PeoriaStory

Medicine: the inside story

PEORIA, IL -- Here's a very interesting article by Dr. John Carroll that tells the inside story of what goes on in hospitals.

(Carroll will not like this comment, but I have read that most medical students also are not taught how to do abortions, though huge numbers of women have them.

(The answer to that may be do-it-yourself abortions, explained on the Web.)

Today I heard a story from a friend who recently took her sick baby to the OSF emergency department. She spent a half day there, only to be told that babies get sick and will get over it within a week or two.

He was checked out, she said, and doesn't have any visible infections, but he's been crying constantly and seems sick. He's at home now, still crying.

After reading Carroll's piece, it makes you wonder. This baby is on Medicaid. Low pay for the hospital.

My own experience, not at OSF, has been mixed.  Doctors generally follow treatment guidelines, which may fit most people but not all.

Think of the bell curve -- those at either end may not fit the guidelines.

But don't take my word for it.  Guidelines for rectal cancer have been studied at the University of Michigan and found wanting. "In this day and age of practicing medicine, particularly with cancer, physicians rely on these guidelines heavily. Our study suggests we need to be careful about that. The guidelines are of varying quality and they have varying recommendations. It’s not as easy as just viewing a guideline and following it,” says senior study author Sandra L. Wong, M.D., M.S., associate professor of surgery at the University of Michigan Medical School.

In my long lifetime, I found I have to research something then tell the doctor what I want.  The docs usually comply, but not always. They are following guidelines which may or may not fit me. Or the baby.

 -- Elaine Hopkins 

 

The state's new supplemental Medicare coverage: meetings and questions

PEORIA, IL -- The politicians that have forced state retirees to pay 1 percent of their pensions for supplemental Medicare coverage, a rate which will double to 2 percent on July 1, will finally have to face their victims. (This coverage was previously free, part of their retirement benefits, a situation now in litigation.)

Meetings are now being scheduled throughout the state on the Medicare Advantage plans the state is offering.  There's one in Peoria on Thus., Nov. 14, 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. at the Peoria Civic Center, 201 SW Jefferson. It's said to be sponsored by Reps.David Leitch, R-Peoria, and Jehan Gordon-Booth,D- Peoria,  Mike Unes, R-East Peoria, Sens. David Koehler, D-Peoria and Darrin LaHood, R-Peoria.  Will they show up to face the music?

 No details of the plans have been released yet -- vital information such as deductibles, co-pays, coverage.  Hopefully retirees will get this information in the mail before the meetings. 

But there are many, many questions that must be asked.  Here's a list, from Fred Klonsky's blog:

• If your doctor accepts Medicare but chooses not to participate in the PPO Advantage Plan, can you pay his charges at time of service and submit a claim to United Healthcare for reimbursement?  If so, what is the time period for reimbursement?
• State of IL is a notoriously slow pay, so much so that some doctors have refused to take public employees as patients.  While TRIP was a “slow pay”, the State Insurance Program for other State employees was “appalling slow.”  Will these plans be any better?
• If one leaves traditional Medicare for an advantage plan, can you go back to traditional Medicare at any point?
• If someone accepts the Advantage PPO Plan, but after two months is dissatisfied, can they leave the State plan and purchase a Medigap policy and Drug plan without penalty from the State OR penalty in purchasing the alternative healthcare and drug plans?
• If a doctor accepts Medicare, is he required to accept the Medicare Advantage PPO?
• Doctors are reporting that CMS has stated the details of the Advantage PPO will NOT be available to them until mid-December.  Since retirees must make a decision with regard to any private Drug plan by December 7 (Open Enrollment deadline), the timeline for doctors to receive and evaluate the Advantage Plan does not appear to work.  Please advise how doctors and retirees can make intelligent decisions under the present timeline.
• Why can some State retirees leave the State insurance program and return at a later date, but TRIP retirees can’t?  Are there other differences between the three State group plans (College Insurance Program, TRIP and State Insurance Program)?
• Is the paperwork required of doctors in the Advantage plans more or less difficult than for Medicare and is payment to them as prompt, more prompt or less so?
• Why is CMS scheduling meetings to explain “TRAIL” that are after the time that retirees must make a decision about a private drug plan - DECEMBER 7?  Why are not more meetings scheduled in the Chicago suburban area?
• Will the co- pays for prescriptions covered be limited to only generic? Will brand name prescriptions cost 20% or more of the retail price as exists under some plans?
• It has been reported that in many states, the UnitedHealthcare PPO offered to retirees is very restrictive, having fired many specialists, such as in cardiology, ophthalmology, dermatology, orthopedics.  These, of course, are specialties especially needed by retirees.!!! Will these restrictions also be applied in TRAIL?
• What about hospitals that do not accept Medicare Advantage ?  Is it right to expect retirees to pay those bills & wait to be re-imbursed.
• People have been in a situation where the doctor & hospital accepted their insurance, but the anesthesiologist group did not.  What kind of safeguards will be in place to prevent this kind of problem?  Include radiologists, pathologists, & blood labs in this question.

