Susan Ryan-Vollmar

CareWell Urgent Care: “Urgent Care Centers Part of the Solution”

admin — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 22:14:06 +0000

Urgent Care Centers Part of the Solution

By RENEE LOHMAN

January 03, 2013

Health insurers covering Cape Cod residents have saved about $584,000 since October.

That’s when my new health care venture, CareWell Urgent Care, opened a center in Dennis. Since then, we’ve treated about 730 people who would have likely otherwise sought care for their non-life-threatening injuries and ailments at a hospital emergency room. There, they would have waited hours for care while patients with life-threatening injuries and conditions were treated. And the final bill sent to insurers would have been hundreds of dollars more than what it cost at our center.

A 2010 Rand Corp. report found that emergency departments are overwhelmed with non-life-threatening and urgent medical visits that can be taken care of more cheaply and efficiently by urgent-care centers. When there are options other than a hospital emergency room for non-life-threatening urgent-care needs that arise after hours, everyone’s health care experience — both that of the doctor providing care and that of the patient receiving it — improves. Faster, more efficient, less stressful care contributes to better health outcomes. Meanwhile, costs go down.

Read the full article here.

Chelsea Collaborative: “Wary of limits on aiding gay people, group returns Catholic grant”

admin — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 01:38:41 +0000

From the Boston Globe:

A Chelsea community organization has returned a $40,000 grant from the Roman Catholic Church out of concern that the money could come with too many restrictions against helping gay people and working with organizations supporting gay rights.

A spokeswoman for Catholic bishops said the Chelsea group “took appropriate steps under the circumstances.”

Gladys Vega, executive director of the Chelsea Collaborative, said she and her colleagues have long recognized that grants from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the antipoverty arm of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, come with the expectation that recipients not promote activities that contradict Catholic teachings on issues such as gay marriage and abortion.

This, she said, had never been an issue for the collaborative, which received grants for its public housing work from the Catholic Campaign from 2002 to 2007. Last year, the collaborative’s Chelsea Latino Immigrant Committee, which advocates for immigrant workers, received a grant.

But Vega said she and colleagues were taken aback in March when a local representative of the Catholicn Campaign came for a site visit, speaking at length to the group about the need to avoid work that conflicted with Catholic teachings, including activities that might “support the gay lifestyle.”

Read the rest of the story.

MassEquality: “Democrats’ preliminary platform includes support for gay marriage”

admin — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 02:13:43 +0000

From Boston.com:

By Callum Borchers, Globe Correspondent

Support for gay marriage is part of the Democratic Party’s preliminary platform for the fall, Representative Barney Frank’s office confirmed to the Globe Monday.

Democrats’ platform drafting committee, which includes Frank, met in Minneapolis over the weekend and agreed on draft language that would put a major political party officially on-board with legal same-sex marriage for the first time in US history.

The language will be considered by the full Democratic platform committee, which meets in Detroit between Aug. 10 and 12. If approved, an endorsement of gay marriage will be put to vote at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte in September.

Democrats’ preliminary backing of gay marriage was reported first by the Washington Blade, a newspaper focused on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities. Citing an unnamed Democratic source, the paper reported the tentative platform also includes a rejection of the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriages.

“I was part of a unanimous decision to include [gay marriage],” Frank, who married his longtime partner earlier this month, told the Blade.

Raise Your Voice
Click to contact candidates or elected officials about this issue. The inclusion of a pro-gay marriage plank on the Democratic platform would follow President Obama’s announcement in May that he supports legal same-sex marriage.

“At a certain point, I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married,” Obama said in an interview at the White House with “Good Morning America” coanchor Robin Roberts.

Mitt Romney, Obama’s Republican challenger, opposes gay marriage.

Obama, who for more than a year had said his view of gay marriage was “evolving,” said he arrived at a supportive position after talking with friends and family members and observing some people on his White House staff “who are in incredibly committed, monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together.”

Others in the Obama administration, including Vice President Joe Biden and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, had indicated their support of gay marriage in the days before the president’s announcement.

The first endorsement of same-sex marriage by a sitting president marked a milestone on the road toward legal gay marriage, and the backing of the Democratic Party would mark another, according to Kara S. Suffredini, executive director of Mass Equality, an LGBT rights group.

“We are thrilled that marriage equality has so far made it onto the Democratic platform,” Suffredini said. “This is the start of more equality, not more division.”

Suffredini added that she is not worried about a possible conservative backlash, saying she believes “the days of gay marriage as a divisive vote driver are over.”

