Aetna is quitting 70 percent of Obamacare markets

http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/politico-pulse/2016/08/aetna-is-quitting-70-percent-of-obamacare-markets-215904

AETNA: WE’RE QUITTING 70 PERCENT OF OBAMACARE MARKETS — The insurer says it’ll walk away from more than two-thirds of exchange markets it participated in this year, dropping from 778 counties to 242 counties next year. Aetna will maintain a presence in just four states, it says — Delaware, Iowa, Nebraska and Virginia — down from 15 states this year.

… Aetna says the market’s financials are unworkable, pointing out that it has lost more than $430 million since January 2014 on its individual products. It’s not the only major player to walk away from the Obamacare exchanges.

“More than 40 payers of various sizes have similarly chosen to stop selling plans in one or more rating areas in the individual public exchanges over the 2015 and 2016 plan years,” CEO Mark Bertolini said in a statement. “As a strong supporter of public exchanges as a means to meet the needs of the uninsured, we regret having to make this decision.”

See Aetna’s announcement: http://aet.na/2aVKWgJ
More for Pros from Paul Demko: http://politico.pro/2aWI6hh

One state feeling the pain: Arizona. Aetna is just the latest insurer to pull out of the state this year — and “means Pinal County, as of now, has no ACA insurers” set to offer plans on the exchange this fall, the Arizona Republic’s Ken Alltucker reports. According to HHS data, there were 9,667 plan selections in Pinal County as of Feb. 1, 2016.

HHS: This doesn’t change the realities on the ground. Marketplace CEO Kevin Counihan pointed to data released last week that the exchange risk pool is getting healthier and less expensive, and suggested that the new market is creating winners and losers.

Democrats: This is a negotiating tactic. The agency also says that Aetna quickly — and conveniently — changed its tune on Obamacare. Bertolini told investors in April that while Aetna was losing money on the exchanges, the early losses were “well, well below” the company’s pain points and “we see this as a good investment.”

One theory advanced by Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other Democrats is that Aetna is using its exchange participation as a negotiating tactic to win support for its merger with Humana, which the administration has sued to block.

“Aetna may not like the Justice Department’s decision to challenge its merger … but violating antitrust law is a legal question, not a political one,” Warren posted on Facebook last week. “The health of the American people should not be used as bargaining chips to force the government to bend to one giant company’s will.”

Who’s still participating in the exchanges? Here’s a quick recap of where the nation’s four other big insurers stand on Obamacare.

– UnitedHealthcare: Will exit most exchanges this fall.
– Anthem: Said it’s now losing money on the exchanges, after previously breaking even.
– Cigna: Warned that its Obamacare costs are rising, but said it will continue to participate.
– Humana: Announced its exit from most exchanges this fall.

THIS IS TUESDAY PULSE — Where we can’t believe a Wall Street analyst accidentally scooped the Aetna news on Friday, and then hung up on reporter Adam Cancryn when he asked about it. We’ll never hang up on you: Send tips and your secret Obamacare plans to ddiamond@politico.com or @ddiamond on Twitter.

Correction: Yesterday’s PULSE misspelled the founding leader of the Federation of American Hospitals. It’s Mike Bromberg, who passed away this past weekend. We really regret the error.

** Presented by Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals: A story of courage — My son, Charlie, began exhibiting abnormal behaviors as an infant. The pediatrician confirmed that my son was very sick. Upon receiving Charlie’s devastating diagnosis, the doctor prescribed a medication to help him. The treatment was successful. Today, he is a healthy and happy boy. To learn more about Molli and Charlie’s story visit http://www.mallinckrodt.com/about/default/videos **

OBAMACARE RATE HIKES

Maryland’s dominant insurer makes its case for revised rate request. CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield says it needs huge rate hikes next year to make up for nearly $300 million in losses in the individual market during its first three years of competing on Maryland’s Obamacare exchange.

The insurer on Monday told a hearing that it needs to increase rates on the company’s PPO plans by 36.6 percent and its HMO plans by 27.8 percent. Originally, CareFirst had submitted 15.3 percent and 12.0 percent hike requests, respectively.

… CEO Chet Burrell indicated that without the “3 Rs” — primarily reinsurance — CareFirst’s losses in the first three years of exchange participation are projected to be $620 million.

