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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By: Kamal Menghrajani\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_4834\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/04/AetnaRate_Images-Money_Apr62012.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-4834 \" title=\"AetnaRate_Images Money_Apr62012\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/04/AetnaRate_Images-Money_Apr62012-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"AetnaRate_Images Money_Apr62012\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aetna has raised rates on its PPO by 30 percent in the past two years. (Images Money: Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>If you were a California business making nearly 28 percent profit, would you change your business strategy if someone asked you nicely?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Probably not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a nutshell, that’s what’s going on between \u003ca href=\"http://www.insurance.ca.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">California’s Department of Insurance\u003c/a> and the health care insurer \u003ca href=\"http://www.aetna.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Aetna\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Insurance has many jobs, one of which is to make sure that rates stay reasonable by regulating what insurance companies can charge consumers ... with one exception.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Insurance Commissioner \u003ca title=\"http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0500-about-us/0200-commissioner/\" href=\"http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0500-about-us/0200-commissioner/\" target=\"_blank\">Dave Jones\u003c/a>, “I have that authority for auto insurance, for homeowners’ insurance, for property insurance, for casualty insurance -- basically for almost all other insurance lines, except health insurance and HMO products.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">“This is the first time that a health insurer has disregarded our request that it lower its rate increase.”\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Jones doesn't like it. “It's quite a loophole, and it's a loophole through which health insurers and HMOs have been driving ever-increasing rate hikes –- 10-20-30-40 -- sometimes as much as 80 percent annual rate increases.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This time around, Aetna increased their PPO rates by 1.8 percent for the quarter that began April 1\u003csup>st\u003c/sup>. This seems like a modest hike, but it brings up the total rate hike in the last year to 8 percent, and it means that small businesses are paying 30.3 percent more for health insurance than they were two years ago.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the Commissioner cannot force Aetna to offer more reasonable rates, he can only ask.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And this time, Aetna declined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the first time that a health insurer has disregarded our request that it lower its rate increase,” said Jones. Both sides did extensive studies to look at the projected increases in Aetna’s cost of providing care. Aetna did an internal analysis and had a third-party actuary confirm and certify their projections. The Department of Insurance did their own actuarial study, based on the company’s claims history. But, the Department said the increase did not seem warranted and labeled it “unreasonable.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Add this to the \u003ca title=\"http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0400-news/0100-press-releases/release031-12.cfm\" href=\"http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0400-news/0100-press-releases/release031-12.cfm\" target=\"_blank\">Commissioner’s report\u003c/a> that Aetna made 27.7 percent profit last year and generated $1.7 billion for their national parent company, and it’s easy to understand why Jones doesn’t think Aetna needs to be asking more of its California subscribers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No other industry is making the kind of record profits, except the oil industry, that the health insurers and HMOs are making. 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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Insurance Commissioner \u003ca title=\"http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0500-about-us/0200-commissioner/\" href=\"http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0500-about-us/0200-commissioner/\" target=\"_blank\">Dave Jones\u003c/a>, “I have that authority for auto insurance, for homeowners’ insurance, for property insurance, for casualty insurance -- basically for almost all other insurance lines, except health insurance and HMO products.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">“This is the first time that a health insurer has disregarded our request that it lower its rate increase.”\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Jones doesn't like it. “It's quite a loophole, and it's a loophole through which health insurers and HMOs have been driving ever-increasing rate hikes –- 10-20-30-40 -- sometimes as much as 80 percent annual rate increases.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This time around, Aetna increased their PPO rates by 1.8 percent for the quarter that began April 1\u003csup>st\u003c/sup>. This seems like a modest hike, but it brings up the total rate hike in the last year to 8 percent, and it means that small businesses are paying 30.3 percent more for health insurance than they were two years ago.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the Commissioner cannot force Aetna to offer more reasonable rates, he can only ask.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And this time, Aetna declined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the first time that a health insurer has disregarded our request that it lower its rate increase,” said Jones. Both sides did extensive studies to look at the projected increases in Aetna’s cost of providing care. Aetna did an internal analysis and had a third-party actuary confirm and certify their projections. The Department of Insurance did their own actuarial study, based on the company’s claims history. But, the Department said the increase did not seem warranted and labeled it “unreasonable.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Add this to the \u003ca title=\"http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0400-news/0100-press-releases/release031-12.cfm\" href=\"http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0400-news/0100-press-releases/release031-12.cfm\" target=\"_blank\">Commissioner’s report\u003c/a> that Aetna made 27.7 percent profit last year and generated $1.7 billion for their national parent company, and it’s easy to understand why Jones doesn’t think Aetna needs to be asking more of its California subscribers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No other industry is making the kind of record profits, except the oil industry, that the health insurers and HMOs are making. And they're making those excessive profits at the expense of ordinary Californians, California's families, and California's businesses,” said Jones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aetna Director of Communications Susan Millerick says that the company is using that $1.7 billion to improve the services they provide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The dividend to the parent is re-invested in the business,” she said. She gave some examples of where the money might go: faster claim processing time, investments in new technology, consumer tools – things that will ideally make healthcare more affordable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if they are making health care less expensive, how can they justify charging more for it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to make the investment and you have to encourage consumers to use [tools to make better health care decisions],” she said. “Until consumers really embrace their roles ... and realize that they can make informed choices, you’re not going to see the cost curve bend.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For now, Commissioner Jones says there is nothing he can do about the current increases. “The health insurers and HMOs can raise the rates as high as they would like. And they do,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Forget the Robots: Venture Capitalists Change Their Health Care Investments",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3666\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/03/surgical-robot-NickDawson_Flickr.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-3666\" title=\"surgical-robot-NickDawson_Flickr\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/03/surgical-robot-NickDawson_Flickr.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Venture capitalists are spurning high-tech surgical robots like this for more practical health care investments. (Nick Dawson:Flickr).\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t that long ago that money flowed steadily to entrepreneurs who dreamt up whiz-bang medical devices. Hospitals souped up their surgical suites with robots or high-tech radiation machines for cancer treatment. Cost wasn’t an issue: They just got passed along to insurance companies, who passed them on to employers and patients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But after the Great Recession hit and the 2010 health law passed, the financiers behind the medical arms race started to rethink their investment calculus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you come in with [a device] that’s 10 percent better and twice as expensive, it’s hard to get anyone to care,” said \u003ca title=\"http://www.venrock.com/team/#/team/?item=57\" href=\"http://www.venrock.com/team/#/team/?item=57\" target=\"_blank\">Bryan Roberts\u003c/a>, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based venture capitalist at Venrock, a Silicon Valley company that invests in firms working on health services, medical devices and drugs.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The changes in the health system are rocket fuel for entrepreneurs,” says Roberts’ partner \u003ca title=\"http://www.venrock.com/team/#/team/?item=99\" href=\"http://www.venrock.com/team/#/team/?item=99\" target=\"_blank\">Bob Kocher\u003c/a>. He is a former Obama health policy adviser who was hired by Venrock in part to capitalize on the expertise he cultivated working on the law in the White House.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The share of venture dollars flowing to seed and early-stage investments in biotechnology and medical devices has plummeted since 2007, when investors pumped $3.6 billion into 332 deals in which a price was disclosed, according to data \u003ca title=\"http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2011/November/07/Health-Investors-New-Calculus-Save-Money-To-Make-Money.aspx\" href=\"http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2011/November/07/Health-Investors-New-Calculus-Save-Money-To-Make-Money.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">compiled for Kaiser Health News\u003c/a> by FactSet Research Systems. Overall venture investing declined by nearly one-third as the economic recession set in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kocher is eyeing businesses that do things like help hospitals keep patients from returning to the hospital with complications soon after treatment — a big-ticket cost that the health law will now tie to new penalties. Like other investors, he also anticipates that many people who gain coverage under the law will face high insurance deductibles. So, Venrock and other firms have funded \u003ca title=\"http://healthcaresavvy.wbur.org/2012/03/castlight-aims-to-turns-patients-into-informed-consumers\" href=\"http://healthcaresavvy.wbur.org/2012/03/castlight-aims-to-turns-patients-into-informed-consumers\" target=\"_blank\">Castlight Health\u003c/a>, a technology company that helps patients choose the cheapest care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The opportunities within complex health care ecosystems are in things as mundane as billing. “There’s a half a person per hospital bed on average that sits in the hospital doing coding and collections and trying to get paid,” Kocher says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their solution? Drop the manual coding and create “a software system that learns as it codes and keeps getting better and better. And all of a sudden you can say to the hospital, Look, we’ll charge you 50 or 70 percent of what you’re paying now. You guys save 30 percent. But by the way, we can make great margins and make a terrific business because our costs are so much lower, because we’ve actually used technology rather than just people to attack the problem,” Roberts gushes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the treatment side, the investors in Silicon Valley understand that hospitals don’t want space-age solutions for tomorrow as much as they want cheap, pragmatic products that can solve basic problems. When it comes to controlling urinary infections, for instance, the future is indeed in plastics. Plastic catheters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vicki Farrar started a company called \u003ca title=\"http://www.catheterconnections.com/\" href=\"http://www.catheterconnections.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Catheter Connections\u003c/a>, based in Salt Lake City. She’s almost evangelical about building a better catheter – one that kills the microbes that cause infection – and it’s not hard to understand why. The infections are totally preventable and Medicare won’t pay for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s directly impacting the hospital’s bottom line, so they don’t want this out-of-pocket cost. It’s about $50,000 per infection rate,” she says. Meaning, the hospital loses $50,000 for every catheter-related blood stream infection. The DualCap catheter she sells, which looks like a spark plug and smells of rubbing alcohol, costs less than a dollar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DualCap investor Anne Degheest figured the catheter was a good business to bet on, because it prevents hospital readmissions. She points to another promising investment: In-room televisions that walk a patient through a doctor’s orders – from bed rest to getting prescriptions filled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Like while you’re in the hospital, they educate you on the TV so that you cannot see your shows until you’ve gone through the education, and they test you,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a bit like not getting dessert until you’ve had your vegetables. Maybe this all sounds incredibly simplistic, but venture capitalists say one of the trickiest things about this new world of investing is that their returns, in many cases, hinge on humans changing their behavior. And that’s a lot harder than building a robot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>–Christopher Weaver contributed to this report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of a reporting partnership that includes \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/\">KQED\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/\">\u003cimg title=\"logo_npr_test\" src=\"http://capsules.kaiserhealthnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/logo_npr_test.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"45\" height=\"15\">\u003c/a> and \u003c/em>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/\">Kaiser Health News\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3666\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/03/surgical-robot-NickDawson_Flickr.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-3666\" title=\"surgical-robot-NickDawson_Flickr\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/03/surgical-robot-NickDawson_Flickr.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Venture capitalists are spurning high-tech surgical robots like this for more practical health care investments. (Nick Dawson:Flickr).\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t that long ago that money flowed steadily to entrepreneurs who dreamt up whiz-bang medical devices. Hospitals souped up their surgical suites with robots or high-tech radiation machines for cancer treatment. Cost wasn’t an issue: They just got passed along to insurance companies, who passed them on to employers and patients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But after the Great Recession hit and the 2010 health law passed, the financiers behind the medical arms race started to rethink their investment calculus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you come in with [a device] that’s 10 percent better and twice as expensive, it’s hard to get anyone to care,” said \u003ca title=\"http://www.venrock.com/team/#/team/?item=57\" href=\"http://www.venrock.com/team/#/team/?item=57\" target=\"_blank\">Bryan Roberts\u003c/a>, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based venture capitalist at Venrock, a Silicon Valley company that invests in firms working on health services, medical devices and drugs.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The changes in the health system are rocket fuel for entrepreneurs,” says Roberts’ partner \u003ca title=\"http://www.venrock.com/team/#/team/?item=99\" href=\"http://www.venrock.com/team/#/team/?item=99\" target=\"_blank\">Bob Kocher\u003c/a>. He is a former Obama health policy adviser who was hired by Venrock in part to capitalize on the expertise he cultivated working on the law in the White House.