company working hand in hand with patients for quality patent care. Its a total mirage! <
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>Living under this lie I can totally envision what its like to live in a communist country. This newsletter is like total communist propaganda. <
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>The reality is patient care is poor and like what I saw yesterday - an elderly woman patient who is failing was treated like a piece of meat. When her tx was over she could not stand up to get in her wheelchair. The techs spoke and acted disrespectfully and abusively to her. They pulled her up and then told her to swivel her feet around. She insisted she could not move her feet so they kept swiveling her until her feet were twisted and her slippers were contorted and then jammed her into the chair. They had put their hands on inappropriate parts of her body..anything to get her in the wheelchair. The whole time they were speaking to her so abusively like she was a child they had to control to get her out of there. It seemed that she needs other arrangements, because she can no longer control her body. The techs did not feel they could take her to the bathroom and that she is too far gone for the unit and that may be. But what I witnessed was horrendous! <
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>I don't see where giving units more dollars when there are no standards and quality of care, in the first place, is going to have merit. It's like making a deal with Saddam. I'm appauled at our govt. for allowing these conditions and not being accountable to the people it represents.
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plugger
Joined: 11 Jan 2003
Posts: 258
Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2003 11:43 am Post subject: HR1004
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Ridgerunner and Cautious, I don't blame you for being skeptical with the track record this industry has. But I have to ask myself, do I believe dialysis will be better after this bill? My opinion is yes. This bill addresses what I believe is one of the major problems, and that is frequency of treatments. It will also give another choice for patients. I don't trust the leadership of these companies as much as anyone. But I also believe there are still a lot of good people working in dialysis, who want to do a good job. I think this will give these people a chance to provide better care for their patients. We don't have anything about standards in front of us now, we do have this bill (a bird in the hand, is worth two in the bush). I did mention on my website though, I thought the bill could be improved by giving incentive for more hours. But is it possible? I don't know. (But I don't think it could hurt to mention it when writing in)<
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>Cautious, it does make me angry and sad to hear stories like you are telling. It does make me realize this won't be over even if this bill does pass.
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dialysis advocate
Joined: 06 Apr 2003
Posts: 2
Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2003 5:48 am Post subject: Support of the Bill
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Skeptical and Cautious; Non-support of this bill only shows that some are so imbittered by in-center treatment that they are willing to sacrifice dialysis patients to get even. Without this bill more treatments will not be provided for and that will ONLY HURT dialysis patients. I didn't know that we had reach a state of mind where it was justifiiable to "hinder better dialysis" and "sacrifice patients" to worry about the money the industry was making. God help us if this is where we are at.
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plugger
Joined: 11 Jan 2003
Posts: 258
Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2003 6:30 am Post subject: flyers
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/>
I talked to my minister today. He is going to give me a 30 second plug at next week's services. I'm going to be in the back with flyers and probably more info. On June 15th (father's day) I get to give my speech (couldn't get it any sooner - they are busy, busy). Wish me luck!
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ridgerunner
Joined: 11 Jan 2003
Posts: 101
Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2003 9:31 am Post subject: new bill
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i for one know the benifits of adaquate dialysis. no fluid or diet restrictions. no binders or blood pressure meds. yes you can lead a normal life with in the bounds of your problem. so you do not have to sell med on adaquate treatment. i am a retired professional. i know what a mess was when medicaid first came out. it had no standards. the govt juat dumped a truck load of money on the street. the same thing happened if you dump a load of money any where. all i ask is for standards to go with the money. we are not talking about millions but billions
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patient advocate
Joined: 07 Apr 2003
Posts: 4
Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2003 12:42 am Post subject: money vs standards
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We all want the standards to go with the money. However the issue of paying for more treatments is just that the paying of more treatments. Get the number of treatments paid for increased and continue on with the standards of those treatments. All the standards in the world will not provide good dialysis for the American Patients if more treatments are not paid for and received.
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no
Joined: 07 Apr 2003
Posts: 2
Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2003 5:57 am Post subject: sorry
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You have it backwards. Clean up the corruption first! Put sanctions on the units that dont deliver quality care, shut down units that don't comply. Don't feed into crooks. There never was an honest crook.
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thieves
Joined: 07 Apr 2003
Posts: 2
Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2003 7:27 am Post subject: standards
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I agree with Ridgerunner we need standards to go along with this new found money. Administrator's will find a way to twist and screw the patients more if this system does not have any standards. Don't feed the beast's!
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plugger
Joined: 11 Jan 2003
Posts: 258
Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2003 11:31 pm Post subject: Ain't getting the whole enchilada at once
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It would be great if all the corruption could be attacked now and standards could be set in place (very unlikely). This bill doesn't mean work will stop on that. But all of that looks like a longer, harder road to me. Right now, there is the chance of getting something that will improve dialysis. From what I understand, for the same labs a person is going to be healthier on the more frequent dialysis than the 3X a week. I can understand the distrust I'm seeing, bordering on paranoia. But pass this up, and what are you going to be stuck with, one choice (3X a week).<
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>Ridgerunner, after our conversation I checked on the reimbursement. Medicare will pay for 4X a week only under exceptional circumstances (bad heart, heavy set). It doesn't matter if the dialysis is in-center or home. So home dialysis won't be negatively affected, which is a relief to hear.
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theives
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Posts: 1
Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2003 12:31 am Post subject: wake up Plugger & Co.
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I rather be dead than deal with the mainiac staff at my clinic 5x a week! Sorry I'm not buying this crap.
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jfwag
Joined: 11 Jan 2003
Posts: 140
Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2003 12:56 am Post subject: I am ...
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gonna' have to come back to this one later. I am sorry. I thought we have debated this bill ad nauseum. Please just listen to what Plugger says. I am just going to say for now that "MORE IS BETTER" What are we nuts?
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