Trigeminal neuralgia -- one helluva headache! One helluva denial of care!

President Obama made this ringing declaration when he was promoting the Affordable Care Act:  "I will ensure that no government bureaucrat gets between you and the care that you need." 

Now comes Trigeminal Neuralgia,  known in medical neurological parlance as a particularly vicious type of headache, so severe  that some victims contemplate suicide. All the same there is a treatment for this disease that is remarkably successful in most cases. The usual treatment is with a medicine known as tegretol. Today's story is about a star-crossed patient who was unable to tolerate tegretol and what happened to her when Gubbamint Bureaucrats got their hands on her case.   

Initially, the patient was overjoyed. Her debilitating headaches evaporated under treatment with tegretol. Imagine, then, her consternation when she developed an allergic reaction to the medication. The allergic reaction included skin rash and an alarming development of abnormal hepatic function tests. There was no choice but to discontinue the tegretol. 

Doctor X replaced the tegretol with gabapentin which also worked. However, there were physiological non-allergenic side effects, e.g., dizziness, impaired balance, and sedation. So now the second successful medication had to be replaced. This step was taken with an extended release form of gabapentin known as Gralise. Medicare approved the use of Gralise but after a year another application to continue use of this medicine had to be submitted to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid then rejected the proposed use of Gralise even though it had now been the patient's chief headache prevention medication for over one year. 

The reason was that FDA had approved Gralise for Herpetic Neuralgia only, not for Trigeminal Neuralgia. On this flimsy basis, Medicare in one fell swoop allowed the misery of intractable headache to invade this patient's life once again. Use of the medication for a different type of pain was called "off label" and subjected to unthinking automatic rejection. 

Doctor X appealed at the state level. In California the law allows continuation of care under such circumstances, e.g, AB 974 (Gallegos), a managed care reform bill that requires managed care plans to continuously provide prescription drugs. Unfortunately, this state legislation can be overruled by federal law that precludes "off label" prescribing. The next step was appeal to the Medicare Appeals and Grievance coordinator who pointed out that Medicare only allows medications to be covered on Part D when the FDA has approved the medication for that specific use -- in this case FDA had approved the medication for one form of neuralgia but not for another. Next, Doctor X sought a hearing before a judge in the Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals. The case was made that FDA approved the medication for one form of neuralgia so it was reasonable in this case, especially since the medication had worked well for this patient for over one year, to allow renewal. 

Unfortunately, logic and science lost out to rule-making and semantics. The court ruled that the patient could not have the Gralise covered under Medicare. The judge's final letter of denial was issued on 2/18/16. The question arises as to what extent the federal system is responsible for denial of care when an adverse event occurs as a result of governmental ineptitude. 

In 1999 the Oregon Board of Medical Examiners disciplined a doctor for insufficiently treating pain. In discussing an analogous situation in California in 1979, Dr. Wm. Steinmith wrote that "a variety of official police bureaus -- under the rubric of protecting the public from professional abuse and abusers -- are rapidly destroying the professional foundations of humane and rational medical care." This author's opinion is that the Center for Medicare and Medicaid acted arbitrarily and wrongly in this case. 

Previously, The Weinmann Report, www.politicsofhealthcare.com, 3/18/14, and workcompcentral, 3/26/14, showed how an insurance company's Utilization Review company declined authorization of analgesic medication. 

This writer's finding is that the newest epidemic is the denial of medications by one or another form of Utilization Review at both state and federal levels. Physicians will take the blame while patients get the shaft. We need to hold the presidential podiatry to the fire on this issue lest all of us in due course get burned by the "government bureaucrats" from whom President Obama promised to protect us. 

