Bacon's Rebellion

COPN – Don’t Leave Home Without It

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sherlockj
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12 responses to “COPN – Don’t Leave Home Without It”

  1. Top-GUN Avatar
    Top-GUN

    Government picking Winners and Losers… what’s not to like

  2. V N Avatar
    V N

    Capt., is the law changed for other items, not just open heart surgery?

    1. Steve Haner Avatar
      Steve Haner

      And given how well that medical situation is tracked, what has been the impact on heart attack outcomes? It has been more than 10 years now.

      1. sherlockj Avatar
        sherlockj

        I don’t know. More importantly, neither does the Virginia Department of Health’s Division of COPN. They are neither tasked nor funded to track outcomes of their decisions.

      2. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
        Dick Hall-Sizemore

        The death rate from cardiovascular disease has fallen in Virginia since 2009.
        https://vaperforms.virginia.gov/healthFamily_mortalityLongevity.cfm#one

        https://vaperforms.virginia.gov/Graphics/Cardiovascular-RatebyRegion.png

  3. Nancy_Naive Avatar
    Nancy_Naive

    COPD — Can’t leave home with it.

  4. TooManyTaxes Avatar
    TooManyTaxes

    CPON should be tied to price and profit regulation. Otherwise, one sees monopoly pricing. Maybe the new AG (federal) will file an antitrust suit against the medical facilities.

  5. Steve Haner Avatar
    Steve Haner

    Remember reading in a book on health care issues (Cato Institute?) about a cardiology outcome study. The outcomes improved when the docs were on vacation, with the guess being fewer unnecessary tests, procedures, stents, etc. They put in lots of stents these days. While the rules allow somebody to be 60 miles from an OR rated for open heart surgery, that is not the same as being 60 miles from an emergency department well prepared to stabilize a cardiac event or stroke. If they do not base this on the outcomes, then shame on them. But I bet somebody has that info. Having had that surgery myself (twice, almost), I don’t want some doc who is not totally specialized – a general chest cutter should not do it.

    1. sherlockj Avatar
      sherlockj

      Point is, Steve, is that it is up to the VDH to know those answers, not you and me. Unfortunately, outcomes never factor into COPN, just capacity.

  6. paulmmurphy Avatar
    paulmmurphy

    COPN are indeed something to think about. Do they do more harm than good? Who are they for?

    A couple of thoughts on points raised here . . .

    1. It would be somewhat uncommon to ride an ambulance straight from where you were stricken to the site of an open heart surgery unit.

    2. Even if the area of that circle has quadrupled the longest possible ride has still just doubled.

    For full disclosure, I personally enjoy the benefits of being covered by Medicare and would like to see those benefits extended to ALL as in Medicare-for-all. Long overdue and the lack is holding our country back.

    1. sherlockj Avatar
      sherlockj

      If your ambulance ride takes you to an ER in a hospital that does not offer open heart surgery and you need it, you will have to be transported to a hospital that does. Not sure that is what you are looking for.

    2. TooManyTaxes Avatar
      TooManyTaxes

      Keep your hands off my health insurance. While over 65, my wife and I only have the mandatory Medicare Part A. We don’t have Medicare Part B and don’t want it. We have the Federal Employees Health Plan through BC/BS. It is much more cost-efficient for us than other options that include Medicare Part B.

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