But Brian S. Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, told the Associated Press that if gay marriage winds up in the Democratic platform, his group “will rally supporters of traditional marriage to make sure they realize that the outcome of the presidential election may determine the future of marriage in our country.”

R. Clarke Cooper, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans, a conservative gay rights group, acknowledged a pro-gay marriage Democratic platform would carry symbolic value. But he also noted that presidential and other candidates are not bound by their parties’ official platforms and seldom stand firmly on every plank.

“I don’t put a lot of stock in platform language,” Cooper said.

Still, Cooper said he will participate in GOP platform discussions next month, and “the case is going to be made to eliminate anything perceived as anti-gay from the Republican platform.”

There will be no endorsement of gay marriage, but the goal, Cooper said, will be to strike any language that would define marriage as a heterosexual union, making the Republican platform more inclusive. Log Cabin Republicans planned to make such a pitch before the Democrats’ preliminary platform was revealed, Cooper noted.

Callum Borchers can be reached at callum.borchers@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @callumborchers.

MassEquality: “Making the Unaccompanied Homeless Youth Commission Work for LGBT Youth”

admin — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 02:10:24 +0000

From The Rainbow Times:
By: Kara Suffredini*, Esq. and Robyn Frost**/Special for TRT–

There are an estimated 1.3 million children and teens in this country who are experiencing homelessness. Up to 40 percent of those who are living on the streets without a parent or guardian are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT).

A recent survey by the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law of those who provide services to homeless youth found that almost seven in 10 (68%) of LGBT homeless youth who have received services have experienced family rejection and more than half (58%) have experienced abuse in their families.

These young people face higher rates of malnutrition, victimization through physical and sexual assault, substance abuse, and mental health issues than their peers who live at home. They are more likely to drop out of school and engage in “survival sex” in exchange for shelter—which makes them more vulnerable to pregnancy and HIV infection and other sexually-transmitted diseases.

Massachusetts is no exception to this crisis. The Commonwealth is often seen as a comparatively more welcoming place for LGBT people than the rest of the country for a number of reasons: our status as being the first state in the United States to recognize the rights of same-sex couples to marry; the landmark, first-in-the-nation 1993 hearings held around the state at which lesbian and gay students testified about the harassment and discrimination they faced in school; the establishment of a first-in-the-nation state commission charged with making schools safer for LGBT youth; and the establishment of Gay Straight Alliances in our middle and high schools to bring support to LGBT youth. The truth, however, is much more complicated than that.

We all like to tell our young people that life is good. Some of us have even recorded “It Gets Better” videos delivering this message in great detail. But for many young people, life isn’t good and it doesn’t get better. Indeed, for some who hear our message and take the risk to come out, they are rejected, as the Williams Institute survey found. Indeed, an analysis of Massachusetts high school students by researchers affiliated with Children’s Hospital in Boston last summer found that “sexual minority youth” are more likely to run away from home due to conflict over their identity, or to be thrown out of their homes by parents: “Rejection and victimization within the family related to minority sexual orientation status likely contribute to a greater risk of homelessness among sexual minority youths.”

The Children’s Hospital study found that “[t]he risk of being homeless and living separate from parents or guardians was significantly greater among youths with a minority sexual orientation than it was among exclusively heterosexual participants.” In other words, homeless youth who happen to be LGBT are far less likely than their heterosexual peers to be experiencing homelessness due to financial catastrophe impacting the whole family. These young people, in particular, are at greater risk of substance abuse, engaging in survival sex, and criminal behavior than homeless children and teens who spend a good part of their day in the company of an adult or guardian.

The rejection these LGBT youth experience doesn’t end at the door of their family home. There are few homeless shelters in Massachusetts set up to properly care for young people. Teens and young adults are forced to take shelter housed with adults, some of whom can be violent and unstable. These are not nearly enough safe spaces for young people, especially LGBT youth who are often victimized based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.

Fortunately, Massachusetts is now poised to do something about this. State lawmakers included a measure creating a special commission to study the issue of unaccompanied youth homelessness in the Commonwealth in the Fiscal Year 2013 budget, and Governor Deval Patrick approved the creation of the Commission by signing the FY 2013 budget into law on Sunday, July 8. This Commission, which will include youth, providers, advocates, legislators, and state agency heads, will have the authority to make recommendations for housing programs and services to support unaccompanied youth who are experiencing homelessness. Both of our organizations will have a seat on this Commission and we plan to bring the unique voices of homeless LGBT youth to the larger discussion of challenges facing our Commonwealth’s homeless youth population.

