patient
Joined: 29 Oct 2002
Posts: 137
Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2003 3:04 am Post subject: associated press
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ap news is starting to look at GAO report.<
>www.ajc.com/health/conten...lysis.html
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Are we suprised
Joined: 02 Dec 2003
Posts: 1
Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2003 10:26 am Post subject: Grassley doesnt care to clean up.....
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This is exactly what we have been saying all along. It is about giving the industry more money, and you guys can just go and expect no changes that amount to anything.<
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>I am grateful that we didnt get on his little pony show again. This is about election year and has not addressed issues that would go against the industry. He was placed in the spot that he is in, because he will give them more money. Now remember this very Senator has not called but one patient and didnt want to hear about the dumpings or any hard issues. He has been aware that hearings would be what would change this to protect patients. and he doesnt intend to.<
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>We thank God have gone elsewhere. So let him suck up to the industry, but the day is coming when he and the others will be accountable for the deaths and the lack of human rights. HE has known about the real hard issues since 1998. This whole thing was about paying back favors and not about real issues on patient rights.
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exactly
Joined: 01 Jun 2003
Posts: 4
Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2003 12:02 pm Post subject: Surprising part
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The part that surprises me is the Dr. Brian Pereira of NKF still wants to turn a blind eye to the report and downplay the findings.
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mole
Joined: 20 Nov 2003
Posts: 7
Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2003 2:06 pm Post subject: grassley report
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add two two and it don,t add to ten. the NFK is funded by the industry and the drug companies. DR. BRIAN works for NFK. SO ADD TWO PLUS TWO AND YOU GET FOUR.
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brenda
Joined: 28 Oct 2002
Posts: 103
Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2003 3:28 pm Post subject: Assoc.Press story
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Quality of dialysis for patients questioned<
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>Lauran Neergaard<
>Associated Press<
>Dec. 2, 2003 12:00 AM<
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>Nearly 300,000 Americans with failed kidneys stay alive by getting their blood cleaned three times a week at dialysis centers.<
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>Still, a new report says too many of those facilities provide inadequate treatment.<
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>Arizona ranks higher than the national average for the percentage of patients who received adequate hemodialysis treatment in 2002, according to the Centers for Medicare Services.<
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>Arizona's percentage was 93 percent compared with 90 percent nationally<
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>Government officials say they hope quality will improve in January when new Medicare payment rules give physicians financial incentives to examine dialysis patients more frequently.<
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>The change means a pay raise for kidney specialists who see dialysis patients at least four times a month, and a pay cut for those who have less frequent exams, now believed to be the norm.<
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>That's only one of a series of questions about quality of care surrounding dialysis, where inspections are few and far between.<
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>Medicare's chief says that while he longs to send more inspectors to the nation's 4,000 dialysis centers, doing so will require more money from Congress.<
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>"If there's one particular area (where) we need to do more, it's kidney dialysis," says Tom Scully, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. "But it's hard to get attention to it."<
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>Kidney disease is rising at an alarming rate, and the number of people requiring dialysis or a transplant to stay alive is expected to double in the next decade.<
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>Medicare, the health insurance program for the elderly, pays for dialysis for Americans of any age, with costs totaling $16 billion a year.<
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>Overall, dialysis care has gotten much better over the past two decades, says Dr. Brian Pereira of the National Kidney Foundation.<
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>Also, the dialysis industry notes that problem facilities are a minority.<
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>A recent report by congressional investigators, however, says there is not enough federal oversight to force needed improvements at a significant number of dialysis centers.<
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>"The oversight and enforcement of this industry are stuck in the Stone Age," says Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who three years ago urged improvements that still have not happened.<
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>Other problems likely are going unreported because patients fear centers will quit treating those who complain, Grassley wrote to Medicare in a demand for change.<
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>The General Accounting Office recommends that Congress allow Medicare to order dialysis centers caught with serious violations to pay fines. It also suggests that Medicare concentrate inspections on centers with a history of problems. <
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>The dialysis industry says problems stem from low Medicare reimbursement rates that make it harder for facilities to compete for highly trained technicians and nurses.<
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>In 12 years, Congress has allowed only a 3.6 percent payment increase to dialysis centers, and many are losing money, says Dr. Raymond Hakim of Kidney Care Partners, an alliance of dialysis providers and advocates.<
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>Medicare is studying that complaint.<
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>Dialysis patients can check Medicare's Web site -
http://www.medicare.gov/ - to compare what's known about the quality of individual dialysis centers before choosing one. Look for measures such as the percent of patients getting adequate dialysis.<
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>Republic staff contributed to this article.<
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leadsag
Joined: 31 Oct 2002
Posts: 263
Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2003 1:09 am Post subject: Re: Assoc.Press story
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Read that Scully resigned.
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a link
Joined: 03 Dec 2003
Posts: 1
Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2003 4:44 am Post subject: to the Scully story
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www.newsday.com/news/poli...0441.story *******************************************************************************
brenda
Joined: 28 Oct 2002
Posts: 103
Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2003 10:17 am Post subject: AP story
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WASHINGTON -- Thomas Scully, the Bush administration official deeply involved in drafting the Medicare bill, said Wednesday he will resign once President Bush signs the Medicare overhaul into law. <
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>Scully said he probably will take a job at one of five law or investment firms that want him to advise clients affected by the sweeping Medicare legislation. <
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>White House officials said President Bush will sign the bill Monday, giving seniors a prescription drug benefit beginning in 2006 and private insurers a new larger role to play in health care for 40 million older and disabled Americans. <
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>Scully said he will step down on Dec. 15 as administrator of the federal Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The agency, a
anch of the Health and Human Services Department, oversees the health insurance programs for the elderly, disabled and poor. <
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>"I'm thrilled I stuck around to see it through. It's done," Scully said in an interview. <
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>Scully, 46, who has run the Medicare and Medicaid programs for nearly three years, has often expressed a desire to spend more time with his three young children and earn more money. <
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>Congressional Democratic critics of the legislation, including Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, declined to comment on the matter. <
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>But several other bill opponents said Scully's talks with potential employers during consideration of the legislation reinforced a perception that the administration favors insurers and drug companies over seniors. <
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>"Seniors have a right to know why a White House bill that forks over billions to the HMOs and drug industries was written by a person who was apparently pursuing employment with those same industries," said David Sirota, spokesman for the Center for American Progress, which is run by former Clinton administration officials and aides to congressional Democrats. <
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>Scully acknowledged that the firms have been courting him for months, through the drafting and drawn-out negotiations over the bill. But he said he received clearance from the top HHS ethics official to continue his work on the legislation. <
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>"The fact is, I played this absolutely by the book," Scully said. <
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>Scully said his intention to leave the administration once the Medicare bill was finished "was the worst-kept secret." <
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>He said none of the firms that contacted him asked for any special consideration in the bill. "They all called me. I said, 'Sorry, you have to wait,'" Scully said. <
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>Scully served in senior positions at the Office of Management and Budget during the first Bush administration. Later, he served as president of the Federation of American Hospitals, the trade group representing the for-profit hospital industry