Note to politicians:  stop asking retirees for political contributions -- their disposable income will be going to pay for these plans instead.

  -- Elaine Hopkins

Top researcher departure a question mark

Here is an investigative story by Peoria journalist Clare Howard:

PEORIA --Professor Jasti Rao, Ph.D., a key figure in the development of the cancer research center at University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria, left abruptly just 15 months after the $13 million center opened.  His departure is part of an ongoing investigation, documents say.

 One component of a request filed last month under the Freedom of Information Act for correspondence and documentation between Rao and the University of Illinois administration regarding finances was declined because disclosure would “interfere with active administrative enforcement proceedings.”

 Rao’s resignation letter cited health as the reason for his departure. 

 Dave Haney, director of strategic communications at the medical school, said “Dr. Jasti Rao is no longer employed at University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria. I have no further comment.”

 Rao was also a director of a pharmaceutical company in India, Natco Pharma Limited. A company website, updated in May, states Rao resigned his board post due to “personal preoccupations.”

Rao, 62, was earning $695,950 a year as a tenured professor at the medical college, and was senior associate dean for research and head of the department of biology and pharmacology when he resigned in March. By 2011, he had received almost $30 million in research grants from the National Institutes of Health over the course of his career, more than any other brain cancer researcher in the country, according to a Peoria Journal Star article.

 A native of India, he had been recruited to Peoria in 2001 from University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. His international reputation was credited with securing funds for the new cancer research center at the Peoria medical school. The center opened in December 2011.

 State Rep. Dave Leitch, R-Peoria, had worked to secure funding to build the cancer research center and expressed shock and disappointment when Rao resigned abruptly. Leitch said he is unaware of an ongoing investigation into Rao’s departure.

 “There are a lot of unanswered questions,” he said.

 State Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, said, “I’m not aware of an ongoing investigation and I hope it is done quickly and fully disclosed to the public. Public funds were used to build the center and conduct research and the public has a right to know.”

 No response was received to requests for comment from Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin or the National Institutes of Health.

 A search is underway to replace Rao. In the meantime, Dr. Sara Rusch, regional dean, and Stephen Lasley, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and assistant head of cancer biology and pharmacology, are taking on additional responsibilities at the cancer research center.

 

New model for health care coverage

PEORIA -- Here's a  link to a very interesting story in the Community Word by free lance writer Clare Howard, on a new-to-Peoria model for health care coverage.

It's worth reading, and could become widespread in the future, likely a plus for the local community and the nation.   

HIV/AIDS news, statistics for Peoria

Here's a fascinating news release, with valuable statistics on HIV/AIDS in Peoria:

Funding to Help Women and Adolescents in HIV/AIDS Battle    
 

PEORIA – (August 16, 2012) The Heart of Illinois HIV/AIDS Center (HIHAC) will receive nearly $880,000 over the next three years to increase testing and access to medical care for Central Illinois women, adolescents and infants living with HIV/AIDS.  This new grant is through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

The grant – called the Ryan White Title IV Women, Infants, Children, Youth and Affected Family Members AIDS Healthcare project – is part of a national initiative to increase access to HIV care and reduce HIV-related health disparities, according to the HHS.

HIHAC is one of 114 community-based organizations, university hospitals and health departments nationwide to receive the grants, which totaled $68 million. Locally, the funding will: 

■ Increase HIV testing to an additional 150 females and adolescents unaware of their HIV status.

■ Provide comprehensive and coordinated primary HIV medical care to 175 individuals of this population (131 women and 44 adolescents ranging in age from 13-24).

■ Continue HIHAC perinatal services to an average of eight women who may become pregnant.

■ Expand treatment adherence and specialty referrals for OB/GYN, mammograms and other ancillary services as necessary.

■ Expand mental health and substance abuse services.

■ Increase HIHAC nursing team from 4 to 5.

“We are seeing more and more young people testing HIV positive, reluctant to get into care and/or coming into care late in their disease stage. We can use the new grant to target this group and work diligently to get them into care quicker, reducing the risk of opportunistic infections, AIDS Diagnoses, and continued spread of the virus,” says Pam Briggs, Director of HIHAC.