*Kara Suffredini, Esq. is the Executive Director of MassEquality. **Robyn Frost is the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless.

MassEquality: “Mayor deserves thanks for standing up to incendiary views of food chain’s president”

admin — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 02:25:52 +0000

From the Boston Globe:

We disagree with the Boston Globe editorial board, which questioned Boston Mayor Thomas Menino’s reaction to Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy’s incendiary remarks about marriage equality (“Boston shouldn’t block chain because of president’s views,” July 25).

Chick-fil-A has donated millions of dollars to organizations such as Family Research Council and Exodus International, which work to promote discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and to create a hostile climate in which homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia can thrive. These hateful actions cause real harm to millions of individuals and families across this country, and are one of the reasons that LGBT people — even here in Massachusetts — face higher rates of youth suicide attempts, youth homelessness, HIV infection rates, stress, and poor health just because of who they are.

This is not just about policies; it’s about people. For using his public position to ensure and forcefully point out the obvious — that Boston strives to be a wonderfully welcoming and affirming city for LGBT people — Menino deserves our thanks. No doubt, his leadership has improved and even saved lives.

Meanwhile, Chick-fil-A’s Cathy is also learning a lesson in the obvious: It does not pay to discriminate.

Kara S. Suffredini

AIDS Action Committee: “Living with the stigma of HIV: Many in state hide their status”

admin — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 01:41:10 +0000

From the Boston Globe:

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON, DC — Attending the packed meetings of the 2012 International AIDS Conference, it’s hard to believe anyone hides their HIV status anymore. In a session on countries like the US that have made HIV nondisclosure to partners a criminal offense, one woman stood up and announced that when she was diagnosed, “it never crossed my mind for a second to prosecute the man who gave it to me.” A gay videographer from Provincetown introduced himself with a handshake, his name, and a declaration that he’s had AIDS since 1987.

But thousands of HIV positive individuals live in a shadow world, unwilling or unable to go public with their infections because they fear losing their jobs, their friends, or the person who just bought them a drink at a bar.

More than one in five Massacusetts residents living with HIV report that they “work hard” to keep their infection status a secret from everyone, and nearly half said that they haven’t revealed their status to anyone outside of their immediate family, according to a 2009 study of conducted by Harvard Law School’s Health Law and Policy Clinic.

The stigma that still surrounds the disease “can affect behavior, including delayed HIV testing, putting off needed care, and not disclosing status to medical providers,” write the study authors.

Myths still abound about how HIV spreads such as it can be transmitted on plates of food, toilet seats, or a spray of saliva. (It only spreads through blood or sexual intercourse.)

As a result, many people would prefer to avoid those with the virus. A 2011 Kaiser Family Foundation survey of nearly 2,600 Americans found that 18 percent of respondents wouldn’t feel comfortable working with someone who had HIV, and nearly 30 percent wouldn’t want their child to have a teacher who was HIV positive. (An HIV-positive boy in Hershey, Pa. was recently denied admission to a boarding school due to his infection.) Close to half of the survey respondents also said they wouldn’t want their food prepared by someone who carried the virus.

“People are going underground more with their HIV status,” said Rebecca Haag, president of the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts. “Some who used to be active in our organization are pulling away; they tell me they don’t want that to be their primary label on the job or when they’re dating someone new.”

Of the state’s 26,000 to 28,000 residents estimated to be infected with HIV, about 15 to 18 percent don’t know they’re carriers, according to Haag, which is lower than the 25 percent nationwide who aren’t aware of their HIV status. The state also implemented a new law this week that removes the requirement of specific written consent for HIV testing, allowing patients to provide just their verbal consents.

“We pushed for this law to try to normalize testing for HIV,” said Haag, “to allow doctors to offer it without any judgements” and for patients to not feel stigma surrounding the test itself. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended for years that doctors stop using separate consent forms for HIV testing, and Massachusetts was one of the last remaining states to require such documentation.

Beyond separate consent forms, more than 30 states — though not Massachusetts — have laws on the books making it a specific crime for those infected with HIV to hide their status from their sexual partners. Some people have been prosecuted and sent to jail for not disclosing their status even if they have no signs of virus in their blood, thanks to treatments, and haven’t transmitted the infection to anyone.

