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Tuesday January 20, 8:33 pm Eastern Time

Maryland study questions Lyme Disease treatment

CHICAGO, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Doctors in a Maryland county where infected
ticks are spreading Lyme disease were prematurely providing antibiotics to
patients who complained of tick bites, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.
In a study of the medical records of 232 patients in a county on the Eastern
Shore of Maryland where Lyme disease is a particular problem, researchers at
the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore found that tick
bites alone were sometimes treated with antibiotics before a diagnosis was
made.

``Prophylactic therapy may simply delay onset and obscure diagnosis,'' and
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not recommend it,
study author Alan Fix wrote in the Journal of the American Medical
Association.
Instead, physicians should monitor patients and take preventive measures
when early signs of the disease appear and it can still be treated.

Unnecessary antibiotics and {*filter*} tests lifted the average charge per
patient in the study to $205 -- ranging from an average of $109 for the 142
patients who had noninfected tick bites to $569 for the 40 with Lyme
disease. Another 50 patients were suspected of having the disease.

Because of publicity about Lyme disease, which can cause a variety of
ailments and can ultimately defy cure, doctors may be advancing treatment
beyond what the medical literature recommends, researchers said.

``Although patients may have many facts about Lyme disease -- perhaps more
than their physician -- many of those 'facts' may be inaccurate or need to
be placed in the right context. Doing so requires straight talking from the
physician, rather than reaching for the lab order sheet or prescription
pad,'' wrote Alan Barbour of the University of California, Irvine, in an
accompanying editorial.

Sherie Heideman, RN
Laura Stewart, RN
Indiana Regional Coordinators
The Florence Project

(snipped>
Health care is being taken over by powerful corporations.
This is resulting in compromised care being provided to
patients everywhere.

In 1996, an AHA poll found that "the public is deeply
concerned and troubled about changes occurring in health
care and hospitals." There was a growing impact upon
themselves and their families in terms of reduced access,
higher costs, lower quality, the competence of caregivers
and a trend toward impersonal care.

The Florence Project is a grass-roots organization which
consists of concerned nurses who share a common goal...
To effect legislative and institutional policy change by
acting to increase public awareness of issues that
currently compromised the delivery of consistent,
competent health care.

While this is a nurse-driven movement, we welcome all
parties interested in improving the quality of health
care to join in our movement.To assist us in this
important mission, please visit our website:

http://www.***.com/

The site also contains several links to important related
topics such as Patient Safety Acts, HMO horror stories,
etc.

We need a united front across the country to implement
desired changes. We need your help!

Thank you,

Sue,
I'll agree that there is a terribly high markup on IV antibiotics, [maybe
$60.00 of Rocephin makes a $300.00 bag of Saline/ Rocephin], parental supplies,
and even on {*filter*}antibiotics.

But this price structure is probably true of the health care  industry for all
patients, all diseases,  with whatever products or services are required.

I don't believe that the doctors who treat Lyme make significant money.  Most
believe that their practice and livelihood is at risk because of the forces
opposed to treating Lyme Disease...it is a controversial , humanitarian effort
on their part.

I haven't met a Lyme doc who does it for the money, or would consider Lyme a
profitable practice. Certainly not when compared to Cardiology, Oncology,
Orthopedics, Orthodontics, Dermatology, Internal Medicine, etc. etc.

I haven't seen a Lyme Doc with a big Mercedes, or Lexus... or a shopping mall,
or a real estate development, or a giant money churning practice with 25
assistants and the  patients stacked in a holding pattern. I have seen many
other doctors who are not criticized enjoying such wealth and privilege.

The reason I say that there is no money is the Insurance Industry doesn't want
Lyme Patients to exist.... so they don't exist! There is no money authorized to
treat Lyme... so no money can be made. There are not many thousands, or tens of
thousands, of long term IV Lyme pateints out there .... are there?

Now millions of people... tens of millions, hundreds of millions of people on
Lyme Vaccine programs every few years ...... now that's a business plan!!

Currently, insurance companies will authorize hundreds of thousands of dollars
of testing to avoid lawsuits, and perhaps to do a proper diagnosis.... $1000
MRI's are no problem   etc, etc.

But God help you if the diagnosis comes up Lyme! Alarms go off, Insurance
companies toss up red flags...and the stigmatization of the patient begins!

Sue,

I don't think that you and I are in disagreement, on any significant point!

I think doctors who treat Lyme patients deserve to make money the same as any
competent physician .

And I conceed that my points are generalizations.... but they are also
consistent with my personal experience.

I am expressing my opinions:

Doctors who treat Lyme patients are not a significant problem; doctors who tell
Lyme patients that they are hypochondriacs* are the problem.

   [ * or depressed/ Chronic Fatigue Syndrome patients/ etc  ]

I don't see Lyme doctors concocting Lyme Disease treatment protocols in order
to make money. Now they may try some expensive treatments at times... but I
have only witnessed choice shaped by the hope that an effective treatment would
result.

Lyme Literate doctors are not a problem... the lack of doctors who have the
skill and compassion of the Lyme literate doctors that I've met ... THAT is the
problem!

And if there really was more money to be made treating Lyme... there would be
more Lyme literate doctors.

: No way to make money treating Lyme disease?  I DO NOT believe that's the
: motivation of most Lyme docs, but WHOA!

: There is still ENORMOUS profit built into the pharmacy/supplies end.. the
<snip>

: Susan

There must be profit - have you head that 1-800-TICKBITE spot on network
radio, listing a number of symptoms, and suggesting that if someone has
these, they should call the phone number for a "Lyme-literate doctor" near
them.  It turns out, it is an add from a home infusion-company!

Larry

--

LYMEconomics 101
PROFF: DANO
LYME CULT UNIVERSITY (LCU)
KENT COUNTY, MD.

SETTING:
100 campers from camp Tickwoah on the Chesapeake
are exposed to tick bites

Option 1 treat all immediately with Doxycycline
cost = aprox. $40 x 100 campers or $4,000

Option #2 Do not treat, wait for test results
weeks later 4 campers test positive
and 4 others will later go on to have
lyme symptoms.

A month to six weeks  later the 4 who tested positive will now be treated. 3
will recover completely
1 will continue into more severe lyme complications
as will 3 of the other 4 undiagnosed.

Cost 3 treated after 1+ month    1000ea                $ 3,000
cost  1 treated inadequately    $65000               $ 65,000
cost  3 undiagnosed for 1yr + $100,000             $300,000
_________________________________________________
DOLLAR COST  DELAYED TREATMENT $368,000

THUS CLASS, WE CAN SEE THAT FROM A PURE
DOLLAR VIEW OPTION # 1, IS FAR SUPERIOR TO OPTION#2.

PROFF:
THERE ARE OTHER COSTS INVOLVED WITH OPTION #2
WOULD ANYONE CARE TO SPECULATE WHAT THEY ARE ?

(Information obtained is believed reliable but cannot be guarenteed)

Student:    Proffesor Dano,  what if they did'nt do any testing ?
Prof:           Well some campers may wind up in the Pscyh. ward
                     and the others given Placebo treatment
                     until such time that they are correctly Dx'd
                      This would tend to enlarge the variance between          
          option #1 and # 2

Student :    I thought I had read that  an estimated 30% of the ticks
                    in Kent County carried Borrelia burgdorferi ?

Dr. J. M.        (observing class) YA you obviously  not getting              
           zee information from zee ALDF !

Proff:           Arrest that man !
                      Class Dismissed .