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The share of venture dollars flowing to seed and early-stage investments in biotechnology and medical devices has plummeted since 2007, when investors pumped $3.6 billion into 332 deals in which a price was disclosed, according to data \u003ca title=\"http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2011/November/07/Health-Investors-New-Calculus-Save-Money-To-Make-Money.aspx\" href=\"http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2011/November/07/Health-Investors-New-Calculus-Save-Money-To-Make-Money.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">compiled for Kaiser Health News\u003c/a> by FactSet Research Systems. Overall venture investing declined by nearly one-third as the economic recession set in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kocher is eyeing businesses that do things like help hospitals keep patients from returning to the hospital with complications soon after treatment — a big-ticket cost that the health law will now tie to new penalties. Like other investors, he also anticipates that many people who gain coverage under the law will face high insurance deductibles. So, Venrock and other firms have funded \u003ca title=\"http://healthcaresavvy.wbur.org/2012/03/castlight-aims-to-turns-patients-into-informed-consumers\" href=\"http://healthcaresavvy.wbur.org/2012/03/castlight-aims-to-turns-patients-into-informed-consumers\" target=\"_blank\">Castlight Health\u003c/a>, a technology company that helps patients choose the cheapest care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The opportunities within complex health care ecosystems are in things as mundane as billing. “There’s a half a person per hospital bed on average that sits in the hospital doing coding and collections and trying to get paid,” Kocher says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their solution? Drop the manual coding and create “a software system that learns as it codes and keeps getting better and better. And all of a sudden you can say to the hospital, Look, we’ll charge you 50 or 70 percent of what you’re paying now. You guys save 30 percent. But by the way, we can make great margins and make a terrific business because our costs are so much lower, because we’ve actually used technology rather than just people to attack the problem,” Roberts gushes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the treatment side, the investors in Silicon Valley understand that hospitals don’t want space-age solutions for tomorrow as much as they want cheap, pragmatic products that can solve basic problems. When it comes to controlling urinary infections, for instance, the future is indeed in plastics. Plastic catheters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vicki Farrar started a company called \u003ca title=\"http://www.catheterconnections.com/\" href=\"http://www.catheterconnections.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Catheter Connections\u003c/a>, based in Salt Lake City. She’s almost evangelical about building a better catheter – one that kills the microbes that cause infection – and it’s not hard to understand why. The infections are totally preventable and Medicare won’t pay for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s directly impacting the hospital’s bottom line, so they don’t want this out-of-pocket cost. It’s about $50,000 per infection rate,” she says. Meaning, the hospital loses $50,000 for every catheter-related blood stream infection. The DualCap catheter she sells, which looks like a spark plug and smells of rubbing alcohol, costs less than a dollar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DualCap investor Anne Degheest figured the catheter was a good business to bet on, because it prevents hospital readmissions. She points to another promising investment: In-room televisions that walk a patient through a doctor’s orders – from bed rest to getting prescriptions filled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Like while you’re in the hospital, they educate you on the TV so that you cannot see your shows until you’ve gone through the education, and they test you,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a bit like not getting dessert until you’ve had your vegetables. Maybe this all sounds incredibly simplistic, but venture capitalists say one of the trickiest things about this new world of investing is that their returns, in many cases, hinge on humans changing their behavior. And that’s a lot harder than building a robot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>–Christopher Weaver contributed to this report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of a reporting partnership that includes \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/\">KQED\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/\">\u003cimg title=\"logo_npr_test\" src=\"http://capsules.kaiserhealthnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/logo_npr_test.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"45\" height=\"15\">\u003c/a> and \u003c/em>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/\">Kaiser Health News\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "FDA Investigating Two Canadians for Distributing Fake Avastin",
"title": "FDA Investigating Two Canadians for Distributing Fake Avastin",
"headTitle": "State of Health | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3592\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 146px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/03/AvastinVial_20111118.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-3592\" title=\"(Image: Genentech)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/03/AvastinVial_20111118-300x615.jpg\" alt=\"(Image: Genentech)\" width=\"146\" height=\"300\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Image: Genentech)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Kamal Menghrajani\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month the Food and Drug Administration warned 19 doctors and clinics that counterfeit vials of the chemotherapy drug \u003ca title=\"http://www.avastin.com/patient/index.html\" href=\"http://www.avastin.com/patient/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">Avastin\u003c/a> had been identified in the U.S. \u003ca title=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2012/02/16/fda-warns-california-clinics-of-fake-avastin/\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2012/02/16/fda-warns-california-clinics-of-fake-avastin/\" target=\"_blank\">Most of those doctors were in California\u003c/a>. Today the \u003ca title=\"http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203370604577261343974214110.html\" href=\"http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203370604577261343974214110.html\" target=\"_blank\">Wall Street Journal reports\u003c/a> that the FDA is investigating two businessmen from Canada who may be the source of these vials. One of them had admitted to shipping fake Avastin last year, although he says he did not know the vials contained counterfeit drugs. While it is generally illegal for anyone but the manufacturer to import prescription drugs into the U.S., it happens frequently and has proven difficult to police, the Journal reports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>\"We're deeply horrified by this counterfeit [product] being sold by one of my companies,\" said Thomas Haughton, a Canadian citizen who runs a network of drug distributors that sell to U.S. doctors. At the same time he said that his business operated legally. \"We're doing everything we can to be sure that this never happens again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While experts say most U.S. drugs are safe, the probe may raise new concerns about the weakly regulated gray market in foreign drugs aimed at U.S. patients. The importation of foreign drugs by third parties, which takes advantage of the large price differential between the U.S. market and others abroad, is believed to represent a small but growing portion of the $300 billion U.S. prescription pharmaceutical business.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003c!--more-->Haughton’s brother-in-law, Kris Thorkelson, is the second man under investigation. Both Haughton and Thorkelson sell low-cost medicines to doctors or directly to patients in the U.S. According to the \u003cem>Journal\u003c/em> their Canada-based businesses are thought to be the end of a supply chain of counterfeit Avastin that may have started in China and made its way through Turkey, Egypt, Sweden, and Denmark before going through Canada to get to Tennessee. Tennessee-based Volunteer Distribution was then suspected of funneling those vials out to various clinics throughout the country, most of which were in Southern California. Again, from the \u003cem>Journal\u003c/em>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>In the last several days, the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles has subpoenaed California physicians for documents about their dealings with and products purchased from Messrs. Haughton and Thorkelson, three people who have worked for them and 12 companies that are affiliated with one or the other man, according to a copy of a subpoena reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least some of the doctors who received a subpoena were warned last month by the FDA that they may have purchased fake Avastin from three companies named in the subpoena and linked to Mr. Haughton. The FDA, which is leading the investigation, declined to comment on the subpoenas or the ongoing investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fake Avastin contained starch, salt, cleaning solvents and other chemicals and none of the drug's active ingredient, bevacizumab, according to Roche. The packaging didn't match U.S.-approved labels for the product, regulators said. As of Monday, the FDA hadn't received any reports of the fake Avastin being administered to patients.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>The FDA is pursuing a criminal investigation against the Canadian drug sellers for shipping non-FDA approved drugs into the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Last month the Food and Drug Administration warned 19 doctors and clinics that counterfeit vials of the chemotherapy drug Avastin had been identified in the U.S. Most of those doctors were in California. Today the Wall Street Journal reports that the FDA is investigating two businessmen from Canada who may be the source of these vials. One of them had admitted to shipping fake Avastin last year, although he says he did not know the vials contained counterfeit drugs. While it is generally illegal for anyone but the manufacturer to import prescription drugs into the U.S., it happens frequently and has proven difficult to police, the Journal reports.",
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"description": "Last month the Food and Drug Administration warned 19 doctors and clinics that counterfeit vials of the chemotherapy drug Avastin had been identified in the U.S. Most of those doctors were in California. Today the Wall Street Journal reports that the FDA is investigating two businessmen from Canada who may be the source of these vials. One of them had admitted to shipping fake Avastin last year, although he says he did not know the vials contained counterfeit drugs. While it is generally illegal for anyone but the manufacturer to import prescription drugs into the U.S., it happens frequently and has proven difficult to police, the Journal reports.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3592\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 146px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/03/AvastinVial_20111118.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-3592\" title=\"(Image: Genentech)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/03/AvastinVial_20111118-300x615.jpg\" alt=\"(Image: Genentech)\" width=\"146\" height=\"300\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Image: Genentech)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Kamal Menghrajani\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month the Food and Drug Administration warned 19 doctors and clinics that counterfeit vials of the chemotherapy drug \u003ca title=\"http://www.avastin.com/patient/index.html\" href=\"http://www.avastin.com/patient/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">Avastin\u003c/a> had been identified in the U.S. \u003ca title=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2012/02/16/fda-warns-california-clinics-of-fake-avastin/\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2012/02/16/fda-warns-california-clinics-of-fake-avastin/\" target=\"_blank\">Most of those doctors were in California\u003c/a>. Today the \u003ca title=\"http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203370604577261343974214110.html\" href=\"http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203370604577261343974214110.html\" target=\"_blank\">Wall Street Journal reports\u003c/a> that the FDA is investigating two businessmen from Canada who may be the source of these vials. One of them had admitted to shipping fake Avastin last year, although he says he did not know the vials contained counterfeit drugs. While it is generally illegal for anyone but the manufacturer to import prescription drugs into the U.S., it happens frequently and has proven difficult to police, the Journal reports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>\"We're deeply horrified by this counterfeit [product] being sold by one of my companies,\" said Thomas Haughton, a Canadian citizen who runs a network of drug distributors that sell to U.S. doctors. At the same time he said that his business operated legally. \"We're doing everything we can to be sure that this never happens again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While experts say most U.S. drugs are safe, the probe may raise new concerns about the weakly regulated gray market in foreign drugs aimed at U.S. patients. The importation of foreign drugs by third parties, which takes advantage of the large price differential between the U.S. market and others abroad, is believed to represent a small but growing portion of the $300 billion U.S. prescription pharmaceutical business.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003c!--more-->Haughton’s brother-in-law, Kris Thorkelson, is the second man under investigation. Both Haughton and Thorkelson sell low-cost medicines to doctors or directly to patients in the U.S. According to the \u003cem>Journal\u003c/em> their Canada-based businesses are thought to be the end of a supply chain of counterfeit Avastin that may have started in China and made its way through Turkey, Egypt, Sweden, and Denmark before going through Canada to get to Tennessee. Tennessee-based Volunteer Distribution was then suspected of funneling those vials out to various clinics throughout the country, most of which were in Southern California. Again, from the \u003cem>Journal\u003c/em>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>In the last several days, the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles has subpoenaed California physicians for documents about their dealings with and products purchased from Messrs. Haughton and Thorkelson, three people who have worked for them and 12 companies that are affiliated with one or the other man, according to a copy of a subpoena reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least some of the doctors who received a subpoena were warned last month by the FDA that they may have purchased fake Avastin from three companies named in the subpoena and linked to Mr. Haughton. The FDA, which is leading the investigation, declined to comment on the subpoenas or the ongoing investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fake Avastin contained starch, salt, cleaning solvents and other chemicals and none of the drug's active ingredient, bevacizumab, according to Roche. The packaging didn't match U.S.-approved labels for the product, regulators said. As of Monday, the FDA hadn't received any reports of the fake Avastin being administered to patients.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>The FDA is pursuing a criminal investigation against the Canadian drug sellers for shipping non-FDA approved drugs into the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "How \"Pay-for-Delay\" Adds to Drug Prices",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3456\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 276px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/03/Cropped_DrugsMoneyGeneric_Getty.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-3456\" title=\"(Jupiter Images: Getty)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/03/Cropped_DrugsMoneyGeneric_Getty-300x326.jpg\" alt=\"(Jupiter Images: Getty)\" width=\"276\" height=\"300\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Jupiter Images: Getty)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Americans spent more than $300 billion on prescription drugs in 2010. As most consumers know, generic drugs are cheaper than their brand name counterparts. A\u003ca title=\"http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-371R\" href=\"http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-371R\" target=\"_blank\"> federal report \u003c/a>found consumers saved more than $1 \u003cem>trillion \u003c/em>between 1999 and 2010 by using generic drugs. Generic drugs can't be made or sold until the patent on the original drug expires, usually after 20 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what you might not know is that pharmaceutical companies have long engaged in \u003cem>pay-for-delay. \u003c/em>These are payments to generic manufacturers to stay out of the market--to not\u003cem> \u003c/em>sell cheaper versions of the drug. According to a \u003ca title=\"http://www.ftc.gov/os/testimony/100727antitrustoversight.pdf\" href=\"http://www.ftc.gov/os/testimony/100727antitrustoversight.