“The laws aren’t based on the science of transmission, and disclosure is very difficult to prove,” said Brook Kelly, an HIV human rights attorney for the US Positive Women’s Network, during a presentation at the AIDS conference. “While the laws were supposedly designed to protect women, they’ve been used as tools of coercion to force women to stay in abusive relationships with partners threatening to report them to the police if they leave.”

AIDS experts point out that the goal of getting to “zero infections and zero deaths” will never be reached until everyone is tested and treated for the virus. “The rationale has been that if we can normalize testing – and make HIV into a chronic disease rather than a death sentence — we can reduce stigma,” said Dianne Rausch, a psychologist at the National Institute of Mental Health in her remarks at the AIDS conference. “But stigma has a negative impact on testing and getting us to universal treatment.”

Tim McCarthy, the videographer from Provincetown, pointed out that even with advances in at-home HIV testing and state-of-the-art treatments, HIV infections are surging in certain populations. “It’s incredible in this day and age that the biggest perpetrator of AIDS is the stigma.”

Deborah Kotz can be reached at dkotz@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @debkotz2.

AIDS Action Committee: “Hope for treating AIDS — and diabetes”

admin — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 01:53:14 +0000

From the Washington Post:

Published: July 26

Regarding the July 22 front-page article “The story of AIDS now also about hope”:

As the article noted, “treatment as prevention” has become the new battle cry of those fighting AIDS. But our experience in Massachusetts has shown that “care is prevention” is likely to lead to greater success. Since 1999, Massachusetts has reduced new HIV infections by 54 percent, which will save the commonwealth more than $2 billion in health-care costs. This has been accomplished with aggressive outreach and behavioral interventions such as needle exchange.

But the key has been getting people with HIV into care and treatment. Since 2001, an HIV diagnosis has meant coverage under the state’s Medicaid plan, ensuring early access to treatment for thousands of low-income individuals. Since 2006, Massachusetts has had near-universal health insurance for every resident, greatly improving access to care. And the state government has invested in a strong public-health infrastructure.

To end the epidemic, we need to marry treatment advances with care and support for those infected and affected by HIV and AIDS.

Rebecca Haag, Boston

The writer is the president and chief executive of the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts.

AIDS Action Committee: “COMMENTARY: Massachusetts one step closer to ending AIDS epidemic”

admin — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 01:43:22 +0000

From the Brockton Enterprise:

by Rebecca Haag

If you don’t know your HIV status, you should.

Today, it’s easier than ever in Massachusetts to learn your status through your doctor thanks to a change in the state’s HIV testing law that goes into effect on July 26. This new law, “An Act to Increase Routine Screening for HIV,” modernizes the commonwealth’s HIV testing laws by replacing the need for written consent before an HIV test can be administered with verbal consent. The new law still maintains all privacy protections for patients that were present in the old law.

With an estimated 26,000 to 28,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in Massachusetts, but approximately 21 percent of them unaware that they are HIV positive, it’s clear that we need expanded HIV testing of state residents to end the epidemic. Expanded testing in communities like Brockton should make an impact; the city ranks fifth out of the state’s top 15 municipalities with the highest rates of new diagnoses of HIV infection. Statewide, about one-third of those who learn that they are HIV positive are also diagnosed with AIDS within just two months of their HIV diagnosis, which shows that they may have been HIV positive for years without knowing it – and without their healthcare providers ever suggesting that they get tested for HIV.

Increased HIV testing will help get those who are HIV positive into care and treatment earlier and will result in better health outcomes and lower healthcare treatment costs. Earlier testing for HIV will also help prevent the spread of new infections since those who know their status and are in treatment are much less likely to transmit the virus to others.

Massachusetts has long been a national leader in the fight against AIDS. New diagnoses of HIV have declined by 54 percent since 1999, which will result in $2 billion savings in healthcare costs. At approximately 650 new diagnoses annually, we are tantalizingly close to eliminating the spread of HIV in Massachusetts. A critical tool in this fight will be the ability to more easily test those who are most vulnerable to HIV infection, including people of color and gay and bisexual men.

Black residents make up just 6 percent of the state’s population, but 30 percent of those who are living with HIV/AIDS. Hispanics/Latinos make up 8 percent of the population, but comprise 25 percent of those living with HIV/AIDS. Forty-four percent of women living with HIV/AIDS in Massachusetts are black, and 28 percent are Hispanic/Latina.

Meanwhile, male-to-male sex accounts for 40 percent of those recently diagnosed with HIV in Massachusetts, making it the most common way people in Massachusetts become HIV positive.

