Daschle/Dole/Baker! Health care on the fast track -along with the entire Nation's finance

Right after this Yellow Brick Award ceremony, I'm thinking that it may save my life for me to learn to use Twitter and Facebook. Now.

While President Obama is planning to take over the entire finance world ASAP, ABC is planning their all-day infomercial for Obama and his push - there is no "plan," yet - for health care "reform" by July 4. No opposing or alternate viewpoints will be allowed. They're even refusing to take a paid-for program in rebuttal, according to the Drudge Report.

ABC REFUSES PAID ADS OFFERING ALTERNATIVE VIEWPOINT FOR WHITE HOUSE HEALTH CARE PROGRAM
ABC is refusing paid ads for its health care program at the White House. Thus they're refusing even a paid-for alternative viewpoint.

Conservatives for Patients Rights requested the rates to buy a 60 second network spot immediately preceding the broadcast of the Town Hall meeting.

While looking for verification of this story, I came across several that report that former Senators Tom Daschle, Bob Dole and Howard Baker are working on a health care "compromise." (Come on! there's a reason they aren't Senators any more!)

See their report, "Crossing the Streams Lines" here.

So, we'll have a Secretary of the Treasury (who claims to be unable to do his own taxes using Turbo Tax) running Wall Street and all the banks. We'll have a known plagiarist and serial failed Presidential candidate (who also can't figure out that gifts and services are taxable) working with another serial failed presidential candidate (who took money for telling the world that he needs a little pharmaceutical help in the bed room) working to reign in the cost of doctors, hospitals, and those pharmaceutical companies. (The third player in the health care waters is Baker, another serial failed presidential candidate. It's just that no one's ever heard of him.)

But don't worry -- even if you are able to vote for a completely new House and a turnover of a good portion of the Senate in 2010, Obama will still run the Census out of his Committee to Reelect the President.

In the meantime, Obama is planning to cut Medicare fees to Hospice, hospitals and doctors while instituting a new tax on health care insurance benefits from employers, according to the Washington Post.

Why not? After all, Daschle had to pay taxes on his limo and driver and Geithner had to pay them on his kids' summer camp!


Addendum after skimming the report:
The "Crossing the Lines" report is full of calls for more regulation with a sprinkling of pablum.

First, they demand that everyone have health insurance. (Could be acceptable if we were allowed to chose between Major Medical and From-First-Dollar. And if it weren’t for the rest of the trash.)

They believe - or at least claim to believe - that it will pay for itself. (Who knew old white haired men could be so funny?)

How will the money be raised?

By a “trigger” to enforce cuts when costs reach a certain point and by not paying for those treatments that are considered less effective.

What are they going to do with all the men and women who insist on antibiotics, today, for their bronchitis? Will they protect the doc when the patient develops bacterial pneumonia?

How about my man in his mid-80’s with a 102 fever in the ER, a bladder infection, multiple falls that resulted in bruises and skin tears, and potassium at 2 (normal is 4)? Medicare would not allow me to actually admit him because he turned out not to be septic by their criteria. He ended up on “Observation” for 3 days while his wife and I tried to find some safe place for him to go after discharge and I tried to get a handle on his potassium. He left for the rehab hospital with a potassium of 2.6. On a heart monitor. Because Medicare rules threaten us with charges of “fraud and abuse.”

How about our local hospice? Obama has announced his intention to cut funding to hospice. I guess there’s not much efficacy in hospice. After all, the hospice patient is, by definition, expected to die within 6 months. However, hospice patients are less likely to present at the ER, with the costs of their care much less than hospitalization.

Trust me, I have no conscience (Again and again, and again)

Siricou Raven, that gadfly of the prolife blogger, says I'm using scare tactics, that the NHS pays for dialysis, and that we pro-conscience doctors are afraid that 'THE GAYS WILL DESTROY MEDICINE!!!!' Oh, and Bush did it!

Well, what do you expect of people who don't have consciences and who are told by the Powers that be that we must violate any oaths we've taken for money and law?