The grant provides funding through June 2015, and totals nearly $879,000, or about $292,000 each of the three years.

“Thanks to the HRSA grant we will be able to create a team to target adolescents and women throughout the region who may be infected with HIV and not aware of their diagnosis,” Briggs says. “This is great news for patients. We can get them tested and into care. We can expand medical services for women and enhance our perinatal program as well as support health maintenance for those in need and who will be eligible.”

The Heart of Illinois HIV/AIDS Center is a program under the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria (UICOMP) Department of Internal Medicine. HIHAC serves individuals within a 15-county area who are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Since 1994, the mission of the Heart of Illinois HIV/AIDS Center is to provide comprehensive care and services with acceptance and respect to individuals and communities affected by HIV in central Illinois.

Key Local Statistics:

 

		2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
No. People tested		270	342	475	413	364	350
No. Tested positive		6	5	3	3	4	5

 

 

Of the 15-county area that HIHAC serves, the total number of individuals enrolled for services has increased on average 6 percent each year for the past 5 years.

2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
456	495	525	533	559	594

 

• 25 percent of the nearly 600 patients are female
• From 2010 to 2011,    there was a 37% increase in the number of female cases between the age group of 13-24.
• Since 2003, there have been 61 reported pregnancies by women with HIV. Each birth has been confirmed as HIV negative! (An indication of the high level of care provided). In 2010, there were 13 females pregnant and in 2011, there were nine.

 

“It is possible that no child would be born HIV positive but to ensure this, the mother must be engaged in HIV care as well as prenatal care with her OB/GYN,” says Briggs. “The University of Illinois      College of Medicine at Peoria has the expertise available to help make this happen, and now we will have financial support.”

 

• 33.3 million people worldwide estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS in 2009
• In the U.S., more than 1 million people in the United States currently are living with HIV/AIDS.
• About 21 percent of those infected with HIV are unaware of their infection.
• In 2008, there were approximately 42,439 new HIV infections, with the highest proportion among African Americans despite the fact that they make up only 12 percent of the U.S. population.

The grant announcement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services can be found at:

http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2012pres/08/20120814a.html

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Peoria doctor sued, etc., says Illinois Times

PEORIA -- The Illinois Times, a weekly newspaper in Springfield, has done a series of articles on a Peoria physician, Dr. Stephen Austin Cullinan. 

He has been sued numerous times for substandard care in jails in Illinois and elsewhere.  The articles indicate he set up a company to provide care to inmates in jails. 

So far the PJS has not done a story on this.

"Get Out of Jail Dead" Dec. 22, 2011.

"Despite Malpractice Payouts Sheriffs Still Use Jail Doctor"  Jan. 19, 2012.

"Jailhouse Doctor Free to Practice" June 7, 2012.

"Healthcare Behind Bars," June 14, 2012.

 

Read these and weep for the inmates.They didn't deserve this fate.

And when politicians advocate for 'tort reform,' to prevent doctors from being sued, tell them about this situation.  This especially applies to Cong, Aaron Schock, R-Peoria, who has received campaign contributions from this doc and his family!

 -- Elaine Hopkins

 

 

 

 

 

 

The truth about mad cow...

PEORIA -- Here's a great story about the latest mad cow discovery that will or should chill you, as it did me. 

I believe many US  mad cow human victims are misdiagnosed as dementia sufferers, confined in nursing homes then die without publicity. 

A few years ago, as a working journalist, I found the number of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD supposedly non-infectious) human victims in Peoria, IL. to be way above the national average, likely because of better diagnosis at Peoria hospitals.

Prions cause both diseases and dementia is the chief symptom, leading to death.I'm betting the science linking the two diseases is incomplete.

So mad cow may be in the US human population and never properly diagnosed.Or the diagnosis might even be suppressed -- anything is possible in today's world.

A relative speculated that a Peoria vCJD victim acquired the disease from a device used at the hospital in another procedure, and not properly sterilized. All very scary and crying out for better regulations. He didn't eat beef, she said, and was not a hunter.

Mad cow also may be in deer, elk and other wild animal products, research has shown, a good reason to avoid that meat and stop hunting, even if the humane arguments don't appeal to you.

Meanwhile, avoid beef when possible, without being a jerk about it if someone serves it to you. After all, you're just rolling the dice.

(I also avoid pork when possible for humane reasons, since factory farms are horrible.)

Mad cow prions are more likely in the brains and nerve issues of beef, so a roast or steak is safer than hamburger and sausage, though contamination from slaughter is always possible. (The recent pink slime controversy has as its subtext the mad cow concerns.) 

Just FYI.  -- Elaine Hopkins