Cash-strapped Florida health group stops dialysis for poor patients

[babylonsister]

Jackson Health System halts dialysis for poor patients
Dozens of patients are facing a life-or-death situation after Jackson Health System stopped paying for treatment for their failing kidneys.

BY JOHN DORSCHNER AND JUAN CARLOS CHAVEZ
[e-mail]


The financially strapped Jackson Health System has stopped paying for dialysis treatments for 175 poor patients with failing kidneys -- a decision that experts say could be deadly.

``It is no game,'' says Emelina García Cordoví, 67, whose treatments at a South Miami-Dade center were cut off Dec. 31. ``We are talking of the lives of persons who depend exclusively on their dialysis.''

Jackson, Miami-Dade's government health system intended to be a safety net for the poor and uninsured, said it expects to save $4.2 million by stopping payments for outpatient dialysis treatment for the 175 patients. Of those, other avenues for care have been found for all but 41, says spokesman Robert Alonso. About a third of those are undocumented immigrants, who are not eligible for government programs.

``This decision was not taken lightly,'' said Eneida Roldan, chief executive of Jackson, which is trying to reduce a projected loss of $168 million for fiscal 2010. She said patients can still get treated in the emergency room.

The situation is so serious that Brian Keeley, chief executive of Baptist Health South Florida, suggested Wednesday that, if Jackson cannot handle the patients, a ``public-private partnership'' of hospitals be formed to provide care. Jackson officials said they would welcome anything that helped solve the problem.

``These people are going to seek treatment,'' Keeley said. ``They're going to migrate to the nearest emergency room,'' after they become sick, meaning care will be more expensive. Such a scenario is ``very very inappropriate'' when they could be kept well at outpatient dialysis centers, he said.

Under the healthcare reform proposals now before Congress, the emphasis is on getting cheaper basic care for an additional 30 million Americans so that they don't need expensive ER visits.

more...

http://www.miamiherald.com/486/story/1413134.html

[hlthe2b]

1. "Decision not taken lightly..." No, they are rendering a death sentence

What kind of country have we become? Damn.

[eShirl]

2. ``These people are going to seek treatment,'' - not necessarily

This might just be the last straw for some people to GIVE UP on dialysis and life.

When my husband was on dialysis he was told he did have the right to stop, and that he would be dead in less than two weeks. He knew one person that skipped 2 treatments and was dead in less than a week.

[Craftsman]

3. Might save time and just shoot them

[tanyev]

4. I'm guessing that Sarah Palin is not very disturbed by these death panels.

[atreides1]

5. This quote seems appropriate

"...let them die and decrease the surplus population."

If you read between the lines!

[M155Y_A1CH]

6. k/r

This is truly a death sentence. Someone should track these folks and see how many days it takes before they are all dead. We should know how quickly this and other similar decisions kill.
I'll bet it takes less time to die than to get such rulings reversed.

:kick:

[OHdem10]

7. And the HCR is putting more people in each state onto Medicaid

Rolls. Doctors refusing to take Medicaid Patients because
the Government does not reimburse Doctors adequately and
in timely course.

Just adding to problems like the one described in your post.

[dgibby]

8. This is becoming a deadly game of "follow the leader"

http://www.beforeyoutakethatpill.com/index.php/2009/09/26/update-on-closing-of-grady-dialysis-clinic/

Published Sep 23, 2009 6:24 PM

More than 100 patients, their family members, doctors, other health workers and community activists packed into the board room at Grady Hospital on Sept. 14 to press for the continued operation of the outpatient dialysis clinic, a function of the once-public hospital for 62 years.

Ignoring the appeals of the crowd, many of whom held signs reading “How Many Will Die?” and “Keep the Clinic Open,” the corporate-dominated privatized board voted unanimously to close the life-sustaining treatment facility on Sept. 20.


Looks like it's open season on the poor.

:grr: :nuke:

[Winterblues]

9. Miami-Dade's government health system

This is great ammo for Sarah and her Death Panel Ilk...This is exactly what she was talking about and it is supposedly a Government Health System....Sounds to me like this Miami-Dade Government is more concerned with money than people and by no definition I am aware of, is Government supposed to be for anything other than the people.

[Igel]

10. Except that the reasoning was precisely the opposite.

If you have $2 million and can save 150 people do you do it?

Of course.

If you have a choice, spend $2 million to save 150 people *or* spend $2 million to save 300 people, which do you do? Let's make it easier: It's either/or, there is no provision for splitting the difference and saving 225. You *do* have the option of saving both for 1/2 year, and then letting both sets die.

For many, the answer is what my kid says if you offer him a chocolate bar or an ice-cream sandwich and ask which he wants. "Both!"

It's hard when fiscal reality hits. True, those in charge could forego their salaries and benefits to pay, at least in part, for it. But that's short-term and short-sighted.

In this case we're tempted to say to spend it on the 150. Why? Because at least some have names and faces. It's easier to empathize, to be partial in judging. But if the facts are as the hospital presented them they made the only right choice.

I was talking today with a phlebotomist; in an adjacent room a little kid was screaming bloody murder as they drew blood. She said it was hard to do, the kids not only kick and scream, but they cry and look betrayed at the pain. It's worse when the person drawing blood has kids of his/her own. But it needs done so they do it.

[Winterblues]

11. No you are wrong

If it is the Government they have the option of raising the money to meet their obligations. They can tax or put user fees or whatever but to just say we don't have the money so you are cut off is exactly the "Death Panel" logic Palin was talking about. Her entire logic was rationing. Just as you are describing..