Re: Fw: Seniors BEWARE - BE SURE TO READ THIS ONE!

[Guest guest]

This post contains outright misinformation and is a political scare tactic.

I sent it to Jost, a healthcare policy expert, law school

professor and author of Health Law, a text used widely throughout the United

States in teaching health law. (See his bio at

http://www.law.wlu.edu/faculty/profiledetail.asp?id=24). This is his reply:

There are no Medicare death panels, of course. Medicare, like any other

insurer, has utilization review protocols. Medicare is administered by

private contractors, and each one has its own local coverage policies.

There is no " board " involved, just an insurance company that administers

claims. It is also possible that the person was in fact covered by a

Medicare HMO that denied the coverage. This is in fact far more likely. I

would expect that this stress test (which is not a cheap procedure) did not

pass the screen as medically necessary. The particular case was then

reviewed, and the procedure was approved.

The second incident reported in the post regarding dialysis denied for

patients is fraudulent. On factchecking.org, a website of the Annenberg

Public Policy Center, this story is refuted:

We contacted Ed Herbert, a representative for the City Medical

Center. He confirmed to us that the conversation quoted in the email is

fraudulent. . .

Ed Herbert, April 19: The conversation is not true. The originator of the

blog/email was a guest in Dr. 's home. He is using Dr. 's name and

that of City Medical Center (JCMC) to wrongly promote his political

position. .[Dr. ] was very upset that the individual would fabricate a

conversation about healthcare reform and use her name to add credibility to

his position.. . The healthcare reform law, according to Dr. , does not

change the way in which she cares for her patients. From a hospital point of

view, if there has been any effect from the healthcare reform law, it has

been increased access for patients.(Read the full report at

http://www.factcheck.org/2012/04/death-panels-redux/)

Carolyn Yoder, LPC, LMFT

onburg, VA

www.transformationalprocesses.com

[Guest guest]

A repost of an uncredited email from ' Infowar.com.

Apparently this is a longer version of a blog entry by someone named Bill .

KC