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Federal Trade Commission report\u003c/a> [PDF], these deals have cost consumers $3.5 billion \u003cem>each year\u003c/em> in higher prescription drug costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">“These agreements are instrumental in keeping [drug prices] enormously high.”\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Today, \u003ca title=\"http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/state-court-examine-pay-delay-deals-drugmakers-15133\" href=\"http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/state-court-examine-pay-delay-deals-drugmakers-15133\" target=\"_blank\">California Watch\u003c/a> reports that the California Supreme Court has agreed to take up the issue of pay-for-delay by reviewing a decade old class-action lawsuit having to do with the antibiotic\u003ca title=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0000878/\" href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0000878/\" target=\"_blank\"> Cipro\u003c/a>, originally manufactured by Bayer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From California Watch:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The suit argues that it was illegal for Bayer to pay a competitor to stay out of the market as part of a settlement in a legal dispute over the Cipro patent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The deal forced hundreds of thousands of Californians to collectively overpay millions of dollars for the drug, the lawsuit claimed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Without generic competition, drug prices are enormously high,” said Joseph Saveri, an attorney with Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, who is representing California consumers in the case. “These agreements are instrumental in keeping them enormously high.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The class-action case stems from a 1996 settlement of a patent dispute over Cipro between Bayer and Barr Laboratories, which was planning to sell a generic version of the antibiotic. After five years of litigation – and in light of projections that Bayer could lose about $1 billion in profits over several years if a generic were to step into the market – the companies settled the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The terms of the agreement involved Bayer paying Barr nearly $400 million to delay making or selling the generic until after the expiration of the patent in December 2003. Between 1997 and the end of 2003, Bayer raised the price of Cipro by 16 percent and made a profit of about $5 billion, according to court documents.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>There is an apparent tension between federal and state law on the pay-for-delay issue. Bayer has already won cases at the lower court level, by relying on federal case law. They believe they will also prevail before the California Supreme Court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Again, from California Watch:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“Bayer believes that the decisions of the trial and appellate courts are correct and will vigorously defend those decisions before the Supreme Court of California,” Bayer spokeswoman Marcy Funk wrote in an e-mail. ...\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In making the recent argument for California Supreme Court review, attorneys representing the state's consumers argued that while some federal courts may find these payment settlements permissible, they’re ultimately illegal under California antitrust law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California law does \u003cem>not\u003c/em> authorize or condone settlements that violate public policy, particularly a settlement where competitors are paid off to prevent competition,” stated \u003ca href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/83404594/Cipro-petition-for-CA-Supe-Ct-Review\" target=\"_blank\">documents\u003c/a> filed by attorneys for consumers. ...\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given this general split between state and federal courts on antitrust law, the Cipro case is “potentially very significant,” Mark A. Lemley, a law professor at Stanford University, wrote in an e-mail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If reverse payments are declared illegal in California, it may affect the behavior of pharmaceutical companies nationwide, because they will face liability in California if they continue to enter into such agreements,” wrote Lemley, who wrote an \u003ca href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/83404664/Amicus-Cipro\" target=\"_blank\">amicus brief\u003c/a> on behalf of 78 law professors arguing that the settlements are illegal.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Americans spent more than $300 billion on prescription drugs in 2010. As most consumers know, generic drugs are cheaper than their brand name counterparts. A federal report found consumers saved more than $1 trillion between 1999 and 2010 by using generic drugs. Patents on pharmaceutical drugs typically run 20 years. When the patent expires, generic drugs--usually significantly cheaper--can be marketed.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3456\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 276px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/03/Cropped_DrugsMoneyGeneric_Getty.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-3456\" title=\"(Jupiter Images: Getty)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/03/Cropped_DrugsMoneyGeneric_Getty-300x326.jpg\" alt=\"(Jupiter Images: Getty)\" width=\"276\" height=\"300\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Jupiter Images: Getty)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Americans spent more than $300 billion on prescription drugs in 2010. As most consumers know, generic drugs are cheaper than their brand name counterparts. A\u003ca title=\"http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-371R\" href=\"http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-371R\" target=\"_blank\"> federal report \u003c/a>found consumers saved more than $1 \u003cem>trillion \u003c/em>between 1999 and 2010 by using generic drugs. Generic drugs can't be made or sold until the patent on the original drug expires, usually after 20 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what you might not know is that pharmaceutical companies have long engaged in \u003cem>pay-for-delay. \u003c/em>These are payments to generic manufacturers to stay out of the market--to not\u003cem> \u003c/em>sell cheaper versions of the drug. According to a \u003ca title=\"http://www.ftc.gov/os/testimony/100727antitrustoversight.pdf\" href=\"http://www.ftc.gov/os/testimony/100727antitrustoversight.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Federal Trade Commission report\u003c/a> [PDF], these deals have cost consumers $3.5 billion \u003cem>each year\u003c/em> in higher prescription drug costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">“These agreements are instrumental in keeping [drug prices] enormously high.”\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Today, \u003ca title=\"http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/state-court-examine-pay-delay-deals-drugmakers-15133\" href=\"http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/state-court-examine-pay-delay-deals-drugmakers-15133\" target=\"_blank\">California Watch\u003c/a> reports that the California Supreme Court has agreed to take up the issue of pay-for-delay by reviewing a decade old class-action lawsuit having to do with the antibiotic\u003ca title=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0000878/\" href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0000878/\" target=\"_blank\"> Cipro\u003c/a>, originally manufactured by Bayer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From California Watch:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The suit argues that it was illegal for Bayer to pay a competitor to stay out of the market as part of a settlement in a legal dispute over the Cipro patent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The deal forced hundreds of thousands of Californians to collectively overpay millions of dollars for the drug, the lawsuit claimed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Without generic competition, drug prices are enormously high,” said Joseph Saveri, an attorney with Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, who is representing California consumers in the case. “These agreements are instrumental in keeping them enormously high.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The class-action case stems from a 1996 settlement of a patent dispute over Cipro between Bayer and Barr Laboratories, which was planning to sell a generic version of the antibiotic. After five years of litigation – and in light of projections that Bayer could lose about $1 billion in profits over several years if a generic were to step into the market – the companies settled the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The terms of the agreement involved Bayer paying Barr nearly $400 million to delay making or selling the generic until after the expiration of the patent in December 2003. Between 1997 and the end of 2003, Bayer raised the price of Cipro by 16 percent and made a profit of about $5 billion, according to court documents.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>There is an apparent tension between federal and state law on the pay-for-delay issue. Bayer has already won cases at the lower court level, by relying on federal case law. They believe they will also prevail before the California Supreme Court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Again, from California Watch:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“Bayer believes that the decisions of the trial and appellate courts are correct and will vigorously defend those decisions before the Supreme Court of California,” Bayer spokeswoman Marcy Funk wrote in an e-mail. ...\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In making the recent argument for California Supreme Court review, attorneys representing the state's consumers argued that while some federal courts may find these payment settlements permissible, they’re ultimately illegal under California antitrust law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California law does \u003cem>not\u003c/em> authorize or condone settlements that violate public policy, particularly a settlement where competitors are paid off to prevent competition,” stated \u003ca href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/83404594/Cipro-petition-for-CA-Supe-Ct-Review\" target=\"_blank\">documents\u003c/a> filed by attorneys for consumers. ...\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given this general split between state and federal courts on antitrust law, the Cipro case is “potentially very significant,” Mark A. Lemley, a law professor at Stanford University, wrote in an e-mail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If reverse payments are declared illegal in California, it may affect the behavior of pharmaceutical companies nationwide, because they will face liability in California if they continue to enter into such agreements,” wrote Lemley, who wrote an \u003ca href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/83404664/Amicus-Cipro\" target=\"_blank\">amicus brief\u003c/a> on behalf of 78 law professors arguing that the settlements are illegal.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "How Big a Barrier is Language to Enrolling in Health Exchange?",
"title": "How Big a Barrier is Language to Enrolling in Health Exchange?",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3392\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/HospitalSign_ElliottBrown_02292012.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-3392 \" title=\"Most health care terms are not as easily understandable as this sign. (Elliott Brown: Flickr)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/HospitalSign_ElliottBrown_02292012-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Most health care terms are not as easily understandable as this sign. (Elliott Brown: Flickr)\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">For people who don't speak English well, most health care terms are not as easily understandable as this sign. (Elliott Brown: Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As policy makers work toward setting up the \u003ca title=\"http://www.healthexchange.ca.gov/Pages/Default.aspx\" href=\"http://www.healthexchange.ca.gov/Pages/Default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">California Health Benefit Exchange\u003c/a>--the marketplace where individuals and small businesses will be able to buy health insurance--they're grappling with questions on two fronts: what \u003ca title=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/jp/quick-read-what-to-think-about-when-setting-essential-health-benefits/\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/jp/quick-read-what-to-think-about-when-setting-essential-health-benefits/\" target=\"_blank\">benefits the policies will offer \u003c/a>and how to ensure that people enroll. According to a new report, 2.6 million adults under age 65 will be eligible for federal tax credits to buy insurance in this new marketplace. Of those people, 67 percent will be people of color, and 40 percent (or just over one million adults) will speak English less than very well. This lack of English proficiency could be a barrier to these people enrolling in the exchange, according to \u003ca title=\"http://www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu/pubs/files/enrolledpbfeb2012.pdf\" href=\"http://www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu/pubs/files/enrolledpbfeb2012.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">the report\u003c/a> [PDF].\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca title=\"http://www.cpehn.org/staff.php\" href=\"http://www.cpehn.org/staff.php\" target=\"_blank\">Ellen Wu\u003c/a> is Executive Director of the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, one of the sponsors of the report. \"Language poses a barrier when people try to enroll in coverage programs,\" she said in an interview. \"We know that it's just confusing for those of us who DO speak English well, and for those who have a different language other than English, it's even more difficult to first find the materials in their language and second to understand the terminology.\"\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report draws on a model created by the \u003ca title=\"http://www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu/\" href=\"http://www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu/\" target=\"_blank\">UCLA Center for Health Policy Research\u003c/a> and the \u003ca title=\"http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/\" href=\"http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/\" target=\"_blank\">UC Berkeley Labor Center\u003c/a>. It found that people with limited English skills were expected to enroll in the Exchange at lower rates than those with solid English skills. Of those million people with limited English skills who will receive subsidies, 53 percent are expected to enroll by 2019 \"if language is not a barrier,\" says the report. But if there is not \"appropriate and effective multilingual outreach and education,\" enrollment will fall to 42 percent, meaning 110,000 people will not enroll due to a language barrier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wu says she was not surprised by the study's findings. \"We hear from our communities, it is very difficult for people to find information in a language they understand,\" she said. \"This is an estimate and a model, just one piece of information of how critically important it is to not do the same things we've been doing before. ... The population of the newly insured under the \u003ca title=\"http://www.healthcare.gov/law/index.html\" href=\"http://www.healthcare.gov/law/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">Affordable Care Act\u003c/a> is different, and we have to DO things differently to make sure that they're all included.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wu explained that the people eligible for the subsidies are people who have been chronically uninsured for much of their lives, that they are majority people of color and 40 percent don't speak English well \"which looks very, very different from our currently insured population.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an email, Peter Lee, Executive Director of the California Health Benefit Exchange had taken note of the study's findings. “This study affirms the focus of the Exchange on developing strategies to reach out to diverse California communities to maximize enrollment in expanded health coverage beginning in 2014. The California Health Benefit Exchange is committed to offering a consumer-friendly experience that is accessible to all Californians, recognizing the diverse cultural and language needs of those we serve.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report included several recommendations to ensure that all eligible Californians are enrolled in the appropriate insurance program. Not surprisingly, the first recommendation is to make information available in multiple languages--a minimum of 13 which is the same number of languages the Medi-Cal Managed Care program uses. Wu also speaks of a \"no wrong door approach, so that no matter where a newly eligible person goes, if it's in person, over the phone or online that immediately they get help in the language that they need.