State Government Contact Information
November 4, 2004
Dear Fellow Moms and Dads, Grandparents etc. of Pediatric Associates Children:
As you know by now Blue Cross Blue Shield has arbitrarily imposed non-negotiable reductions in the refunds they give for our children’s care at Pediatric Associates. This is an unethical, cold-hearted and impractical way to do business. For those of us who have rushed in on Sunday mornings with wailing babies, spoken with the nurses in the middle of the night, enjoyed speedy diagnosis of your kids infections at the lab, and otherwise benefited from the excellent and caring environment at Pediatric Associates we now need to protect our children and our doctors.
If you have Blue Cross Blue Shield, I am sure you are aware that our coverage is eroding from both sides…on one side we are paying more for our co-pays and our prescriptions and on the other we will have reduced services available to us when these cuts go through.
As a group we can wield great influence if we work together and structure a coherent explanation of what these cuts mean to us, our children, our doctors and to BCBS. By way of history this is not the first time Blue Cross Blue Shield has threatened to do this. We have stopped them before. In one case my husband worked with them when he was a State elected official and in another case Sherri Greenberg put a stop to these cuts during her tenure as a State Representative. These are the only two examples I know of but I suspect there are more.
Historically, when BCBS representatives find themselves forced to justify these cuts publicly they back off. BCBS provides health insurance to thousands of state employees. They have a lot at stake in maintaining good relationships with state elected officials and administrators. If we alert our State Representatives and State Senators on this issue they can be of great help as they have in the past.
There are many strong arguments for defending Pediatric Associates from the emotional (they love our kids) to the pragmatic (the high quality care they offer us is very cost effective in both the short and long term):
1) After hours care: It might be helpful for parents to consider how many times they have used the after hours care and weekend hours at Pediatric Associates in lieu of an emergency room. This saves an insurance provider significant amounts of money and presents a very simple mathematical argument for preserving our Pediatric practice as it is.
2) On site lab: Another consideration is the number of times you have gotten a timely and accurate diagnosis of an infection at the on-site lab to determine whether antibiotics are the proper course of action for your child. Lower levels of antibiotics prescribed when an illness is identified as a virus saves an insurance provider significant sums of money. More importantly, this has a positive impact on our children’s long term health and protects the other children they come into contact with.
3) Long term health: Assuming BCBS hopes to be your family’s insurance provider for many years to come, the excellent care we get at Pediatric Associates gives our kids the foundation for a lifetime of good health. In other words, our kids don’t grow up to be sickly expensive liabilities for their insurance provider.
4) Simply put, imposing reductions on quality pediatric care providers is not an acceptable way to cut costs. Period.
I am sure that, as I do, many of you have good stories that illustrate the way the doctors, nurses and staff at Pediatric Associates have gone the extra mile for your children. Taken cumulatively, these stories can have a big impact…please share them
I hope we can all continue to keep this dialogue alive for as long as it takes. I also hope that this time we can establish an acceptable level of reimbursement for the long term and stop having to fight this battle year after year.
Below is a list of emails and contact information for people who may be able to help us. I do hope some of you have additional contacts to add to this list. Anything we can do to bring this issue into daylight and get people talking helps. Lets swamp them with our letters, our common sense, our unity and our good will.
When I took my two year old in for strep throat the other day (they scheduled me within the hour and took a throat culture in about six minutes) the 2002 collage of Christmas pictures was in our waiting room. It was titled ‘The Pediatric Associates Family.’ This is what makes our practice so special. They consider us family. Someone takes the time each year to gather Christmas pictures and commemorate another year of taking care of our kids. I have three small children born very close together. With their speedy responses and accurate diagnoses the staff at Pediatric Associates have given my children and my husband and I the gift of many nights of sleep, saved us from worry and anxiety, and sometimes just provided an understanding and caring voice on the phone. If that’s not family I don’t know what is. This is worth it folks.
Let’s send a strong message to Blue Cross Blue Shield ‘Don’t Mess with Texas Kids.’
Thanks,
Cristina Mauro
A preliminary list of elected officials follows….see below
Here is a preliminary list of elected officials.
Representative Todd Baxter: 463-0631
Representative Elliott Naishtat: (his office has already been very helpful)
Elliott.Naishtat@house.state.tx.us
Congressman Lloyd Doggett - (its worth mentioning that his daughter Lisa is a physician) 916-5921
State Senator Gonzalo Barrientos: 463-0114
Gonzalo.Barrientos@senate.state.tx.us
Carole Keeton Strayhorn – Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts (she takes an interest in health related issues for children)
1-888-334-4112
texas.comptroller@cpa.state.tx.us