It's not Gays and Lesbians we're trying to protect ourselves and our consciences from - its their lawyers. Beginning in 2005 and through last month, ACOG broke one of the strongest tenets of modern medicine: Thou shalt not put thy colleagues in greater malpractice risk.

The conscience protection ruling is a synthesis of current laws. The synthesis was only necessary because in 2005, the American College of Obstetricians and the American Board of OBGyn turned their quiet attack on pro-life residency candidates (few programs will accept pro-life doctors) into an effort to change laws (lobbying the US Senate) and amended their own ethics policies to put not only ACOG members, but all doctors at risk of losing their certification, their licenses, and increased our lawsuit risk.

Obama, what's-her-name, and Daschle are bought and paid for by Planned Parenthood and NARAL. (Daschle sent out letters against George Bush in '04, on NARAL's letter head. After the SCOTUS allowed the Partial Birth Abortion Ban, Sebelius vetoed 3 separate bills due to their limits on abortion. And Obama made his famous "first thing I do is sign FOCA" speech to PP)

Most people have access to the $4 Walmart drugs. Our little town has 2 low cost clinics, one is free of charge, one has a cost of less than $5. Everyone who can raise the money can have the latest and greatest -- not so in the NHS. A few years ago, it was illegal to sell Tamiflu in Great Britain, because NICE said it was.

Years before that, Dialysis was limited to those under 55 years old. Echoing that, this year, a man in his 50's was told he would not get surgery to stabilize his ankle until he kicked his nicotine habit.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-481617/Doctors-refuse-fix-builders-broken-ankle-unless-quits-smoking.html

Our hospital has indigent care, as does our County. We doctors see patients for cash and are aware when their costs are out of pocket. (My phone has a program that has formularies for local insurance plans. The patient and I discuss whether they want the once a day Tier 4 drug, the twice a day Tier 3 or the 4 times a day generic.)

Texas teens form pro-life club

And, it seems that the kids in Coppell, Texas (near Dallas) are only "anti-abortion" because of the undue influence of their families and churches. From the Dallas Morning News:

Abortion rights advocates say it's even harder for them to organize high school students because of the focus on abstinence.

"We're up against a movement that has federal dollars going into public schools," said Kierra Johnson, director of Choice USA. "You compound that with what they could be learning in church, and it sets us back in terms of outreach to young people under 18."

Of course, the Dallas Morning News calls the club "anti-abortion," not "pro-life." In spite of the fact that the kids call themselves "The Pro-Life Club." The author calls for tolerance on the part of the "anti-abortion crowd but can't even bring herself to use the term the teens would prefer.

I guess the DMN doesn't keep up with the latest research. Otherwise, they'd know that the study on abstinence that was in the news earlier this month informed us that teens - whether they sign a pledge or not - who come from religious, conservative backgrounds are more likely to delay their first intercourse for about 3 years longer than their peers. I nominate the author of the article,Katherine Leal Unruth, her editor, and Ms. Johnson for Twits of the Year and definitely award them my own Yellow Brick Road award. ("Do Not Look Behind the Curtain, Ignore That Little Man." Or small woman.)

Bravo Coppell teens, their parents, and their churches!

Medicare, IRS kill doctors by alphabet soup

There's this number called the "NPI." The CMS (Center for Medicare and Medicaid or Can't Manage S(tuff))mandated that any one and any corporation that bills them (for services already done, mind you) needed to add this number, the "National Provider Identifier," by May 23 of this year. (Need I report that quite a few doctors haven't been getting paid properly since? ) Well, out of the blue, the PTB (Powers that Be) sent down a little notice that the names associated with the NPI must now be identical to the ones that the IRS (Infernal Internal Revenue Service) has on file.

The NPI is in addition to the "UPIN" (Unique Provider Identifier Number) the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) number, a whole caboodle of state and insurance "identifiers," and that pesky identifier that your mother, father, and husband gave you: your name.

