State investigating doctors' group over Lyme disease guidelines December 30, 2006
HARTFORD, Conn. --Connecticut attorney General Richard Blumenthal has launched an anti-trust investigation against a Virginia-based doctors' group, saying its new diagnosis and treatment guidelines might harm Lyme disease patients.
The Infectious Diseases Society of America might be effectively limiting insurance coverage and medical options for those patients through its overly strict recommendations for diagnosing and treating Lyme disease, Blumenthal said.
"These rules diminish the options available to doctors and their patients in ways that can sanction insurance company decisions to deny coverage, so they have an economic impact that could be very serious, not to mention the health care effect," Blumenthal said.
The society is a nonprofit organization based in Alexandria, Va., and represents about 8,300 health care professionals nationwide.
Society spokesman Steve Baragona said its new guidelines, enacted in October, are carefully researched and sound. They are only suggestions, however, and are not intended to alter any individual doctor's judgment, he said.
"We're not trying to claim that these people aren't suffering, but we're not sure that what they have is Lyme disease," Baragona said. "They may travel to a doctor who doesn't know what's wrong with them, and we know that's frustrating for them and for their doctors."
Experts agree that a course of antibiotics is the best treatment for Lyme disease, but physicians, advocacy groups, legislators and patients often disagree about when and how long to administer those antibiotics.
Lyme disease, a tick-borne illness named for the Connecticut town in which it was first identified in 1975, can cause severe headaches, heart palpitations and arthritis.
According to the Connecticut Department of Public Health, 1,810 new cases were reported in the state last year, an increase of 34 percent over 2004.
The doctors' society believes most Lyme disease patients are cured with a single course of 10 to 28 days of antibiotics, with some requiring a second course. Those with chronic Lyme disease, where symptoms such as fatigue and joint pain persist, should not get more antibiotics, according to the society.
The group wants to avoid the possibility that a Lyme strain might develop resistance to the medication, as well as preventing potential infections caused by intravenously administered drugs, Baragona said.
However, many patients and others who have researched the disease believe the bacterium that causes might survive in the body through the first round of treatment, evading the immune system and short-term antibiotics courses.
Greenwich resident Debbie Siciliano, co-president of Time for Lyme Inc., an affiliate of the national Lyme Disease Association, said the society's strict guidelines have limited treatment and insurance coverage for some patients.
"They're the people that others look to for answers for infectious diseases and these current guidelines are very restrictive, and this is where it's going to hurt people," said Siciliano, whose son has been treated for Lyme disease.
Blumenthal, who once led an effort to secure mandatory coverage for the disease, said the society's guidelines might also violate anti-trust rules, depending on how the guidelines were reached. He sent an administrative subpoena last month to the group as part of his investigation.
Baragona said the society is cooperating fully.
------ MY Response:
There are many lyme patients in Massachusetts who are relieved to know that Attorney General Blumenthal of CT is investigating the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) regarding their Lyme Treatment Guidelines.
As CoChair of the Lyme Disease Association's (LDA) Cape Cod Chapter, there is no doubt in my mind that IDSA has failed to help the growing numbers of chronic lyme patients by continuing to deny the chronic form of the disease.
Time and again, we have seen chronically ill patients get better with extended antibiotic treatment. IDSA's 10 to 28 days of recommended treatment failed for these people, yet IDSA refuses to use their statistics as evidence of treatment failure.
Their supporting evidence consists of 2% of the available scientific evidence, most of it coming from the 14 doctors who composed these Guidelines. Blumenthal is correct to question whether they have violated anti-trust laws. Indeed, there are doctors from within IDSA's ranks who do not agree with these Guidelines.
Doctors who treat us will continue to be harassed and our only hope for help lies with our State legislators who can protect doctors and their patients through legislation.
[ 01. January 2007, 07:21 PM: Message edited by: nan ]
-------------------- nan Posts: 2135 | From Tick Country | Registered: Oct 2000
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
nan, please use the tinyurl to eliminate this SUPER-WIDE post; thanks!
from LOU to Betty on LONG web links and Thank You Lou!: "If you hit the return key in the middle of a link, I don't think it will be clickable anymore. An alternative that maybe Betty should be telling people about is the tiny url website. I have it on my tool bar at the top of the page and use it for those incredablylongwebsiteaddresses.
All you have to do is ask tiny url to produce a short version, which it will do with a unique address, which you then use instead in your post. Works just the same when clicked! Here is the website, spread the word! http://tinyurl.com/
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-------------------- nan Posts: 2135 | From Tick Country | Registered: Oct 2000
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AliG
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9734
posted
Great job, Nan!
Thanks for posting!!
Ali
-------------------- Note: I'm NOT a medical professional. The information I share is from my own personal research and experience. Please do not construe anything I share as medical advice, which should only be obtained from a licensed medical practitioner. Posts: 4881 | From Middlesex County, NJ | Registered: Jul 2006
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Areneli
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 6740
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