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report also details the need for culturally and linguistically appropriate outreach. This is where the state must turn to community advocates, Wu says. \"We feel that it's very important for state agencies, particularly the Health Benefit Exchange to partner with community organizations who have long served communities of color and people who don't speak English very well and are trusted resources to do outreach and enrollment.\"\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "As policy makers work toward setting up the California Health Benefit Exchange--the marketplace where individuals and small businesses will be able to buy health insurance--they're grappling with questions on two fronts: what benefits the policies will offer and how to ensure that people enroll. According to a new report, 2.6 million adults under age 65 will be eligible for federal tax credits to buy insurance in this new marketplace. Of those people, 67 percent will be people of color, and 40 percent (or just over one million adults) will speak English less than very well. This lack of English proficiency could be a barrier to these people enrolling in the exchange, according to the report [PDF].",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3392\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/HospitalSign_ElliottBrown_02292012.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-3392 \" title=\"Most health care terms are not as easily understandable as this sign. (Elliott Brown: Flickr)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/HospitalSign_ElliottBrown_02292012-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Most health care terms are not as easily understandable as this sign. (Elliott Brown: Flickr)\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">For people who don't speak English well, most health care terms are not as easily understandable as this sign. (Elliott Brown: Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As policy makers work toward setting up the \u003ca title=\"http://www.healthexchange.ca.gov/Pages/Default.aspx\" href=\"http://www.healthexchange.ca.gov/Pages/Default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">California Health Benefit Exchange\u003c/a>--the marketplace where individuals and small businesses will be able to buy health insurance--they're grappling with questions on two fronts: what \u003ca title=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/jp/quick-read-what-to-think-about-when-setting-essential-health-benefits/\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/jp/quick-read-what-to-think-about-when-setting-essential-health-benefits/\" target=\"_blank\">benefits the policies will offer \u003c/a>and how to ensure that people enroll. According to a new report, 2.6 million adults under age 65 will be eligible for federal tax credits to buy insurance in this new marketplace. Of those people, 67 percent will be people of color, and 40 percent (or just over one million adults) will speak English less than very well. This lack of English proficiency could be a barrier to these people enrolling in the exchange, according to \u003ca title=\"http://www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu/pubs/files/enrolledpbfeb2012.pdf\" href=\"http://www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu/pubs/files/enrolledpbfeb2012.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">the report\u003c/a> [PDF].\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca title=\"http://www.cpehn.org/staff.php\" href=\"http://www.cpehn.org/staff.php\" target=\"_blank\">Ellen Wu\u003c/a> is Executive Director of the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, one of the sponsors of the report. \"Language poses a barrier when people try to enroll in coverage programs,\" she said in an interview. \"We know that it's just confusing for those of us who DO speak English well, and for those who have a different language other than English, it's even more difficult to first find the materials in their language and second to understand the terminology.\"\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report draws on a model created by the \u003ca title=\"http://www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu/\" href=\"http://www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu/\" target=\"_blank\">UCLA Center for Health Policy Research\u003c/a> and the \u003ca title=\"http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/\" href=\"http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/\" target=\"_blank\">UC Berkeley Labor Center\u003c/a>. It found that people with limited English skills were expected to enroll in the Exchange at lower rates than those with solid English skills. Of those million people with limited English skills who will receive subsidies, 53 percent are expected to enroll by 2019 \"if language is not a barrier,\" says the report. But if there is not \"appropriate and effective multilingual outreach and education,\" enrollment will fall to 42 percent, meaning 110,000 people will not enroll due to a language barrier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wu says she was not surprised by the study's findings. \"We hear from our communities, it is very difficult for people to find information in a language they understand,\" she said. \"This is an estimate and a model, just one piece of information of how critically important it is to not do the same things we've been doing before. ... The population of the newly insured under the \u003ca title=\"http://www.healthcare.gov/law/index.html\" href=\"http://www.healthcare.gov/law/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">Affordable Care Act\u003c/a> is different, and we have to DO things differently to make sure that they're all included.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wu explained that the people eligible for the subsidies are people who have been chronically uninsured for much of their lives, that they are majority people of color and 40 percent don't speak English well \"which looks very, very different from our currently insured population.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an email, Peter Lee, Executive Director of the California Health Benefit Exchange had taken note of the study's findings. “This study affirms the focus of the Exchange on developing strategies to reach out to diverse California communities to maximize enrollment in expanded health coverage beginning in 2014. The California Health Benefit Exchange is committed to offering a consumer-friendly experience that is accessible to all Californians, recognizing the diverse cultural and language needs of those we serve.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report included several recommendations to ensure that all eligible Californians are enrolled in the appropriate insurance program. Not surprisingly, the first recommendation is to make information available in multiple languages--a minimum of 13 which is the same number of languages the Medi-Cal Managed Care program uses. Wu also speaks of a \"no wrong door approach, so that no matter where a newly eligible person goes, if it's in person, over the phone or online that immediately they get help in the language that they need.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report also details the need for culturally and linguistically appropriate outreach. This is where the state must turn to community advocates, Wu says. \"We feel that it's very important for state agencies, particularly the Health Benefit Exchange to partner with community organizations who have long served communities of color and people who don't speak English very well and are trusted resources to do outreach and enrollment.\"\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Heart Disease Treatment: Is Less ... More?",
"title": "Heart Disease Treatment: Is Less ... More?",
"headTitle": "State of Health | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3367\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/EKG_Rosmary_Flickr_02282012.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-3367\" title=\"(Rosmary: Flickr)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/EKG_Rosmary_Flickr_02282012-300x247.jpg\" alt=\"(Rosmary: Flickr)\" width=\"300\" height=\"247\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Rosmary: Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It's practically gospel in American health care--the more expensive and the more invasive a treatment is, the more people seem to believe it is the best option. But is it? A new study looks at America's number 1 killer -- heart disease -- and finds that a regimen of fairly inexpensive pills works just as well as an expensive surgical procedure to implant a stent. Oh, and drug treatment has fewer risks in this case, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study is published in this week's \u003ca title=\"http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/172/4/312\" href=\"http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/172/4/312\" target=\"_blank\">Archives of Internal Medicine\u003c/a> and it looks at \u003cem>stable\u003c/em> coronary artery disease. In stable heart disease, patients experience angina --chest pain -- at times of \"high demand\" such as during exercise or stress.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This study is a new review of a group of randomized trials which had compared medication treatment with the surgical option, called percutaneous coronary intervention, or PCI. In PCI, a surgeon threads a narrow tube through an artery to a point where there is blockage in the heart and inserts a stent--a mesh tube--against the walls of the artery to hold it open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While it certainly sounds like a good idea, researchers found no benefit over drug therapy. As the authors write:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The significant finding of this analysis is that compared with a strategy of initial medical therapy alone, coronary stent implantation in combination with medical therapy for stable CAD [coronary artery disease] is not associated with a significant reduction in mortality, nonfatal MI ... or angina.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\"MI\" is shorthand for myocardial infarction--a heart attack. So, in other words, if you have stable heart disease, you will do just as well with the less expensive pills and you will not bear the risks of surgery. But PCI is a popular procedure. The researchers report that more than 400,000 Americans a year have PCI with a stent implanted every year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca title=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/health/stents-show-no-extra-benefits-for-coronary-artery-disease.html?scp=1&sq=Percutaneous&st=cse\" href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/health/stents-show-no-extra-benefits-for-coronary-artery-disease.html?scp=1&sq=Percutaneous&st=cse\" target=\"_blank\">New York Times\u003c/a> took a detailed look at this study today and reported that one of the drivers for PCI over medications could be money, The Times reports the cost of PCI ranges from $30,000 to $50,000 and interviewed Dr. David Brown, an author of the study:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>More than half of patients with stable coronary artery disease are now implanted with stents without even trying drug treatment, Dr. Brown said. The reason, he believes, is financial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In many hospitals, the cardiac service line generates 40 percent of the total hospital revenue, so there’s incredible pressure to do more procedures,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you put in a stent, everyone is happy — the hospital is making more money, the doctor is making more money — everybody is happier except the health care system as a whole, which is paying more money for no better results.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>The study reviewed 7,229 patients who had a been enrolled in eight different trials. Of those patients, 3,617 received stents and medication while 3,612 received just the medications. There were 649 total deaths during the trials, 322 in the stent group and 327 in the medication group. Some doctors argued that certain patients do not tolerate the drugs well and they could still be candidates for PCI and stent treatment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an \u003ca title=\"http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/172/4/319\" href=\"http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/172/4/319\" target=\"_blank\">accompanying editorial \u003c/a>in the Archives, Dr. William Boden writes about doctors who outwardly \"worship at the altar of evidence-based medicine\" as long as studies or trials reinforce what they already believe, \"while we ignore or disdain the results of studies with results that are unpopular ... or collide with the conventional wisdom.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And where does this collision with conventional wisdom leave the patient? \u003cem>The Times \u003c/em>concludes with an explanation of the current understanding of heart disease. Patients, take heed:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>These results support the current concept of coronary artery disease, the authors wrote — that it is a systemic inflammatory disease of the arteries that cannot be successfully treated by surgical intervention at a particular site on one artery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Dr. Brown, a professor of medicine at Stony Brook University, many doctors cannot accept this. Instead, he said, “interventional cardiologists use the analogy of a pipe blocked in a house — it’s a terrible analogy, but patients accept it. It’s simplistic and erroneous.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "It's practically gospel in American health care--the more expensive and the more invasive a treatment is, the more people seem to believe it is the best option. But is it? A new study looks at America's number 1 killer--heart disease--and finds that a regimen of fairly inexpensive pills works just as well as an expensive surgical procedure to implant a stent. Oh, and, drug treatment has fewer risks in this case, too.\r\n\r\nThe study is published in this week's Archives of Internal Medicine and it looks at stable coronary artery disease. In stable heart disease, patients experience angina--chest pain--at times of \"high demand\" such as during exercise or stress.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3367\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/EKG_Rosmary_Flickr_02282012.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-3367\" title=\"(Rosmary: Flickr)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/EKG_Rosmary_Flickr_02282012-300x247.jpg\" alt=\"(Rosmary: Flickr)\" width=\"300\" height=\"247\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Rosmary: Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It's practically gospel in American health care--the more expensive and the more invasive a treatment is, the more people seem to believe it is the best option. But is it? A new study looks at America's number 1 killer -- heart disease -- and finds that a regimen of fairly inexpensive pills works just as well as an expensive surgical procedure to implant a stent. Oh, and drug treatment has fewer risks in this case, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study is published in this week's \u003ca title=\"http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/172/4/312\" href=\"http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/172/4/312\" target=\"_blank\">Archives of Internal Medicine\u003c/a> and it looks at \u003cem>stable\u003c/em> coronary artery disease. In stable heart disease, patients experience angina --chest pain -- at times of \"high demand\" such as during exercise or stress.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This study is a new review of a group of randomized trials which had compared medication treatment with the surgical option, called percutaneous coronary intervention, or PCI. In PCI, a surgeon threads a narrow tube through an artery to a point where there is blockage in the heart and inserts a stent--a mesh tube--against the walls of the artery to hold it open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While it certainly sounds like a good idea, researchers found no benefit over drug therapy. As the authors write:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The significant finding of this analysis is that compared with a strategy of initial medical therapy alone, coronary stent implantation in combination with medical therapy for stable CAD [coronary artery disease] is not associated with a significant reduction in mortality, nonfatal MI ... or angina.