Baxter Healthcare

Baxter Sponsors 2015 Education Advantage Scholarships

Laurie Kelley January 18, 2015
So good health is probably the best thing in the world; when you are overall healthy, even having hemophilia, you can handle life so much better.
The second best thing? An education! Below is an announcement about a way to help you get your education, from Baxter Healthcare Corporation.
_____________________________________________________________________
For the sixth consecutive year, Baxter Healthcare Corporation is sponsoring the Education Advantage scholarship program to help eligible members of the hemophilia community offset the costs of higher education, advance their careers, and pursue their dreams.
The scholarship program is open to people with hemophilia A or B (factor VIII or IX deficiency), including those with inhibitors (factor VIII or IX deficiency), regardless of which brand of factor treatment they use.
The program provides financial aid for a wide variety of educational options, including four-year bachelor’s degrees, associate’s degrees, technical/vocational certifications, as well as the GED Test. Scholarships will be awarded up to:
·       College/University
– $7,000 renewable for up the three additional years
·       Community
College/Technical School: $1,000 – renewable up to one additional year
·       GED: $150
(one time only)
To date, 211 scholarships that include 113 renewals have been awarded, totaling more than $1.1 million. The Education Advantage program is supported financially by Baxter and administered by Scholarship America, the nation’s leading independent scholarship program administrator. Scholarship America reviews all scholarship applications, determines eligibility, and selects the scholarship recipients. Baxter has no input into the selection of recipients
Education Advantage scholarship program applications are available as at https://www.scholarsapply.org/baxteredge, or by calling Scholarship America at 877-544-3018, or by emailing baxter@scholarshipamerica.org. Applicants can apply online, download the application and mail it in, orrequest a paper application.  Completed applications for scholarship renewals are due to Scholarship
America by February 15, 2015, while the deadline for new applications is April 15, 2015. To get started now, or for more information on the Education Advantage scholarship program, including eligibility requirements, visit www.scholarshipamerica.org/baxteredge, call Scholarship America at 877-544-3018, or send an email to baxter@scholarshipamerica.org.

Visit www.nava.baxter.com to read about previous recipients of Education Advantage scholarships and receive tips about preparing for college.
Nava.baxter.com also highlights other resources offered by Baxter to help patients advance their lives, focusing on career development, health
management, and community involvement.

Baxter is a registered trademark of Baxter International Inc.  USBS/MG1/14-0980   January 2015

This blog was sponsored by Baxter Healthcare Corporation.
Excellent Book I Just Read
Alone on the Ice: The Greatest Survival Story in the History of Exploration [Kindle]
by David Roberts

Incredible true story of Australian Douglas Mawson, who led the Australian Antarctic Expedition from 1911-1913, during the so-called Heroic Age of Antarctic Expedition. Leading one group of three that set out to measure and scientifically observe new territory in the Antarctic, Mawson lost one comrade to a glacier; the other slowly and painfully died while he and Mawson tried to return to base camp. Left alone, with limited food and no dogs, in a land where the wind routinely blows at 65 mph, and the temperature is 40° below, Mawson, starving, somehow survives 31 days and single-handedly finds his way back to his waiting teammates. It is an amazing, incredible story of survival, full of suffering beyond measure, but I’d say one of the greatest story of survival in the history of exploration. Roberts takes unnecessary swipes at Lennard Bickel’s excellent book, Mawson’s Will, which helped the world outside of Australia first get to know this remarkable man and his unforgettable story. Four/five stars.

Pulse on the Road in Texas!

Laurie Kelley August 24, 2014
Austin, Texas was the location of our third Pulse on the Road in 2014. Temperatures spiking 100° didn’t stop a huge turnout for the Texas
Bleeding Disorders Conference, co-hosted by the Lone Star Chapter of NHF and the Texas Central Chapter of NHF. Melissa Compton, mother extraordinaire of a child with hemophilia (and a compassionate supporter of Save One Life) emceed the event and introduced our team on Sunday morning at 8 am sharp, following a delicious buffet breakfast. About 400 people attended the two-hour session, one of our highest numbers yet!
I changed up the presentations a bit and first delved into why did the Affordable Care Act (ACA) come to be? With a few stats, I showed that skyrocketing medical costs, particularly in specialty drugs (which factor is), was straining the state budgets; it was only a matter of time before private insurers caught on. Looking to cut costs, insurers turned to increasing prior authorizations, formularies, decreasing choice of factor
provider, and more.
After setting that stage, Tom Larmondra of Baxter Healthcare reviewed the ACA, particularly the benefits to those with bleeding disorders. He reviewed the fine print, exclusions, and most important, the Marketplace: what is it, how does it work, and how to use it.
Back to me: I next reviewed the importance of choosing a healthcare plan, as many people may need to go on line to choose one. Comparing it to car insurance, which we are all more familiar with, we reviewed costs versus benefits, and in particular which costs to watch out for.
The goal? Learning the main things to consider when you compare healthcare plans so you do not underestimate your healthcare annual budget. We want you to save your hard earned income!
Last, we welcomed Michelle Rice, Vice president, Public Policy and Stakeholder Relations, National Hemophilia Foundation and Marla Feinstein, Policy Analyst, NHF. Their topic, Appeals and Grievances—Making Your Case, covered what to do when insurers reject your claims. Using the fun and sophisticated ARS devices, audience members cast their votes for the correct answers to a series of educational questions, while tunes played in the background (Ghostbusters?).
The event scored rave reviews from the looks of the 60+ evaluations turned in. Our thanks to Baxter Healthcare, for providing the funding for all the Pulse on the Roads, now in our 5th year!
We’re done for the year but look forward to visiting you and bringing up to date information about insurance reform to your state!
Please check www.kelleycom.com by December to see where we will be in 2015!
Great Book I Just Read
 
