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A group of lawmakers and survivors advocate for stricter regulation of Lyme disease testing, diagnosis and reporting in Michigan – but critics say legislation may further confuse management cases.
On Thursday, the Michigan House Health Policy Committee heard eight bills and one of the supporters of the resolution said that it would help people with tick-borne illnesses to get properly diagnosed and treat faster.
Representatives Karen Whitsett, D-Detroit, and Gary Eisen, R-St. The Township of Clair, which both sponsored bills included in the package, told legislators that it was suffering from Lyme disease and was struggling to get a direct response and treatment from doctors for years. Whitsett showed the committee a pile of upholstered binders representing only part of her medical record while she was looking for a diagnosis and treatment for her illness.
"It took me months to find a doctor willing to test me," she said. "You can not get the help you really need and deserve."
Lyme disease is transmitted to humans by blacklegged ticks, also known as deer ticks, and if left untreated, can spread to the joints, heart or nervous system. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that most cases of Lyme disease can be successfully treated with a few weeks of antibiotics and prevents against prolonged use of antibiotics to treat symptoms of Lyme disease.
The resolution in the package would urge the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to update its definition of Lyme disease symptoms and to review the standards for diagnosis and treatment of the disease.
Internal invoices 4603 to 4609 would require additional testing and reporting of Lyme disease cases would require health insurers to cover Lyme disease tests and prohibit disciplinary action for physicians who opt for the treatment of patients with the disease Lyme with long-term antibiotic therapy.
A separate bill, HB 4659, would require parks, campgrounds and state trails to post warning signs about tick-borne diseases.
Proponents of the Bill who survived Lyme disease told the committee that he could prevent others from living years of pain and illness before undergoing effective treatment, and preventing them from paying thousands dollars for the necessary treatment.
But health providers have hesitated over some of the requirements imposed by the bills, noting that the CDC currently does not recognize Lyme disease as a chronic disease, meaning that there is no defined code insurers could use to cover it.
"In an emerging field of clinical medicine, we are concerned about a government mandate for a treatment protocol that has not been approved by the medical community," writes Kristen Kraft of Blue Cross, Michigan's Blue Shield. "Blue Cross recognizes the appropriate use of antibiotics for long periods of treatment for certain indications of illness, in consultation with providers."
The Michigan Lyme Disease Association also objected to the bills as presented, saying reform was needed, but the bills were repetitive, vaguely worded, and would provide little help for patients with Lyme disease.
"In their current form, bills are irrelevant in some cases, are not a top priority in others, are incomplete, lack funds to achieve their objectives and lack substance," wrote Carrie Nielsen, the secretary of the association.
Bills should be passed by the House and Senate and signed by the governor before becoming law.
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