March 2017

Off to Nepal.. and Everest

I’m sitting at Gate 11, Terminal E, waiting for my flight to Nepal, and just remembered I didn’t lock either of my checked bags. I never forget something like that. I’m a bit distracted: my head’s on the upcoming climb to Everest base camp. Everything else is packed: climbing gear, boots, trekking poles, layers and layers of clothing (base layer, mid-layers, outer shells), medicine to cover all typical ailments including altitude sickness and bronchial infections, expedition sunglasses, hats, bandanas, gloves and liners… somehow it all fit into the North Face Base Camp bag with room to spare. I filled that room with donated stuffed animals for the kids in Nepal. hopefully it will all be there when I arrive in Kathmandu!

How are the kids in Nepal? We have about 100 of them registered with Save One Life and track their progress through our program. Nepal is one of the world’s poorest countries, and yet it has a stellar Nepal Hemophilia Society run by people with hemophilia. For the beneficiaries of Save One Life, we check to see if they have enough income, are in school, and whether they get treatment for their hemophilia. We have many prominent sponsors in our community who fund these families.
Laurie Kelley with Youth Group, Nepal Hemophilia Society
September 2015
The country suffered a devastating earthquake on April 25, 2015; several members of the hemophilia community died. The hospital was damaged; homes left in piles of bricks. I toured the earthquake damage when I was there in September 2015, and realized in the global hemophilia community there is no emergency response protocol or team. It doesn’t happen often, but in earthquake prone areas like Nepal, it would be a good program to establish.
See my trip to Nepal 6 months after the earthquake here. 
I’m looking forward this coming week to meeting our kids again, seeing what the needs are, how they have managed. We raised funds shortly after the earthquake with the massive help of the Mary Gooley Center in Rochester, New York, to help with housing and necessities. Patrick James Lynch and his team at Believe Ltd. is coming on this trip as well to make a documentary about life in developing countries, through the eyes of Chris Bombardier, a young man with hemophilia B from Denver, Colorado, who will be the first person with hemophilia to attempt to summit Everest!
I’ll be with Chris this week as we tour homes and the hospital, and visit the earthquake areas. Then Chris, his wife Jess, photographer Rob Bradford and I all head out for Everest base camp on April 2 with renowned guide Ryan Waters of Mountain Professionals. Ryan has accompanied Chris on four of his Seven Summits. Everest will be Chris’s sixth summit… and that would leave Mt. Vinson in Antarctica.
Chris infusing on a summit!
Chris would have summited Vinson by now, but he was denied access! Why?

Because he has hemophilia–a “disability.” Huh. Chris has a few things to show the guys in Antarctica. 

Chris also has a few things to show his peers in developing countries. The mountain is a metaphor for overcoming any challenge. You can’t get anywhere in life unless you first set your sights on a summit; get the right equipment; train, train, train–success is hard work; map your route; get a guide; then go.
Waiting to see this on Everest!
Go Chris! We wish you success and safety, and everyone thanks you for your heroic efforts on behalf of people with hemophilia everywhere!
Sign up to get notifications about Chris’s historic here!

From the bottom of our hearts and hiking boots we wish to thank Octapharma for completely funding Chris’s climb, and Believe Ltd.’s documentary. While there is no amount of money that can compensate Chris for his time and personal risks, none of this adventure and effort would be possible without Octapharma’s generous support and more importantly, its belief in Chris and Save One Life. Chairman Wolfgang Marguerre has been one of Save One Life’s biggest supporter and sponsor of children with hemophilia in developing countries. He truly believes in our mission. Thank you Mr. Marguerre and all your colleagues, including Flemming Neilsen and Carl Trenz, for your help and support!

If you would like to sponsor a chid in need, visit www.SaveOneLife.net to learn more. Together we are improving lives with hemophilia…one at a time.

