First, I want to thank each and every one of you who responded to my last update by donating to my legal defense fund. Your generous response helped to reduce the outstanding balance, preserving my legal representation. The hearing before the Connecticut Supreme Court is expected to take place early this year. That proceeding is not able to accommodate a large audience, but I promise to keep you posted on the outcome!
Unfortunately, a very serious financial crisis is hitting my office which I must bring to your attention. As you know, my office has been under an enormous amount of stress for many years, due to the charges brought against me by the Connecticut Medical Examining Board (CMEB). In addition to huge legal fees and fines, the imposition of four years of monthly monitoring has posed an enormous burden, financial and otherwise. The monitor had to be hired through an agency, and his fees have been astronomical, averaging $4,000 per month.
This would be bad enough, but it also takes a great number of clerical hours to prepare each patient chart according to the specific and detailed format that he requires. This must be done by an experienced staff member, familiar with my practice. Due to the demands of the practice itself, she often has to do this after hours, resulting in overtime costs of about $2,000 per month.
When I first learned of the monitoring requirement, which was unusually stringent in terms of both its frequency and duration, I feared that it could drive me into bankruptcy. As a result, I have had to make some difficult modifications, to reduce our operating costs and keep the office open. For example, we have reduced our staffing from 5 to 3 medical assistants, very challenging for all of us, given the high demands posed by our very ill pediatric patients. I work 6 days a week seeing patients. I had hoped to train another pediatrician by now who would assist at my office and become my successor, but this has not been feasible, due to the adversarial climate surrounding my practice.
My attorney has petitioned the CMEB on at least one occasion, requesting that they reduce the monitoring requirement. The monitoring agency supported this request because the monitor has found no problems with my practice, but the CMEB denied it. Some of my colleagues have set up a fund to try to help with these costs, for which I am very grateful, but this has not been sufficient.
Despite these challenges, we were managing to break even financially until Hurricane Sandy hit, followed by a significant snowstorm. Patients, unable to leave their homes, had to cancel their appointments, and we saw almost no one during a two-week period. The loss of revenue, approximately $36,000, was devastating, and the office has been unable to recover financially. We have had to pay the monitor throughout this difficult period, in order to avoid my being held in contempt by the CMEB. As a result, I have fallen seriously behind in paying rent, salaries, utilities and more. I have been told by my building manager that if payment is not forthcoming by February 1, the corporation which owns my building will begin eviction proceedings.
In a nutshell, I am experiencing a financial crisis, and I will be forced to close my practice unless I am able to raise $40,000 within the next few days. It pains me deeply that a great number of patients and their families could be left without adequate care, and once again to have to turn to you for assistance. Any sum will be appreciated, but it must arrive at once! I will do my best to keep you apprised of the situation, including the point at which our goal is reached. At present, I regret that we do not have a Paypal option, but I will let you know if that changes. Please make your checks out to me and send them to the following address:
Charles Ray Jones, M.D.
111 Park Street, 1st Floor
New Haven, CT 06511
(please write �gift� in the memo field)
I want to assure you that my practice continues to be busy and I am seeing new patients, often on a daily basis. I was deeply touched by a recent letter from an adolescent patient, who had just returned to school after years of illness. She wrote: �Thank you, Dr. Jones, for healing me.� I cherish as always the opportunity to treat so many children with tick-borne diseases and to witness their return to health.
I am encouraged too by the fact that the monitoring requirement, burdensome as it is, is now more than halfway completed. That is a light at the end of the tunnel, and will make a tremendous difference in the longer-term financial stability of my office. To achieve this however, we need to overcome the immediate crisis!
Thank you for your attention and support. If we are successful in meeting the current financial challenge, I pledge to continue to do all that I can for our children with tick-borne diseases!
Sincerely, Dr. Jones Charles Ray Jones, M.D.
Posts: 574 | From Out there somewhere | Registered: Jul 2010
| IP: Logged |
ktkdommer
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 29020
posted
This is terribly sad. What will all these patients do if he is forced to close?
I recently contributed to my own ILADS doctor's legal fund. It shouldn't be this way!
We need a celebrity to come through and help out. Could we write to Bill Gates? He is on the east coast. He helps with a lot of diseases in other countries.
-------------------- Things are never dull. After 3 fighting Lyme, 2 are in remission. Youngest is still sick, age 22. He has new diagnosed Chiari Malformation and Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. Posts: 1366 | From Perrysburg, Ohio | Registered: Nov 2010
| IP: Logged |
seekhelp
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 15067
posted
It seems impossible to keep this LLMD funded long-term. The Lyme community will eventually run out of money. Probably just the way the IDSA wants it.
As others said, hopefully his knowledge is/was passed down to future doctors who can follow his footsteps.
Lyme patients are already horribly strapped for cash. It's an impossible battle.