References

"Utilization Review: Hypocrisy in Velvet Gloves," workcompcentral, 2014-03-26 and The Weinmann Report, www.politicsofhealthcare.com, 2014-03-18;

The Hill Newspaper, Washington, DC, 9/16/09, "What Obama should've said about health reform," by Robert L. Weinmann, MD;

Headache Quarterly, V. VII.  #4, 1996, "Predatory Policies in Health Care: Headache Patients as 'Marks,' " by Robert L. Weinmann, MD;

New York Times, National, 09/04/99, "Oregon Board Disciplines Doctor for Not Treating Patients' Pain;" 

San Francisco Medicine, "Professional Judgment," July 1979, by William Steinsmith, MD. 

MEDICARE VERSUS THE INDEPENDENT PAYMENT ADVISORY BOARD (IPAB)

Here is how it works: The Affordable Care Act (ACA) grants coverage to about 15 million persons not previously covered by what passed for health care coverage before passage of the ACA. Trouble is that Covered California and other ACA derived plans have now raised their premiums to cover the influx. But the premiums can't be raised enough to cover this influx. It has been determined that a better way  is to reduce utilization to keep costs below or equal to the pre-ACA expenditure. This method is a form of rationing with a special dagger aimed at the hearts of the elderly. It is called the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). 

Here's a pre-IPAB example: programs that provide vision care advise patients that refraction is not covered by Medicare or by most commercial PPO plans. Refraction is the method by which corrective lenses are prescribed. Medicare and the commercial PPOs determined that refraction isn't a medical procedure after all. Medicare and the involved PPOs conveniently decided that refractive errors requiring prescribed lenses are a result of changing eye-shape and are not because of disease.  Hence, coverage is denied.  

How about something more current than refraction? Let's take a look at what's happening to cardiac pacemakers. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has determined that as of 6 July 2015 coverage for cardiac pacemakers will be restricted to patients with "non-reversible symptomatic bradycardia." This decision means that patients with asymptomatic complete heart block would not be covered and that the exclusion will apply even to patients with asymptomatic Mobitz Type II heart block. So far our information is that the American Medical Association (AMA) has not filed a protest. We're now obliged to ask would-be presidents of AMA and contingent state medical associations where they stand on this matter.

We all recall Sarah Palin's barbs about "death panels" for Medicare. Suddenly, it doesn't seem as though she was all that far off the mark, does it?

That's where the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) comes in -- the IPAB was formed to manage costs that the ACA might run up due to the influx of previously non-covered patients. The IPAB owes its existence to Sections 3403 and 10320 of the ACA. The official job of the IPAB will be to control and cut Medicare spending. The IPAB according to the ACA will be appointed, not elected, and will not be obliged to report to Congress. In effect this technique will remove Congressional  oversight of Medicare spending. Instead,  unelected IPAB members will have this power. The salary for the 15 IPAB members is proposed to be about $165,000 annually -- once again we see there's money enough for bureaucracy but not for patients and citizens. The IPAB is ripe for repeal before it can do damage.

In the second Obama-Romney debate, Gov. Romney asked President Obama who would be appointed to the IPAB. Obama's answer, and I quote same in toto, was "doctors et cetera."
Although the reply was short, it was also wrong. Trouble is neither Romney nor Obama knew it. The fact is that there is nothing in Sections 3403 or 10320  or in the rest of the ACA that requires even one physician to be appointed to the IPAB. While it's likely that an acquiescent physician can be found, the fact is that there is no legal requirement under the ACA to appoint even one physician to the IPAB. The IPAB should be repealed forthwith -- so doing will improve the ACA by removing what to all intents and purposes looks as close to Palin's death-panels as one can get without handing the IPAB a portable gallows. 

Proposition 45: pro and con

Robyn G. Young, MD, president, California Neurology Society, presents her case for Prop. 45 in her editorial available on ca-neuro-society.org (it is also summarized in our previous blog in the end-of-article listing of references).

Now comes Stuart A. Bussey, MD, JD, president, Union of American Physicians and Dentists, who writes in the "The UAPD Pulse" why Prop. 45 does not deserve passage.

Bussey's piece makes these points:

1. Prop 45 would shift regulatory authority from an independent commission to one political figure who would then become a "pressure point" subject to special interests.