Wednesday’s Child*

It’s March, and our hemophilia community in the US is celebrating Hemophilia Awareness Month. We celebrate advances in medicine, especially how far we have come in treatment, from whole blood to plasma to factor concentrates, and now viral-free and plentiful. 
But that’s only in the US and similar developed countries. Up to 75% of the world’s population with hemophilia receives little or no treatment to stop bleeding. Compound that with extreme poverty and isolation, and there seems little to celebrate. 
To support the goal of Hemophilia Awareness
Month, Save One Life, the nonprofit I founded, is sharing stories every Wednesday in March to illustrate the
challenges and triumphs of children and adults with hemophilia in the
countries we serve. 
We hope these stories will touch your heart and encourage
you to become a champion of our cause–reaching out to family and friends to
encourage them to sponsor a child or donate to a program. We have about 30 children in need of sponsorship–please visit our website and see these beautiful children who deserve someday to celebrate too.
Meet Rathish from India
Rathish became a Save One Life beneficiary when
he was 17. At that point he had suffered so many untreated bleeds, he could no
longer walk. His mother would carry him in her arms, even as a teenager, or he
would use a wheelchair. Living in the country, he was confined at home, unable
to go to school. For activities, he played on the computer, drew and watched
TV.
Rathish’s father is a day laborer, earning about
$50 per month. His older brother, Sudhish, who doesn’t have hemophilia, works
as a welder to supplement the family’s income.
 
When Save One Life’s India program coordinator,
Usha Parthasarathy, met Rathish, she was particularly touched by his condition.
She organized a fundraiser to pay for surgery on Rathish’s knees at a
hospital 50 miles away from home. His mother used his sponsorship money to help
defray other surgery-related expenses. 
It took much courage and weeks of physiotherapy
for Rathish to walk again, with the help of braces and crutches. Now at age 21,
he continues to build his strength with exercises and walking every day. He is
home schooling at the 10th grade level, and honing his computer skills.
Meet
Inderjeet from India
This is a sad story, as Inderjeet, 15, passed
away on February 28 from a CNS bleed. The only son of his parents, Inderjeet complained
of a headache on Sunday evening. After dinner he became sick, so his parents
made the two and a half hour trip to the hospital. The medical team determined
he had a CNS bleed and infused factor. 
The team decided to transport Inderjeet to
another hospital with better facilities–a drive through busy city streets in
Delhi–but when they arrived, the hospital did not have a bed for him. He had
to go back to the first hospital. This proved to be too much. Emergency surgery
never happened and limited factor infusions were insufficient to save this boy,
who loved art and wanted to be an engineer. 
Inderjeet was sponsored for more than six years.
In his most recent update to Save One Life, he was grateful to his sponsor and
expressed his love for her.

Monday’s child is fair of face,
Tuesday’s child is full of grace,
Wednesday’s child is full of woe,
Thursday’s child has far to go,
Friday’s child is loving and giving,
Saturday’s child works hard for a living,
But the child who is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonnie and blithe and good and gay.

—A. E. Bray’s Traditions of Devonshire (Volume II,
pp. 287–288), 1838

Timeless Advice on Healthcare Insurance

It’s hard to know where to begin to discuss what’s happening in healthcare insurance now… and what will become of the advances made with the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”). Right now, consider some great advice from a young man with hemophilia who had to fight for what he needed. We might all need to do this if repeals on the ACA are made. (Taken from PEN’s Insurance Pulse newsletter 2015)


