A Creative Plan for Fighting Cancer -- And Slashing Medical Costs
Ilena Rose
http://ilenarose.blogspot.com
May our Good Lord protect Dr Harbut and the other brave physicians who
truly want to protect patients from getting cancer. Unfortunately for
the health of the planet, the chemical and oharma industries have
purchased vast amounts of PR and advertising via pseudo skeptic groups
and organizations to cause distraction from the core causes.
http://www.breastimplantawareness.org/quackwatchwatch.htm
http://www.breastimplantawareness.org/snake-oil.htm
http://www.sphere.com/2009/12/04/a-creative-plan-for-fighting-cancer-and-slashing-medical-cost/
(Dec. 4) -- About 400 physicians are gathered today in Lansing, Mich.,
to hear an unlikely message: A major health insurance company wants
them to test symptom-free patients to determine whether they have or
may get cancer. And it will pay the doctors to do it.
The plan, conceived by one of the state's top cancer doctors and to be
carried out by Blue Cross-Blue Shield, will save lives and money. It
also serves as a powerful demonstration that the best solutions need
not come from the ongoing health-care reform melee in Washington.
"It's so simple," said Dr. Michael Harbut, a leading cancer specialist
who conceived the idea. "Our program will stop cancer before it starts
and find it before it kills." Indeed, to listen to him describe the
program is to wonder why such a system hasn't been in place for
decades.
Its push for early screenings is expected to increase cancer survival
rates as more cases are caught early enough to institute effective
treatment. The program will also find people exposed to cancer-causing
agents -- but who don't have the disease -- and show them how to
protect themselves, according to an outline for the plan that Sphere
obtained.
"As clich� as it might sound, this is a situation where everyone
wins," said Harbut, who is co-director of the National Center for
Vermiculite and Asbestos-Related Cancers at Michigan's Karmanos Cancer
Institute.
The surprisingly simple program is based on a few key premises:
� Thirty percent to 80 percent of all cancers are caused by exposure
to chemical agents in the environment or the workplace.
� Simple, low-cost tests can permit physicians to determine whether
their patients are at risk.
� Eliminating cancer or treating it early can save lives and millions
of dollars in medical costs.
As many as 3,000 primary-care physicians, pulmonologists, internal
medicine specialists, oncologists and family doctors are expected to
volunteer to participate in the program over the next 18 months. Blue
Cross-Blue Shield will pay $500 to each physician who takes training
in all aspects of the program. It will also pay them for each patient
they survey, test or examine.
"This evidence-based approach will help doctors prevent and detect
cancers and other serious illness contracted as a result of exposure
to these dangerous substances," said Ann Schwartz, Karmanos' president
and CEO.
The program will target three leading cancer causers: arsenic,
asbestos and radon.
Naturally occurring arsenic is found in drinking water throughout the
nation, but the contamination can also come from fertilizers, animal
feeding operations, metal smelting, mining and coal-burning.
Regardless of the source, arsenic is a significant hazard in Michigan,
studies show.
Many municipal water systems and almost all private wells lack the
capability to remove the cancer-causing agent from water used for
cooking, bathing and drinking.
Researchers have repeatedly shown that arsenic exposures, even at
levels deemed acceptable by the Environmental Protection Agency, are
associated with lung, skin and bladder cancer, diabetes,
cardiovascular disease and a number of other adverse health
conditions.
Under the Karmanos program, all physicians have to do when they see
patients is take a 24-hour urine sample and have it tested for
arsenic.
"It's painless, simple and costs patients nothing," Harbut said.
"Physicians are even paid to administer the test and evaluate the
results."
In addition to picking up that cost, the insurers will also pay for
special arsenic-blocking water filters for patients -- or even bottled
water -- if the tests come back positive.
The program's second target, asbestos, has caused tens of thousands of
deaths in Michigan and hundreds of thousands more throughout the
country. Workplaces in the state -- the auto assembly lines and
taconite mines -- were heavily contaminated with the substance. Its
iron mines still are.
And "it's not just the workers," Harbut said. "We've got about 300,000
homes here that are insulated with asbestos-contaminated Zonolite
vermiculite from Libby, Mont."
EPA tests have shown that the most gentle disruption of such
insulation -- getting down the Christmas decorations for example --
can fill an attic with invisible asbestos fibers.
The Karmanos program will use a simple measure of pulmonary function
or lung capacity to determine whether patients are at risk and in need
for further testing. Those who are will be referred to two
environmental and occupational medicine centers in the state.
Radon is the last of the deadly trio that the Blues and the Karmanos
Cancer Institute are going after.
The colorless, odorless and tasteless gas is found in basements
throughout the country. It invades indoor air primarily from soil
under homes, granite foundations and other sources. EPA says that
radon is the largest source of radiation exposure for the general
public and that even very small exposures to radon can cause lung
cancer.
There is no clinical test to identify exposure to radon. So physicians
in the Michigan program will recommend that patients check for the
presence of the gas in their homes by obtaining free radon kits from
their local health department.
The state's labor unions are applauding the program.
"Many have been exposed to toxins whose serious health consequences
will not appear until 15 to 40 years after exposure. This new program
goes a long way in advocating for and protecting the health and
well-being of our residents," said Michigan AFL-CIO President Mark
Gaffney, a member of Blue Cross-Blue Shield's board of directors.
And at least one other insurance company is exploring taking the
innovative plan nationwide, said the team from Karmanos.
"Where politics has failed to protect the health of families," Harbut
said, "science, medicine and -- uniquely -- an insurance company are
acting to do so."
He added: "This could be great for medicine and patients."