Death By ObamaCare- Cancer Patients Getting Reamed

[Bill Peckham]

The Networks have to be informed of involuntary discharges, per the Conditions for Coverage (§ 494.180 (f)(4)(ii)). They have the number they just don't release because people won't be able to put the number in context. Just like what they said about the dialysis facility reports before Pro Publica made them available.


The involuntary discharge problem is more of a state problem, when there are failures it seems to be a state level failure.

[G.Lively]

Read the opening post on this thread.  My, my, my!  And - golly whiz!  I have had a major cancer four times since 1993..  This last one is in remission but I do chemo once every sixty day to keep it in remission.  Each dose costs $22,000.  For two decades I haven't had to pay a dime. One more thing, In California there is a law that has been on the books for a cazillion years forbidding denial of insurance based on pre-existing conditions.
I think the opening post is propaganda.

[plugger]

Hi Bill,

I've been emailing Arlene at Dialysis Advocates.  I don't think I will be working with you nor taking your advice.  So go off and travel which every way the wind takes you and get that next photo op while we take care of business.  By the way, you insinuated AAKP was a little short on funds.  What?  DE was loaded?  I remember us being just a small group of angry, frustrated people without much to spare between us.  Not much until some powerful friends came along.  And there seems some confusion about who actually sent the journalist to me.  Oh, and focus on this: http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=30041.0

And I assume you will know what to do with your red and blue pills.

P.S. Say hello to Gary P. for me

[Bill Peckham]

You've been emailing Arlene, you won't be working with me and I should say hi to Gary P, what an odd word salad. You're a grown man plugger if you have something to say, say it.

[plugger]

Oh my!  Aren't you the bully boy with your big, bad friends behind you!  I'm starting to feel this is a waste of time, but maybe I ought to condense it down to a nugget for a public service announcement: seems your ties to the dialysis companies are still a bit tighter than one might imagine, and a person ought to wary.  And here I thought you had been on the road to redemption since your days with AAKP!  Feeling a bit let down here brother.  I don't know maybe I should PM you with specifics, maybe I'm wasting my time when there are better pursuits - feeling disappointed right now.

[Bill Peckham]

Again with the AAKP - more riddles and innuendo, pluggger are you capable of speaking plainly? Do not PM me, if you believe I am or was in some way obliged to you or Arlene or the DE community I'd like you to state it in plain terms.

[plugger]

Nay, I'll PM you.  Don't want to waste this board's time with our little feud.  I'm sure it is all a big misunderstanding, or maybe just Arlene (from Dialysis Advocates) being cranky from having to do the networks' work for them.

[Zach]

The ESRD Network system is a perfect example of Regulatory Capture.

[G.Lively]

I am responding to this thread only because someone needs to say, "You people are far too serious about some things."  Posting here for informational purposes is great.  Arguing is not so great.
Cancer a problem?  Nope!  Had it four times.  Is the government going to slip in a fast one on cancer treatments?  Not likely, although some Tea Party types would prefer that two or three million go without any healthcare.  Separate the rumors from the facts and remember; no rape is illegitimate, women in the US are not subject to Taliban rules,  and the elderly, children and the sick need the best we can give them.
A little fatalism is good for the soul.
This may be my final semi-political commentary.  I prefer to live out my days with a smile.  And, yes, my career was in politics.
Boogie.
I am on day eight of my opiate (Norco) withdrawal. I suspect I will live. Maybe!  Oh, what the heck, I will stick around.

[Bill Peckham]

Nay, I'll PM you.  Don't want to waste this board's time with our little feud.  I'm sure it is all a big misunderstanding, or maybe just Arlene (from Dialysis Advocates) being cranky from having to do the networks' work for them.

No no no. What part of do not PM me was confusing? You can't go around gossiping like school girls, come on here and make inflammatory accusations and then curl up into a ball of anonymity when I call you on it! That is bad form. It is unfair to me and it is corrosive to the IHD community. Your concern for other people's time is misplaced, no one is compelled to read this thread or any other but it is now clear that Mark should have started this confusing thread in the off topic area since it has nothing to do with healthcare. This thread has only to do with feverish imaginings at the edge of the online CKD community, in the hunkered down silo called Dialysis Ethics.