That’s notable because reinsurance is slated to disappear in 2017 — a development that insurers say will bump up rates an additional 4 to 7 percent next year, Pro’s Paul Demko reports.

… But many consumer advocates disagreed with CareFirst’s numbers, including the former head of CMS’s Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight. Jay Angoff pointed to last week’s HHS study showing that medical costs for the exchange population fell by 0.1 percent between 2014 and 2015.

“There is just such a disconnect of such a magnitude between the CMS data and the CareFirst data,” Angoff noted. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

More for Pros from Paul Demko: http://politico.pro/2bcYWDw

PUBLIC OPTION

Democrats may be ‘tepid’ on public option idea. In recent weeks, both President Obama and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton have reaffirmed their support for a government-run public insurance alternative — a proposal that may gain steam as major insurers leave insurance exchanges. But Bloomberg View’s Jonathan Bernstein notes that many Senate candidates seem “sort of tepid” about the idea.

Bernstein looked at 11 Democrats running for open or contested Senate seats, finding that only Maryland’s Chris Van Hollen mentioned his support for a public option on his campaign website.

“Their campaign messages suggest that they may not be up to a battle over consequential health-care legislation, which is what a push for a public option would be,” Bernstein writes. More: http://bloom.bg/2blUXor

Could it even pass? University of Michigan professors Richard Hirth and John Ayanian recently argued that it’s unlikely Democrats would have sufficient majorities in Congress to enact the idea, even if they support it.

“A more likely opportunity would be for an individual state, such as California or Vermont, to propose its own public option and seek federal approval to implement it in its state-based exchange,” they write.

ZIKA VIRUS

Texas resident contracts Zika while visiting Miami. The El Paso resident had visited the neighborhood in Miami where there’s confirmed active Zika transmission, and sought care after developing symptoms upon returning to Texas.

The unusual case will be classified as “travel-associated,” and is the first case in Texas to be linked to travel within the continental United States.

EYE ON FDA

Consumer groups take aim at PDUFA. At a meeting where FDA and industry praised the Prescription Drug User Fee process, consumer advocates on Monday charged the agency with being too cozy to industry and contributing to high prices of drugs by focusing excessively on speeding them to market.

“Is FDA now treating industry as a customer that it needs to please, instead of acting as a regulator to ensure the public health?” asked Paul Brown of the National Center for Health Research. “Independent researchers suggest that user fees are harming, not helping, the FDA’s public health mission.” More from Sarah Karlin-Smith for Pros: http://politico.pro/2aZlEzU

ON THE TRAIL

How Susan B. Anthony List is trying to protect pro-life senators. The organization told PULSE that it’s deployed a team of nearly 400 people in the crucial swing states of Florida, Ohio and South Carolina to conduct in-depth canvassing.

The organization is focused on protecting GOP Sens. Marco Rubio, Richard Burr and Rob Portman while highlighting Hillary Clinton as a strong supporter of abortion rights.

“Our team is not only talking to pro-life base voters, but persuadable pro-life Hispanics and Democrats as well,” a spokesperson said.

500,000. That’s how many doors Susan B. Anthony List’s team has knocked on in the past nine months, well ahead of its 2014 pace.

MEDICAL ERRORS

The data on medical error deaths is overblown and misleading. That’s according to Aaron Carroll, who writes in The New York Times that the steadily rising number of hospital deaths linked to preventable medical errors is based on limited evidence and the true number is likely a tiny fraction of what’s reported.

A landmark 1999 study originally concluded that 98,000 deaths per year were linked to preventable errors; a recent BMJ study raised the tally to more than 250,000 deaths per year.

… “It’s somewhat sensationalistic to keep coming up with increasing numbers,” Carroll writes. He adds that while there’s a clear need to improve the quality of in-hospital care and safety, the studies are somewhat misleading: the potential benefits of going to a hospital strongly outweigh the potential harms.

“Our continued focus on this number — and the hospital setting — may be draining resources and attention from more effective harm reduction,” Carroll concludes.