The NPI also had to be acquired for any and each partnership or practice. Some people had one for themselves and one for their practice. Some did not receive their number for months. And, some were unable to get paid even with all the right numbers in the right place.

Now, many will have to start the application process all over if there's a period after the "M" in "M.D." or a space between the letters in their IRS files.

Here's more from "Health IT News:"

Healthcare IT News
By Diana Manos, Senior Editor

06/17/08

WASHINGTON - Just when doctors thought things couldn't get much worse, experts say, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has thrown another wrench into the already difficult transition to using National Provider Identifiers.

According to a June 11 CMS announcement, doctors will have to reconcile their NPI data with their IRS legal name data in order to get paid.

According to billing experts, this is a disaster waiting to happen. Every aspect of the data must match, including the exact spelling of names, the use of initials and even blank spaces in the data. The slightest discrepancy could send Medicare claims back to the drawing board. Don't go getting married!

After a year-long contingency period, the use of NPIs was required by CMS as of May 23. Both before and since that deadline, doctors have had difficulty getting paid due to a host of complications with CMS and clearinghouse systems, experts say.

Cyndee Weston, executive director of the American Medical Billing Association, said the IRS matching requirement "has blindsided the whole industry."

Weston, who works with small billing companies that submit claims for doctors, said many doctors who began using their NPI identifiers before the deadline have still not received Medicare reimbursements.

"This is going to affect all the doctors we work for. It's going to kill their practices," Weston said.

"I think we haven't seen the worst of this yet. I think we're going to see a big uprising if this continues. No way around it."

Martin Jensen, chief operating officer and chief analyst at the Healthcare IT Transition Group, a consulting group specializing in helping doctors get paid, said physicians aren't getting consistent answers from the CMS or its intermediaries as to what's blocking the claims. The added stress of matching NPI to IRS data is going to compound their troubles.

"This IRS thing is very immediate and one we didn't anticipate," Jensen said. "It's definitely going to set off a cascade of mismatches to data."

The answer most physicians are getting from CMS is to start over with a new NPI enrollment. This could take months, Jensen said. Even doctors who have successfully had their claims paid under NPI could be forced to start over if their IRS data doesn't match, he added.

Are you a provider experiencing difficulty getting paid under NPI? Share your experiences with Senior Editor Diana Manos at diana.manos@medtechpublishing.com.

I don't believe that doctors will actually quit work. Who can, unless our spouse has a good income or we were independently wealthy to begin. What's going to happen is that many more docs will "opt out," or quit accepting Medicare or Medicaid. With the threatened 15%- 20% cut looming over our heads, the extra work and uncertain payment, along with the threat of legal consequences and now no payment) if one comma, period, or space is out of place, I'm not sure I would trust a doc stupid enough to try to play the game.

Everyone else does it

The American Medical Association and the American Medical Student Association are both up in arms about contact between drug companies and other vendors and doctors and medical students. And yet, no one complains when a New York Times story about the fuss contains advertising. (Free registration required -- is "free" anything undue influence?)

I've said it before, perhaps I can be bought, but not for a pen, some samples or lunch.

"Expelled, The Movie" Conversation Continues

The many Anonymice are still discussing world views on a post from last October.

(In case you wondered where I've been:

We've had our primary, with one hotly contested local Republican race ending in a cliff-hanger. The same seat was decided by 54 votes out of about 20,000 in 2006. This time, it looks like the winner may be decided by about 38 votes out of 30,000, before the mail in ballots are counted. We're expecting a recount.

It turns out that the consequences of politics and policy became personal this last 2 months. We've spent the last year - over 14 months, now - working out a plan to remodel our 65 year old house only to find out that the city adopted the new provisional FEMA flood plain map, and we can't remodel - we have to fill in the basement, tear down the old house, and build 2-3 feet higher. I'll admit that I haven't reacted very well. But, still, the City's bureaucrat literally lost the plan for 6 weeks before telling us that the concrete-poured-in-place house and basement that's still plumb, smooth and level after more than 60 years might float up and turn on its side.)