Pointing fingers at many in case
Re “Tough calls in transplant case,” Dec. 22
The unfortunate death of leukemia patient Nataline Sarkisyan is yet another reminder that our broken medical care system is in desperate need of repair. The expert specialists at UCLA determined that a liver transplant was indicated for the treatment of her condition. At that point, Cigna HealthCare should have authorized the procedure. Nataline’s chances of long-term survival went from slim to zero as soon as Cigna meddled in her medical care. If I had had an official role in caring for a patient who died without my ever seeing her, I’d have my license suspended and would no doubt lose any malpractice case brought against me. Yet, on a daily basis, health insurers make life-and-death decisions without a face-to-face encounter with the patient.
The lesson to be learned here is that insurance authorization is unnecessary when a patient is in expert hands. At the very minimum, insurers should designate their expert high-risk providers, such as cardiac surgery units and transplant teams, as authorization-free so these health professionals can get on with the business of providing the best care possible for their critically ill patients.
David Hurwitz
Calabasas
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Our hearts must go out to the Sarkisyan family for its terrible ordeal. Doctors wrote that patients in situations similar to Nataline’s who undergo transplants have a six-month survival rate of about 65%. This may actually have been optimistic given her overall medical condition.
Spending hundreds of thousands on the possibility of extending life a few months, weeks or even days is one of the reasons that we spend far more on healthcare than any other industrialized country. We should spend the money when there is a reasonable chance of long-term survival. I don’t know if Cigna HealthCare handled this claim incorrectly. If the issue is settled out of court, we may never know. But someone has to say no, even when it may seem heartless, or we will never get our healthcare costs under control.
Hal Bookbinder
Oak Park
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As a nation, we turn a blind eye to hundreds of thousands of men, women and children who sleep on our city streets and eat out of garbage cans every day. So the unnecessary and tragic death of Nataline Sarkisyan probably won’t do anything to change a healthcare system that only provides timely and high-quality medical care to the few who can afford it, and ensures that insurance companies get richer. I guess as long as it is someone else’s child, sibling, parent or grandparent, the deaths of victims won’t matter to an indifferent and impotent public.
So this is the greatest country in the world?
Stuart Singer
Inglewood
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So Nataline is at the UCLA Medical Center -- her doctors ready to do the procedure -- but they won’t go forward until they know they are going to get paid. No money, no life.
If these people were truly caring, they would have performed the operation and worked out the payment details later. A young woman’s life hung in the balance, but all anyone seemed to care about, including the doctors and the hospital, was the cash.
Yes, Cigna may have been heartless, but no medical professional in this case has clean hands.
Paul Jackson
Chatsworth