For some reason, I doubt Bill Gates cares about Lyme, but..... That would be great if I am wrong.
Posts: 7545 | From The 5th Dimension - The Twilight Zone | Registered: Mar 2008
| IP: Logged |
poppy
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5355
posted
Yes, this was the plan all along. To drive him out of business, because those kind of legal fees and monitoring are just not sustainable. I have wondered all along why there has not been any pro bono work on this case, but then that would not help with the monitoring costs.
The evil of this situation passes belief. We get into ten year wars after 9/11 which killed 3000 people. Compare that to the number of patients this doctor has helped, and the number of lyme patients in the country. There is no justice in this country and truly evil people.
I hope someone comes forward to help but this is a lot of money on very short notice, and it looks very bad.
Posts: 2888 | From USA | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
poppy
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5355
posted
Would it be at all feasible for those patients who cancelled to pay now for their next appointments? Seems like that would help a lot. I know some of them are hard pressed financially too, but this might be a way to help ensure that they would still have a doctor for the next appointment.
It is going to be hard for all those kids to find other pediatric docs to treat lyme, and certainly not anyone with his depth of knowledge.
[ 01-28-2013, 10:55 AM: Message edited by: poppy ]
Posts: 2888 | From USA | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
AuntyLynn
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 35938
posted
Good idea Poppy! Patients who pre-pay might very well pull our hero out of the financial ditch!
As for Bill Gates ... I would not trust him as far as I could throw him. IMHO, he is one of the most unscrupulous businessmen in the country, and even his "charities" are self-serving!
Posts: 1432 | From New Jersey | Registered: Jan 2012
| IP: Logged |
lax mom
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 38743
posted
It broke my heart to read that Dr J works 6 days a week! I wish he could have a small break.
"I still have Mt.Everest to climb, but I have traveled across the world and arrived at the mountain". Posts: 633 | From baltimore | Registered: Mar 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
Hey Bill Gates created the Internet..In a way he has contributed to the Lyme community. What would we do without the internet and no access to a site like this?
I agree Seek (The Lyme community will eventually run out of money.)
But if everyone here could send this Dr. one dollar it would help him out much.
-------------------- HERX is a Four Letter Word! Posts: 716 | From If you're going through hell, keep going......Winston Churchill | Registered: Apr 2007
| IP: Logged |
Just wanted to say thank you for posting this, my son is a patient and many times I hear about his pleas for help by someone like you posting it on lymenet so I really appreciate it.
I honestly have no idea what kind of shape my son would be in if it were not for Dr J's practice.
Hope the goodness in people can give him the help he so deserves.
Posts: 448 | From minnesota | Registered: Feb 2010
| IP: Logged |
Rumigirl
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 15091
posted
up for urgency.
ANd he's about to be 84!!
And he says in his letter that although he had hoped to train a successor, he hasn't been able to, due to the adverserial situation around his practice.
The CEMB is truly evil. It defies belief.
Posts: 3771 | From around | Registered: Mar 2008
| IP: Logged |
seekhelp
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 15067
posted
Given these circumstances and his very old age, I almost feel his time/legacy could be better served by retiring and writing a book on how to treat children with TBIs. If he has never passed his knowledge to other doctors, that's a real shame. No one could stop him from writing his treatment ideas and then other doctors would have this wealth of knowledge to use forever.
At 84, the odds of him practicing medicine much longer are very, very remote. That is a very old age!! It's incredible he still is able to do so. That alone says so much for his fortitude.
All the money in the world can't stop a time clock though. Posts: 7545 | From The 5th Dimension - The Twilight Zone | Registered: Mar 2008
| IP: Logged |
poppy
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5355
posted
He has trained other doctors, but so far no one wants to step into his shoes, given the persecution. If this were not the case, I think he would have retired before now. A book would be good, but if no one feels safe to use it to treat pediatric lyme, then its usefulness will be limited.
It is true that he is up in years, but the point here is that they want to take down a high profile doctor, as a lesson to other doctors, to scare them off. This is a tactic that works very well....just look at how few doctors will treat us. That is why he has fought on so long, and why we have supported the fight.
Posts: 2888 | From USA | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
nefferdun
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 20157
posted
I know how hard it is to find extra funds to donate when it is so expensive to treat this disease - but I hope everyone can dig into their pockets to contribute something to help this compassionate doctor who has dedicated his life to helping us.
What you spend on a night of entertainment or a cup of coffee (whatever you indulge in) would help. It also shows the rest of the world that the lyme community protects it's own. Fight back or you will be next. You won't have a doctor to go to.
-------------------- old joke: idiopathic means the patient is pathological and the the doctor is an idiot Posts: 4676 | From western Montana | Registered: Apr 2009
| IP: Logged |
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic