January 12, 2012

The cronies running the unfair and corrupt transplant system in the US have managed to wrap it in altruism when in fact it's anything but that. Who are these people? Well we can start with Walter Graham, CEO, United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the private government contractor holding the monopoly on cadaver organ transplants and trying desperately to get control of all living donor transplants. Graham is one of these guys making more than $500,000.00/yr from a non-profit health related agency who will tell you he is altruistic. Nonsense! People die waiting for transplants while this guy and others of his ilk party on the money they get from organ procurement fees. Remember, it is illegal to buy and sell human organs for transplants but that doesn't include these clowns charging ORGAN PROCUREMENT FEES! How about, Tom Done, CEO, of OneLegacy and Organ Procurement Organization (OPO) in LA. He gets paid more than $650,000.00/yr on $69 million from the procurement fees?

A year ago people in Arizona on the transplant waiting list were dying following Governor Jan Brewer cutting Medicaid funds for transplants. At the same time CEO of the 58 OPO across the country were paying themselves hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.



January 10,2012

If you have recently been diagnosed with any of the renal diseases which will result in you being referred for dialysis in the near future, ask important questions you should put to your referral source whether that be your Primary Care Physician (PCP) or a nephrologist you are seeing.

What is my GFR? What is my creatinine level? (Don't be rushed into dialysis! For sure not at more than 20% renal function!)

Do you have a financial interest in the dialysis center to which I am being referred?

I am entitled to be listed on the national transplant waiting list now! What transplant center would you recommend? ( Check out that center. You can self-refer to any center of your choice. You can register in more than one region. Remember Apple's Steve Jobs? That's how he got his liver transplant so quickly!)

January 6, 2012

Dialysis patients and anyone who is in need of an organ transplant are thrown into a system which has become insensitive to their physical and emotional needs. Almost everyone we encounter working within that system respond to us from a take it or leave it proposition. "We make the rules!" " We run the system!" " We know what is best for you, you don't!" I remember it well from my own experience as a hemo patient at a Davita dialysis center in Denver and then at the transplant center operated by Presbyterian/St, Luke's Hospital in Denver. Patient participation was never encouraged. Physicians providing medical direction on contract for DaVita were concerned only with keeping as many treatment chairs filled in the dialysis center as possible. Patients at these for-profit dialysis centers are less likely to get transplanted. I suggest any interested GOOGLE: Patients at for-profit dialysis centers less likely to get transplants.

The issue here is the conflict-of-interest between the dialysis center operators and the nephrologists managing them. These conflicts are certainly unethical and even criminal in some instances. Especially with the nephrologists at the dialysis centers who do not make full disclosure to the patients they treat at the centers. The federal authorities are investigating the relationship between DaVita Dialysis Centers and Denver Nephrology, the nephrologists who treated me!

The base reason for this travesty is, of course, money!

This week I have been contacted by people who are patients at dialysis centers and/or transplant centers across the country. The common thread of complaint has been the supervisory staff at both types of facilities treated them in a paternalistic and insensitive manner. These folks who call me this week happened to be trying to deal with transplant center staffs. Most complaints were voiced against tyrannical transplant coordinators. These are mostly nurses. Most of them have become intoxicated by the power of their positions.
 
Complaints this week have been lodged against transplant centers operated by Christiana Care in Delaware. Testing a lady and her altruistic, non-related, living donor for 5 months. Telling both they were a match and then telling the patient we don't think it's fair you advocated for yourself. Therefore we not going to transplant you even though you are a match. Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia; Stanford University Medical Center, transplant program refuses to allow any transplant candidate to advocate for themselves; Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, N.Y.; California Pacific Medical Center in California staff has been abusive to patients who advocate for themselves. If you need an organ transplant I suggest you avoid these transplant centers completely.

As transplant candidates we have struggled from the first day we were told we needed a new organ or we will die. We are smacked in the face with our own mortality. The people we would expect to be most sensitive to our emotional state, the staffs at dialysis and transplant centers have no idea. They rarely tell patients the truth about basic processes and rules. The don't realize the patients they treat are dealing with fear, uncertainty, and pain everyday. The big question looms over us; "Will we die before we get a transplant?" We try to keep up a good front for our families but truth be told, we are scared every day.