Comment: the independent commission is also subject to special interest pressure, but it's more difficult to get to an entire committee than one person. On the other hand, commissioners get their jobs by appointment, political appointment, not by scoring well on achievement tests.

2. Bussey points out that under the ACA administrative costs are limited to 20% -- anything over that "must revert back to patient services."

Comment: Trouble is that the insurance companies often try to sneak administrative costs into the "patient services" sector. Example are utilization reviews requested by insurance companies that seek to disguise them as "consultations."

3. If  Prop. 45 passes a likely revenge step the insurance companies will take will be to slash provider reimbursement. Agreed, that's what they'll do, not that they don't already do it. The independent commission has not roared its disapproval of provider abuse.

Comment: It's also likely that the insurance companies and MPNs (Medical  Provider Networks) will jettison hundreds of doctors as a way to reduce expenses (not that that hasn't already been done). That in turn will force the remaining doctors to see more patients faster (the short visit you get now will be made even shorter).

My opinion: if Proposition 45 passes, the next step will be the implementation of rules and regulations. Proponents should be ready to take that matter on from Day One. That means day-to-day readiness to participate in the regulatory process. Proponents feel they have a better chance at fair regulation with Proposition 45 than without it. Opponents are skeptical, and with good reason, e.g., the unions bent over backwards to get Brown elected Governor only to find out yesterday that he vetoed all three of their bills. Would a single insurance commissioner be different?

The latest re the ACA: a laboratory in San Jose has just  billed a doctor's office for laboratory work done for Medicare patients. The lab in question said that changes in the Affordable Care Act made in January of 2014 allows them to do so. We'll look into this matter and see what the current insurance commissioner wants to do --  it'll be a prelude to what he'd do were Proposition 45 to pass.

In our next blog, we're planning on a few parting shots re Prop. 46,

Question: When should lawyers be tested for drugs?

Answer: When they're awake.

OBAMACARE: IF YOU LIKE YOUR DOCTOR OR YOUR HEALTH-CARE PLAN ...

In 2009 President Obama declared that "I will ensure that no government bureaucrat gets between you and the care you need."

In fact, on 15 June 2009 President Obama declared that "if you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period." That's when the president also promised that "if you like your health-care plan, you will be able to keep your health-care plan, period."

Now, four years later, as the ill conceived website for Obamacare crashes, and as more financial infusion and taxes are needed to float the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the president confesses, "Oh yeah, we did raise some taxes." Admittedly, that the website was badly conceived does not necessarily mean that the ACA itself was a mistake. The ACA boasts its own internal mistakes, one of which is the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB).

Readers of this blog may recall our discussions of Sections 3403 and 10320 of the ACA which establishes the legal  basis for the IPAB. President Obama said that the IPAB would be composed of "doctors et cetera." The sad truth is that there is no provision whatsoever in the ACA that requires appointment of physicians. The IPAB will have the authority  to regulate the provision of healthcare and to restrict access to care -- here's how: the IPAB's job will be to make economic judgments and decide which diagnostic and  treatment protocols will be covered. Your doctor can prescribe diagnostic tests and treatment but an unelected panel will decide what is actually authorized. Patients can pay out of pocket for the rest. The IPAB panel is expected to include about 15 political appointees who, conveniently, won't be annoyed by such pesky requirements as reporting to Congress. IPAB board members are expected to be paid $165,000 per year, total cost to the public of about $2.5 million.

Spokespersons and publicists for the ACA do not mention the IPAB -- it's too sensitive.  When it was previously known in older legislation as the Independent Medicare Advisory Board it was reviled as a "death panel" for the elderly.

In California where Covered California is out-performing equivalent programs in other states, the meaning is that most, not necessarily all, Californians who are citizens or legal residents can get coverage. Of course, as companies drop the health care coverage citizens or legal residents already have, the premiums are likely  to go up -- so the ACA may not be so "affordable" after all. On the other hand, it won't have pre-existing condition preclusions and there won't be so-called "lifetime limits" or annual benefit limits.  Mental health benefits, often not included in employer owned programs, will be included. Expectedly, the cost of premiums is likely to go up.  Four basic programs are anticipated, bronze, silver, gold, and platinum. Bronze will have the lowest premium cost and the highest out-of-pocket co-pay. Platinum will have the highest premium and the lowest co-pay.

 Doctors have already been summarily dropped by Medicare Advantage programs in New York. CBS reported in California that Kaiser Permanente canceled policies covering 150,000 persons. In Florida, 300,000 persons have lost their health care coverage. They weren't asked if they preferred to keep the doctors or health care plans they already had.

References

"What Obama should've said about health reform," THE HILL, Washington, D.C., 9/16/09, Robert L. Weinmann, MD

"User's Guide to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and the Independent Payment Advisory Board," http://totalcapitol.com/?blog, posted by bobweinmann, www.politicsofhealthcare.com,
June 28, 2012

"Affordable Care Act Loses Debate," The Weinmann Report - politicsofhealthcare.com, 10/04/12

"Obamacare: Separating Fact from Fiction...", www.politicsofhealthcare.com, 9/20/13

"Congress Keeps its Subsidies," www.politicsofhealthcare.com, 9/30/13

OBAMA VERSUS OBAMACARE

"Modest reforms," that's what he said.

The president's state of the union address included this vapid and vague comment:  "Those of us who care deeply about programs like Medicare must embrace the need for modest reforms." Best we can tell, President Obama intends to skewer the wealthier beneficiaries of Medicare. The idea is to apply these "modest reforms" to hit wealthier Medicare beneficiaries by raising their premiums, delaying onset of Medicare eligibility by two years until age 67, and using the IPAB (Independent Payment Advisory Board) to ration or limit access to available services. In other words, kindly move over and die sooner.

While raising the age for full Medicare benefits may make sense, and while charging more to those whose incomes is above a certain level may also make sense, it smacks of hypocrisy for Congress and the President to allow an appointed IPAB bureaucracy to deny services to the public while specifically exempting themselves. In case it's not widely known, know this: the president and Congress exempted themselves from the Affordable Care Act (ACA, known as Obamacare). The president and Congress have their own (better) health care plan (no IPAB).

The ACA as currently written allows insurance companies to increase premiums as a way to defray the cost of covering the millions of added recipients who currently don't have insurance. The already-insured will pay more in premiums than they're currently paying to cover the millions of currently uninsured persons who will be covered by the ACA. At the same time the IPAB will be enabled to disqualify diagnostic and treatment protocols of their own choosing.

Here's what else Obama said: "The biggest driver of our long-term debt is the rising cost of health care for an aging population." I herewith forgive any elderly person for not volunteering immediately for ID (instant demise).  It's not a mystery as to why Congress exempted itself and why Nancy Pelosi asked to have the bill passed just to find out what was in it.

So let's repeat Obama's entire statement: "And those of us who care deeply about programs like Medicare must embrace the need for modest reforms -- otherwise, our retirement funds will crowd out the investments we need for our children, and jeopardize the promise of a secure retirement for future generations."

What wasn't said is that one way to start would be to include the president, the executive branch of government, and Congress in Obamacare as opposed to awarding them a better and more extensive program than the rest of us. Readers may like to know that Congress allows itself to use military hospitals on a "prn" or "pro re nata" basis (translation: "as needed"). Ordinary citizens don't have this privilege.

President Obama even had the temerity to say that "already, the Affordable Care Act is helping to slow the growth of health care costs." In fact, what we're seeing in the real world is increasing costs to cover enhanced executive compensation, not a penny, not a farthing, for increased access to specialty care for the elderly or for anyone else.  What doctors are seeing in the real world is increasing numbers of people ostensibly covered by the ACA, while, simultaneously, the IPAB mechanism is prepared to strip away currently available benefits and to put on hold future advances in available medical care. This two-pronged program takes away with one hand what it makes available with the other hand -- it's a fiscal device to make a flawed program appear more successful than it is.  We already know that businesses are switching as much of their work forces as possible to temporary hires so they'll not be obliged to provide health care.

Basically, as to health care and the ACA, president Obama's State-of-the-Union address was  non-responsive and disappointing. 

ACCOUNTABLE CARE ORGANIZATIONS

The latest hot ticket item in healthcare now that the presidential election is over is the implementation of the most controversial aspects of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), namely, the individual mandate to buy health insurance, or else. Health insurance exchanges are ready to make their move as are specific Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs).

ACOs will be comprised of hospitals,  primary care physicians, and specialists who are supposed to accept being held accountable for the cost and quality of the healthcare they provide. Fiscal carrots is the name of the game because providers will continue to be paid on a fee-for-service basis and will share in whatever revenue is brought about by whatever cost-savings techniques the ACOs use, e.g., not accepting doctors who have too many elderly patients  or patients with expensive chronic diseases. The days of searching out rare and unusual diseases to care for are over: these unfortunates will be obliged to find  whatever comfort is available under the nearest bus. If the ACO is well managed from a fiscal perspective, providing participants will share in  the savings  as a second source of income. Quietly, with as little fanfare as possible, physicians and hospitals will be encouraged to avoid the sickest, oldest, and most complicated patients. Meanwhile, the ACA calls for expanding Medicaid despite a looming shortage of doctors.

Medicaid is supposedly administered on a state-by-state level. In June of  2012 the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) gave states an option to keep their Medicaid programs as is or expand them. So far, however, only 17 states and the District of Columbia have said they'll develop their own exchanges. Increasingly, therefore, it appears as though the federal government will pick up the exchanges by default and with it increased control of medical care.

Medicare cuts in the amount ot $716 billion are ready.  President Obama said he wouldn't cut Medicare itself, just the fees paid to all of the providers. Physicians, already getting only 18 cents on the dollar, will not be overjoyed and many are likely to stop accepting new Medicare patients.

Here's a comment from HHS: "The Department and its partners should be vigilant in identifying ... emerging fraud, waste, and abuse risk areas across all ACA-related programs ... this will require a comprehensive approach to program integrity that integrates effective front-end program gatekeeping (itlaics added)."

In 1998 this writer spoke at the White House in a press conference with then President Clinton. "Gatekeeping" was exposed as a mechanism to reduce patients' access to care. HMOs, seeing the handwriting on the wall, reformed their "gatekeeping" methods. Now, under the ACA, we're seeing new scribbling on the wall that'll enable return of the "gatekeepers."

Beware, patients: your illness may be your ticket to the hoosegow. Not to worry, though, your doctor will be in a near-by cell. The accusations will be "fraud" and "waste."

When your ACO contract arrives, you will need advice about what to do. Your first problem will be where to get that advice. Not to worry. In due course a new legal specialty will emerge.

OBAMACARE: "DOCTORS ET CETERA" IN THE ACA AND IPAB

DO IT OUR WAY OR DIE

October 29th Update to Politico comment of October 22nd. The above comment is in reference to "Presidential debate: 5 things to watch Monday" by MAGGIE HABERMAN and GLENN THRUSH | 10/22/12 4:23 AM EDT.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1012/82696.html#ixzz2AhZSGXJx

The highwater mark of Obamacare is carried in the bowels of the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), a level that hasn't yet been reached because the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is still in its infancy. It is the IPAB that will have the authority to declare entire diagnostic and treatment protocols too extravagant not only for Medicare but also for the general public and therefore not covered or payable by the ACA -- that's when Obamacare will become known for its bite.

But that bite won't chomp on President Obama or Congress because both of them are exempt from the ACA. Did you know that? Congress has its own health care plan. The Congressional plan does not include an IPAB to water  down care by restricting access to diagnostic testing and treatment. The current ACA does just that. The IPAB portion of the ACA should be repealed even if we continue to debate the rest of it.

Keep in mind that Congress keeps special healthcare benefits handy for itself including access to treatment at military hospitals.

In the autumn of 2009 President Obama stated "I will ensure that no government bureaucrat gets between you and the care you need." It's probably safe to say he wasn't thinking of the IPAB at the time. President Obama has now promised a minimum of 15 brand new bureaucrats.

In the first debate, President Obama said the IPAB would consist of "doctors et cetera." The fact is that there'll be plenty of "et cetera" but there's no obligation under the ACA that any of the 15 appointees to the IPAB must be a physician.

Governor Romney did no better than the president because he didn't seem to realize that President Obama was winging it when he said "doctors et cetera." What else does Governor Romney not know about the ACA except that he prefers his pals in the insurance industry, the blokes who rescind health care contracts once the subscriber has the temerity to get sick?

For a guy known for his financial expertise, we're surprised that the Governor failed to mention that each one of the 15 appointees to the IPAB will be paid $165,000 annually for a total annual budget of $2,475,000 just for the 15 appointees -- staff and resource time will get counted later, right?

The IPAB can be repealed without repealing the entire bill. The mechanism would be to rescind Sections 3403 and 10320. The current stand-off means that one side won't improve what's wrong with the ACA and the other side would repeal all of it to bring back the greed-soaked insurance companies.

See also our October 4th blog; use the glossary to find more articles about the IPAB, the ACA, and related topics.

AFFORDABLE CARE ACT LOSES DEBATE

OBAMA and ROMNEY Debate each other but the loser is The Affordable Care Act.

It appears as though President Obama likes the name, Obamacare, for the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It wouldn't hurt if he understood his own legislation better. On other hand, why should he? He and Congress are exempt from it. Romney simply doesn't need it.

Romney said during the debate of 3 October 2012 that Obamacare "puts in place an unelected board that's going to tell people ultimately what kind of treatments they can have." Romney doesn't like that idea. Except he has incorrectly, some would say on purpose, misconstrued the unelected board,  named  the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). It will consist of political appointees none of whom need be a physician. Its purpose will be to oversee Medicare costs. The IPAB will have the power to shut down certain costs incurred by Medicare if costs soar out of control and Congress fails to intervene. The IPAB will not be enabled to tell individual physicians what tests to order or what treatment should be used. It will not be allowed to ration care on a patient-by-patient basis. It will not be empowered to raise the Medicare eligibility age or shift costs to retireds. What the IPAB will have will be the power to determine which diagnostic and treatment protocols aren't worth  funding anymore and will in that way ration care for the entire Medicare population, the same as when private insurance companies tell hapless patients that they're seeking what they determined in cloaked boardrooms were actually "non-covered benefits," i.e., you pay for it yourself because this or that benefit is not included in your private health care plan. The IPAB method constitutes a form of sophisticated rationing, but it's not on an individual patient-by-patient basis.

Obama said that the IPAB would be composed of "doctors et cetera." Not necessarily. There's no provision in the ACA that requires doctors to be appointed to the IPAB. Obama himself evidently didn't know that when he made his comment, either that or he sought to hoodwink the audience. The 15 or so appointees to the IPAB will be political appointees who will not need to report directly  to Congress. They will not be elected so they won't represent the public or an electorate. Their job will be to make economic judgments when they decide which diagnostic and treatment protocols will be covered by Medicare and which won't be covered. In short, your doctor can prescribe whatever he wants. But your doctor can't make Medicare pay for it. And neither can you.

The IPAB is empowered by Sections 3403 and 10320 of the ACA.  These sections of the ACA should be repealed. We'll have more to say in due course. So should Obama and Romney. The October 3rd debate showed that both candidates have lots more to learn about the ACA. For instance, they can tell us if it's correct that the members of this board are to be paid $165,000 per year at a total public cost of $2,475,000. Repealing these two sections of the ACA will save taxpayers nearly $2.5 million.