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\"MI\" is shorthand for myocardial infarction--a heart attack. So, in other words, if you have stable heart disease, you will do just as well with the less expensive pills and you will not bear the risks of surgery. But PCI is a popular procedure. The researchers report that more than 400,000 Americans a year have PCI with a stent implanted every year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca title=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/health/stents-show-no-extra-benefits-for-coronary-artery-disease.html?scp=1&sq=Percutaneous&st=cse\" href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/health/stents-show-no-extra-benefits-for-coronary-artery-disease.html?scp=1&sq=Percutaneous&st=cse\" target=\"_blank\">New York Times\u003c/a> took a detailed look at this study today and reported that one of the drivers for PCI over medications could be money, The Times reports the cost of PCI ranges from $30,000 to $50,000 and interviewed Dr. David Brown, an author of the study:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>More than half of patients with stable coronary artery disease are now implanted with stents without even trying drug treatment, Dr. Brown said. The reason, he believes, is financial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In many hospitals, the cardiac service line generates 40 percent of the total hospital revenue, so there’s incredible pressure to do more procedures,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you put in a stent, everyone is happy — the hospital is making more money, the doctor is making more money — everybody is happier except the health care system as a whole, which is paying more money for no better results.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>The study reviewed 7,229 patients who had a been enrolled in eight different trials. Of those patients, 3,617 received stents and medication while 3,612 received just the medications. There were 649 total deaths during the trials, 322 in the stent group and 327 in the medication group. Some doctors argued that certain patients do not tolerate the drugs well and they could still be candidates for PCI and stent treatment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an \u003ca title=\"http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/172/4/319\" href=\"http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/172/4/319\" target=\"_blank\">accompanying editorial \u003c/a>in the Archives, Dr. William Boden writes about doctors who outwardly \"worship at the altar of evidence-based medicine\" as long as studies or trials reinforce what they already believe, \"while we ignore or disdain the results of studies with results that are unpopular ... or collide with the conventional wisdom.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And where does this collision with conventional wisdom leave the patient? \u003cem>The Times \u003c/em>concludes with an explanation of the current understanding of heart disease. Patients, take heed:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>These results support the current concept of coronary artery disease, the authors wrote — that it is a systemic inflammatory disease of the arteries that cannot be successfully treated by surgical intervention at a particular site on one artery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Dr. Brown, a professor of medicine at Stony Brook University, many doctors cannot accept this. Instead, he said, “interventional cardiologists use the analogy of a pipe blocked in a house — it’s a terrible analogy, but patients accept it. It’s simplistic and erroneous.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "High-Risk Insurance Pool Helps ... But What About Cost?",
"title": "High-Risk Insurance Pool Helps ... But What About Cost?",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By: Kamal Menghrajani\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3303\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 245px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/Man_HospitalBed_DSharonPruitt_Flickr_02242012.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-3303 \" title=\"Because many people who enroll in the pool have been uninsured, there is pent-up demand for health care, experts say. (D. Sharon Pruitt: Flickr)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/Man_HospitalBed_DSharonPruitt_Flickr_02242012-300x366.jpg\" alt=\"Because people who enroll in the pool have been uninsured, there is pent-up demand for health care, experts say. (D. Sharon Pruitt: Flickr)\" width=\"245\" height=\"300\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Because people who enroll in the pool have been uninsured, there is pent-up demand for health care, experts say. (D. Sharon Pruitt: Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Thousands of California’s sickest residents are already benefitting from the federal health care law. The Affordable Care Act says that people cannot be denied health insurance for a pre-existing condition. Until the law goes into full effect in 2014, the government has created a bridge program to help--the \u003ca title=\"https://pcip.gov/\" href=\"https://pcip.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan\u003c/a>, or PCIP. But this high-risk insurance program is proving to be much more expensive than expected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is spending three times more than anticipated to insure the people who have enrolled in this program. Before the program launched in 2010, California projected that the program would cost about $12,000 a year for each member. But a year later the administrators of the program determined it was costing more than $37,000 per patient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to \u003ca title=\"http://www.cciio.cms.gov/resources/files/Files2/02242012/pcip-annual-report.pdf\" href=\"http://www.cciio.cms.gov/resources/files/Files2/02242012/pcip-annual-report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">a report\u003c/a> [PDF] from the White House, the cost of care for PCIP patients across the country is twice as much as originally projected.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the \u003ca title=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/per-person-cost-of-federal-high-risk-medical-plan-doubles/2012/02/23/gIQAX3xVWR_story.html\" href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/per-person-cost-of-federal-high-risk-medical-plan-doubles/2012/02/23/gIQAX3xVWR_story.html\" target=\"_blank\">Washington Post \u003c/a>reports:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Those who have enrolled in the program are projected to have significantly higher medical costs than the government initially expected. Each participant is expected to average $28,994 in medical costs in 2012, according to the report, more than double what government-contracted actuaries predicted in November 2010. Then, the analysts expected that the program would cost $13,026 per enrollee.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Looking beyond costs, thousands of people across California are being helped by this plan. Some had been denied coverage because they carry a diagnosis of cancer, heart disease, or kidney failure. Others found that the only insurance they could get was excessively costly, with rates of thousands of dollars per month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Gabe Chavez, a 39-year-old father of two from Alameda, was first diagnosed with Type II diabetes, he was only worried about treatment, because he had health insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the horrible stories hit your mind. I’m going to die. I’m going to lose a leg.” He knew it would be important to change his lifestyle and felt comforted by his doctor’s support. “You know, it’s treatable,” he told me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But then Chavez’s company was sold, and the new owners did not provide health insurance. So he went looking for coverage on his own, making innumerable phone calls to insurance providers. “I would say, on a daily basis, I spent two to three hours.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He went on like this for eight months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everyday, I would call and see if I could get insurance. I even tried to get it from another state. I exhausted every avenue I could find.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But nobody would provide insurance at a reasonable price. He was paying around $160 to cover his wife and two kids under Blue Cross. To get coverage for himself would have cost an additional $1,200.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finally, Chavez heard about \u003ca title=\"http://www.pcip.ca.gov/\" href=\"http://www.pcip.ca.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">California's Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan\u003c/a> and after going for months without insurance, he was able to get coverage for doctor visits and the medications he needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently, 6,861 Californians are enrolled in the program. By law, they must have been previously uninsured for 6 months or more. This gap in coverage might be the reason why insuring them is so costly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because they haven’t had health care for a while, they have this pent-up demand,” says Jeanie Esajian, a spokesperson for the\u003ca title=\"http://www.mrmib.ca.gov/\" href=\"http://www.mrmib.ca.gov/\" target=\"_blank\"> state governmental group\u003c/a> that runs PCIP here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They need medical tests, have surgeries they put off, maybe they have a chronic condition they couldn’t quite get under control,\" Esajian told me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a sense, Chavez dodged a bullet. He was able to maintain his health during the time he did not have insurance. He now pays $350 a month for coverage, a rate he says he can afford. For him, though, a psychic burden is eased. He had been worried about all kinds of complications--including a diabetic coma. \"I just didn’t want to die,\" he says. \"Health is probably one of the most important things, next to marriage and family. And you want to say healthy for them.\"\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Thousands of California’s sickest residents are already benefitting from the federal health care law. The Affordable Care Act says that people cannot be denied health insurance for a pre-existing condition. Until the law goes into full effect in 2014, the government has created a bridge program to help--the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, or PCIP. But this high-risk insurance program is proving to be much more expensive than expected.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By: Kamal Menghrajani\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3303\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 245px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/Man_HospitalBed_DSharonPruitt_Flickr_02242012.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-3303 \" title=\"Because many people who enroll in the pool have been uninsured, there is pent-up demand for health care, experts say. (D. Sharon Pruitt: Flickr)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/Man_HospitalBed_DSharonPruitt_Flickr_02242012-300x366.jpg\" alt=\"Because people who enroll in the pool have been uninsured, there is pent-up demand for health care, experts say. (D. Sharon Pruitt: Flickr)\" width=\"245\" height=\"300\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Because people who enroll in the pool have been uninsured, there is pent-up demand for health care, experts say. (D. Sharon Pruitt: Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Thousands of California’s sickest residents are already benefitting from the federal health care law. The Affordable Care Act says that people cannot be denied health insurance for a pre-existing condition. Until the law goes into full effect in 2014, the government has created a bridge program to help--the \u003ca title=\"https://pcip.gov/\" href=\"https://pcip.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan\u003c/a>, or PCIP. But this high-risk insurance program is proving to be much more expensive than expected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is spending three times more than anticipated to insure the people who have enrolled in this program. Before the program launched in 2010, California projected that the program would cost about $12,000 a year for each member. But a year later the administrators of the program determined it was costing more than $37,000 per patient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to \u003ca title=\"http://www.cciio.cms.gov/resources/files/Files2/02242012/pcip-annual-report.pdf\" href=\"http://www.cciio.cms.gov/resources/files/Files2/02242012/pcip-annual-report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">a report\u003c/a> [PDF] from the White House, the cost of care for PCIP patients across the country is twice as much as originally projected.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the \u003ca title=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/per-person-cost-of-federal-high-risk-medical-plan-doubles/2012/02/23/gIQAX3xVWR_story.html\" href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/per-person-cost-of-federal-high-risk-medical-plan-doubles/2012/02/23/gIQAX3xVWR_story.html\" target=\"_blank\">Washington Post \u003c/a>reports:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Those who have enrolled in the program are projected to have significantly higher medical costs than the government initially expected. Each participant is expected to average $28,994 in medical costs in 2012, according to the report, more than double what government-contracted actuaries predicted in November 2010. Then, the analysts expected that the program would cost $13,026 per enrollee.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Looking beyond costs, thousands of people across California are being helped by this plan. Some had been denied coverage because they carry a diagnosis of cancer, heart disease, or kidney failure. Others found that the only insurance they could get was excessively costly, with rates of thousands of dollars per month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Gabe Chavez, a 39-year-old father of two from Alameda, was first diagnosed with Type II diabetes, he was only worried about treatment, because he had health insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the horrible stories hit your mind. I’m going to die. I’m going to lose a leg.” He knew it would be important to change his lifestyle and felt comforted by his doctor’s support. “You know, it’s treatable,” he told me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But then Chavez’s company was sold, and the new owners did not provide health insurance. So he went looking for coverage on his own, making innumerable phone calls to insurance providers. “I would say, on a daily basis, I spent two to three hours.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He went on like this for eight months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everyday, I would call and see if I could get insurance. I even tried to get it from another state. I exhausted every avenue I could find.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But nobody would provide insurance at a reasonable price. He was paying around $160 to cover his wife and two kids under Blue Cross. To get coverage for himself would have cost an additional $1,200.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finally, Chavez heard about \u003ca title=\"http://www.pcip.ca.gov/\" href=\"http://www.pcip.ca.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">California's Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan\u003c/a> and after going for months without insurance, he was able to get coverage for doctor visits and the medications he needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently, 6,861 Californians are enrolled in the program. By law, they must have been previously uninsured for 6 months or more. This gap in coverage might be the reason why insuring them is so costly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because they haven’t had health care for a while, they have this pent-up demand,” says Jeanie Esajian, a spokesperson for the\u003ca title=\"http://www.mrmib.ca.gov/\" href=\"http://www.mrmib.ca.gov/\" target=\"_blank\"> state governmental group\u003c/a> that runs PCIP here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They need medical tests, have surgeries they put off, maybe they have a chronic condition they couldn’t quite get under control,\" Esajian told me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a sense, Chavez dodged a bullet. He was able to maintain his health during the time he did not have insurance. He now pays $350 a month for coverage, a rate he says he can afford. For him, though, a psychic burden is eased. He had been worried about all kinds of complications--including a diabetic coma. \"I just didn’t want to die,\" he says. \"Health is probably one of the most important things, next to marriage and family. And you want to say healthy for them.\"\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "FDA Warns California Clinics of Fake Avastin",
"title": "FDA Warns California Clinics of Fake Avastin",