Midnight Express [Kindle]
Billy Hayes &
William Hoffer
Much more than a survival book, it’s
the true story about an American enduring a harsh and dehumanizing imprisonment
in a Turkish jail in the 1970s. A gripping, unforgiving and frightening tale,
Hayes is incarcerated while trying to smuggle hash out of Turkey. Hayes ensured
five years of mind and physical torture, a labyrinth court system, watching the
anguish of his parents as he deteriorates and becomes a shadow of himself, until
his incredible escape. Hayes accepts that he broke the law and deserved
punishment, but it highlights the brutality apparent in the penal systems of
other countries, and the injustice of completing his initial sentence and
having the system overturn it and be given life. His portrayal of life in
prison is sobering and sad; his adjustment to the microsociety inside the
prison walls is fascinating. The excellent 1978 Oliver Stone movie follows the book for the
most part, but ends quite differently. Four/five stars.

Pulse on the Road in San Diego!

Laurie Kelley June 30, 2014

Pulse on the Road is our three-hour insurance symposium that updates families with bleeding disorders on insurance reform in their state, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and how to compare and research insurance policies. Sponsored by Baxter Healthcare, implemented by us, we bring expert speakers, like NHF policy expert Nicole Quinn-Gato, to families around the country.

This week, San Diego! We had a cozy gathering of about 40 family members at the San Diego Zoo, minus about 40 kids who went off with “Birdman” for the kids program. Seated in the Treetop Conference room, families listed to our speakers all morning, while Spanish translation was provided by specialists to our Latino families.

Elizabeth Stoltz, Senior Manager, Healthcare Economics & Reimbursement at Baxter Heathcare, presented an overview of the Affordable Care Act, including the many benefits and things to watch out for. It’s 2014, and about 8 million Americans have enrolled in the Marketplace—the on-line place to shop and compare insurance plans. Remember, it’s mandatory now that every American have health insurance or face a penalty.

Elizabeth Stoltz of Baxter Healthcare

I next spoke about the importance of choosing your own plan. While there is a lot of technically policy stuff to cover in these symposia, I aways stress to the audience we teach this to save you money, out of pocket expenses. And to emphasize this, I ask a question after each speaker, relevant to what they just presented on. Whoever gets the right answer gets $10! This wakes up our audience, creates a friendly competitive spirit, and is just plain fun!

Our audience got so into this game that even Robert, the man who set up the translator booths—and has nothing to do with hemophilia—answered one of our questions correctly first! Of course, he didn’t get the $10 as he is not related to hemophilia!

Laurie helps Taylor with the Marketplace
Mateo reads a My First Factor Book!

And lastly, Nicole gave a one hour live demonstration of “coveredca.com,” California’s marketplace. Wow, what a challenge! The exercise showed how complicated the California Marketplace is; it was a tough exercise, but I was proud at how families stuck with it, got the answers they needed, and ask us all for assistance in locating certain pages on the site. We had provided laptops for each table and they were all used well!

Lunch was served afterwards, where we got a chance to socialize with the families. This was then followed by goodbyes and a visit to the largest zoo in the world, compliments of Pulse on the Road!

Next stop? Houston in August!

 

Insurance Workshop in Nebraska: Pulse on the Road 2014

Laurie Kelley March 24, 2014
Kristi Harvey-Simi and Laurie Kelley
Warm air greeted greeted us in Omaha, Nebraska on Friday as I arrived from Boston to set up for our first Pulse on the Road workshop of 2014. POTR is a three our workshop, sponsored by Baxter Healthcare and held in tandem with the National Hemophilia Foundation, which so generously lends us the incomparable Michelle Rice, mother of two adult sons with hemophilia, and director of public policy at NHF. Last year she hired more staff to help her, as she is stretched thin visiting chapters, patients, insurance companies and governments in all 50 states. On this trip we were thrilled to have Nicole Quinn-Gato of NHF, also a policy specialist, accompany Michelle.
The warm welcome by Nebraska Chapter of NHF executive director Kristi Harvey-Simi was followed by an update on the Affordable Care Act by Kim Isenberg, Senior Manager, Reimbursement and Advocacy, Baxter Healthcare. She covered the ACA in general and as it affects hemophilia, noting exceptions for some groups. Nevada has elected not to expand state Medicaid, an important policy to note.
Michelle Rice of NHF

I then presented important points on the importance of choosing
healthcare, since it is now mandated that almost everyone have healthcare. We
need to still watch out for certain variables, such as out of pocket costs,
which may increase as a result of changing policies and plans.

And finally, Michelle and Nicole did a great job proving a 90-minute, hands-on workshop to access the healthcare.gov website, using laptops and iPads, and actually logging on to scope out choosing a plan! It was interesting and frustrating at times! Sometimes it’s hard to find your HTC, was the most common problem.
After lunch there was a Q&A, where the audience could ask questions of the experts.
Though I offered everyone a chance to go home an hour earlier, nobody took advantage: I think they were really soaking up all the information Michelle, Nicole and Kim had to offer!
Next stop for POTR? Philadelphia in June!
 
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