Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act

"Legislation designed to help combat suicide by U.S. military veterans passed in the Senate 99-0 on Tuesday, setting the stage for it soon to become federal law.

Approval of the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act was lauded by veterans and suicide prevention groups as a victory that will save lives. The legislation is named after a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and later took his own life in 2011."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/02/03/clay-hunt-veterans-suicide-prevention-act-passes-in-senate-will-head-to-white-house/

"An estimated 22 veterans commit suicide each day, adding up to more than 8,000 deaths each year. Klobuchar is an original cosponsor of the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans (SAV) Act, which will help expand access to mental health services for veterans by establishing a loan repayment program to help the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recruit more psychiatric specialists, enhancing resources for veterans transitioning to civilian life, and improving the VA's ability to address traumatic brain injuries. Congressman Tim Walz (D-MN) led the bill in the House."

http://www.brainerddispatch.com/news/politics/3670882-veterans-suicide-prevention-measure-important-step-toward-ending-vet-suicide

Enrollment Deadline Under the Affordable Care Act

February 15, 2015 is the last day to enroll in a health care plan.  You can receive help at www.healthcare.gov or in Illinois a getcoveredillinois.com

Have you recently lost your Illinois Medicaid Coverage due to a software glitch?

This is a serious message from my Law Office to citizens of Cook County on Medicaid or County Care. If you have received a letter informing you that your Medicaid benefits end, effective today, November 1, 2014 because you did not submit a Medical Renewal Form but, in fact, you posted a completed redetermination form in a timely manner online at www.medredes.hfs.illinois.gov per the instructions on the form and website, please contact my office. It appears that the website and software vendor lost completed Medical Renewal Forms that were posted online prior to the submission deadline. We are trying to determine how widespread this is and to prevent harm to anyone due to improper loss of coverage. Thank you. -Steve Schurr

The First Ebola Patient in the US

Many of you have been wondering just how much we are in danger of Ebola outbreak and just exactly how did we do in handling the first case in the United States. I was very disappointed and alarmed to see Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, an affluent and well-funded Hospital in Dallas, send the first Ebola patient home with free antibiotics diagnosed with a sinus infection, even though they knew that the patient had come from Liberia. The danger, of course, was that he would infect numerous individuals over the few days he was home rather than hospitalized. For example, Dallas was scrambling to find the homeless man that rode in the ambulance to the hospital with Mr. Duncan upon his return. They found him and he is disease free but there could have been a different outcome. It will be up to the lawyers and perhaps a jury to determine if the delay in diagnosis and treatment resulted in Mr. Duncan's death. Fortunately, we know now that his family was not infected. This is common treatment of uninsured individuals in the United States. The Dallas hospital has received much poor publicity and has had to temporarily close their Emergency Room, which is now reopened but unpopular. Many potential patients are refusing to go their which has resulted in a loss of revenue. If you had a choice, would you go to a hospital that has allowed their staff to become infected with Ebola when you could to somewhere else? The economic loss to the hospital and its parent company, Texas Health, is a good thing for the rest of us, because this will motivate administrators of hospitals all over the country to be certain they are prepared for an Ebola patient walking in their door. The Affordable Care Act fines hospitals that have readmissions due to misdiagnosis or lack of follow-up, and this hospital had been fined in the past. The amount of the fine, evidently, did not act as a deterrent for this hospital. Hopefully, the economic fallout for a misdiagnosis or a transmission to staff will provide the motivation. If not for the failure of the hospital to protect its staff, we would be Ebola free in the US right now. Under CDC guidelines in place at the time of his admission, the department of health would have been notified. Under Dallas County regulations in effect at the time, Mr. Duncan would have been sent home due to the misdiagnosis of a sinus infection and the lack of awareness that the pregnant woman that he assisted in Liberia had Ebola. The CDC is tightening its guidelines and I hope the County of Dallas will do the same.

Obamacare Regulations

Three key sets of regulations needed to implement the Affordable Care Act have been issued. Insurers, consumer groups and the public have 30 days to weigh in with comments on two of the proposed rules {essential benefits and premiums) and will have until Jan. 25 for the third, which outlines how employers can structure wellness programs that offer discounts to workers who participate. The contents of the laws which authorize these regulations are summarized in my October 23, 2012 blog "Contents of Obamacare - Part 2". Here is a good article from Kaiser that summarizes the proposed regs: http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2012/November/20/administration-releases-new-rules-for-health-law.aspx?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+khn+%28All+Kaiser+Health+News%29

Contents of Obamacare - Part 11- Elders

The Elder Justice Act.This law, among other things, establishes forensic centers to determine elder abuse, neglect and exploitation. “Elder” is defined “an individual who is 60 years old or older!”. The law offers grants to the states to promote “adult protective services.” There will be a study on the usefulness of a “nurses aide registry”. (Each year, 5000,000 to 5,000,000 elders are abused, neglgected, or explited. Last year, financial exploitation robbed seniors of $2.9 billion dollars, per a MetLife Mature Market Institute study. 77 million baby boomers are now approaching retirment and old age. In Illinois, Financial exploitation is the most common type of elder abuse in Illinois. Improving Access to Innovative Medical Therapies. The law allows for FDA approval of “biosimilar” biologics, which are analogous to generic drugs, which are less expensive than proprietary drugs. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is charged with implementing an abbreviated pathway to the market for biosimilars. A “biologic” is a “virus, therapeutic serum, toxin, antitoxin, vaccine, blood, blood component or derivative, allergenic product or analogous product, or arsphenamine or derivative of arsphenamine (or any other trivalent organic arsenic compound), applicable to the prevention, treatment, or cure of a disease or condition of human beings.” NEXT: FUNDING FOR OBAMACARE

Contents of Obamacare -Part 10 - Fast Food and Dental Care

Prevention of Chronic Disease and Promotion of Public Health: The law authorizes a “National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council, headed by the Surgeon General. The committee includes the Secretaries of Health and Human Services, Agriculture and Education, Federal Trade Commission, Transportation, Labor, Homeland Security, environmental Protection Agency, Office of National Drug Control Policy, and others. The purpose of the committee is to promote coordination among the federal agencies for the promotion of health-care related goals. The law also creates an “Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health.” The purpose of the committee is to establish policy and program recommendations on life-style based chronic disease and management. School-based health centers. The law provides grants to schools to establish these centers. Oral care. Not much is said about oral disease (dental care) in regards to health reform. The beloved state of Illinois recently cut adult dental care for Medicaid recipients, except for tooth extractions and emergency care. Indiana provides adult dental services under Medicaid under limited circumstances. The federal Affordable Health Care Act (”Obamacare”) doesn’t say much about dental care either. It approves a few grants to study the problem and intends to publish related studies. The New “Wellness” visit under Medicare includes the following: determination of medical history, a list of current health care providers and medications, determination of cognitive impairments, determination of a screening schedule, a list of personal risk factors for disease, and counseling as how to reduce the risk. The law then goes into particular details as to how funding under Medicare for mammograms, and immunizations. Fast-Food Restaurants: There is now a federal definition of a “food restaurant chain”: it is one that is part of a chain “with 20 or more locations doing business under the same name… and offering for sale substantially the same menu items”. These “chains” must now include caloric information on their menus. Federal regulations shall ensue as to standard menu items that come in different flavors, varieties, or combinations, but which are listed as a single menu item, such as soft drinks, ice cream, pizza, doughnuts, or children’s combination meals. The law goes on to strengthens public health surveillance systems through grants, including pain management and research and childhood obesity.