Here is the PM plugger sent me, the PM that should have been posted here (note number 8 was missing, one assumes it was too secrete for even a PM):
I summed up the email I got from Arlene:
1) She stated you found out about a Senate hearing that was canceled and you were on CNN complaining you did not get an extra hour (not sure what this is about)
2) She thinks it's funny, a pawn for the industry straightening out the press and called you a mouthpiece
3) You report to the industry
4) What's a Judas Goat?  (I'm kidding, I know)
5) You pretend to be on the patient's side, but report back to your corporate masters
6) We're crazy, but we're right
7) You have been a road block    Out for yourself
9) You admitted getting in our way on a site?  (missed that one)


My first question is what happened to the AAKP? I thought I was suppose to have been cahooting with the AAKP    please explain.

[Bill Peckham]

Two other specific points of clarification, aside from how the AAKP fits into this: What year was the Senate hearing? - are we talking about the one in 2002 or 2003 that was postponed and not rescheduled?  I don't remember being on CNN (my Mom confirms ... and she would have remembered for sure). And how does Gary P the editor of RenalWEB fit into this? you mentioned him earlier.

[Bill Peckham]

One last request. You underscored your belief that I am a Judas goat for dialyzors (a Judas Dialyzor) can you elaborate and give an example of my leading dialysis patients to slaughter? My advocacy has been online so surely there are posts here or on my blog - no blog post has been deleted from DSEN (but Hemodoc blogged at DSEN and now he has revealed that he is on the AAKP MAB, maybe it does tie together. hmm ...) or at Home Dialysis Central or at Dialysis Ethics's own board. There must be some online example of my industry approved bleatings.

[monrein]

Good grief....what silly madness we have here.  Plugger please stop so that Bill can have more time to play scrabble with me.   

[Bill Peckham]

Good grief....what silly madness we have here.  Plugger please stop so that Bill can have more time to play scrabble with me.

These claims deserve to be addressed but I would like to have my questions answered first.


saith? really?

[Hemodoc]

Nay, I'll PM you.  Don't want to waste this board's time with our little feud.  I'm sure it is all a big misunderstanding, or maybe just Arlene (from Dialysis Advocates) being cranky from having to do the networks' work for them.

No no no. What part of do not PM me was confusing? You can't go around gossiping like school girls, come on here and make inflammatory accusations and then curl up into a ball of anonymity when I call you on it! That is bad form. It is unfair to me and it is corrosive to the IHD community. Your concern for other people's time is misplaced, no one is compelled to read this thread or any other but it is now clear that Mark should have started this confusing thread in the off topic area since it has nothing to do with healthcare. This thread has only to do with feverish imaginings at the edge of the online CKD community, in the hunkered down silo called Dialysis Ethics.

Here is the PM plugger sent me, the PM that should have been posted here (note number 8 was missing, one assumes it was too secrete for even a PM):
I summed up the email I got from Arlene:
1) She stated you found out about a Senate hearing that was canceled and you were on CNN complaining you did not get an extra hour (not sure what this is about)
2) She thinks it's funny, a pawn for the industry straightening out the press and called you a mouthpiece
3) You report to the industry
4) What's a Judas Goat?  (I'm kidding, I know)
5) You pretend to be on the patient's side, but report back to your corporate masters
6) We're crazy, but we're right
7) You have been a road block    Out for yourself
9) You admitted getting in our way on a site?  (missed that one)


My first question is what happened to the AAKP? I thought I was suppose to have been cahooting with the AAKP    please explain.

Bill, have you been holding out on us? Let me have  a share of the industry money you were working for, I guess on your blog perhaps. I didn't know you were so rich, but I guess you just hide it well. Funny, you tell everyone you work at a union job full time. I guess you just hide all the corporate money well.

[noahvale]

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[Rerun]

Why should kidney transplants get drugs paid for for LIFE ?  What about all the other transplants?  Heart, Lung, Liver....  How do they manage when they done even get 3 years free.  The problem is the drug companies charge too much.  Again, we try to figure out HOW to pay for it instad of capping prices.  Medicare was intended for OLD people not us. 

[Bill Peckham]

Well noahvale/patdowns/munchmakutchi or what ever name you are going by today (I'll just call you Frank) I am fully transparent about who I am and who pays me. It's a bit much to hear that I am against transplant. I've written pages and pages explaining why the legislation that would expand drug coverage is a half measure and has been made redundant by the Affordable Care Act. No one from yourself to the PAID lobbyists in DC can give a single example of a person who could be expected to benefit from the law were it to pass.

