The view from the skyboxes can be awfully deceiving...

From: Herbert Stein [mailto:fabrik@bellsouth.net]
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2014 12:23 AM
To: Stephen J. Hemsley - CEO, United Healthcare
Subject: The view from the skyboxes can be awfully deceiving...

Dear Mr. Hemsley,

Please pardon my brief absence.  An abdominal surgery kind of slowed me down but as I heal my energy and thought processes increase and bring me back to what could be a simple act on your part and considerable savings to your company as well as a life changing circumstance for your subscriber the VNS Therapy patient.

As you sit way up there in the skyboxes the view can truly be deceiving as to the nuisances that really take place on the playing field.  You receive a message from me and kindly and promptly hand down a message to some subordinate department head and he/she then hands off to another subordinate who hires some doctor for your company as a so called independent opinion when in fact none of these players had shared the sweat of the playing field and realities at game level. 

Would you like some understanding of what you and your company and that of others spend unfathomable sums of money on ineffective therapies for these depression patients?  I know you don’t have the time to read what is truly happening on the field of play but I’d like to give you some feel of the realities of these other conventional ineffective treatments when compared to the reality and experiences of a patient, your subscriber, and the knowledge shared with your company by her attending physician telling you that the VNS Therapy has benefited your subscriber in the past and will in all likelihood continue to do so for years to come.

Here’s a piece written by a retired psychiatrist, Dr. John M. Nardo, whom I follow from time to time that I feel you and others might find of interest.  I’d also suggest reading the comment from Dr. Sandra Steingard at the very end in which she stated, “…why don’t we try to understand and listen to what they are saying?”

The fact is conventional therapies have not worked for my spouse or your subscriber or the other VNS Therapy patients.  What is being told to you by your subscriber (the patient), her attending physician, me and if you choose other attending physicians that despite your skybox view and that of those your hire(s), VNS Therapy has worked and continues to work efficaciously for those patients who seek replacement surgery down on the playing field and in real-life, day-in and day-out.

The answer and understanding Mr. Hemsley is for you to rightfully exercise your executive authority to stop the B.S. and shit-from-shinola opinion(s) from those who are not in this ball game and to immediately direct which ever subordinate you choose to execute the approval for this replacement surgery and put your subscriber (the patient) back on the road to good health to play another ball game.

Sincerely,

Herb

Joyce and Herbert Stein

1008 Trailmore Lane

Weston, FL 33326-2816

(954) 349-8733

vnsdepression@gmail.com

http://www.vnstherapy-herb.blogspot.com

http://www.vnstherapy.wordpress.com

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