Thread: TX: UTMB May Stop Cancer Care for Illegal Immigrants

Monday, December 03, 2007

UTMB May Stop Cancer Care for Illegal Immigrants

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) The University of Texas Medical Branch may stop offering cancer care to indigent, undocumented immigrants, a policy that would save money but run counter to the medical school's mission of treating the poor.

The UTMB has a $1.4 billion annual budget and set aside about $12 million this year to treat indigent cancer patients. It is still not able to meet demand, said Karen Sexton, vice president and CEO of hospitals and clinics at the medical branch.

The UTMB laid off 381 employees last year as it dealt with medical inflation, state funding cuts and the growing number of Texans without health insurance.

The medical branch's Cancer Patients Acceptance Committee has for months been studying the issue of turning away undocumented immigrants to alleviate some of the financial pressure. While practical, such a policy raises obvious ethical questions, Sexton said.

"Any time there's any restriction in access to care, there's pushback from people who are concerned about that," Sexton said. "It doesn't feel right to us, either."

The number of undocumented indigent cancer patients treated at the medical branch also is undocumented. Medical branch employees ask for residency documentation only to determine whether a patient is eligible for government-funded Medicaid or Medicare, not to deny access.

About 5.4 million Texans, or 24.6 percent of the state's population, is uninsured, according to a 2005 report by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Noncitizens are almost three times as likely to be uninsured as native U.S. citizens, according to the report.

Faced with less money and escalating costs, the medical branch's teaching hospital began a few years ago curtailing care to indigent patients through its Demand and Access Management Program. Under the program, indigent patients are required to undergo financial screening.

Even if the new policy were put into effect, the medical branch would not stop treating cancer patients already in its care. Once cancer treatment begins, hospitals and doctors are ethically bound to continue until patients recover or die.

Sexton said some people turned away by the medical branch may be able to find treatment in the counties where they live.

If the medical branch turns away undocumented immigrants, the Harris County Hospital District likely will see an increase in its patient load, said King Hillier, vice president of public policy and government relations of the district that operates Ben Taub General, Houston's largest public hospital.

Hillier doesn't want that to happen. A hospital receiving state funding for indigent care should not turn away the uninsured simply because they aren't legal residents, he said.

"We do not question citizenship status," he said. "If they live in Harris County and can prove residency, then they are paying taxes. If they're paying rent, then their landlord is paying property taxes to the hospital district."

Medical branch physicians, many who work there because of its mission to help the poor, are anguished and conflicted about the prospect of turning patients away, said Dr. Howard Brody, director of the Institute for the Medical Humanities and chair of the medical branch's ethics committee.

But unless Texans address the overall problems of the uninsured and funding for public hospitals, cash-strapped institutions must begin drawing lines, he said.

"If what voters of Texas want is Harris County shouting at Galveston and Galveston shouting at Harris County and everybody pointing fingers and saying, 'You should be doing more than you're doing,' then they can have that," Brody said. "If they want indigent folks to get care and want everybody in Texas to at least have a chance to have more access to medical care, then voters of Texas should step up and provide more resources."

While the medical branch still is shaping a formal policy about undocumented cancer patients, employees may already be turning some away, Sexton said.

"This is not UTMB's problem," Sexton said. "It's the nation's problem. We're trying to do the best we can to help our physicians and others with a decision by making it not so subjective. We're trying to put up some parameters, but it hurts my heart."

http://www.tylerpaper.com/article/20071 ... 3/71202009

DUPLICATE THREAD, PLEASE USE SEARCH BEFORE POSTING.

Originally Posted by butterbean

Monday, December 03, 2007

UTMB May Stop Cancer Care for Illegal Immigrants

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) The University of Texas Medical Branch may stop offering cancer care to indigent, undocumented immigrants, a policy that would save money but run counter to the medical school's mission of treating the poor.

The UTMB has a $1.4 billion annual budget and set aside about $12 million this year to treat indigent cancer patients. It is still not able to meet demand, said Karen Sexton, vice president and CEO of hospitals and clinics at the medical branch.

The UTMB laid off 381 employees last year as it dealt with medical inflation, state funding cuts and the growing number of Texans without health insurance.

The medical branch's Cancer Patients Acceptance Committee has for months been studying the issue of turning away undocumented immigrants to alleviate some of the financial pressure. While practical, such a policy raises obvious ethical questions, Sexton said.

"Any time there's any restriction in access to care, there's pushback from people who are concerned about that," Sexton said. "It doesn't feel right to us, either."

The number of undocumented indigent cancer patients treated at the medical branch also is undocumented. Medical branch employees ask for residency documentation only to determine whether a patient is eligible for government-funded Medicaid or Medicare, not to deny access.

About 5.4 million Texans, or 24.6 percent of the state's population, is uninsured, according to a 2005 report by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Noncitizens are almost three times as likely to be uninsured as native U.S. citizens, according to the report.

Faced with less money and escalating costs, the medical branch's teaching hospital began a few years ago curtailing care to indigent patients through its Demand and Access Management Program. Under the program, indigent patients are required to undergo financial screening.

Even if the new policy were put into effect, the medical branch would not stop treating cancer patients already in its care. Once cancer treatment begins, hospitals and doctors are ethically bound to continue until patients recover or die.

Sexton said some people turned away by the medical branch may be able to find treatment in the counties where they live.

If the medical branch turns away undocumented immigrants, the Harris County Hospital District likely will see an increase in its patient load, said King Hillier, vice president of public policy and government relations of the district that operates Ben Taub General, Houston's largest public hospital.

Hillier doesn't want that to happen. A hospital receiving state funding for indigent care should not turn away the uninsured simply because they aren't legal residents, he said.

"We do not question citizenship status," he said. "If they live in Harris County and can prove residency, then they are paying taxes. If they're paying rent, then their landlord is paying property taxes to the hospital district."

Medical branch physicians, many who work there because of its mission to help the poor, are anguished and conflicted about the prospect of turning patients away, said Dr. Howard Brody, director of the Institute for the Medical Humanities and chair of the medical branch's ethics committee.

But unless Texans address the overall problems of the uninsured and funding for public hospitals, cash-strapped institutions must begin drawing lines, he said.

"If what voters of Texas want is Harris County shouting at Galveston and Galveston shouting at Harris County and everybody pointing fingers and saying, 'You should be doing more than you're doing,' then they can have that," Brody said. "If they want indigent folks to get care and want everybody in Texas to at least have a chance to have more access to medical care, then voters of Texas should step up and provide more resources."

While the medical branch still is shaping a formal policy about undocumented cancer patients, employees may already be turning some away, Sexton said.

"This is not UTMB's problem," Sexton said. "It's the nation's problem. We're trying to do the best we can to help our physicians and others with a decision by making it not so subjective. We're trying to put up some parameters, but it hurts my heart."

http://www.tylerpaper.com/article/20071 ... 3/71202009

"We're trying to put up some parameters, but it hurts my heart."

SCREW THAT!!!!!!!!It hurts AMERICA's pocketbooks! We are a poor nation now, thanks to idiot Bush and his ilk. When you are poor and about to go bankrupt, you can't help the world. You help you're own people. Oh, like say, the Katrina people who still are getting it up their a*ses. Or maybe the people losing their homes, and the freakin homeless who'd love to have a home!

Originally Posted by CitizenJustice

DUPLICATE THREAD, PLEASE USE SEARCH BEFORE POSTING.

Sorry. I did search, as always, before I posted this article. Sometimes it doesn't pull the article up.