VNS Therapy (Vagus Nerve Stimulation)

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Wednesday, November 19, 2014

It's not about patient care and wellness. It's not about experimental treatments. It's all about money and profits (Part 1)

From: Herbert Stein [mailto:fabrik@bellsouth.net]
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2014 3:15 AM

To: Madam Secretary Sylvia Matthews Burwell, United States Secretary of Health and Human Services; Sean Cavanaugh, CMS - Deputy Administrator & Director; Stephen J. Hemsley - CEO, United Healthcare; Chet Burrell, President & CEO CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield

Subject: It's not about patient care and wellness. It's not about experimental treatments. It's all about money and profits (Part 1)

Dear Madam Secretary Burwell,

Nope, you haven’t heard the last from me. I’ve just been busy caring for my spouse Joyce and taking a little break from my advocacy/activism to recharge my batteries. Although this past week or so has proven interesting as I’ve received two (2) emails one of which I am awaiting permission to share publicly.

One of those emails was from another VNS study subject who advised me that her health insurance company, BlueShield and BlueCross of South Carolina has denied her replacement surgery for her VNS prosthesis. Cyberonics who guaranteed replacement for all the study subjects, of which she is one, has also denied her replacement coverage. Despite the fact that she is doing well these past 14 or so years and game fully employed as a professional her health insurance company, both from a medical and financial standpoint, exhibit their stupidity in not understanding they’ve been saving money. That is until she lapses back into depression and the medical expenses begin to mount. And you Madam Secretary and your bureaucracy continue to sit there without understanding or aiding these patients. Nor does it seem you’ll understand that if and when she lapses back into depression and is unable to work she’ll eventually end up on Medicaid and/or social security disability while being treated with the same ineffective treatment regimens and medications that cost our country trillions of dollars when all that need be done is for her to continue her current VNS treatment regimen and wellness as well as a taxpaying citizen.

I truly hope you’re proud of the agencies you command and the injustices and medical and moral negligence and inhumanity your FDA and CMS agencies has perpetrated against innocent citizens. Your agencies have truly victimized these patients despite having health insurance and being denied medical coverage. Why have you not had CMS issue a formal document not only to your Medicare/Medicaid agencies but to the private health insurance carriers informing them that all patients implanted prior to National Coverage Analyses (NCA) of May 4, 2007 are to rightfully to be covered for their medical care? How can you allow patients to be implanted with medical devices and have their health insurance carriers deny coverage? How can the government standby and allow Cyberonics to issue a guarantee of medical care and allow them to renege on that very care? Oh I forgot, our wonderful governmental bureaucracy and “it’s not my job”. Maybe we should add several more agencies to our already bloated bureaucracy to correct the problem (joke; only it’s not funny). It seems no one in government knows how to do “the right thing” other than to create more agencies and do nothing bureaucracies where one hand doesn’t know what the other hand is doing (i.e. “9/11” and CIA, FBI and local police departments, Federal fraudulent tax returns and IRS, FBI and local police departments and Pain Clinic Fraud and Medicare/Medicaid and VNS Therapy and FDA, Cyberonics and CMS all lacking effective communication) but to name a few.

The other item of interest came in another email regarding the name of Dr. Amy Schneider. Her name first appeared to me as a medical authority who wrote a psychiatric medical opinion for United Healthcare as to why their private pay subscriber should not be allowed to have her VNS prosthesis replaced and paid for by her insurance. Then oddly enough I just learned that the same Dr. Amy Schneider issued her medical opinion to United Healthcare once again in a different case as a medical authority on oncology. It seems Dr. Schneider was denying a cancer patient the use of a less invasive and less damaging radiation treatment. It seems to me that United Healthcare exhibits a lack of medical ethics in what appears to me to be a hired gun (hack) to justify denial of coverage. I’d say to Stephen J. Hemsley - CEO, United Healthcare that you couldn’t care less and didn’t help your subscriber, the VNS patient that I wrote to you and advocated for, but in this case I think you and your company have got its nuts in a wringer and you’re going to be taken to task for your lack of humanity and ethics. Bless the Internet. These people came across my previous commentary to you about your Dr. Amy Schneider and it greatly raised their interest. To you Mr. Hemsley I say both you and your company have been, “Penny wise and pound foolish”.

All the hoopla has passed regarding the death of Robin Williams and his suicide. The media has finished their frenzy of 24/7 non-stop verbiage about the tragedy but the fact remains that those of us on the frontlines know the issues and the deaths will continue and the reason for our continuing advocacy and activism for newer treatments and the dissemination of needed information.

Dear Madam Secretary Burwell it’s truly disgusting for me to sit here and watch people suffer especially when you and others have the authority and ability to ease the pain, anguish and suffering by doing good and what is truly the right thing.

Is it not time for you too to provide and care for these patients?

Sincerely,

Herb

Joyce and Herbert Stein

1008 Trailmore Lane

Weston, FL 33326-2816

(954) 349-8733

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NOTICE OF CONFIDENTIALITY / Disclaimer

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Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Do you remember the Terri Schiavo case?

From: Herbert Stein [mailto:fabrik@bellsouth.net]
Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2014 2:29 PM
To: Stephen J. Hemsley - CEO, United Healthcare
Cc: Jonathan Blum, Deputy Administrator and Director for the Center of Medicare at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; Amy Larrick, Senior Advisor to the Principal Deputy Administrator Centers for Medicare & Medicaid; President of the United States
Subject: Do you remember the Terri Schiavo case?

