News story from external source - mydailytribune.com

RIO GRANDE, OH - “We’re trying to do the right thing here,” Holzer Clinic President Dr. Wayne Munro said as a group of physicians, administrators and citizens began formulating suggestions for the repair of America’s health system at the request of President-elect Barack Obama.

While the discussion hosted by the clinic Friday identified the problems with health care as it stands today — lack of coverage, skyrocketing costs and declining accessibility — suggestions to be forwarded to the Obama team were heard, some of them based in Obama’s own campaign assertion that Americans need to take more responsibility for their health, from healthy diet to encouraging new mothers to breastfeed.

Community teams have been invited by the Obama transition team to submit proposals to address the current crisis in U.S. health care, a main topic of the 2008 presidential race.

Johnnie Russell of Bidwell, a kidney transplant recipient in the early 1990s, recounted his own experiences when several years after the transplant, Medicaid billed him $17,000 for the procedure.

“I wasn’t trying to beat the system,” Russell said as he described his efforts to resolve the debt, only to find a few years later the billing was in error. “The system’s problems all exist within the system. Until the government starts acting like a business and fixes the system, nothing is going to change.”

Solutions also focused on increased use of preventive measures in eating healthy foods, exercising and eliminating tobacco use. Dr. Vivian Newbold, an emergency room physician at Holzer Medical Center, said such moves to forestall obesity, diabetes, cancer and heart disease are one way to significantly reduce overall health costs and should be rewarded.

“I really think it’s not just a matter of taking care of ourselves. We don’t have access to what it takes,” said Dot Neutzling of health services at the University of Rio Grande/Rio Grande Community College, where the discussion was held. “It’s also very difficult for people to go to the doctor if they have no insurance.”

Local Methodist pastor Rev. Sherron Courneen suggested the diet problem for the needy could be addressed if more fresh and frozen foods could be introduced into the area foodbank system. Others suggested food distribution should be addressed in any farm policy decisions formulated by the Obama administration.

Other ideas focused on instilling the idea of good health in children, starting with encouragement of young mothers to breastfeed as a way of introducing organic nourishment at an early age, to making health education a staple of schoolroom curriculum.

“We need something for children,” said Mike Bartrum, recently sworn in as a Meigs County commissioner. “The pivotal thing in preventive care is through our children. They are our future.”

Some of the blame for the crisis was put at the feet of insurance companies, but participants weren’t for increased regulation of those firms as a solution to the crisis. Physicians are already probing the insurance issue with an eye toward tracking where dollars are spent, a move Dr. Lawrence Yodlowski of Holzer Clinic said patients should take upon themselves.

“If you pay a dollar into an insurance company, you need to know where it’s going,” Yodlowski said.

In discussing cost reduction, State Rep. Clyde Evans of Rio Grande argued against any legislative action placing too much of the cost of employee coverage on the employer.

Increased costs for higher coverage rates can erode Ohio’s and America’s competitive edge in the world market against countries with socialized medicine, he added.

“I think we need to think about that,” Evans said.

Munro and clinic officials also detailed action taken to cut health costs in response to a question about what physicians and the institution is doing to make health care more affordable.

The clinic recently invested in technology to track its records more quickly and efficiently as one step.

The clinic’s Dr. Nicholas Economides moderated the forum, which lasted 1-1/2 hours and drew participants from Gallia, Meigs and Jackson counties.

© mydailytribune.com 2009

Holzer Clinic… Medical Excellence, Local Caring.

###