"headTitle": "State of Health | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Kamal Menghrajani\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3095\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 146px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/AvastinVial_20111118.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-3095\" title=\"AvastinVial\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/AvastinVial_20111118-300x615.jpg\" alt=\"(Courtesy: Genentech)\" width=\"146\" height=\"300\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Courtesy: Genentech)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A counterfeit version of the cancer drug \u003ca title=\"http://www.avastin.com/patient/index.html?cid=ava_we_F001059_P000517&c=MBAVUA2500&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=Avastin&utm_campaign=Google%20Branded%20(Nov11)&s_kwcid=TC%7C15200%7Cavastin%7C%7CS%7Ce%7C12571636561&gclid=CMzmhtHro64CFQ5_hwodkgz8SQ\" href=\"http://www.avastin.com/patient/index.html?cid=ava_we_F001059_P000517&c=MBAVUA2500&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=Avastin&utm_campaign=Google%20Branded%20(Nov11)&s_kwcid=TC%7C15200%7Cavastin%7C%7CS%7Ce%7C12571636561&gclid=CMzmhtHro64CFQ5_hwodkgz8SQ\" target=\"_blank\">Avastin\u003c/a> may have made its way into clinics here in California. The medicine is used to treat colon, lung, and other cancers, but several physicians may have unwittingly been giving patients a useless knock-off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You may remember Avastin because it was considered a blockbuster drug for breast cancer treatment. That was until November of last year, when the \u003ca title=\"http://www.fda.gov/\" href=\"http://www.fda.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">Food and Drug Administration\u003c/a> (FDA) \u003ca title=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2011/11/18/fda-says-no-to-avastin-for-breast-cancer\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2011/11/18/fda-says-no-to-avastin-for-breast-cancer\" target=\"_blank\">pulled its approval\u003c/a> for treating the disease. However, Avastin is still widely used for other types of cancer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, the FDA sent letters to 19 doctors around the country warning that they may have fake Avastin. Sixteen of these physicians are here in California, all of them in Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FDA says these clinics purchased the medicine from a foreign supplier under the names \"Quality Specialty Products\" or \"Montana Health Care Solutions.\" Volunteer Distribution, a company based in Tennessee, funneled the fake vials out to clinics. The company was not licensed by drugmaker \u003ca title=\"http://www.gene.com/gene/index.jsp\" href=\"http://www.gene.com/gene/index.jsp\" target=\"_blank\">Genentech\u003c/a> to provide Avastin, and some doctors’ offices were fooled.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think we’re all shaken up by it. This isn’t like Viagra – this is life and death when you’re dealing with cancer,” said Tracey Butler, Director of Operations for the \u003ca title=\"http://www.bhcancercenter.com/\" href=\"http://www.bhcancercenter.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Beverly Hills Cancer Center\u003c/a>, which received the FDA warning. “We’re in this business so that we can find a cure for cancer, so to think that somebody out there would harm that, is very disturbing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite having had a past contract with Montana Health Care Solutions, Butler’s clinic did not have the counterfeit Avastin. “We looked through our stocks as soon as the FDA notified us about a month ago and we had nothing from them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Calls to Volunteer Distribution went unanswered. Nobody at the Gainesboro, Tennessee company answered the phone when we called.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Andrew Selesnick is a lawyer who represents one of the doctors who received a letter from the FDA. Until this incident, he told me, “I don’t think [doctors] looked at this as an issue to be concerned about, but now I think a lot of physicians are looking at their drug purchasing protocol in a different light.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a low person who would replace a cancer-fighting drug with a counterfeit,” he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Genentech has been analyzing the counterfeits to determine what is in the vials. Charlotte Arnold, a spokesperson for the company said, “We do know that it doesn’t have the active ingredient for Avastin or any biologic effective for treating cancer,” she said. “We do know that there’s not anti-cancer medicine in there. … It’s not safe or effective and should not be used.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She says counterfeiting may not be restricted to Avastin, as the FDA is currently investigating whether other fake anti-cancer drugs are circulating in the U.S. “The FDA issued a \u003ca title=\"http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/DrugSafety/DrugIntegrityandSupplyChainSecurity/UCM287717.pdf\" href=\"http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/DrugSafety/DrugIntegrityandSupplyChainSecurity/UCM287717.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">notice\u003c/a> [PDF] in January that mentioned Rituxin and Herceptin, but there was no confirmed counterfeit, as there was in this case.\"\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A counterfeit version of the cancer drug Avastin may have made its way into clinics here in California. The medicine is used to treat colon, lung, and other cancers, but several physicians may have unwittingly been giving patients a useless knock-off.\r\n\r\nYou may remember Avastin because it was considered a blockbuster drug for breast cancer treatment. That was until November of last year, when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) pulled its approval for treating the disease. However, Avastin is still widely used for other types of cancer.",
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"description": "A counterfeit version of the cancer drug Avastin may have made its way into clinics here in California. The medicine is used to treat colon, lung, and other cancers, but several physicians may have unwittingly been giving patients a useless knock-off.\r\n\r\nYou may remember Avastin because it was considered a blockbuster drug for breast cancer treatment. That was until November of last year, when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) pulled its approval for treating the disease. However, Avastin is still widely used for other types of cancer.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Kamal Menghrajani\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_3095\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 146px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/AvastinVial_20111118.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-3095\" title=\"AvastinVial\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/AvastinVial_20111118-300x615.jpg\" alt=\"(Courtesy: Genentech)\" width=\"146\" height=\"300\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Courtesy: Genentech)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A counterfeit version of the cancer drug \u003ca title=\"http://www.avastin.com/patient/index.html?cid=ava_we_F001059_P000517&c=MBAVUA2500&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=Avastin&utm_campaign=Google%20Branded%20(Nov11)&s_kwcid=TC%7C15200%7Cavastin%7C%7CS%7Ce%7C12571636561&gclid=CMzmhtHro64CFQ5_hwodkgz8SQ\" href=\"http://www.avastin.com/patient/index.html?cid=ava_we_F001059_P000517&c=MBAVUA2500&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=Avastin&utm_campaign=Google%20Branded%20(Nov11)&s_kwcid=TC%7C15200%7Cavastin%7C%7CS%7Ce%7C12571636561&gclid=CMzmhtHro64CFQ5_hwodkgz8SQ\" target=\"_blank\">Avastin\u003c/a> may have made its way into clinics here in California. The medicine is used to treat colon, lung, and other cancers, but several physicians may have unwittingly been giving patients a useless knock-off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You may remember Avastin because it was considered a blockbuster drug for breast cancer treatment. That was until November of last year, when the \u003ca title=\"http://www.fda.gov/\" href=\"http://www.fda.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">Food and Drug Administration\u003c/a> (FDA) \u003ca title=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2011/11/18/fda-says-no-to-avastin-for-breast-cancer\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2011/11/18/fda-says-no-to-avastin-for-breast-cancer\" target=\"_blank\">pulled its approval\u003c/a> for treating the disease. However, Avastin is still widely used for other types of cancer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, the FDA sent letters to 19 doctors around the country warning that they may have fake Avastin. Sixteen of these physicians are here in California, all of them in Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FDA says these clinics purchased the medicine from a foreign supplier under the names \"Quality Specialty Products\" or \"Montana Health Care Solutions.\" Volunteer Distribution, a company based in Tennessee, funneled the fake vials out to clinics. The company was not licensed by drugmaker \u003ca title=\"http://www.gene.com/gene/index.jsp\" href=\"http://www.gene.com/gene/index.jsp\" target=\"_blank\">Genentech\u003c/a> to provide Avastin, and some doctors’ offices were fooled.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think we’re all shaken up by it. This isn’t like Viagra – this is life and death when you’re dealing with cancer,” said Tracey Butler, Director of Operations for the \u003ca title=\"http://www.bhcancercenter.com/\" href=\"http://www.bhcancercenter.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Beverly Hills Cancer Center\u003c/a>, which received the FDA warning. “We’re in this business so that we can find a cure for cancer, so to think that somebody out there would harm that, is very disturbing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite having had a past contract with Montana Health Care Solutions, Butler’s clinic did not have the counterfeit Avastin. “We looked through our stocks as soon as the FDA notified us about a month ago and we had nothing from them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Calls to Volunteer Distribution went unanswered. Nobody at the Gainesboro, Tennessee company answered the phone when we called.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Andrew Selesnick is a lawyer who represents one of the doctors who received a letter from the FDA. Until this incident, he told me, “I don’t think [doctors] looked at this as an issue to be concerned about, but now I think a lot of physicians are looking at their drug purchasing protocol in a different light.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a low person who would replace a cancer-fighting drug with a counterfeit,” he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Genentech has been analyzing the counterfeits to determine what is in the vials. Charlotte Arnold, a spokesperson for the company said, “We do know that it doesn’t have the active ingredient for Avastin or any biologic effective for treating cancer,” she said. “We do know that there’s not anti-cancer medicine in there. … It’s not safe or effective and should not be used.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She says counterfeiting may not be restricted to Avastin, as the FDA is currently investigating whether other fake anti-cancer drugs are circulating in the U.S. “The FDA issued a \u003ca title=\"http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/DrugSafety/DrugIntegrityandSupplyChainSecurity/UCM287717.pdf\" href=\"http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/DrugSafety/DrugIntegrityandSupplyChainSecurity/UCM287717.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">notice\u003c/a> [PDF] in January that mentioned Rituxin and Herceptin, but there was no confirmed counterfeit, as there was in this case.\"\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Medicare Fraud with a Twist",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2954\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/seniors-walking-with-walkers.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-2954\" title=\"(John Moore: Getty Images)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/seniors-walking-with-walkers-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"(John Moore: Getty Images)\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(John Moore: Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Medicare fraud is big business--perhaps as much as $50 billion each year, according to the FBI. One classic scam involves recruiting patients to come to a clinic, then using the patient's billing information to fraudulently charge for services never rendered or charging for expensive wheelchairs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's an all-too-common story, but keep reading, because this scam has a twist. Two Los Angeles fraudsters, Eduard Aslanyan and Carolyn Vasquez, not only fraudulently used patient information, but also stole the identities of doctors themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here's how: Aslanyan and Vasquez set up a series of fraudulent medical clinics and recruited doctors to serve as medical directors. Some doctors apparently just came by for an interview, but never worked at the clinic. No matter. Aslanyan and Vasquez stole their identities and had physician assistants use the doctors' information to commit fraud. Aslanyan and Vasquez submitted more than $18.9 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare. That is a lot of health care.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FBI nabbed them. Vasquez pled guilty and was sentenced earlier this year to 60 months in prison and must pay $6.2 million in restitution. Aslanyan was sentenced earlier this week to 77 months in prison. He's on the hook for $10.8 million in restitution. From the \u003ca title=\"http://www.fbi.gov/losangeles/press-releases/2012/los-angeles-man-sentenced-to-77-months-in-prison-for-medicare-fraud-scheme-resulting-in-more-than-18.9-million-in-fraudulent-claims-to-medicare\" href=\"http://www.fbi.gov/losangeles/press-releases/2012/los-angeles-man-sentenced-to-77-months-in-prison-for-medicare-fraud-scheme-resulting-in-more-than-18.9-million-in-fraudulent-claims-to-medicare\" target=\"_blank\">press release\u003c/a> announcing Aslanyan's conviction:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>According to court documents, Aslanyan hired patient recruiters to find Medicare beneficiaries who were willing to provide the recruiters with their Medicare billing information in exchange for expensive, high-end power wheelchairs and other medical equipment which the patient recruiters told the beneficiaries they could receive for free. Often, the Medicare beneficiaries did not have a legitimate medical need for the power wheelchairs and equipment. The patient recruiters then provided the beneficiaries’ Medicare billing information to Aslanyan or brought the beneficiaries to Aslanyan’s clinics. Aslanyan paid the patient recruiters cash kickbacks in exchange for recruiting the Medicare beneficiaries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In court documents, Aslanyan admitted that he and Vasquez instructed and paid physician assistants who worked at his clinics to prescribe medically unnecessary power wheelchairs, medical equipment and diagnostic tests for the Medicare beneficiaries. The physician assistants used stolen identities of physicians who did not supervise them or work at the clinics.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>We wanted to talk to one of the doctors whose identity was stolen, but the FBI has not been able to connect us as yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Medicare fraud is big business--perhaps as much as $50 billion each year, according to the FBI. One classic scam involves recruiting patients to come to a clinic, then using the patient's billing information to fraudulently charge for services never rendered or charging for expensive wheelchairs. It's a common story, but this scam has a twist. Two Los Angeles fraudsters, Eduard Aslanyan and Carolyn Vasquez, not only fraudulently used patient information, but also stole the identities of doctors themselves.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2954\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/seniors-walking-with-walkers.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-2954\" title=\"(John Moore: Getty Images)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/seniors-walking-with-walkers-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"(John Moore: Getty Images)\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(John Moore: Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Medicare fraud is big business--perhaps as much as $50 billion each year, according to the FBI. One classic scam involves recruiting patients to come to a clinic, then using the patient's billing information to fraudulently charge for services never rendered or charging for expensive wheelchairs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's an all-too-common story, but keep reading, because this scam has a twist. Two Los Angeles fraudsters, Eduard Aslanyan and Carolyn Vasquez, not only fraudulently used patient information, but also stole the identities of doctors themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here's how: Aslanyan and Vasquez set up a series of fraudulent medical clinics and recruited doctors to serve as medical directors. Some doctors apparently just came by for an interview, but never worked at the clinic. No matter. Aslanyan and Vasquez stole their identities and had physician assistants use the doctors' information to commit fraud. Aslanyan and Vasquez submitted more than $18.9 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare. That is a lot of health care.\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FBI nabbed them. Vasquez pled guilty and was sentenced earlier this year to 60 months in prison and must pay $6.2 million in restitution. Aslanyan was sentenced earlier this week to 77 months in prison. He's on the hook for $10.8 million in restitution. From the \u003ca title=\"http://www.fbi.gov/losangeles/press-releases/2012/los-angeles-man-sentenced-to-77-months-in-prison-for-medicare-fraud-scheme-resulting-in-more-than-18.9-million-in-fraudulent-claims-to-medicare\" href=\"http://www.fbi.gov/losangeles/press-releases/2012/los-angeles-man-sentenced-to-77-months-in-prison-for-medicare-fraud-scheme-resulting-in-more-than-18.9-million-in-fraudulent-claims-to-medicare\" target=\"_blank\">press release\u003c/a> announcing Aslanyan's conviction:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>According to court documents, Aslanyan hired patient recruiters to find Medicare beneficiaries who were willing to provide the recruiters with their Medicare billing information in exchange for expensive, high-end power wheelchairs and other medical equipment which the patient recruiters told the beneficiaries they could receive for free. Often, the Medicare beneficiaries did not have a legitimate medical need for the power wheelchairs and equipment. The patient recruiters then provided the beneficiaries’ Medicare billing information to Aslanyan or brought the beneficiaries to Aslanyan’s clinics. Aslanyan paid the patient recruiters cash kickbacks in exchange for recruiting the Medicare beneficiaries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In court documents, Aslanyan admitted that he and Vasquez instructed and paid physician assistants who worked at his clinics to prescribe medically unnecessary power wheelchairs, medical equipment and diagnostic tests for the Medicare beneficiaries. The physician assistants used stolen identities of physicians who did not supervise them or work at the clinics.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>We wanted to talk to one of the doctors whose identity was stolen, but the FBI has not been able to connect us as yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "New Federal Plan to Reduce Early Elective Births",