When Goliath
Insured David: How to Get What You Need When the Giant Doesn’t Listen
Patrick
James Lynch
The rules seem to keep changing even though I’ve had the
same insurance plan for several years. How do I make sure I don’t get any
unpleasant surprises in January?
Anyone with a bleeding disorder knows that navigating the
healthcare system can be extremely difficult, and sometimes a downright
nightmare. Unfortunately, our community’s size—or lack thereof—puts us in a
vulnerable position; there simply isn’t enough education or understanding about
our needs, and this happens on the medical side (hematologists and nurses) as
well as on the business side (insurance and reimbursement specialists).
            I have
severe hemophilia A. In early 2014 I needed a new insurance plan. I’d moved
from New York to California. I didn’t know much about the healthcare culture in
California, so I contacted a navigator—a person trained to assist people
seeking health coverage through the Affordable Care Act’s Marketplace. I knew
she’d worked in hemophilia, and thought her expertise would help me select a
plan. She pointed me toward a plan with Sanitas Healthcare*, and I enrolled.
            Sanitas
Healthcare works differently than most health insurance companies. For one,
it’s not just a health insurance company; it’s an integrated delivery system
(IDS), a network of healthcare organizations operating under one umbrella. The
IDS model is one example of a managed care system that’s grown more popular in
recent years as a means of making healthcare coverage cost-effective for the
insurance provider. Sanitas is not only a health insurance provider, but the
company owns the hospitals its patients must visit under their plans, employs
the doctors its patients can see, and controls the pharmacies where its
patients receive medication. In lay terms, Sanitas controls everything. It’s
gigantic, with over 9 million patients across eight states plus Washington, DC.
Sanitas has over 174,000 employees, and in 2013, it reported $53.1 billion in
revenue. Yup, billion. Sanitas is the
largest managed care organization in the United States.
            Enrolling
with Sanitas I felt safe. Unfortunately, Sanitas turned out to be a terrible selection
for someone with hemophilia, especially an adult patient—something my navigator
friend was not aware of because she’d worked in pediatrics.
Member Services: How Can I Not Help You?
The first problem emerged immediately with the wrong information
from Member Services. I was told I was unable to schedule an appointment for the
first five weeks following registration. This included not being able to order
factor until a Sanitas doctor wrote me a new prescription. Multiple customer
services agents confirmed that there was no way around this protocol. Yet I
found out later from a Sanitas executive that what I’d been told directly
contradicted company policy: new patients are
able to fill an active script from another doctor when they first enroll with
Sanitas to ensure continuity of care.
            During
these five weeks, I made numerous phone calls to Member Services; I was
repeatedly disconnected, shuffled through a seemingly endless phone tree, or
left voicemails that were never responded to.
            When I was
finally able to make appointments, I was told by Member Services that in order
to see a hematologist, I first needed a referral from a primacy care physician
(PCP). I argued that I have hemophilia, a chronic bleeding disorder, and have
records from a PCP visit within the last six months. This argument was
fruitless; I had to see a PCP first. Later, I again learned that this is not
Sanitas policy.
            When I saw
the PCP, I learned it would be at least another week until I could see the
hematologist, and then another five days until the factor prescription written
by this hematologist would be ready at the pharmacy. I asked if the PCP would
write my prescription, but he wasn’t comfortable with that. When I stressed
that I was running out, he wrote a “holdover prescription” for one week’s
supply.
Got Factor?
When I tried to pick up the holdover prescription a few days
later—because I’d already been told many times that Sanitas didn’t provide home
delivery—the pharmacy could not find my factor. One pharmacy employee actually
said, “We lost it.” I was shocked, but because the hematologist appointment was
only a few days away, I decided to wait. My supply continued to dwindle.
            At my
hematologist appointment, I found myself in the role of teacher, explaining
microbleeds, trough levels, and so on. The hematologist repeated many of the
same procedures the PCP had done, checking my blood pressure and heart rate He
didn’t measure or closely examine my joints. For a company that prides itself
on its data, I was surprised that this hematologist didn’t measure anything. As
the appointment ended, I received my full prescription for factor.
            Days later,
a pharmacy employee called. She had my factor, but she said that because my
policy expired on March 31, 2014, she would not release it. I told her she was
incorrect because my policy didn’t even begin until April 1, 2014. She
forwarded me to Member Services. After the phone rang for a solid five
minutes—I’m not exaggerating; I timed it—I was disconnected.
            Throughout,
I made over 50 calls, spent over 400 minutes on the phone, and spoke to dozens
of employees who gave me incorrect information about Sanitas’s policy regarding
newly enrolled patients, receiving chronic medication, home delivery options,
the ability to see a specialist for a chronic condition, my account status, and
my payment records.
Do I Have Your Attention Now?
Fortunately, I documented my entire experience, so when it
became clear that I needed to take more aggressive action, I had detailed
notes. I wrote a pointed, aggressive, but professional open letter to Sanitas
and posted it on my Stop the Bleeding! Facebook page, then shared the post on
my Twitter account and with my email list. In less than 72 hours, my letter
received over 8,000 unique reads. A senior staff member at Sanitas contacted
me, and I requested an in-person meeting with various senior staff to discuss
the litany of problems I had experienced.
            The meeting
was granted. I met with the medical director, pharmacy director, COO of
clinical operations, and head of hematology/oncology. It was a semi-productive
meeting. The senior staff heard my complaints and informed me of changes they’d
already made to their “onboarding” new-patient enrollment process to better
account for new patients with chronic diseases. The pharmacy director changed
certain internal policies and implemented some education for her staff as a
result of my complaints. She also agreed to put in writing that home delivery
of factor for people with hemophilia was available on request. On the clinical
side, I insisted that the overall quality of care was nowhere close to that
offered by an integrated comprehensive care model such as an HTC, but it was
clear they weren’t interested in making clinical changes. Instead, they
insisted that the comprehensive care they offer is on par with an HTC’s. When I
insisted that the care was simply not equal, they agreed to “look into it,” but
nothing ever came of that.
Getting White-Glove Treatment
It’s been roughly one year since that meeting. I’m receiving
a tremendous amount of attention from Sanitas. Clearly, I’m the “problem child”
and receive white-glove treatment so I don’t cause any more PR headaches. Many
flaws remain in Sanitas’s system for people with rare, chronic conditions, not
the least of which is uninformed Member Services reps who are often the first
contact for new patients. Fortunately, a focused effort is being led by two
strong advocates in our bleeding disorder community who are collecting stories
and organizing an action plan to effect reform at Sanitas.
            Here are
five guidelines everyone with a bleeding disorder should follow when engaging a
new healthcare company or medical service provider:
1.    
You are the expert. It can be tempting to
relinquish control and responsibility to an authority figure such as a doctor
or pharmacy director, but you can’t afford to. You must be an expert on
yourself. It’s your body. It’s your life. Own it, take responsibility for it,
and fight for what it needs.
2.    
Log everything. Many large companies and
institutions have myriad people who answer phones or respond to emails; these
people often work with minimal information, minimal accountability, and minimal
incentive to go beyond the basic call of duty. Keep track of everything: names,
dates, times, badge numbers—even the simple act of asking reps for this
information subtly informs them that you are to be taken seriously, and if
needed, you’ll have a record of your experience.
3.    
Follow up again. And again. And again.
Unfortunately, people don’t always say or do what they claim they will. Keep at
them. Don’t allow uninformed or unmotivated employees to compromise your
healthcare. Keep to your agenda until you receive the positive outcome you
deserve.
4.    
Use our community. The bleeding disorder
community is lucky to have empowered and educated advocates. I was overwhelmed
by the number of people who offered to help me during my crisis. In this
community, when you reach out, people will reach back. Don’t be ashamed to ask
questions and ask for help. We’re here for each other. We are each other’s
rock.
5.    
Stay positive and solutions-driven. No matter
how noble the fight, nobody likes a rude, angry, or unprofessional fighter.
It’s important to be assertive, aggressive, and diligent, but it’s unacceptable
to be cruel or to behave inappropriately. If the system is broken, point out
the flaws, and offer what you can to help fix it. We can’t view these companies
and their staff as enemies; they’re not! They’re our allies. But a lack of
adequate education coupled with laziness, defensiveness, or irresponsibility
can create catastrophe.
My experience facing a true, personal healthcare crisis was
eye-opening, but I knew my own personalized healthcare needs, documented
everything, stood my ground, and was able to articulate my needs to the
company’s executives. Being your own advocate is not an easy process, but it’s
manageable, empowering, and necessary. Always keep in mind that advocating for
yourself is also advocating on behalf of everyone in our community.
Patrick James Lynch, 29, has severe hemophilia A. He is
co-founder and president of the digital content agency Believe Limited, through
which he created and produces the award-winning hemophilia comedy series Stop
The Bleeding! 
(stbhemo.com) and the inspirational speaker series Powering
Through poweringthrough.org). He’s the 2013 recipient of HFA’s Terry Lamb Award 
and the 2014 recipient of NHF’s Loras Goedken Award. He
lives in Los Angeles, California. Read an in-depth account of his experience at
patrickjamslynch.com.
* The company name
has been changed for anonymity.