Dear Mr. Hemsley,

Do you remember the Teresa Marie Schindler case better known to us all as the Terri Schiavo case?

Do you remember the former Governor of Florida Jeb Bush and his brother the former President of the United States George W. Bush weighing in on the case?

Worst of all do you remember the former Senator from Tennessee Dr. Bill Frist who served on both Health and Finance committees also weighing in on the case?

All these notables individuals and one a medical professional weighing in and voicing their opinions in opposition to the patients attending physicians. What a true embarrassment was this fiasco and the fact they were all wrong.

What a truly embarrassing fiasco you and your company are now similarly causing your VNS Therapy subscriber (the patient) and her family. Despite the questionable opinions you and your company has presented the patient and her physician(s) are emphatically presenting the fact you too are wrong. The therapy in your patient’s case as that of others is not only safe, contrary to your statements, but more remarkably efficacious and beneficial to maintaining her wellness by alleviating her serious depressive mood state contrary to all the “skybox opinions” you’ve presented.

Add to the fact you’re number crunchers sitting before their computer programs are also missing the point that in the long-run VNS Therapy for depression for those patients who have in fact responded and obtained efficacy are a significant cost savings to both the health insurer and the government Medicare/Medicaid programs. Also of interest and fascination to me is the fact that United Healthcare under their Medicare managed programs has already approved and paid for the replacement surgery your private payer is now seeking and has so far been refused.

What gives? Is this not some kind of discrimination in opposition to the intent of The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act? I also remind you if by some chance you are not familiar that the very same therapy is approved and paid for by your company for Epilepsy.

In the Terri Schiavo case her physicians were rightly seeking to allow her to pass away with dignity. In this case that of a living human being by all medical definitions, her physicians, family and I are seeking to not only maintain her life but one free of pain, anguish, suffering and possible death from Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) through a treatment that has worked and benefitted the patient in the past.

Isn’t it time that you exerted your authority and demonstrated your compassion for another human being by simply ordering and rightfully replacing her depleted VNS pulse generator? Do what is morally and medically correct for this patient.

Do it now!

Sincerely,

Herb

Joyce and Herbert Stein

1008 Trailmore Lane

Weston, FL 33326-2816

(954) 349-8733

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NOTICE OF CONFIDENTIALITY / Disclaimer

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Monday, March 3, 2014

Do we have to run a benefit for Mr. Hemsley?

From: Herbert Stein [mailto:fabrik@bellsouth.net]
Sent: Sunday, March 02, 2014 9:13 AM
To: Stephen J. Hemsley - CEO, United Healthcare
Cc: Jonathan Blum, Deputy Administrator and Director for the Center of Medicare at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; Amy Larrick, Senior Advisor to the Principal Deputy Administrator Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Subject: Do we have to run a benefit for Mr. Hemsley?

Dear Mr. Hemsley,

As I sit here pondering why one of the financially top paid executives in the U.S. lacks the compassion and understanding to help one of his subscribers re-obtain wellness or “Continuity of care” is beyond me. With the simple stroke of your pen or a brief telephone conversation directing one of your subordinates to make it happen you’d rather make this particular individual suffer and agonize over her future. Or do we have to run a benefit for Mr. Hemsley because 2012 was not up to his expectations?

Is it money that only rules the decision making from the skyboxes? It certainly can’t be the facts because the facts are VNS Therapy for your subscriber (the patient) after all these years is not experimental. It is not experimental as she or her attending physician would not request replacement surgery for an ineffective therapy (something I’d refer to as simple logic). It is not experimental after 14 years for my spouse or other of the long-term use patients who have obtained replacement surgery and are continuing to benefit from VNS Therapy. It is not experimental as told to your company in appeal letters that you have received from her attending physician. It is not experimental as can be told to you by all the attending physicians of those patients who have benefited from the therapy and continue to do so today.

It is successfully unique for this group of patients unlike any ineffective conventional therapy these patients have trialed over decades. VNS Therapy is unlike any of these other ineffective conventional therapies in that it truly works long-term despite the opinion of your unknowledgeable hired gun. VNS Therapy works 24/7/365 without the patient being compliant or forgetful with minimal to no side-effects for this group of patients.

Why not ask the professional opinions of the physicians attending to each and every of the patients who have chosen to continue with the VNS Therapy? You’d come up with an absolutely amazing statistic unheard of in the annals of treating patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). 100% of these patients are benefiting from the therapy long-term and for continuous multiple years. No other therapy can demonstrate similar results for this patient population.

Do we really have to run a benefit for you Mr. Hemsley to make you understand after all these years VNS Therapy for these patients is not experimental. It truly is effective and benefits these formerly and severely depressed patients who have finally found relief for their illness?

Step up Mr. Hemsley and do what is morally right. In the long-term scheme of things your company will financially benefit and it will accrue to you. Give a life back to this individual!

Sincerely,

Herb

Joyce and Herbert Stein

1008 Trailmore Lane

Weston, FL 33326-2816

(954) 349-8733

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NOTICE OF CONFIDENTIALITY / Disclaimer

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Wednesday, February 26, 2014

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