Kidney 4 Doc

This is my new friend, Candie (Doc) Gagne. Her full name is Gitthaline Candie Mulligan Gagne.  She is a Certified Surgical Technologist at UPMC Mikeesport Hospital and Retired Navy Hospital Corpsman, Certified Surgical Technologist.

In December of 2016, Candie broke her ankle and had to have surgery.  By February 12, 2017, she was found unreponsive, with a high creatine level. She had emergency dialysis for the next several weeks and inconclusive kidney biopsy.  Her kidneys did not respond to conservative treatment and she was declared ESRD.

She had a catheter placed and on April 4th, started dialysis. By July 3rd, she was placed on the transplant list. She is also a caretaker for her husband, who suffers from service related partial paralysis of the left leg, A-Fib, CHF, and stage 4 Kidney Failure.

She is listed at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).  She is an O blood type, but the UPMC recognizes Paired Donation, so any blood type can donate on her behalf. 

To test to donate for Candie you can contact:
1. Her Living Donor Coordinator, Angela Barber at barberas@upm.com or 412-647-5489.

2. Her Administrative Coordinator, is Laurie L. Tub, Administrative Coordinator, UPMC Transplant Services, tubbll@upmc.edu,
412-647-3476 Phone, 412-692-4154 Fax.

3. Nanci McCombs
UPMC Waitlist Transplant Coordinator
‭(412) 432-3050‬
‭(412) 647-5070‬ fax

Please like and share Candi's page, and if you can, share your spare with this Veteran and Life- Saver!

https://m.facebook.com/Kidney4Doc-991655550972880/

Link for donor form at UPMC:  https://livingdonorreg.upmc.com/

Book Review: MORE THAN A CONQUEROR LEGACY

MORE THAN A CONQUEROR LEGACY

A BOOK BY BILL HAHN

REVIEWED BY JAMES MYERS

Available at Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1546992391

ISBN-13: 978-1546992394

ISBN-10: 1546992391

I recently had the great pleasure of reading a book by my good friend and colleague, Bill Hahn. Spiritual, emotional, personal, revealing, this is a good read, even if you are not interested in kidney/organ donation. This book is about one man’s journey from life-altering loss, to near death, to rebirth and making the journey a blessing to others. In his Forward to the book, Congressman Posey’s message says it best: Despite all odds that Hahn encounters, Bill is a tireless advocate for organ donation, and just from his tone, you realize that the Surfpro is a guy that get things done; a bottom line overachiever.

Bill takes great care in telling us his story. This book with its spiritual confessions, videos, poem and even music tells the story in detailed, heartfelt honesty and precision. This is a story about a professional surfer, fit, healthy, competitive, who suffers from kidney failure and subsequent loss. Bill’s pro surfing career was cut short by diabetes. He has been a diabetes warrior for the last 26 years.

During that time period, Bill that he has overcome much in his journey; total blindness, comas, seizures, heart attacks and cancer.

It is in the Christian way that he responds to the drastic changes in his life that makes this book special. Imagine one day your ripping up waves in Florida, and 26 years later you’re in the hospital getting a fistula installed and placed on dialysis due to diabetes followed quickly by End Stage Renal Disease.

Time passes, once, twice he is called for a new kidney, only to be turned away. But the third time, Bill gets THE CALL!

In Bill's own words,

"My first CALL I said NO. The reality that some had passed hit me as I needed both a kidney and pancreas transplant. By the second CALL I realized God has a plan for each of us so I said YES but the organs had been compromised and my gift of life was put on hold. Call number three was the miracale. GODS PLAN."