"title": "New Federal Plan to Reduce Early Elective Births",
"headTitle": "State of Health | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Delivering early--for no medical cause--can harm babies.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Emily Bazar, \u003ca title=\"http://centerforhealthreporting.org/blog/feds-announce-plan-reduce-early-elective-births781\" href=\"http://centerforhealthreporting.org/blog/feds-announce-plan-reduce-early-elective-births781\" target=\"_blank\">Center for Health Reporting\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2882\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/Birth_Baby_NathanLeClair_Flickr_02082012.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-2882\" title=\"(Nathan LeClair: Flickr)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/Birth_Baby_NathanLeClair_Flickr_02082012-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"(Nathan LeClair: Flickr)\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Nathan LeClair: Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now the feds are jumping in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This morning, \u003ca href=\"http://www.hhs.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services\u003c/a> announced a national campaign to reduce elective deliveries of babies before 39 weeks of pregnancy, saying the effort will improve care and save millions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the “Strong Start” initiative, the government will work with hospitals across the country that have joined the \u003ca href=\"http://www.healthcare.gov/compare/partnership-for-patients/\" target=\"_blank\">Partnership for Patients\u003c/a>, a voluntary effort to reduce preventable injuries and complications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also will partner with organizations such as the \u003ca href=\"http://www.marchofdimes.com/\" target=\"_blank\">March of Dimes\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"http://www.acog.org/\" target=\"_blank\">American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists\u003c/a>, which have taken strong stands against early elective births.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\"> ... up to 10 percent of all deliveries are scheduled during weeks 37 and 38 without a medical reason. \u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The federal government now joins a fast-growing movement to cut early elective births. \u003ca href=\"http://centerforhealthreporting.org/article/dramatic-gains-california-hospitals-reducing-early-deliveries759\" target=\"_blank\">As I wrote last week\u003c/a>, nearly 100 hospitals across California have adopted policies to discourage or prohibit doctors from scheduling deliveries – either by inducing labor or performing cesarean sections – between weeks 37 and 39 of pregnancy without a medical reason.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.leapfroggroup.org/media/file/FactSheet_ElectiveDeliveries.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Data show\u003c/a> that delivering early without a valid medical reason increases the risk of complications to babies, including breathing and feeding problems and blood infections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to HHS, up to 10 percent of all deliveries are scheduled during weeks 37 and 38 without a medical reason.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Preterm births are a growing public health problem that has significant consequences for families well into a child’s life,” HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cost-savings for reducing early elective births could be significant. \u003ca href=\"http://www.healthcare.gov/using-insurance/low-cost-care/medicaid/\" target=\"_blank\">Medicaid\u003c/a>, the publicly funded health program for low-income people, pays for just less than half of the nation’s births each year. A 10 percent drop in deliveries before 39 weeks would lead to more than $75 million in annual Medicaid savings, HHS said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>HHS also announced a plan to distribute more than $40 million in grants to reduce preterm births before 37 weeks of gestation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than half a million preemies are born each year, HHS said, a number that has grown by 36 percent over the past two decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The grants will be awarded to providers and coalitions to improve prenatal care for women covered by Medicaid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Delivering early--for no medical cause--can harm babies.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Emily Bazar, \u003ca title=\"http://centerforhealthreporting.org/blog/feds-announce-plan-reduce-early-elective-births781\" href=\"http://centerforhealthreporting.org/blog/feds-announce-plan-reduce-early-elective-births781\" target=\"_blank\">Center for Health Reporting\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2882\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/Birth_Baby_NathanLeClair_Flickr_02082012.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-2882\" title=\"(Nathan LeClair: Flickr)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/Birth_Baby_NathanLeClair_Flickr_02082012-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"(Nathan LeClair: Flickr)\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Nathan LeClair: Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now the feds are jumping in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This morning, \u003ca href=\"http://www.hhs.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services\u003c/a> announced a national campaign to reduce elective deliveries of babies before 39 weeks of pregnancy, saying the effort will improve care and save millions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the “Strong Start” initiative, the government will work with hospitals across the country that have joined the \u003ca href=\"http://www.healthcare.gov/compare/partnership-for-patients/\" target=\"_blank\">Partnership for Patients\u003c/a>, a voluntary effort to reduce preventable injuries and complications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also will partner with organizations such as the \u003ca href=\"http://www.marchofdimes.com/\" target=\"_blank\">March of Dimes\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"http://www.acog.org/\" target=\"_blank\">American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists\u003c/a>, which have taken strong stands against early elective births.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\"> ... up to 10 percent of all deliveries are scheduled during weeks 37 and 38 without a medical reason. \u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The federal government now joins a fast-growing movement to cut early elective births. \u003ca href=\"http://centerforhealthreporting.org/article/dramatic-gains-california-hospitals-reducing-early-deliveries759\" target=\"_blank\">As I wrote last week\u003c/a>, nearly 100 hospitals across California have adopted policies to discourage or prohibit doctors from scheduling deliveries – either by inducing labor or performing cesarean sections – between weeks 37 and 39 of pregnancy without a medical reason.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.leapfroggroup.org/media/file/FactSheet_ElectiveDeliveries.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Data show\u003c/a> that delivering early without a valid medical reason increases the risk of complications to babies, including breathing and feeding problems and blood infections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to HHS, up to 10 percent of all deliveries are scheduled during weeks 37 and 38 without a medical reason.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Preterm births are a growing public health problem that has significant consequences for families well into a child’s life,” HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cost-savings for reducing early elective births could be significant. \u003ca href=\"http://www.healthcare.gov/using-insurance/low-cost-care/medicaid/\" target=\"_blank\">Medicaid\u003c/a>, the publicly funded health program for low-income people, pays for just less than half of the nation’s births each year. A 10 percent drop in deliveries before 39 weeks would lead to more than $75 million in annual Medicaid savings, HHS said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>HHS also announced a plan to distribute more than $40 million in grants to reduce preterm births before 37 weeks of gestation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than half a million preemies are born each year, HHS said, a number that has grown by 36 percent over the past two decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The grants will be awarded to providers and coalitions to improve prenatal care for women covered by Medicaid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Komen Will Continue Funding Planned Parenthood ... at Least For Now",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2811\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/Komen_PInkBalloons_BrandiKorte_Flickr_02032012.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-2811 size-medium\" title=\"(Brandi Korte: Flickr)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/Komen_PInkBalloons_BrandiKorte_Flickr_02032012-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"(Brandi Korte: Flickr) Komen, Breast Cancer\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Brandi Korte: Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It was only Tuesday when news broke that Susan G. \u003ca title=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2012/02/01/susan-g-komen-vs-planned-parenthood/\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2012/02/01/susan-g-komen-vs-planned-parenthood/\" target=\"_blank\">Komen would cease its funding\u003c/a> of Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screening and other programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the days since, reaction has been swift and heated. Komen said it had new funding guidelines that prohibit the foundation from funding groups under investigation. While a Republican member of Congress has announced an intention to hold hearings of Planned Parenthood, critics say the intent is political. Hearings have yet to be held.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Nancy Brinker, Founder and CEO of the Foundation announced what at first appeared to be a reversal and \u003ca title=\"http://ww5.komen.org/KomenNewsArticle.aspx?id=19327354148\" href=\"http://ww5.komen.org/KomenNewsArticle.aspx?id=19327354148\" target=\"_blank\">explained in a statement\u003c/a> published on their website:\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\"\u003c/strong>We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives. The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters, partners and friends and all of us at Susan G. Komen. We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation. We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair.\"\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>But many observers have picked up on nuance that comes later in the statement:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>\"We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.\"\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003ca title=\"http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/03/1061450/-Lazy-media-reports-Komen-Foundation-decision-as-reversal-It-isnt\" href=\"http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/03/1061450/-Lazy-media-reports-Komen-Foundation-decision-as-reversal-It-isnt\" target=\"_blank\">The Daily Kos \u003c/a>isn't so sure this is a true reversal in Komen's stance. As their reporter states:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>\"I just got off the phone with a Komen board member, and he confirmed that the announcement does not mean that Planned Parenthood is guaranteed future grants — a demand he said would be “unfair” to impose on Komen.\"\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>This statement in combination with the Board member's quote certainly seems as if Komen views Planned Parenthood as a grantee. But in its \u003ca title=\"http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/statement-cecile-richards-planned-parenthood-federation-america-regarding-todays-komen-announce-38686.htm\" href=\"http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/statement-cecile-richards-planned-parenthood-federation-america-regarding-todays-komen-announce-38686.htm\" target=\"_blank\">statement\u003c/a>, Planned Parenthood speaks of a \"partnership\" with Komen:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“In recent weeks, the treasured relationship between the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation and Planned Parenthood has been challenged, and we are now heartened that we can continue to work in partnership toward our shared commitment to breast health for the most underserved women. We are enormously grateful that the Komen Foundation has clarified its grantmaking criteria, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with Komen partners, leaders and volunteers.\"\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003ca title=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/jp/quick-read-susan-g-komen-official-resigned-over-planned-parenthood-decision/\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/jp/quick-read-susan-g-komen-official-resigned-over-planned-parenthood-decision/\" target=\"_blank\">The Atlantic\u003c/a> has a been closely following the politics of the back and forth. In a \u003ca title=\"http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/02/komen-changes-its-mind-on-planned-parenthood-but-will-donors-come-back/252524/\" href=\"http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/02/komen-changes-its-mind-on-planned-parenthood-but-will-donors-come-back/252524/\" target=\"_blank\">post\u003c/a> today, a senior editor sees more controversy to come. \"I doubt that this is over -- pro-lifers are now going to have their own round of outraged protest.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "It was only Tuesday when news broke that Susan G. Komen would cease its funding of Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screening and other programs. In the days since, reaction has been swift and heated. Komen said it had new funding guidelines that prohibit the foundation from funding groups under investigation. While a Republican member of Congress has announced an intention to hold hearings of Planned Parenthood, critics say the intent is political. Hearings have yet to be held.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2811\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/Komen_PInkBalloons_BrandiKorte_Flickr_02032012.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-2811 size-medium\" title=\"(Brandi Korte: Flickr)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/Komen_PInkBalloons_BrandiKorte_Flickr_02032012-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"(Brandi Korte: Flickr) Komen, Breast Cancer\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Brandi Korte: Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It was only Tuesday when news broke that Susan G. \u003ca title=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2012/02/01/susan-g-komen-vs-planned-parenthood/\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2012/02/01/susan-g-komen-vs-planned-parenthood/\" target=\"_blank\">Komen would cease its funding\u003c/a> of Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screening and other programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the days since, reaction has been swift and heated. Komen said it had new funding guidelines that prohibit the foundation from funding groups under investigation. While a Republican member of Congress has announced an intention to hold hearings of Planned Parenthood, critics say the intent is political. Hearings have yet to be held.