Read more: http://nyti.ms/2b7DrXz

AROUND THE NATION

SCOOPLET: Hawaii seeking revised 1332 waiver from HHS. Hawaii is seeking to waive its SHOP exchange and other ACA requirements because they conflict with the state’s employer mandate law, enacted in the 1970s, Pro’s Rachana Pradhan reports.

See the waiver request: http://politico.pro/2biRlYj
More for Pros: http://politico.pro/2bd8zBU

WHAT WE’RE READING by Brianna Ehley

Should psychiatrists diagnose public figures from afar? It’s been considered unethical for years, but some behavioral health providers have publicly suggested Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has a mental illness: http://nyti.ms/2aW2UzU

A partnership between an immunologist and an oncologist may have led to an advance in cancer treatment, the Wall Street Journal reports: http://on.wsj.com/2aVnJeE

A front-page NYT story looks at new efforts to have the FDA regulate the cosmetics industry: http://nyti.ms/2aVPnrq

Stat looks at a whistleblower lawsuit against Medtronic that alleges the device manufacturer misled the FDA at the patients’ expense: http://bit.ly/2bbD8bi

Companies in Northern California say the area’s dominant health system is strong-arming them into contracts that could lead to higher prices, April Dembosky reports: http://bit.ly/2bAOYkp

Simple “hacks” for the elderly — like keeping a bar of soap in a stocking in the shower — can help ease the rigors of aging, Marie Tae McDermott writes: http://nyti.ms/2aZPzrN

** Presented by Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals: A story of courage —

Molli’s son, Charlie, began exhibiting abnormal behaviors as an infant and she worried something was wrong. The pediatrician confirmed her worst fear – that Charlie was very sick. Once diagnosed, Charlie’s care passed on to a child neurologist who couldn’t guarantee what his outcome in life would be.

As a mother and a nurse, Molli was concerned for her baby and wanted the doctors to do everything they could to make him better. She knew if he wasn’t treated quickly it would affect his development.

Upon receiving Charlie’s devastating diagnosis, the doctor prescribed a medication to help him.

Thankfully, the treatment was successful. Today, he is a healthy and happy boy with normal growth and development.

Molli is grateful for the people at pharmaceutical companies who make medicines that help children like her son Charlie. To learn more about Molli and Charlie’s story visit http://www.mallinckrodt.com/about/default/videos **

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Walgreens wants you to take your pills

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20160816/NEWS03/160819917/walgreens-wants-you-to-take-your-pills

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Why We Should Demand That Congress Reschedule Marijuana

http://www.attn.com/stories/10683/how-congress-should-reschedule-marijuana-unlike-dea

Like most Americans who follow the debate over marijuana legalization in this country, I was disappointed that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration this week once again determined that marijuana has no medical use and left it in Schedule I of the federal Controlled Substances Act.

Disappointed, but not surprised.

Stocksy/Cameron Zegers – stocksy.com

NORML — the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, which I founded in 1970 — first petitioned the DEA to reschedule marijuana to a lower schedule back in 1973, and NORML has been involved in two subsequent attempts to accomplish the same result, without success. The DEA is a law enforcement agency. So they will continue to oppose any steps to loosen controls over marijuana until Congress forces them to change.

A Brief History of Rescheduling Attempts.

Flickr/Katheirne Hitt – flic.kr

The initial petition NORML filed to reschedule marijuana in 1973 ended up being an endurance test. The agency refused to even acknowledge our petition or respond to it until we went to the court of appeals and forced them to respond. And this strategy of ignore and delay continued at every step, dragging the process out for 15 years until 1988, when DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge Francis Young, following days of testimony, finally ruled in our favor.

The ruling concluded that “Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. By any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within a supervised routine of medical care.”

Judge Young continued: “It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance in light of the evidence in this record.”

However, the DEA Administrator simply ignored the decision of his own hearing examiner and rejected our petition, claiming the hearing examiner had relied on anecdotal evidence. NORML again appealed that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals, but the court allowed the Administrator’s decision to stand, saying he had acted within his discretion.

And twice in the intervening decades NORML has been a party to subsequent attempts to require the DEA to reschedule marijuana; and both times, as they did in this most recent case, the DEA continued to insist that marijuana has no medical usefulness and should remain on Schedule I, along with heroin.

So I hope readers will understand when I say, “Enough is enough! Time to ignore the DEA altogether and focus our efforts on Congress.”