It strikes me that you and plugger and arlene are all basing your suspicions solely on the idea that a dialyzor couldn't have his own opinion. That I, someone without kidney function, couldn't think for himself. Only a paid infiltrator would question the wisdom of blindly following urinators paid to do a job. Why would the American Society of Transplant Surgeons need to continue to pay their DC lobbyists if the half measure they've put forward is pointless? They wouldn't so it must mean the lobbyists are pure because transplant surgeons are infallible gods. It couldn't be the lobbyist's self interest driving this forward, it must be the home hemo industrial complex that is sabotaging this half measure that doesn't even cover the physician fees that would be incurred getting the meds prescribed.

I think that a fair minded person would look at arlene/DE's claims and ask themselves where are the links? I've written online since 1995, I've written as Bill Peckham online since 1998 (I changed from Billp_830 because as I found myself to be the only dialyzor in the room and asked to speak for all dialyzors; I thought people should know my views) so there is a long trail of posts that provide my reasoning about nearly every issue relevant to the provision of dialysis, including to a large degree, my opposition to the frivolous bill that would extend Medicare for immunosuppressant drugs for kidney transplant recipients. But no - a dialyzor supposedly working out of the carpenter's union couldn't possibly have his own opinions, couldn't possibly thrive on dialysis without a nefarious backer. And obviously anyone involved with the provision of dialysis, even the not for profit community based Northwest Kidney Centers is in the business only for the money.

That's the worst part of De's world view. That only they really care. Or as Frank would have it only DE and the kidney transplant industry. Since NKC provides dialysis they must be corrupted. There is cynical and then there is deluded, you are well into deluded.

[Hemodoc]

Wow, Bill went down the Rogue and the Grand Canyon with HIS OWN MONEY. No industry support. Bill has stated several times that if he didn't have FSGS, he would do another transplant. Remember, he had a transplant from his brother when he first needed renal replacement therapy that failed due to the FSGS.

What is it with IHD that folks just wish to attack from ignorance so many times. I don't get it.

Bill, you have no explaining to do to anyone.

Thank you for all you have done especially for me personally. We may disagree strongly on politics, but I have always known you as a many of integrity, honesty and lets face it, courage. These accusations against you are just bizarre. I don't believe you need to waste any more time on replying to these "deluded" folks as you state.

Have a great day Bill, your work for renal patients is not in any doubt. Thank you.

[noahvale]

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[MooseMom]

Wow, Bill went down the Rogue and the Grand Canyon with HIS OWN MONEY. No industry support. Bill has stated several times that if he didn't have FSGS, he would do another transplant. Remember, he had a transplant from his brother when he first needed renal replacement therapy that failed due to the FSGS.

What is it with IHD that folks just wish to attack from ignorance so many times. I don't get it.

Bill, you have no explaining to do to anyone.

Thank you for all you have done especially for me personally. We may disagree strongly on politics, but I have always known you as a many of integrity, honesty and lets face it, courage. These accusations against you are just bizarre. I don't believe you need to waste any more time on replying to these "deluded" folks as you state.

Have a great day Bill, your work for renal patients is not in any doubt. Thank you.   

Well said, Hemodoc.

[MooseMom]

And, I'll do you one better, Rerun.  I don't believe Medicare should be covering any form of renal replacement therapy for those of us under 65.  However, that genie will not be put back in the bottle. 

Is there a reason why Medicare for those of us with ESRD under 65 couldn't be rescinded?  Is there a reason that this particular genie can't be put back in the bottle?  Is it because the private insurers deem dialysis to be too costly to cover over a period of more than 30 months? 

[noahvale]

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[Hemodoc]

Not surprisingly, this thread has strayed greatly from the OP.

[MooseMom]

Let me ask you this question. What do you think the public outcry, backlash towards the government, and media spin would be if there was proposed legislation to rescind this provision of Medicare?  If our country went to a single payer healthcare system then yes, it would happen organically.

Well, I would guess that since most people don't need this provision and don't even know it exists, once they find out about it, they might possibly wonder why people under 65 with ESRD get "special treatment".  Even rerun is of this opinion.  So I am not sure there would be much backlash at all, frankly.