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Nancy Brinker, Founder and CEO of the Foundation announced what at first appeared to be a reversal and \u003ca title=\"http://ww5.komen.org/KomenNewsArticle.aspx?id=19327354148\" href=\"http://ww5.komen.org/KomenNewsArticle.aspx?id=19327354148\" target=\"_blank\">explained in a statement\u003c/a> published on their website:\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\"\u003c/strong>We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives. The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters, partners and friends and all of us at Susan G. Komen. We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation. We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair.\"\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>But many observers have picked up on nuance that comes later in the statement:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>\"We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.\"\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003ca title=\"http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/03/1061450/-Lazy-media-reports-Komen-Foundation-decision-as-reversal-It-isnt\" href=\"http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/03/1061450/-Lazy-media-reports-Komen-Foundation-decision-as-reversal-It-isnt\" target=\"_blank\">The Daily Kos \u003c/a>isn't so sure this is a true reversal in Komen's stance. As their reporter states:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>\"I just got off the phone with a Komen board member, and he confirmed that the announcement does not mean that Planned Parenthood is guaranteed future grants — a demand he said would be “unfair” to impose on Komen.\"\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>This statement in combination with the Board member's quote certainly seems as if Komen views Planned Parenthood as a grantee. But in its \u003ca title=\"http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/statement-cecile-richards-planned-parenthood-federation-america-regarding-todays-komen-announce-38686.htm\" href=\"http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/statement-cecile-richards-planned-parenthood-federation-america-regarding-todays-komen-announce-38686.htm\" target=\"_blank\">statement\u003c/a>, Planned Parenthood speaks of a \"partnership\" with Komen:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“In recent weeks, the treasured relationship between the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation and Planned Parenthood has been challenged, and we are now heartened that we can continue to work in partnership toward our shared commitment to breast health for the most underserved women. We are enormously grateful that the Komen Foundation has clarified its grantmaking criteria, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with Komen partners, leaders and volunteers.\"\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003ca title=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/jp/quick-read-susan-g-komen-official-resigned-over-planned-parenthood-decision/\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/jp/quick-read-susan-g-komen-official-resigned-over-planned-parenthood-decision/\" target=\"_blank\">The Atlantic\u003c/a> has a been closely following the politics of the back and forth. In a \u003ca title=\"http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/02/komen-changes-its-mind-on-planned-parenthood-but-will-donors-come-back/252524/\" href=\"http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/02/komen-changes-its-mind-on-planned-parenthood-but-will-donors-come-back/252524/\" target=\"_blank\">post\u003c/a> today, a senior editor sees more controversy to come. \"I doubt that this is over -- pro-lifers are now going to have their own round of outraged protest.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "Susan G. Komen Vs. Planned Parenthood",
"title": "Susan G. Komen Vs. Planned Parenthood",
"headTitle": "State of Health | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2737\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/Komen_Flickr_BrandiKorte_02012012.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-2737\" title=\"(Brandi Korte: Flickr)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/Komen_Flickr_BrandiKorte_02012012-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"(Brandi Korte: Flickr)\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Brandi Korte: Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Reaction has been swift since the AP broke the news yesterday that the breast cancer charity, \u003ca title=\"http://ww5.komen.org/\" href=\"http://ww5.komen.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Susan G. Komen for the Cure\u003c/a> is withdrawing future funding of any Planned Parenthood affiliates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca title=\"http://www.plannedparenthood.org/\" href=\"http://www.plannedparenthood.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Planned Parenthood Federation of America\u003c/a> said pressure from anti-abortion groups sparked the Komen decision. The Komen Foundation counters that its guidelines do not permit funding if any organization is under a governmental investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But those guidelines appear to be recent and have political underpinnings. As \u003ca title=\"http://jezebel.com/5881057/susan-g-komen-foundation-bows-to-pro+life-bullying-stops-contributing-to-planned-parenthood\" href=\"http://jezebel.com/5881057/susan-g-komen-foundation-bows-to-pro+life-bullying-stops-contributing-to-planned-parenthood\" target=\"_blank\">Jezebel\u003c/a> reports:\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Interestingly, this brand new rule that suddenly appeared in the books of the Komen Foundation just so happened to coincide with a Congressional investigation launched by a Republican legislator, who himself was pressured by the pro-life group Americans United for Life. And last year's assault on Planned Parenthood also coincided with the addition of a vocally anti-abortion ex-politician to the ranks of Susan G Komen For the Cure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Karen Handel, who was \u003ca href=\"http://rncnyc2004.blogspot.com/2010/07/sarah-palin-endorses-karen-handel-for.html\">endorsed\u003c/a> by Sarah Palin during her unsuccessful bid for governor of Georgia in 2010, has been the Foundation's Senior Vice President for Public Policy since April 2011. During her gubernatorial candidacy, she ran on an anti-choice platform, vowing that if elected, she'd defund Planned Parenthood.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Planned Parenthood now has a banner on its homepage announcing the end of Komen funding and asking viewers to \"Help Us Continue Lifesaving Breast Cancer Screenings.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are alarmed and saddened that the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation appears to have succumbed to political pressure,\" said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America \u003ca title=\"http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/alarmed-saddened-komen-foundation-succumbing-political-pressure-planned-parenthood-launches-fun-38629.htm?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=tweet&utm_campaign=komen\" href=\"http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/alarmed-saddened-komen-foundation-succumbing-political-pressure-planned-parenthood-launches-fun-38629.htm?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=tweet&utm_campaign=komen\" target=\"_blank\">in a statement\u003c/a>. \"Our greatest desire is for Komen to reconsider this policy and recommit to the partnership on which so many women count.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The clinic serving \u003ca title=\"http://www.plannedparenthood.org/orange-san-bernardino/\" href=\"http://www.plannedparenthood.org/orange-san-bernardino/\">Orange and San Bernardino Counties\u003c/a> appears to be the only Planned Parenthood affiliate in California to receive funds from Komen. That funding has been significant. For the last seven years, Komen has helped to fund breast cancer screening this affiliate does annually for 15-20,000 women, Stephanie Kight, Sr. Vice President of the affiliate told State of Health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, 400 women needed diagnostic services and Komen covered a little over half of those. \"Komen was also a key funder in education and screening in marginalized communities, especially the Vietnamese community, which has so little information about health care and breast cancer,\" Kight said. “Women’s health care and breast cancer care are way too important, and way too important to women all over this country, to be used as a political football. It’s just tragic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile public comments on Twitter and Facebook have been heated. A non-scientific sampling showed sentiment running against Komen, even on \u003ca title=\"http://apps.komen.org/Forums/tm.aspx?&m=343860\" href=\"http://apps.komen.org/Forums/tm.aspx?&m=343860\" target=\"_blank\">its own message board\u003c/a>, as this post demonstrates:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>I am with all of you. I will return any Komen solicitations from friends with an explanation that i will no longer donate to Breast Cancer research through this organization. What a shame! It's outrageous that this organization, like so many others, is allowing itself to be bullied by the virulently anti-woman minority in Congress. Shame, shame, shame\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Those who support Komen's move echo this tweet:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Awesome news broke today!\" tweeted @LilaGraceRose, \"Susan G. Komen has finally stopped funding Planned Parenthood!\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many other tweets show people responding with their wallets. \"I just donated to Planned Parenthood to make up shortfall from shameful abandonment by Susan G. \u003cs>#\u003c/s>Komen Fdn,\" tweeted @KTKeith.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Reaction has been swift since the AP broke the news yesterday that the breast cancer charity, Susan G. Komen for the Cure is withdrawing future funding of any Planned Parenthood affiliates.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_2737\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/Komen_Flickr_BrandiKorte_02012012.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-2737\" title=\"(Brandi Korte: Flickr)\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/02/Komen_Flickr_BrandiKorte_02012012-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"(Brandi Korte: Flickr)\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Brandi Korte: Flickr)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Reaction has been swift since the AP broke the news yesterday that the breast cancer charity, \u003ca title=\"http://ww5.komen.org/\" href=\"http://ww5.komen.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Susan G. Komen for the Cure\u003c/a> is withdrawing future funding of any Planned Parenthood affiliates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca title=\"http://www.plannedparenthood.org/\" href=\"http://www.plannedparenthood.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Planned Parenthood Federation of America\u003c/a> said pressure from anti-abortion groups sparked the Komen decision. The Komen Foundation counters that its guidelines do not permit funding if any organization is under a governmental investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But those guidelines appear to be recent and have political underpinnings. As \u003ca title=\"http://jezebel.com/5881057/susan-g-komen-foundation-bows-to-pro+life-bullying-stops-contributing-to-planned-parenthood\" href=\"http://jezebel.com/5881057/susan-g-komen-foundation-bows-to-pro+life-bullying-stops-contributing-to-planned-parenthood\" target=\"_blank\">Jezebel\u003c/a> reports:\u003c!--more-->\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Interestingly, this brand new rule that suddenly appeared in the books of the Komen Foundation just so happened to coincide with a Congressional investigation launched by a Republican legislator, who himself was pressured by the pro-life group Americans United for Life. And last year's assault on Planned Parenthood also coincided with the addition of a vocally anti-abortion ex-politician to the ranks of Susan G Komen For the Cure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Karen Handel, who was \u003ca href=\"http://rncnyc2004.blogspot.com/2010/07/sarah-palin-endorses-karen-handel-for.html\">endorsed\u003c/a> by Sarah Palin during her unsuccessful bid for governor of Georgia in 2010, has been the Foundation's Senior Vice President for Public Policy since April 2011. During her gubernatorial candidacy, she ran on an anti-choice platform, vowing that if elected, she'd defund Planned Parenthood.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Planned Parenthood now has a banner on its homepage announcing the end of Komen funding and asking viewers to \"Help Us Continue Lifesaving Breast Cancer Screenings.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are alarmed and saddened that the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation appears to have succumbed to political pressure,\" said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America \u003ca title=\"http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/alarmed-saddened-komen-foundation-succumbing-political-pressure-planned-parenthood-launches-fun-38629.htm?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=tweet&utm_campaign=komen\" href=\"http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/alarmed-saddened-komen-foundation-succumbing-political-pressure-planned-parenthood-launches-fun-38629.htm?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=tweet&utm_campaign=komen\" target=\"_blank\">in a statement\u003c/a>. \"Our greatest desire is for Komen to reconsider this policy and recommit to the partnership on which so many women count.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The clinic serving \u003ca title=\"http://www.plannedparenthood.org/orange-san-bernardino/\" href=\"http://www.plannedparenthood.org/orange-san-bernardino/\">Orange and San Bernardino Counties\u003c/a> appears to be the only Planned Parenthood affiliate in California to receive funds from Komen. That funding has been significant. For the last seven years, Komen has helped to fund breast cancer screening this affiliate does annually for 15-20,000 women, Stephanie Kight, Sr. Vice President of the affiliate told State of Health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, 400 women needed diagnostic services and Komen covered a little over half of those. \"Komen was also a key funder in education and screening in marginalized communities, especially the Vietnamese community, which has so little information about health care and breast cancer,\" Kight said. “Women’s health care and breast cancer care are way too important, and way too important to women all over this country, to be used as a political football. It’s just tragic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile public comments on Twitter and Facebook have been heated. A non-scientific sampling showed sentiment running against Komen, even on \u003ca title=\"http://apps.komen.org/Forums/tm.aspx?&m=343860\" href=\"http://apps.komen.org/Forums/tm.aspx?&m=343860\" target=\"_blank\">its own message board\u003c/a>, as this post demonstrates:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>I am with all of you. I will return any Komen solicitations from friends with an explanation that i will no longer donate to Breast Cancer research through this organization. What a shame! It's outrageous that this organization, like so many others, is allowing itself to be bullied by the virulently anti-woman minority in Congress. Shame, shame, shame\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Those who support Komen's move echo this tweet:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Awesome news broke today!\" tweeted @LilaGraceRose, \"Susan G. Komen has finally stopped funding Planned Parenthood!\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many other tweets show people responding with their wallets. \"I just donated to Planned Parenthood to make up shortfall from shameful abandonment by Susan G. \u003cs>#\u003c/s>Komen Fdn,\" tweeted @KTKeith.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"marketplace": {
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
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"mindshift": {
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
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"onourwatch": {
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"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"perspectives": {
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"planet-money": {
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"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
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"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
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"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
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},
"pri-the-world": {
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"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
"airtime": "SAT 4pm-5pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/reveal",
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"rss": "http://feeds.revealradio.org/revealpodcast"
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