How Marijuana Ended Up on Schedule I in the First Place.

Flickr/orangetaki, Flickr/photomemoriesflopes – flic.kr

When the federal Controlled Substances Act was being considered by Congress in 1970 — after the prior federal anti-marijuana act had been held unconstitutional — various members of Congress debated the question of where to place marijuana under the new act. A separate provision of that new law established The National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse (aka the Marijuana Commission), which was charged with the responsibility of determining the appropriate policy regarding marijuana and reporting back to Congress. A compromise was reached to temporarily place marijuana in Schedule I until the commission came back with their report.

When the commission came back with its marijuana report in 1972, they recommended that minor marijuana offenses be decriminalized, which would have made it available (again) as a medicine. (Marijuana was on the U.S. Pharmacopeia from the mid-1850s until 1937, and it was available by prescription and widely prescribed for several conditions.)

However, those recommendations were not accepted by then-Presdient Nixon or Congress, and marijuana was left in Schedule I, where it remains today.

In fact, what Congress should really do, and what NORML has been arguing for some time, is to totally de-schedule marijuana by removing it from the Controlled Substances Act and treat it as we do alcohol and tobacco, thus providing states the power to establish their own marijuana regulatory policies free from federal interference.

Bills Pending In Congress.

Wikimedia – wikimedia.org

There are currently several bills pending in Congress that, if adopted, would resolve this matter. HR 1774, the Compassionate Access Act, introduced by Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) and Rep. Dana Rorhabacher (R-Calif.), would require that marijuana be rescheduled and would prohibit federal officials from interfering in state-compliant activities specific to the physician-authorized use or distribution of medical cannabis.

And Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) recently introduced S.2237, the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2015, that would de-schedule cannabis from the CSA and treat it like alcohol and tobacco.

Of course, neither of these bills have been scheduled for a hearing or given a vote — even in committee. But those conditions may change following the upcoming election in November, and we may well have the opportunity to move a rescheduling proposal forward in the next Congress.

So instead of trying to convince the DEA that they should act responsibly and compassionately and lower marijuana to a more appropriate schedule under federal law, or remove it entirely, it is now time to put our efforts behind a push to convince the next Congress to solve this problem directly.

Keith Stroup is a Washington, D.C. public-interest attorney who founded NORML in 1970.

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https://youtu.be/5_c2wgTxazk

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The DEA Says Marijuana As Dangerous As Heroin

www.greenrushdaily.com/2016/08/15/dea-says-marijuana-dangerous-heroin

This really demonstrates what a bunch of idiots within the DEA is … The UK still uses pharmaceutical grade Heroin for pain management… because it is diacetylmorphine and is metabolized into Morphine in the body and on a mg to mg basis it is 2-3 more potent than Morphine.  Morphine is a C-II scheduled controlled medication.  So according to the DEA’s own scheduling process… Heroin should be a C-II – because it is metabolized into Morphine in the body.. so if MJ is as dangerous as Heroin… then logic would suggest that MJ should be a C-II. Of course, since the DEA has kept MJ as a C-I .. that means that little/no clinical/medical research has been done on the estimated 400 different components in MJ.  I guess that it is a good thing that the DEA has not had oversight of the entire healthcare industry because we would still be doing “blood letting” and using leaches as cures.

Refusing to Back Down

Advocates of cannabis legalization have been working for years to change how the federal government classifies marijuana. Currently, the government considers marijuana to be a “Schedule I” narcotic substance. In layman’s terms, this means that it considers cannabis to be without any medical value and with a high potential for abuse.

That position, according to a policy brief issued today by the Drug Enforcement Administration, is unlikely to change in the near future.

The agency has refused to reclassify cannabis, and will keep it classified as a “Schedule 1” drug. However, the DEA will allow an increase in the supply of marijuana available for medical research.

Out of Both Sides of Their Mouth

It seems contradictory to give the green light to researching medical cannabis on one hand, while refusing to grant marijuana any medical value on the other. Cannabis current classification flies in the face of current research which suggests immense medical and therapeutic potential for cannabis.

Of course, it’s well known that marijuana is significantly less addictive and dangerous than alcohol and many prescription drugs. But the DEA is so far refusing to back down. 