            

Education Advantage – Scholarships for our Community brought to you by Shire

Our community is fortunate to have many different scholarships. In fact, LA Kelley Communications had the first online listing of scholarships for the bleeding disorder community! That’s how much I believe in a higher education. Take advantage of what the community is offered! Learn about Education Advantage below!

Laurie

Education Advantage – Scholarships for our Community brought to you by Shire
Since 2010, Education Advantage has awarded more than 200 scholarships to US students with bleeding disorders.

The program is open to eligible patients with hemophilia A, hemophilia B, inhibitors or von Willebrand Disease. Education Advantage is open to US students, regardless of which brand of treatment used.

Education Advantage offers three different scholarships to eligible applicants:

  • University Scholarship 
    • Up to $7,000 for students seeking a bachelor’s degree
    •  Renewable for up to 3 additional years
  •  Community College and Technical Scholarship

    • Up to $1,000 for students seeking an associate’s degree or a technical vocational certificate
    •  Renewable for up to 1 additional year
  • GED Assistance
    •  One-time $150 reimbursement for students that pass the GED test

Get started on your application today at www.bleedingdisorders.com/ea

The application period for 2017 is open now until March 17th. You can find more details about the scholarships and eligibility requirements, meet the previous year’s winners, and find out how quick and easy it is to apply at www.bleedingdisorders.com/ea

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