Michelle Obama's Patient Dumping Scheme

[bonnie]

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/03/michelle_obamas_patientdumping_1.html

Michelle Obama's Patient-Dumping Scheme

By David Catron

The First Lady helped create a notorious program that dumped poor patients on community hospitals, yet the national media ignore the story. Imagine if her husband were a Republican.

The University of Chicago Medical Center has received a good deal of justly opprobrious press over its policy of "redirecting" low-income patients to community hospitals while reserving its own beds for well-heeled patients requiring highly profitable procedures. Substantial coverage was given to a recent indictment of the program by the American College of Emergency Physicians. ACEP's president, Dr. Nick Jouriles, released a statement suggesting that the initiative comes "dangerously close to ‘patient dumping,' a practice made illegal by the Emergency Medical Labor and Treatment Act, and reflected an effort to ‘cherry pick' wealthy patients over poor."

Oddly absent from most of the unflattering press coverage of UCMC's patient-dumping scheme is any mention of the role our new First Lady played in devising the program. A laudable exception has been the Chicago Sun-Times, which reported last August that "Michelle Obama -- currently on unpaid leave from her $317,000-a-year job as a vice president of the prestigious hospital -- helped create the program."

On the rare occasions when other "news" media have bothered to connect the Urban Health Initiative to its glamorous creator, they have attempted to whitewash this tawdry program. Typical of such disingenuous coverage was a story in the Washington Post, which described it as "an innovative program to steer the patients to existing neighborhood clinics."

But no amount of journalistic lipstick can hide the reality that Mrs. Obama's initiative is a patient-dumping scheme. Such "cherry-picking," as Dr. Jouriles accurately describes it, was, at one time, fairly common. Prestigious institutions like the University of Chicago Medical Center routinely "dumped" Medicaid, uninsured and other unprofitable patients on less mercenary community hospitals. Many patients suffered needlessly, and more than a few actually died, as the result of this practice. So, in 1986, President Reagan signed the Emergency Medical Labor and Treatment Act (EMTALA) into law. EMTALA made such "redirection" illegal, but many high profile hospitals still chafed at being forced to treat poor patients. Enter Michelle Obama, UCMC's "Vice President for Community and External Affairs."

Mrs. Obama first hatched the UCMC program as the "South Side Health Collaborative," which featured a gang of "counselors" whose job it was to "advise" low-income patients that they would be better off at other hospitals and clinics. The program was so successful in getting rid of unwanted patients that she expanded it, gave it a new name, and hired none other than David Axelrod to sell the program to the public. According to the Sun-Times, "Obama's wife and Valerie Jarrett, an Obama friend and adviser who chairs the medical center's board, backed the Axelrod firm's hiring." Axelrod helped the future First Lady formulate a public relations campaign in which the "Urban Health Initiative" was represented as a boon to the community actuated by the purest of altruistic motives.

The resultant PR campaign was a study in Orwellian audacity. Chicago's inner city residents soon began hearing that UCMC's patient dumping program would "dramatically improve health care for thousands of South Side residents" and that the medical center was generously willing to provide "a ride on a shuttle bus to other centers." Likewise, the people who ran the community hospitals to which these unwanted patients were being shuttled began to read claims in local media to the effect that the Urban Health Initiative was good for them as well. Dr. Eric Whitaker, the Blagojevich crony who succeeded Mrs. Obama as Director of the program, repeatedly assured gullible reporters that the financial impact on these hospitals would be positive: "The initiative actually is improving their bottom lines." The CFOs of those hospitals were no doubt relieved to learn that treating Medicaid and uninsured patients is profitable.

But you just can't please some people. In one of the few frank passages of the Post article, we discover that many members of UCMC's medical staff believe the program is nothing more than an "attempt to ensure that the hospital retains only affluent patients with insurance." And another association of emergency physicians has joined ACEP in denouncing the Urban Health Initiative. The Chicago Tribune reports that Dr. Larry Weiss, president of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine is unhappy about UCMC's failure to consult its own ER physicians before initiating the program: "Not including emergency-room physicians ... would be analogous to changing the way surgery is performed in an operating room without involving any surgeons." Dr. Whitaker assures us, however, that such critics are merely "opposed to change."

Presumably, he would be similarly dismissive of Angela Adams, who brought her son to the medical center's ER after his lip had been partially torn off by a pit bull. As the Tribune puts it, "Instead of rushing Dontae into surgery ... the hospital's staff began pressing her about insurance." Unfortunately for Dontae, he was covered by Medicaid. So, all he got from the UCMC emergency department was a shot, some antibiotics, and instructions to "follow up with Cook County." Angela had to take her son across town to John Stroger Hospital, where he was immediately admitted for reconstructive surgery. Like doctors Jouriles and Weiss, Angela is having trouble seeing the community benefit of the Urban Health Initiative.

Meanwhile, the program's parents, Michelle Obama and David Axelrod, have moved to Washington. As the First Lady and the President's closest advisor, they wield enormous power. Indeed, they may be the most powerful people in the Obama Administration, aside from the President himself. If these two characters were willing to betray their Chicago neighbors -- the South Side's most vulnerable citizens -- with a disgraceful program like the Urban Health Initiative, what sort of mischief will they devise for the hapless denizens of flyover country?

