Author Topic: First Do No Harm ... to the Shareholders  (Read 3270 times)

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First Do No Harm ... to the Shareholders
« on: October 14, 2009, 06:06:31 PM »
plugger



Joined: 11 Jan 2003
Posts: 282

 Posted: 12 Sep 2009 01:35    Post subject: First Do No Harm ... to the Shareholders     

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First Do No Harm ... to the Shareholders
The Patient as Profit Center
By CARL GINSBURG
Nothing you are about to read will change at all no matter what Congress and the President finally agree to do in the never-ending circus of health care reform. A stratified system where privilege rules, and others wait, stays in place, unscathed. Primary doctors will not increase, nor will preventive care, nor will government assistance as envisioned by President Obama make a meaningful difference in the lives of anyone. Most doctors want nothing to do with Medicaid patients-indigent or otherwise. You see, in the end, doctors decide who they see.
They see dollars, lots of them. Take the example of the nation's nephrologists - kidney specialists - who have made millions of dollars on patients in an on-going scandal of profiteering, ethical lapses and outrageous indifference.
In 1973, the US government stepped in on the side of patients suffering from End Stage Renal Disease-that's when your kidneys stop doing the job. It's an awful condition, often brought on by hypertension, diabetes and other illnesses related to the preventable stress and strain of modern living. Loss of kidney function occurs predominantly among poor, urban populations. The only way to stay alive, short of getting a new kidney, for which there are long waiting lists, is to go on kidney dialysis, a cumbersome process whereby a patient goes to clinic three times a week for 3-4 hours per session and has his blood cleaned mechanically.
Medicare picks up the tab for this life-saving process. In 2007, the government spent $8.6 billion for dialysis and with projections of kidney failure going up, patients on dialysis are expected to reach 400,000 in the next few years, money spent - and made - in this field is enormous and growing.
Health care is a profit center and it didn't take a Harvard MBA - actually, a number of Harvard MBA's did in fact run this scheme- very long to see the potential. Health entrepreneurs began approaching nephrologists across the country in the 1980s with offers to purchase their practices and many doctors happily agreed. With practices of 70-100 patients per doctor and Wall Street setting a price of about $70,000 per patient, nephrologists got checks in the $5 to $7 million dollar range. For what, exactly? For promising to send their patients to clinics now owned by for-profit clinic systems. And that wasn't the end of it. Doctors also got directorships and other consulting deals for handing over their patients. Doctors just needed to agree to the protocols of the corporate dialysis company - the standing orders governing dialysis procedures and drugs. Remember, nothing in medicine gets done without a doctor's prescription, so there needs to be enduring cooperation between the dialysis corporation and the MD.
As more and more nephrology practices were bought up, two players came to dominate the field-the DaVita Corporation, a Fortune 500 company based in Denver, and Fresenius Corporation, headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. Today, these two companies control more than 70 percent of the US dialysis market, making billions of dollars annually. The CEO of DaVita has banked hundreds of millions in bonus money.
"Like me, you could.....be unfortunate enough to stumble upon a silent war. The trouble is that once you see it, you can't unsee it. And once you've seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing,becomes as political an act as speaking out. Either way, you're accountable."

Arundhati Roy

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Re: First Do No Harm ... to the Shareholders
« Reply #1 on: October 14, 2009, 06:07:05 PM »
plugger



Joined: 11 Jan 2003
Posts: 282

 Posted: 15 Sep 2009 01:09    Post subject:     

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Carl has been one of the staunchest friends of DialysisEthics. Here is more about the author:

"For 25 years, Carl Ginsburg has reported on and advocated in behalf of injured individuals and groups. As a producer at NBC and subsequently CBS News in the 1980s and 90s he covered courts, government agencies and business. Later, his investigative work took special aim at the healthcare sector. A Carter Center Fellowship in mental health affairs allowed Carl to firmly set his focus on healthcare matters nationwide and his published works have appeared in The Nation magazine and aired on network and cable TV programs. Carl also taught journalism to graduate students at New York University's School of Journalism and at Hunter College. He has lectured in the United States and abroad on methods of investigation, legal harm and the political economy of healthcare.
In the late 1990s, Carl began a collaboration with Howard Pierce, a Tyler Cooper partner, to develop methods of investigating healthcare abuse, with particular emphasis on witness development. In this capacity he has traveled throughout the United States seeking the participation of first-hand observers to abuse and fraud in the healthcare system. Carl is a graduate of Northeastern University School of Law and Columbia University."
 
"Like me, you could.....be unfortunate enough to stumble upon a silent war. The trouble is that once you see it, you can't unsee it. And once you've seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing,becomes as political an act as speaking out. Either way, you're accountable."

Arundhati Roy

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Re: First Do No Harm ... to the Shareholders
« Reply #2 on: October 14, 2009, 06:07:44 PM »
Angieskidney



Joined: 29 Jan 2007
Posts: 28
Location: ON, Canada
 Posted: 18 Sep 2009 19:15    Post subject:     

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Wow thank you for posting that!
 
"Like me, you could.....be unfortunate enough to stumble upon a silent war. The trouble is that once you see it, you can't unsee it. And once you've seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing,becomes as political an act as speaking out. Either way, you're accountable."

Arundhati Roy