His New Year’s Miracle came at the age of 52, and he became a Kidney/Pancreas Warrior, advocating in God’s name and his donors name. He is reborn, transplanted, given back to us. 9 years and counting, Bill has been given new life. He calls this his New Year’s Eve Miracle, a gift from God. Prayers answered, Bill has become a world class Kidney/Organ Donation Advocate. He has done much to honor his New Gift of Life, Including:

• The Annual Footprints in the Sand Kidney Walk for the National Kidney Foundation of Florida;

• The Starfish Donor Mom Tribute Dinner;

• Helping Dialysis Patients Understand They are not Alone;

• Inspiration for Those That Have Just Received a Donated Organ;

• Establishing May 13th as Florida Living Donor Day;

• Building Sand Castles of Hope with pediatric kids and families;

• Writing the Song, Surfer’s Story, Now in the Library of Congress;

• Bill’s Mother and Father are responsible for the Dedication of the Hahn House Museum in Wisconsin, Bill continues to protect that legacy;

• Bill’s Mom and Dad are responsible for the Dedication of the Great Sauk State Trial and having it placed on the National Registry of Historic places, Bill continues to protect that legacy

• Bill is responsible for the creation of Life River Walk to be completed in 2018, that is adjacent to the Hahn House.

Bill has dedicated his life to others. This book, much like the man, is an amazing testament to his determination, hard work and faith. It is sensitive and inciteful. Just check out all the You Tube videos that go with each and every chapter of this book. Prayers, music, interviews, poems, and live events, showing the heart and soul of this Christian Kidney/Organ Donation Advocate. The strength, selflessness and sensitivity to the needs of others are the essence of Bill Hahn.

Bill teaches us,

"Godspeed to all those waiting. Gods grace to all who receive the Call."

This book is a vivid reflection of this great man.

Patient rights, third-party payments and the CMS Request for Information

Patient rights, third-party payments and the CMS Request for Information

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Statement from LaVarne A. Burton, American Kidney Fund President and Chief Executive Officer
ROCKVILLE, Maryland (August 19, 2016) -- The August 18 Request for Information from CMS with regard to possible inappropriate efforts by providers of dialysis services to steer patients eligible for Medicare and Medicaid into marketplace insurance plans paid for by third parties raises two critically important but distinct issues:

• First is the legitimate concern expressed by CMS of possible inappropriate steering of patients into insurance marketplace plans. We believe it should always be the patients’ choice to select the insurance plans that best meet their health care needs—and patients need to be fully aware of the pros and cons of each insurance option.
• But second, it is critically important to emphasize that people with disabilities in general—and with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in particular—should not be broadly excluded as a class from the insurance marketplace if they are unable to afford their health insurance premiums.

We agree with CMS that everything that can be done, should be done to prevent steering. But we do not agree that charitable assistance for the payment of insurance premiums is the problem—many low-income, chronically ill patients (many of whom are disabled) depend on charities to help pay for many of their expenses, including health care expenses. Cutting off this assistance at the behest of insurers would be particularly callous and would harm some of our nation’s most vulnerable people.
For 45 years, the American Kidney Fund (AKF) has provided charitable assistance to low-income dialysis patients to help them pay health care costs, including the insurance they need to access lifesaving care: Medicare Part B, Medigap, commercial, COBRA, employer group health and, since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, insurance marketplace policies, though they represent a small fraction of our patient assistance—just 6,400 of the nearly 80,000 people we currently help.
CMS has made very clear in the past that ESRD patients who are eligible for Medicare may enroll in the Marketplace, so long as they choose not to enroll in Medicare. When CMS provided this option for ESRD patients to enroll in the Marketplace, its intent could not have been to effectively exclude any ESRD patients who could not personally afford the cost of premiums. Even with subsidies, premiums can be prohibitively expensive for the population we serve—a population that is overwhelmingly unable to work because of their medical condition. AKF has always been a safety net for our nation’s low-income dialysis patients, and under the ACA, our premium assistance makes Marketplace plans an option for low-income ESRD patients who are fighting for their lives.
Some have asked why an ESRD patient who is eligible for Medicare would choose a Marketplace plan in the first place. Choice of insurance is a personal matter, but the reasons are many. First and foremost, Medicare alone is not enough to cover medical costs for people living with ESRD. A supplemental plan is necessary to cover the 20 percent out-of-pocket costs that have no lifetime cap under Medicare. In about half the states, insurers are not required to offer Medigap to ESRD patients under age 65, and ESRD patients in all states are prohibited by law from enrolling in Medicare Advantage plans which provide comprehensive coverage. For these patients, a Marketplace plan may very well be the best option to cap out-of-pocket costs and to achieve effective coordination of care. In other cases, even if Medigap is available, a patient may choose a Marketplace plan because Medicare does not offer family coverage, or because the person seeks better access to transplantation, or because the physician network offered under the Marketplace allows the person to continue seeing the same doctors they saw before they became ill. The reasons are many and cannot be distilled down into a black-and-white declaration that people with ESRD belong on Medicare.
For us, the patient is always the focus, and the effect on patients is what we care about—not insurance companies or dialysis providers, and not CMS—but the people those institutions are meant to serve. All ESRD patients must have access to the care they need to stay alive. The goals of preventing steering—with which we agree—and preserving choice for low-income patients are not mutually exclusive.
For nearly 20 years we have continuously reviewed our program to ensure that our guardrails protect its integrity. That’s even more important in the changing health care landscape. We look forward to working with CMS to assess whether there is inappropriate activity and if there is, how to best bring it to a halt. At the same time, this must occur without penalizing low-income ESRD patients by cutting off their access to an insurance option that, in some cases, may be their best choice.

