National Nurses United

NewsBriefs ILLINOIS HOUSE COMMITTEE UNANIMOUSLY OKS STREZO BILL he illinois legislature's Health Care Availability and Access Committee on Feb. 20 voted 13-0 in favor of HB 4223, which would expedite the insurance appeals process in cases where denials and subsequent appeal delays have the potential for "significant and negative impact on a patient's health." The bill was sponsored by state Rep. Mary Flowers, and supported by CNA/NNOC. Patient testimony at the hearing included Jody Polka, the daughter of cancer patient Cyril Strezo, who told the family's story in support of the legislation. Strezo was treated for esophageal cancer in June and then after discovering a spread of the cancer, doctors ordered a new course of chemotherapy treatment. But his insurer UniCare denied the treatment, calling it "experimental or investigative." It took weeks for the family's appeal to be handled, and in those weeks, Strezo's cancer spread. His family contacted the local media T 10 REGISTERED NURSE and Flowers and the Illinois attorney general's office intervened. UniCare reversed its position, but Polka remains convinced that the appeal delay cost her father precious time in fighting his disease. Under HB 4223, all insurance companies would be required to respond to appeals within 24 hours in emergency situations (nonemergency situations would be given 15 days). Another Illinois patient also voiced her support at the hearing. Denise Bockwoldt, a mother of three and two-time cancer survivor, testified about Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO of Illinois' denials and appeals during her treatment for breast cancer. "I am a victim and example of the insanity that has become our health insurance crisis in Illinois," she said as she explained that she even charged $1,200 to her credit card for one test the insurance company found unnecessary and denied. That test found she had a recurrence of cancer requiring immediate treatment. "In my own time as a nurse at Cook County I have accumulated many of my own stories of a broken healthcare system that I could share," said Bernice Faulkner, RN and member of the CNA/NNOC board of directors, at the hearing. Faulkner advocated bold reform. "While HB 2433 is a critical stop-gap measure, we won't stop the criminal healthcare abuse of insurance companies until we take the insurers out of the delivery of healthcare entirely through a universal single-payer health system." Flowers noted that three insurance company representatives attended the hearing, but none testified against the proposed bill. She said the measure ultimately would "put the brakes" on insurance companies that are making medical decisions that only doctors should make. —donna smith ILLINOIS W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G MARCH 2008

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