Come to think of it, isn't Obamacare being sold to us in pretty much the same way the Urban Health Initiative was sold to Chicago?

[Woody]

Very Interesting. ...

[bonnie]

Very Interesting. ...

If memory serves me right this was one of the "not for profit".

No wonder she recalled to the college graduates how happy and how much more rewarding she found it when "giving to others"

[bonnie]

It is in numerous stories on the internet concerning Michelle Obama and the patient dumping.

It is not a secret.

BTW tho,as long as Salon and the Huffington garbage is permissable I am not to concerned about it being a conservative author,however I did know that when I read it.

Does that mean to this is to be lightly dismissed?

There are a variety of same stories so will probably believe those before I would get very concerned.

[bonnie]

Quote:

The venom that is spewing from so much that is posted in this forum certainly says little about Christian attitudes.

Yech and yuch!!

I would do anything I could to keep this man from being elected again. I think he is dishonest,a racist,and at the core a socialist.

Christian does not mean you accept any and all a leader dishes out while you sit primly in your chair.

[Jeannieb43]

I would do anything I could to keep this man from being elected again.

So we've noticed.

[bonnie]

Originally Posted By: bonnie

I would do anything I could to keep this man from being elected again.

So we've noticed.

I don't like when someone tries to take my freedoms as a american.

This man has done nothing since taking office except to intrude on personal freedoms. I know many americans don't have a problem with socialism or worse,but some still do.

A man holding the highest office of the land has no business to target private citizens. He has done this twice,this last time he admitted he was ignorant of what had gone on but he was going to offer his opinion as president. Both of his "presidential" remarks resulted in death threats to his targets or those involved.

He is not man enough to apologize,to say nothing of being enough of a leader to do so.

Not everyone wants a president that uses forcing actions that result in the government owning private industry.

Some don't want a president having a small army of private appointees with enormous power and no accounting to anyone.

Many were foolish enough to believe this man when he promised the most transparent administration. What a joke.

Some really thought we should have some time to look at his stimulus bill. That was another funny.

If it wasn't passed and like yesterday,life as we knew it would surely end. Isn't that strange,at least 90% hasn't been used yet. Not only that ,did you hear the recession has ended?

Wonder if they plan on giving the money back?? Nah,another crisis will surely happen.

Oh yeah,this big housing mess,Barney Frank is now threatening mortgage lenders. He is going to restart the process where the government will pass a law forcing them to write done the amount owed. He is one of the major players in the housing mess.

Cap and trade,no one knows what is in there,yet it must be passed or again life will end.

I don't know about anyone else,but when I want to turn on my lights I don't want Obama telling me I can't. I don't want Obama and friends telling me how far I can drive.

To some that is benevolent dictatorship and sounds like a good thing,to some it is a intrusion in our personal freedom.

I want to buy the light bulbs I want. There Obama and friends are again. In a year or two we will not be able to buy the stupid light bulb we want.It is replaced by light bulbs that contain mercury.Explain to me how that passes muster? Besides they are highly inferior.

Let us not forget that marvelous health care bill. I don't know how many are on medicare or how many listen to our "president" when he speaks. He tells all what is plans are and many say "No,he really didn't mean that"

Loads a luck.

His promise that services will not be cut.

He talked of bundling medical payments to Dr's. That is rationing at it's finest.

What that means to some of us in the future will be the death of a loved one.

When Dr's are paid "so much a head" whether they are seen by the Dr or not and "so much a head" is deducted for sending patient to a specialist,are you confident of getting your care??

When he lies about always having choice over your coverage and care,some really do pay attention.

He obviously doesn't realize when he lies about pediatricians performing surgery rather than the cheaper allergy or?? treatment it is a rare pediatrician that performs surgery on a child.

I still prefer living in a free america than under a benevolent dictator.

God willing if this world is to last for a time yet Obama will be seen for what he is

[Tom Wetmore]

It is in numerous stories on the internet concerning Michelle Obama and the patient dumping...

Well that settles it! If it is on the internet it must be true! Say it loud enough and often enough and its got to be true...

I hate to break it to you, but there are also "numerous stories on the internet" about space aliens, bigfoot, ufo sightings, and..."

[Woody]

But this one is legit.

[bonnie]

Originally Posted By: bonnie

It is in numerous stories on the internet concerning Michelle Obama and the patient dumping...

Well that settles it! If it is on the internet it must be true! Say it loud enough and often enough and its got to be true...

I hate to break it to you, but there are also "numerous stories on the internet" about space aliens, bigfoot, ufo sightings, and..."

And I hate to break it to you that there are numerous stories on the internet that are true. But of course that is something you already know. The internet for bad or good has let those that think they have been the only ones harmed connect with others. Not quite so easy anymore to keep sweeping under the rugs. When it peeks out it can have more effect than an alien or bigfoot

[Tom Wetmore]

But this one is legit.

Yeah, like the Kenya birth certificate...