MORE THAN A CONQUEROR LEGACY: BOOK REVIEW

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MORE THAN A CONQUEROR LEGACY

A BOOK BY BILL HAUN

REVIEWED BY JAMES MYERS

 

ISBN-13: 978-1546992394

ISBN-10: 1546992391

 

          I recently had the great pleasure of reading a book by my good friend and colleague, Bill Hahn.  Spiritual, emotional, personal, revealing, this is a good read, even if you are not interested in kidney/organ donation.  This book is about one man’s journey from life-altering loss, to near death, to rebirth and making the journey a blessing to others.  In his Forward to the book, Congressman Posey’s message says it best:  Despite all odds that Hahn encounters, Bill is a tireless advocate for organ donation, and just from his tone, you realize that the Surfpro is a guy that get things done; a bottom line overachiever.

         

          Bill takes great care in telling us his story.  This book with its spiritual confessions, videos, poem and even music tells the story in detailed, heartfelt honesty and precision.  This is a story about a professional surfer, fit, healthy, competitive, who suffers from kidney failure and subsequent loss.  It is in the Christian way that he responds to the drastic changes in his life that makes this book special.  Imagine one day your ripping up waves in Florida, and days later you’re in the hospital getting a fistula installed and placed on dialysis due to diabetes followed quickly by End Stage Renal Disease.  

 

          Time passes, once, twice he is called for a new kidney, only to be turned away.  But the third time, Bill gets THE CALL! He is reborn, transplanted, given back to us. 9 years and counting, Bill has been given new life.  He calls this his New Year’s Eve Miracle, a gift from God.  This blessing reminds Bill that he has overcome much in his journey; total blindness, comas, seizures, heart attacks and cancer. Prayers answered, Bill has become a world class Kidney/Organ Donation Advocate.  He has done much to honor his New Gift of Life, Including:

·        The Annual Footprints in the Sand Kidney Walk for the National Kidney Foundation of Florida;

 

·        The Starfish Donor Mom Tribute Dinner;

 

·        Helping Dialysis Patients Understand They are not Alone;

 

·        Inspiration for Those That Have Just Received a Donated Organ;

 

·        Establishing May 13^th as Florida Living Donor Day;

 

·        Writing the Song, Surfer’s Story, Now in the Library of Congress;

 

·        Responsible for the Dedication of the Hahn House Museum in Wisconsin;

 

·        Responsible for the Dedication of the Great Sauk State Trial and Life River Walk to be completed in 2018.

 

Bill has dedicated his life to others.  This book, much like the man, is an amazing testament to his determination, hard work and faith. It is sensitive and inciteful.  Just check out all the You Tube videos that go with each and every chapter of this book. Prayers, music, interviews, poems, and live events, showing the heart and soul of this Christian Kidney/Organ Donation Advocate. The strength, selflessness and sensitivity to the needs of others are the essence of Bill Hahn. This book is a vivid reflection of this great man.