January 5, 2012

Christiana Care Health Services of Delaware transplant program denies a kidney transplant to a patient who found an altruistic, non-related, living, kidney donor. Both the patient and donor when through 5 months of testing. They were a match. Then in a demonstration of a monumental lack of medical ethics the transplant staff decided they should play God and tell both parties the transplant will not be performed. The reason: transplant staff thinks patients needing human organ transplants should not advocate for themselves. It is unfair in their estimation.

Now, Christiana is supposed to be a non-profit organization. The organization's 2009 IRS 990 tax return lists total revenue from program services of $1,236,929,346.00. Total salaries were $723,873,807.00. Total salaries increased in 2009 over 2008 despite the fact that total revenues in 2009 were down by $500,000,000.00. Nine senior executives are paid in excess of $500,000,000.00 annually while 2 are paid more than $1,000,000.00.

Christiana joins a group of hospital transplant centers refusing to perform transplants for people who have found non-related, living donors. Albert Einstein Medical Center, in Philadelphia, Strong Memorial Hospital, Rochester, N.Y., etc. Other than determining a prospective donor and recipient are not matches for transplantation, there is no ethical reason a person needing a human organ transplant should be rejected. Some centers such as Christiana's transplant program say they must be sure there have been no illegal activities associated with a transplant, in other words, paying someone for an organ. However, too many of these centers assume prospective recipients are engaging in something illegal.

When patients and donors are put through months if testing, examinations, and interviews, any competent person will be able to determine if there is any thing illegal involved. Christiana Care staff are not considering the welfare of the patient. To put both patients and their prospective donors through months of screening and then tell them they are a match but we don't trust you so we will not transplant you is unconscionable and unethical.

I have posted here in the past about the organ procurement fees levied by both the 58 Organ Procurement Organizations (OPO) across the country and all the transplant centers themselves. For example, the average cost of a kidney is $60,000.00. That price can vary by region. All the OPO tell us it is illegal for anyone to buy or sell organs. That is trues for you and I. It is not true for the OPO and transplant centers. They are permitted by law to charge 'a reasonable' processing fee. Those fees are anything but reasonable! An OPO will charge $45,000.00 for that kidney and then the transplant center will charge an additional fee of $15,000.00. These so-called non-profits then pay their execs and managers hundreds of thousands of dollars annually and in many cases more than a million. These fees are exclusive of all other hospital, surgeon, consulting physician, and supply costs of the transplant.

Could it be that the unethical transplant centers like Christiana Care Transplant Center are denying people needing kidney transplants who have found altruistic, non-related, living donors because they cannot collect an organ procurement fee? We will find out!!!

CHRISTIANA CARE PUT YOUR TRANSPLANT PATIENTS FIRST. STOP YOUR UNETHICAL ABUSE AND DENIAL OF ACCESS TO CARE!!!     


December 2, 2011

Francis Delmonico, M.D., is a transplant surgeon at Mass. General Hospital in Boston. He makes a huge amount of money in that role alone. However, delve a bit further into his activities and you will find he has also makes large sums of money as a Harvard Professor. Did a little further and you find he also makes more money through his many connections with the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) and the Organ Procurement Organization (OPO) system across the country particularly the New England Organ Bank.

The US human organ transplant industry is huge and generates billions of dollars annually to a network of supposed non-profit organizations under US tax laws. In previous posts I have disclosed the obscene salaries and benefits paid to executives of these entities. The OPO system generates billions of dollars annually from organ procurement fees (read: sales) of deceased donor 'donations of organs. Keep in mind, no one ever gets an organ donated. That organ must be paid for. The prices or organ procurement fees are outrageously inflated. A kidney 'donated' kidney can cost more than $60,000.00.

Yet, residents of the US who have identified altruistic, non-related living donors will have difficulty finding a transplant center willing to perform the transplant surgery. Those of you who know my story know I had to fight tooth and nail to get my kidney transplant in 2004. Francis Delmonico, M.D., is one of the vanguard in the transplant establishment who are doing everything possible to stop these altruistic, non-related, living donor organ transplants.