Hordes of prominent state and national organizations have recognized through reports, studies, and publications the medical benefits of cannabis, including National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine, the American Public Health Association, the American College of Physicians, the American Nurses Association, to name just a few.

Safer Than Alcohol

As far back as 1999, the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine issued a report commissioned by none less than the White House which found that in terms of addiction and abuse, marijuana was far less of a health risk.

The report acknowledged that some cannabis users do in fact develop dependencies, they are far less severe and less likely to do so than people who use nicotine and alcohol.

Keeping up the Fight

The DEA’s latest ruling isn’t stopping cannabis advocates from speaking out against the agency’s refusal to reclassify cannabis.

Marijuana Policy Project spokesperson and Director of Communications Mason Tvert issued a statement today which blasted the DEA’s stance on cannabis. “The DEA’s refusal to remove marijuana from Schedule I is, quite frankly, mind-boggling. It is intellectually dishonest and completely indefensible.”

The Silver Lining

One of the positives to come out of the DEA’s announcement, however, has to do with the freeing up of a larger supply of medical-grade cannabis for research purposes.

Until now, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has had a virtual monopoly over the cultivation of cannabis for research uses. For many years, this has put up barriers to other groups interested in exploring the medical benefits of marijuana. And since the DEA and NIDA work closely together, their control of the research has potentially led to diluted findings that don’t contradict the exaggerated claims made by the DEA about marijuana’s harmfulness.

“Removing barriers to research is a step forward,” admitted Tvert, “but the decision does not go nearly far enough.”

 

 

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Tom Cotton: Social Security disability causes drug addiction

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/11/sen-tom-cotton-social-security-benefits-cause-people-to-spiral-downward-into-heroin-addiction/

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) suggested on Monday that population decline and drug abuse in poor areas could be the result of too many people on Social Security disability.

Speaking to the conservative Heritage Foundation on Monday, Cotton warned that communities with high a percentage of residents on Social Security disability had reached a tipping point that was linked to population decline. But he said that communities which used fewer benefits were enjoying a population increase.

“It’s hard to say what came first or caused the other, population decline or increased disability usage,” Cotton opined. “Or maybe economic stagnation caused both. Regardless, there seems to be at least at the county and regional level something like a disability tipping point.”

“When a county hits a certain level of disability usage, disability becomes a norm,” he continued. “It becomes an acceptable way of life and alternative source of income to a good paying full-time job as opposed to a last resort safety net program to deal with catastrophic injury and illness.”

And according to Cotton, workers compensation law needs a reform and that this was just the beginning of the bad news for communities with above average disability claims.

“At a certain point when disability keeps climbing and become endemic, employers will struggle to find employees or begin or continue to move out of the area,” he said. “The population continues to fall and a downward spiral kicks in, driving once thriving communities into further decline.”

“Not only that, but once this spiral begins, communities could begin to suffer other social plagues as well, such as heroin or meth addiction and associated crime.”

Cotton revealed that he planned to introduce legislation that would single out non-permanent disability recipients and set a timeline for them to return to work.

Disabled people who are not ready to return to work would be forced to reapply for disability benefits, Cotton said.

“These reforms won’t solve all the problems of Social Security disability but they will address one of the most urgent crises in the program,” he concluded. “And the one, perhaps, most corrosive to effected communities.”

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Man claims wrong medication from Kroger accelerated kidney failure

http://www.fox19.com/story/32756952/man-claims-wrong-medication-from-kroger-accelerated-kidney-failure

A few years ago the OH BOP revoked a Pharmacist license when a tech mis-filled a IV for a 3 y/o and the Pharmacist was charged/convicted of manslaughter and spent 6 months in prison.

CINCINNATI, OH (FOX19) –

A Cincinnati man is fighting two battles right now. One for his life and the other against grocery store giant Kroger.

Without a kidney transplant Randy Crews will die. The other battle awaits in a court room currently scheduled for Sept. 6 in Hamilton County.

Crews is being represented by Chris Macke, who is the husband of FOX19 NOW Anchor Tricia Macke. 

This battle stems from receiving the wrong medication from a Kroger pharmacy located on Kenard Avenue.