All that said, it is clear that we can’t test our way out of the epidemic. In 2009, between June 27 and July 29, AIDS Action Committee held five town hall-style meetings to solicit feedback from providers, patients and activists in Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Gloucester and Brockton on current testing practices. We learned that stigma around HIV testing prevents some people from getting tested. We learned that some people who are vulnerable to HIV infection fear losing healthcare insurance if they test HIV positive and so they have not been tested. We also learned there is a profound lack of confidence in the confidentiality of HIV tests.

Now that the challenge of expanding HIV testing is behind us, we need to work together with the medical and public health communities to find a way to reduce stigma. We also need to ensure that all relevant medical information is securely in the hands of physicians who need it. And as we continue to move toward universal electronic medical records, we need to find ways to address patient concerns about confidentiality and ensure their full participation in the process.

In the meantime, the single most important thing you can do to end the epidemic is to learn your HIV status.

Rebecca Haag is the president and CEO of AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts.

AIDS Action Committee: “Mass. Changes HIV Testing Law, Only Verbal Permission Needed”

admin — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 01:40:03 +0000

From WBUR: BOSTON — Massachusetts is one of just two states requiring written consent for doctors to screen patients for HIV, but that will change this week. Starting Thursday, doctors will only need verbal permission to conduct the test.

AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts CEO Rebecca Haag said the switch reflects changing attitudes toward HIV treatment.

“This was a relic of the past, Haag said. “Fifteen percent of people living in Massachusetts don’t know their status. And that’s a much bigger barrier to ending this epidemic than written informed consent.”

Under the new state law, doctors still need written permission to share test results with other health care providers.

AIDS Action Committee: “Closer To Ending the AIDS Epidemic”

admin — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 01:55:46 +0000

From the MetroWest Daily News:

If you don’t know your HIV status, you should.

Today, it’s easier than ever in Massachusetts to learn your status through your doctor thanks to a change in the state’s HIV testing law that goes into effect on July 26. This new law, “An Act to Increase Routine Screening for HIV,” modernizes the Commonwealth’s HIV testing laws by replacing the need for written consent before an HIV test can be administered with verbal consent. The new law still maintains all privacy protections for patients that were present in the old law.

With an estimated 26,000 to 28,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in Massachusetts, but approximately 21 percent of them unaware that they are HIV positive, it’s clear that we need expanded HIV testing of state residents to end the epidemic. Expanded testing in communities like Waltham should make an impact; the city ranks 11 out of the state’s top 15 municipalities with the highest rates of new diagnoses of HIV infection. Statewide, about one-third of those who learn that they are HIV positive are also diagnosed with AIDS within just two months of their HIV diagnosis, which shows that they may have been HIV positive for years without knowing it — and without their health care providers ever suggesting that they get tested for HIV.

Increased HIV testing will help get those who are HIV positive into care and treatment earlier and will result in better health outcomes and lower health care treatment costs. Earlier testing for HIV will also help prevent the spread of new infections since those who know their status and are in treatment are much less likely to transmit the virus to others.

Massachusetts has long been a national leader in the fight against AIDS. New diagnoses of HIV have declined by 54 percent since 1999 which will result in $2 billion savings in health care costs. At approximately 650 new diagnoses annually, we are tantalizingly close to eliminating the spread of HIV in Massachusetts. A critical tool in this fight will be the ability to more easily test those who are most vulnerable to HIV infection, including people of color and gay and bisexual men.

Black residents make up just six percent of the state’s population, but 30 percent of those are living with HIV/AIDS. Hispanics/Latinos make up eight percent of the population but comprise 25 percent of those living with HIV/AIDS. Forty-four percent of women living with HIV/AIDS in Massachusetts are black, and 28 percent are Hispanic/Latina. Meanwhile, male-to-male sex accounts for 40 percent of those recently diagnosed with HIV in Massachusetts, making it the most common way people in Massachusetts become HIV positive.

All that said, it is clear that we can’t test our way out of the epidemic. In 2009, between June 27 and July 29, 2009, AIDS Action Committee held five town hall-style meetings to solicit feedback from providers, patients, and activists in Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Gloucester, and Brockton around current testing practice. We learned that stigma around HIV testing prevents some people from getting tested. We learned that some people who are vulnerable to HIV infection fear losing health care insurance if they test HIV positive and so they have not been tested. We also learned that there is a profound lack of confidence in the confidentiality of HIV tests.

In the meantime, the single most important thing you can do to end the epidemic is to learn your HIV status.

Rebecca Haag is the president & CEO of AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts.