RWB News: I know the term "death panels" were a forbidden word by the Obama administration but if you are on Government ran Medicaid and you need a liver transplant, does this mean you die? Doesn't "death panel" mean a government bureaucrat decides if you get life saving treatment?
(CNSNews.com) – Arizona's Medicaid agency will no longer cover non-experimental organ transplants for its adult members.
In a memo announcing a number of benefits changes for adults 21 and older, the state's Medicaid agency said it was responding to "significant fiscal challenges facing the State and substantial growth in the Medicaid population."
As of October 1, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System will no longer pay for liver transplants for patients with Hepatitis C; certain heart and bone marrow transplants; or lung and pancreas transplants.
The new transplant exclusions took effect Friday as part of broader Medicaid coverage changes mandated by the State of Arizona in response to budgetary pressures. (Arizona's Fiscal Year 2010 enacted budget directs AHCCCS to eliminate various medical and health services for adults. See page 20 of the bill).
In addition to eliminating most organ-transplant coverage, Arizona's Medicaid agency also is eliminating most dental care for adults as well as coverage of podiatrist services; insulin pumps; percussive vests; bone-anchored hearing aids; cochlear implants; orthotics; gastric bypass surgery; certain durable medical equipment; "well" medical checkups; some non-emergency medical transportation; microprocessor-controlled lower limbs and joints; and it is limiting outpatient physical therapy to 15 visits per contract year. (See list)
A group that advocates for viral hepatitis patients is outraged by the decision to "deprive" hepatitis C patients of liver-transplant coverage, calling the move "cruel" and "inhumane."
It will have "devastating consequences for Arizona's Medicaid beneficiaries," said Lorren Sandt, who chairs the National Viral Heptitis Roundtable. "NVHR recognizes that both public and private health care programs are struggling with the burden of rising costs and a challenging economic environment. However, the cruel costs associated with Arizona's Medicaid coverage changes do not appear to be based on sound science and far exceed any supposed benefit," Sandt added.
Read the rest of the story: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/arizonas-medicaid-program-will-no-longer
swenbwr
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