FOX19 NOW contacted Kroger and their lawyer for an official statement and interview, but did not receive a response from either party.

In court documents filed with the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas by their lawyer, it reads, “[Kroger] has admitted to mis-filling [Mr. Crews] prescription.”

The online records go on to read, “The only relevant issues to this case are what damages, if any, were directly caused by ingesting of the mis-filled prescriptions three months after it was filled.”

The grocery store giant contends that Crews was already sick before there error ever came into the picture.

Crews and his attorneys don’t see it that way.

For five days Crews thought he was taking his prescription called Labetalol for his high blood pressure. Instead, he was taking Lamotrigine which is for seizures.

He picked up the medication in December of 2013, but didn’t take start using it until April of 2014. In the short time he took it, Crews said his blood pressure became elevated. “He was severely disoriented, dizzy and vomiting, to the point of dehydration, and feeling as if he was dying,” the lawsuit reads.

His wife felt something was wrong and felt his symptoms were brought on after he started using what he thought was high blood pressure medication.

The suit reads Crews’ wife brought the medicine to a competing pharmacy where she was informed by them that her husband was taking seizure medication and not high blood pressure pills.

FOX19 NOW obtained a picture of both medications. The pills look similar but the Lamotrigine, the seizure medication, is slightly larger than Labetalol, the high blood pressure medication. The other difference between the pills are the labels. Lamotrigine is labeled, “ZC 82” while Labetalol is stamped with “NT & 042.”

According to the lawsuit, the pharmacy tech was placing the pills in a vile when he was alerted by a computer system that there was an error, and the tech overrode the computer system. It further said that another tech simply looked at the pills, which looked similar, but never properly inspected them making sure they were the right pills put in the bottle. None of the documents give clear indication as to why the pharmacist overrode the system causing the wrong medication to be given out.

Crews went to the hospital for five days and was diagnosed with Acute Renal Failure, resulting from dehydration and elevated blood pressure, according to the lawsuit. After being released, Crews said he was diagnosed with stage 5 kidney disease and chronic renal failure.

Before he started taking the mis-labeled medication, he contends he was at a stage 3 level, and after his prognosis became downgraded.

According to the lawsuit, Crews now has two options; A kidney transplant or daily dialysis, which he contends prior to taking the medication that neither option was needed.

Online records show the manager of the pharmacy said she has never reported errors made to any governmental agency or pharmaceutical board. She explained she does not know what Kroger does with the information.

Kroger lawyer, Christopher L. Moore argued that, “they have no obligation” and they don’t have too.

FOX19 NOW obtained documents from the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy in 2012 showing the dangers of wrong prescriptions. Although the board could not say how many times patients in Ohio have been given the wrong prescriptions, we did obtain documents showing some of the cases in years past in which it’s happened.

Among the most startling cases:

A West Chester pharmacist received a prescription in June 2010 for the sleep aid Ambien, but gave the patient Glimepiride instead, according to a settlement agreement FOX19 NOW obtained. Glimepiride is a diabetes drug. Three months after getting the wrong prescription, the patient died.

Another West Chester pharmacist, Ohio State Board of Pharmacy Records show, received a prescription for 120 tablets of morphine sulfate in April 2010, but gave the patient 360 tablets of methadone, the drug used to wean people off of heroin. The settlement agreement with the pharmacist shows the “patient was subsequently harmed,” but it doesn’t say how badly the person was injured.

These settlement agreements with the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy also revealed the punishments the pharmacists received.

The pharmacist in the case of the patient who died was fined $300 and ordered to complete ten hours of continuing pharmacy education.

In the other West Chester case where the patient was injured, the pharmacist was fined $250 and ordered to complete five hours of continuing education.

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This first story is sad on many fronts… apparently this pt was going to a independent “Good Neighbor Pharmacy” which is a franchise and the Pharmacist/owner died and his non-pharmacist wife hired a Pharmacist that may have come from one of those chains who don’t care if C-II are filled or not.. I suspect that this is a “young” Pharmacist because this particular pt’s religion is very important to him and dresses accordingly… so whether this was part of the decision to deny or not… This Pharmacist may have bitten off more than he can chew..  This pt has promised to “keep me in the loop” as this progresses.. more to follow…

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Hospital fires doctor for having cancer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

www.idealmedicalcare.org/blog/hospital-fires-doctor-for-having-cancer/?inf_contact_key=baa9eb052e17a041f8e740a04afe113a6e7ff40f82d66d94fd2fb9bbb51675d0

Dear Pamela,

You’ll never guess what happened to me today. Hours after the National Day of Solidarity to Prevent Physician Suicide volunteer webpage went live, I received an email stating that I am officially terminated from my psychiatry residency program. On this webpage, I spoke about the fact that I had become interested in this event during my struggle to get the medical care I needed throughout my residency for my cancer diagnosis. I heard that people from my department were reading it today. Some stated I was very brave, others, well, others do not appreciate such outspokenness. I was even told by some not to participate in the Solidarity event. What are they afraid of? I speak out because I dream of a future where medical students and residents can live without fear of bullying, harassment, and retaliation. I want doctors to be able to care for themselves as well as others. I documented the obstacles I faced in residency so that I could propose solutions to incorporate into a physician wellness program. I hope that chronically ill residents, as well as residents who need routine care such as therapy, could use this program in the future. In describing the difficulties I faced, I quoted the words spoken to me by my attending physician on the day I was diagnosed with cancer, “you need to choose whether you are a doctor or a patient.”

My program had been punishing me and accusing me of being “unprofessional” for attending appointments despite my informing them in advance and providing doctor’s notes. On the webpage launched today, I stated it was also very difficult for us to get mental health treatment. During my research into why this was the case, I found many examples of other residents who have experienced negative consequences after revealing their need for mental health services. It upset me that stigma is so prevalent in this field. Everyone needs help sometimes and doctors can get sick too. I am not sure how many people are aware of the obstacles physicians face when striving to care for themselves physically and mentally. Once the issue is recognized, we can do something to stop it.

Standing up to this is going to be extremely tough. When I began standing up for my basic human right to lifesaving medical care, I was repeatedly retaliated against. This retaliation occurred even after I pointed out the fact that my doctor stated had I not received the treatment they punished me for, I would not likely be alive today.  That fact did not appear to register with my superiors. I then went to the dean’s office, then to the ombudsman, then to the institution’s president. It was a game of hot potato. It was a problem passed around the institution so fast that no one held on long enough to burn their hands. It was as if they thought that, if they ignored me, I would simply go away. I decided to go outside of the institution. That surely got their attention as not even a month after going to the government I received an email from my institution stating there was a vote for my termination. At least they stopped ignoring me.

I had documentation of what I had been through since my diagnosis and proof that my performance was at or above average. Despite major surgery, tubes, drains, fainting, constant vomiting, and panic attacks I was still able to be a good doctor. I always put the safety of my patients first and I don’t think there is anyone in this world who can contest that, not even those who voted for my termination. I was BOTH a doctor and a patient and despite pressure from above I received excellent evaluations from my attendings. So how on earth did they have justification to fire me?  I had hoped that the dean’s office would look at the facts. Apparently, they didn’t. They chose to officially terminate my employment right after the National Day of Solidarity to Prevent Physician Suicide volunteer webpage went live. I am not sure what to do at this point. Next week I am scheduled to have an MRI and I do not know if I will have a paycheck or even health insurance to cover it. I know you have helped so many other physicians and you are truly an inspiration to me. I can’t wait to meet you on August 20^th. I hope all that I have been through will jumpstart a change in the current medical culture. I want future physicians to not be forced to choose between being a doctor or a patient. 

Thank you so much,

Stephanie 

Outraged that a hospital would fire a doctor for having cancer? Appalled that a hospital would fire a psychiatric resident for helping suicidal physicians? Show your support. Stand with Stephanie on August 20th.

Please support Stephanie by attending our Solidarity Vigils across America on Saturday, August 20, 2016. Find a Vigil near you on this map. Come meet Stephanie at the Washington DC Vigil or attend one of the other events in Philadelphia, Chicago, Austin, Cleveland, Kansas City, St. Louis,  Athens (OH), Dublin(OH), Harrogate (TN) on August 20th. Middletown (NY) Vigil will be on August 22. Dr. Wible will be speaking at the DC and NY Vigils. Thank you for caring about the people who care for you! 

 

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