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Time For Critical Action (Read 16879 times)
Batch
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Re: Time For Critical Action
Reply #125 - Jun 27th, 2009 at 8:26am
 
Monty,

Nice try.  I posted the latest CMS policy on DME-Oxygen earlier in "How to Obtain a Prescription for Oxygen Therapy."  That post included the fact that after 5 years the home oxygen providers will will go out and buy new oxygen concentrators... and the payments go back up for the next 3 years - per public law under 144(b) of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 and CMS-1403-FC.

What you've cleverly avoided with this truth, is the reduction in Medicare beneficiaries receiving DME-Oxygen over the 5 year period as illustrated in the chart...

Can you explain how this is possible when there is no cure for most COPD and the chart clearly shows a percent reduction in beneficiaries each year?  (Do they die waiting for oxygen?)

Moreover, there's no accounting for the number of baby boomers turning 65 that would clearly raise the number of senior citizens requiring home oxygen therapy.

Common sense would say these numbers don't add up even if you account for cost efficiencies associated with oxygen concentrators...   That leads to an obvious conclusion based on the following:  If CMS intends to budget less for home oxygen therapy and the number of beneficiaries requiring that therapy is going to increase, Then the available coverage for home oxygen therapy per beneficiary decreases...  

I realize a lot of folks are into obamamath, but that sure sounds like rationing to me.

Take care,

V/R, Batch
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stevegeebe
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Re: Time For Critical Action
Reply #126 - Jun 28th, 2009 at 6:09pm
 
As an Independent, I hope to try to explain how I perceive the dialog I am witness to, both here and out in the hinterland.

While I wish there were more than what appears to be two camps, the lines seem to be etched in rock and only time (and with that ,wisdom) can allow a lowering of our guarded positions and lead to mutual understanding and a good common direction.

As it currently stands, we may need a bucket of "oh shit" tossed on both camps to shake us loose of our ideological shackles. And from what knowledge I've been accumulating an "oh shit" may, and I say may, be just what we are facing.

Historically speaking, we Humans, (mostly the Northern Hemisphere), have carved out an unmatched progression from a difficult and forgotten way of life where hard work has been replaced by machines. Think a measly hundred years ago.

These machines have not only allowed us all of the comforts we exist within but have allowed us to produce enormous amounts of food, drive and fly, and...well, everything we currently take for granted. This has been "allowed" by the inexpensive stored energy in crude oil and natural gas. No contest...right?

Again, historically speaking, and on the heals of cross continental railroads, a well thought plan for the creation of large lending institutions, and the centralization of money in the hands of a few and after the Depression, leading to the ultimate master...the creation of the Federal Reserve. This leaves us to pay the interest in the form of newly instituted taxes. Very nice...yes?

Corporations, small businesses, manufacturing, the building of infrastructure, all moving forward creating (by design) a consumer society hell bent on buying all of the varied necessities of what is gleefully portrayed during the commercials on Gunsmoke, Bonanza and all of the other popular shows. And as "The Great One" use to say..., "and away we go".  

Now, locked into jobs to pay for all of these necessities, borrowing money to pay our mortgages, we happily move upward all the while paying interest and taxes to the sponsor of this most grand scheme.

Now here we sit..witness to corruption, resource depletion, political discourse and the big one...greed.  We all play our part. The "Government" folks has us just where they want us. I'm not sure of the rules of war but I suspect "divide and conquer is right up there at the top. Democrats and Republicans...How nice is that?

If you believe that the Planet can continue to provide the type of energy that we built our modern society upon, to continue consuming at our current rate, to feed a population increase witnessed in the referenced past hundred years on the inexpensive energy in oil you are short sighted. Nature has a way of sorting out the winners and losers and if we continue to discount the signs we will be not unlike a animal population that has had its predators killed off. Nature will ultimately rule in her own indiscriminate way.

Do I think the current administration is headed in the "appropriate" direction? I don't really know. We do not have a forth rail any longer. That's bad. Are we hearing the truth? See above. You want a revolution? Vote the career politicians out as soon as possible.

Let's ask them for a grand vision. A way to become free of the business as usual and on to a comprehensive direction to a sustainable future. A "No Regrets Policy" that looks forward to the future of our children and the promise that that they will indeed have a better future. If we don't reach a common understanding I fear this concept in danger.

Respectfully,
Steve G


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Charlie
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Re: Time For Critical Action
Reply #127 - Jun 29th, 2009 at 12:23am
 
You're right Steve. We need another Theodore Roosevelt and another progressive movement.

Progressive legislation stagnated for the last 20 years as our politicians are terrified to lose out on all that nice money spent to blunt any attempts at progressive ideas. With Republicans, progressive legislation and even ideas are considered toxic. Democrats are far from perfect but with them things don't get worse.

Joe Six Packs benefit far more from progressives than conservatives.

Charlie
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« Last Edit: Jun 29th, 2009 at 12:28am by Charlie »  

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Melissa
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Re: Time For Critical Action
Reply #128 - Jun 29th, 2009 at 8:27am
 
Steve, that was a pretty awesome post and I agree 100%!
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Batch
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Re: Time For Critical Action
Reply #129 - Jun 29th, 2009 at 9:32pm
 
I think the following sums it up nicely...

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the
wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working
for, another person must work for without receiving. The government
cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first
take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that
they do not have to work because the other half is going to take
care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no
good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."

Dr. Adrian Rogers

Take care... and BOHICA
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Re: Time For Critical Action
Reply #130 - Jun 29th, 2009 at 11:20pm
 
I have a theory that as societies get bigger and bigger the less likely pure individualism will succeed. If true, it's a shame. We are becoming more like the rest of western societies and we don't take to it well.

Charlie
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« Last Edit: Jun 29th, 2009 at 11:21pm by Charlie »  

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monty
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Re: Time For Critical Action
Reply #131 - Jun 30th, 2009 at 11:09am
 
Batch,

You insist on trying to scare people with a distorted picture of the new policies - you really should be ashamed of yourself.  But of course, you are hysterical and delusional when it comes to certain hot button topics - it is probably unfair of me to expect you to engage in a rational, non-partisan discussion. But for the sake of others, I'll try.

Quote:
Can you explain how this is possible when there is no cure for most COPD and the chart clearly shows a percent reduction in beneficiaries each year?  (Do they die waiting for oxygen?)


Well, the financial model could include a decrease that approximates the predicted death of people with COPD - but no one else is talking about masses of people dying from being denied oxygen, and you are irresponsible to do so.  The big reduction in 'beneficiaries' or people getting payments is due to the fact that in the first year, all those who have had a machine for 3 or 4 years will not be paid for - as far as medicare is concerned, the device has been paid for.

Quote:
What you've cleverly avoided with this truth, is the reduction in Medicare beneficiaries receiving DME-Oxygen over the 5 year period as illustrated in the chart...


No, it isn't just oxygen concentrators that get put on lower payments and for only 3 years, it is all oxygen equipment.  The suppliers are being held responsible for providing service after they have collected nice profits for 3 years.

Quote:
In the case of all oxygen equipment furnished after the 36-month rental cap, the supplier is responsible for performing any repairs or maintenance and servicing of the equipment that is necessary to ensure that the equipment is in good working order for the remainder of the reasonable useful lifetime of the equipment.

The 36-month cap applies to stationary and portable oxygen equipment furnished on or after January 1, 2006; therefore, the 36-month cap may end as early as January 1, 2009, for beneficiaries using oxygen equipment on a continuous basis since January 1, 2006

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To be honest, these rules are thick and convoluted. I can't say for sure that some of the changes won't result in some inconvenience or increased copays for individuals - I am not going to trace each and every possible effect. But it is clear that your interpretation is not in agreement with reality.

Quote:
Despite enormous buying power, Medicare pays far more. Rather than buy oxygen equipment outright, Medicare rents it for 36 months before patients take ownership, and pays for a variety of services that critics say are often unnecessary.

The total cost to taxpayers and patients is as much as $8,280, or more than double what somebody might spend at a drugstore. The high expense of oxygen equipment — which cost Medicare over $1.8 billion last year — is hardly an anomaly.

For example, last year Medicare spent more than $21 million on pumps to help older and disabled men attain erections, paying about $450 for the same device that is available online for as little as $108.

These widespread price discrepancies, including those for oxygen services, have been noted in dozens of regulatory reports.

But when officials and politicians have tried to cut these costs, they have often encountered a powerful foe: the companies that sell these devices, who ask their elderly customers to serve, in effect, as unpaid lobbyists, calling and writing to their representatives in Congress, protesting at rallies, and even participating in political attacks against individual lawmakers who take on the issue.

“These industries rely on a basic threat: If you mess with us, we can turn the seniors against you,” said former Senator Alan K. Simpson, Republican of Wyoming, who tried cutting Medicare payments while he was in Congress. “Angering seniors is the quickest route to political suicide.”


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I suggest that you are being a tool, Batch, and your purpose is not provide a better system, but to protect the excess profits of the companies and keep overcharging the US taxpayer.




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« Last Edit: Jun 30th, 2009 at 11:19am by monty »  

The outer boundary of what we currently believe is feasible is far short of what we actually must do.
 
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Re: Time For Critical Action
Reply #132 - Jun 30th, 2009 at 9:24pm
 
I'm a bit of a Outer Space fanatic. I have saved the local news papers from the Apollo tune up and the ultimate goal... the Moon landing. You would not believe the price of consumables in the Ads.

I don't believe in visitors from another world because I am slowly getting a grip of the distances. It's truly incredible. I believe it to be so by deliberate intention. I mean, why so much space?

Still I wonder, that if we were visited and observations were written down, what would they write of us today? What would they write a hundred years from now when they revisited us, wanting to see if what they wrote turned out right.

Should you want to have things remain the same or if you want to see, and demand it be different, and have an HONEST dialog, than we all have to change.

Damn it, how much legislation is proposed with shit all over it stinking of political ideology, gamesmanship and, the ultimate insult...effective lobbying results? They are all bought and paid for. Isn't that the truth?
Look at your current Representative or Senator. Tell me what you see?

I'd much prefer we prove those aliens wrong.

I'd prefer to have them say, "We were wrong. These Freaks of the Universe got their shit together and figured out how to survive."

They might then show us some really good stuff.

Steve G

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Re: Time For Critical Action
Reply #133 - Jul 1st, 2009 at 5:34pm
 
Then again maybe Congress or the New York State Senate would be the greatest thing to them since sliced bread. Sorry for those of you not familiar with the Felini-like goings on up here. They may think it's funniest thing ever and I mean funny, not something that makes one sad....I wouldn't have it any other way. Shocked Cool

Chicago politics has nothing on Albany, NY in 2009.    Shocked

Charlie
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« Last Edit: Jul 1st, 2009 at 5:35pm by Charlie »  

There is nothing more satisfying than being shot at without result---Winston Churchill
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