Some US residents without insurance and unable to afford the surgery here can go outside the country if they have a altruistic, non-related, living donor for the surgeries at Joint Commission Accredited hospitals. This is the same certifying entity required of US hospitals. But, Francis Delmonico, M.D. and his ilk who enrich themselves with the status quo here in the US are stopping these transplants. Before Delmonico and his buddy, Howard Koh, M.D., Assistant Secretary for Public Health, US Department of Health & Human Services sent out a letter which ended foreign organ transplants in Mexico, an American could get a kidney transplant with a living donor for $35,000.00 instead of $250,000.00 in the US. The difference in price would not leave enough money for Delmonico and the other transplant vultures to collect.

In the next installment I will report on the Deloitte Consulting study and report on medical tourism and the cost differences. I will also discuss the lobbying efforts by the Apollo Medical Group from India in the US Congress. A quad-bypass surgery in one of Apollo's Joint Commission Accredited hospital costs one tenth of the cost at a US hospital. Apollo is lobbying to get Congress to approve their group for Medicare payments. 

November 14, 2011

We have received many question regarding organ procurement fees. To answer most of those, posted below is the summary page of one person's bill for a kidney transplant performed at Shand's Hospital Transplant Center in Jacksonville, FL., back in 2004. The fees have increased since then across the country. This bill is shown because this person was transplanted with a contaminated kidney which resulted in the patient contracting Hepatitis C due to the transplant.

Please note the total  "Kidney/Cadaver" procurement fee is $61,123.00. Two entities shared in this fee. The Organ Procurement Organization (OPO) received an organ procurement fee of $45,000.00 and the transplant center added another organ procurement fee of $16,123.00. The total hospital bill including the organ procurement fee was $100,377.00. The bill did not include surgeons' fees or consulting physicians' fees.

The OPO in question received a total of more than $70 million in organ procurement fees in 2010. The 2 highest paid employees of this supposed non-profit were paid an annual salary of $600,000.00 each.

THERE IS ALREADY A MONOPOLISTIC SALES MARKET FOR ORGANS IN THIS COUNTRY. NOT ALL PEOPLE NEEDING ORGAN TRANSPLANTS CAN AFFORD TO SHOP IN THAT MARKET. THEY DIE!!!

November 9,2011

Well, after a few months off, a couple of stints as an inpatient, and 2 more surgeries last month, I am ready to get back in action. There are several pending matters to be considered. Two of the most pressing include finding an altruistic, non-related, living donor for 23 year old, Staten Island, NY resident, Ijeoma Alaka. In between hospitalizations I was able to visit with this great young lady and her family during the last week of September during a trip to New York City. Ijeoma's blood type in O+ so we need an O+ donor. The second is finding a donor for 62 year old, Ruben Gonzalez. Ruben lives in New York City. He was recently diagnosed with End Stage Renal Disease. The best treatment for Ruben is a pre-emptive kidney transplant. Given his age and the fact he lives in the New York City region it is unlikely he will live long enough to get a cadaver donor kidney. If you or anyone you know can help please contact me!

More later...

WALTER GRAHAM UNOS CEO CONTINUES HIS BOARD MANIPULATION!

Walter Graham continues his strangle hold on the board make-up of UNOS. He likes to keep board members who kiss his butt close and rid himself of any who don't. Remember, UNOS is Graham's kingdom! It has made him a millionaire running this supposed non-profit, government sanctioned, monopoly which ineffective and deadly. Graham's salary is close to $600,000.00 annually plus he gets to jet around the country to posh resorts for supposed meetings as reported in Forbes Magazine.

Well, 2 months ago UNOS press sheep announced the newly elected board of directors. One of those 'newly' appointed members is, Suzanne Conrad, former CEO of the Iowa Organ Procurement Organization, former president of the American Association of OPO among others positions. She recently retired as the Iowa OPO CEO. The Organ Procurement Transplantation Network (OPTN) bylaws state specifically that an OPO or transplant insider cannot be appointed to serve on the UNOS/OPTN board as a public representative. The OPTN Final Rule and NOTA specifically wanted the public person to balance the interest of the transplant community vs the public.

Graham has another lapdog in Conrad, to hell with public interest!

DO YOU NEED A KIDNEY TRANSPLANT? ARE YOU ON THE WAITING LIST?

