The "death panels" are already here

Is our current system "downright evil"?

The "death panels" are already here

Sorry, Sarah Palin -- rationing of care? Private companies are already doing it, with sometimes fatal results
Salon.com
By Mike Madden
Aug. 11, 2009

The future of healthcare in America, according to Sarah Palin, might look something like this: A sick 17-year-old girl needs a liver transplant. Doctors find an available organ, and they're ready to operate, but the bureaucracy -- or as Palin would put it, the "death panel" -- steps in and says it won't pay for the surgery. Despite protests from the girl's family and her doctors, the heartless hacks hold their ground for a critical 10 days. Eventually, under massive public pressure, they relent -- but the patient dies before the operation can proceed.

It certainly sounds scary enough to make you want to go show up at a town hall meeting and yell about how misguided President Obama's healthcare reform plans are. Except that's not the future of healthcare -- it's the present. Long before anyone started talking about government "death panels" or warning that Obama would have the government ration care, 17-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan, a leukemia patient from Glendale, Calif., died in December 2007, after her parents battled their insurance company, Cigna, over the surgery. Cigna initially refused to pay for it because the company's analysis showed Sarkisyan was already too sick from her leukemia; the liver transplant wouldn't have saved her life.

That kind of utilitarian rationing, of course, is exactly what Palin and other opponents of the healthcare reform proposals pending before Congress say they want to protect the country from. "Such a system is downright evil," Palin wrote, in the same message posted on Facebook where she raised the "death panel" specter. "Health care by definition involves life and death decisions."

Coverage of Palin's remarks, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's defense of them, over the weekend did point out that the idea that the reform plans would encourage government-sponsored euthanasia is one of a handful of deliberate falsehoods being peddled by opponents of the legislation. But the idea that only if reform passes would the government start setting up rationing and interfering with care goes beyond just the bogus euthanasia claim.

Opponents of reform often seem to skip right past any problems with the current system -- but it's rife with them. A study by the American Medical Association found the biggest insurance companies in the country denied between 2 and 5 percent of claims put in by doctors last year (though the AMA noted that not all the denials were improper). There is no national database of insurance claim denials, though, because private insurance companies aren't required to disclose such stats. Meanwhile, a House Energy and Commerce Committee report in June found that just three insurance companies kicked at least 20,000 people off their rolls between 2003 and 2007 for such reasons as typos on their application paperwork, a preexisting condition or a family member's medical history. People who buy insurance under individual policies, about 6 percent of adults, may be especially vulnerable, but the 63 percent of adults covered by employer-provided insurance aren't immune to difficulty...

What do CIGNA and Kaiser have in common

What do CIGNA and Kaiser have in common, besides wrongfully allowing transplant patients to die?

Ummm, I don't know.

Ruthless insurance administrators?

Kaiser apparently works with Keenan and Associates, and Cigna seems to work with Driver Alliant.

I have first-hand experience with Keenan, and I know that they pressure public entity clients to cover up wrongdoing so the insurance company will not have to pay.

Keenan & Associates

Keenan & Associates
2355 Crenshaw Boulevard
Suite 200
Torrance, CA 90501
United States
Tel: 310-212-3344
URL: http://www.keenanassoc.com/
Primary Industry:
Insurance


Keenan
Briefing

Department of Industrial Relations December 2007
2007/2008 Self-Insured Assessment Rates

The Department of Industrial Relations Self-Insurance Plans (DSIP) has started to send out invoices for the
2007/2008 self-insured assessments. The invoices are dated December 12, 2007 with payment due no later
than January 11, 2008.
Assessments are 100% employer funded and are used to support the Department of Workers’
Compensation (DWC) budget, fund the Department of Insurance and the local District Attorney anti-fraud
efforts, pay for injured workers’ whose employers were uninsured and provide benefits for injured workers’
who qualify under the Subsequent Injury Fund. The total assessment amount required each year is
dependent upon budgets needed to run each of the four programs outlined and the available fund balance
for each program.
The 2007/2008 assessments represent an increase over last year’s due to a smaller carry over balance than
expected, a loan made to the Division of Occupational Safety & Health (OSHA), an increase in the DWC’s
operating expenses, as well as, a one time investment in the DWC’s Electronic Adjudication Management
System.
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Total Assessment $165 million $209 million $195 million $281 million
$329 million
User Funding Assessment
(DWC and DIR)
.012656 .021993 .017982 .019662
.030492
Uninsured Employers Benefit
Trust Fund Assessment
.004923 .002696 .003572 .001785
.004358
Subsequent Injuries Benefit Trust
Fund Assessment
.001121 .001099 .001586 .002727 .000814
Anti-Fraud Surcharge .004712 .003662 .003772 .005451 .006031
Each self-insured employer’s actual assessment amount is contingent upon indemnity paid as reported on
your most recent Self-Insured Annual Report (fiscal year 2006-2007 for public entities and the 2006 calendar
year for private employers).
For those customers who, for budgeting purposes, need to estimate their 2008/2009 Self-Insured
Assessments, please contact your Claims Analyst who can provide with this information.
If you have any questions regarding the information contained in this Briefing, please feel free to contact your
Account Executive, Claims Analyst or Christine Gerbasi at 310-212-0363 x3760 or cgerbasi@keenan.com


http://www.keenan.com/news/brief/2007/1218_Assessments.pdf






OPTIMUM PHYSICAL THERAPY AND WELLNESS, INC.

34213 YUCAIPA BLVD, SUITE 'A', REDLANDS, CA 92399

We currently accept the following insurances:

- Aetna
- Beech Street
- Blue Cross
- Blue Shield
- CIGNA
- Department of Labor (Federal W/C)
- First Health/CCN
- IEHP
- Keenan and Associates
- Medicare
- PacifiCare
- PHCS
- State Fund (SCIF)
- United HealthCare

We also accept many more Private and PPO Insurances and we are providers for most of the Workers' Compensation Medical Provider Networks (MPN's).

http://optwi.com/Our_Contracts.html





The Shor Group of ComaniesAlburger Basso deGrosz (insurance brokerage); Keenan & Associates and Keenan Healthcare (insurance brokerage); CIGNA Property & Casualty (underwriter) ...
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Cigna Insurance TexasCIGNA Corp., Philadelphia, Pa. Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Inc., Wellesley, Mass. .... Keenan & Associates Named Top Insurance Brokerage in San Francisco . ...
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