If you do, there are several things you need to know. First, you do not need to wait for a referral to a transplant center. Under federal regulations you can self-refer to a transplant center. Once you receive a diagnosis of End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) go to a transplant center immediately and get added to the national waiting list. You need to know, the list is not NATIONAL in terms organ allocation. There are 11 regions across the country. The waiting times in each region are different. Those times may be shorter or longer than the region in which you reside.

There is a registration fee required to get on the National list. That fee, which I believe is $575.00 today, is paid for by Medicare/Medicaid or your insurance company. Most people think that fee covers you across the entire country. In one way it does. However, you can enhance your chances of getting a transplant in another region by paying an additional registration fee in each of the other regions.

The most famous example of this is Apple CEO, Steve Jobs. Now Mr. Jobs did nothing illegal or unethical when he examined the waiting times in each region across the country to determine which region had the shortest waiting time for liver transplant. In his case, at that time 2 years ago, Tennessee was the place to go. He did and received his liver transplant 2 weeks later. He took much heat in the media, however, again, he did nothing wrong. He worked the system legally to his advantage.

Any time you have spent on the waiting list in your home region can be credited to you in any other region. In fact, there is one region in the country where if you have been on the waiting list for 1 year in your home area waiting for a kidney, you can transfer to that region and receive a transplant within a few weeks. I will not identify that region here so as not to have it swamped. If you want to know where it is send me an email. Prove you need a kidney transplant and I will do everything I can to facilitate your listing there.

Have you identified an altruistic, non-related, living donor? Not all transplant centers will allow you to receive a transplant under those circumstances. You can seek out other transplant centers around the country accepting these non-related, living donors. If you have found such a prospective donor and been rejected by your transplant center, again, send an email to me. I will advocate for you in getting a transplant at a center willing to accept you.

If your home transplant center rejects you under those circumstances for a kidney transplant there are some steps you can take. First, contact your state health department. Second, contact the ESRD authority in your home region. Third, file a complaint with each of these office charging the transplant center with denial of access to care and patient abandonment. Fourth, determine who the physicians were on the transplant team which denied you the transplant. File similar complaints with the same offices against the physician or physicians who participated in that decision.

Do not put all your trust in the transplant system. Advocate for yourself and be assertive in doing so. No one can be a better advocate for yourself than you!! 




ORGAN DONATION PROMOTION MONTH BEGINS TODAY APRIL 1, 2011.
Go to the DONATIONS & TRUTH Tab on this site. Read the truth about all those Public Service Announcements (PSA) put out by UNOS and all the OPO across the country. These so-called non-profits are operating in bad faith without concern for anything except money. Patients needing human organ transplants are not a priority.


Gift of Life PA Organ Procurement Organization put out a press release today (03/16/11) to remind everyone that next month is Organ Donation Awareness Month.
What the release does not say is that no one ever gets an organ donated to them if they are in need of an organ transplant. It does not say that Howard Nathan, President & CEO, earns more than $500,000.00 annually from those 'donated' organs.  It does not say that Jan Weinstock, Vice President, earns  more than $400,000.00/yr from those 'donated' organs or that Richard Hasz, Vice President, makes more than $300,000.00/yr. The list of salaries at this and other OPO go on and on demonstrating the greed of the transplant system. (salary data taken from Gift of  life IRS 990 filing 2008)

UNOS SETS UP A DEATH PANEL TO INCREASE THE REVENUES FOR ITSELF AND ORGAN PROCUREMENT ORGANIZATIONS ACROSS THE COUNTRY!!!

Yesterday UNOS announced an new kidney allocation policy. They describe it as a new system to give children priority. Nonsense! Children on the national transplant waiting list have always had priority. This is a policy to enable UNOS and the OPO to get money from organs normally considered unsuitable for transplantation.

The average price of a kidney for transplantation now is $45,000.00 to UNOS and the OPO as well as an additional $8,000.00 to $15,000.00 charged hospital transplant centers as an organ aquisition fee. These fees are universal across the entire US transplant system when cadaver organs are involved. The Affordable Healthcare Act does nothing to reduce these outrageous organ procurement fees. These fees do nothing other than enrich people like, Walter Graham of UNOS, Tom Mone, Howard Nathan, Richard Luskin, and all the other OPO executives who have become millionaires on the backs of people needing organ transplants.