Kentucky will soon require simple screening at birth to detect silent killers of newborns

A new state law taking effect in January will require all babies born in Kentucky to be screened for critical congenital heart disease, which is often a silent killer of newborns who appear to be healthy and who are discharged from the hospital with the unrecognizable disease.

Since Indiana became the first state in the nation to get such mandatory screening signed into law in May 2011, more than 20 states have passed legislation requiring a non-invasive, inexpensive screening test called pulse oximetry at birth, reports Laura Ungar of The Courier-Journal. The test can detect this life-threatening disease and allow health care providers to act quickly to save the baby's life.

Don Shieman, Kentucky state director of the March of Dimes, who helped lobby for the law with the state legislature, said about 65 infants are born with CCHD in Kentucky each year. “If we can detect the problem soon enough, we can save lives,” Shieman told Ungar. State Sen. Dennis Parrett, an Elizabethtown Democrat who helped sponsor the state’s new law, said this requirement is a simple solution to a deadly problem he know something about.

“My wife and I have some experience with this,” Parrett told Ungar. “Our younger daughter was born with a severe heart defect” called tricuspid atresia, and underwent surgery at Kosair Childen's Hospital and her heart is doing fine, Parrett told Ungar. “There’s a lot of infants whose heart defects are not caught,” Parrett said. “What we wanted to do is make it a part of normal infant screening.”

Each test costs about $4, so Parrett said there’s no real fiscal impact to adding pulse oximetry to the list or required screenings for newborns, says Ungar. In general, hospitals already have the equipment for the test, many of which are already doing the test.

The legislation could lead to success stories similar to that of Shooter Bratcher of Caneyville, right, who was treated for infection and underwent surgery for CCHD recently at Kosair. Shooter was born full-term and and seemed normal at birth, but about five days after going home, things just didn't seem right, and he kept getting worse. Shooter's parents took him to the ER at their local hospital, Twin Lakes Regional Medical Center in Leitchfield, where doctors didn't pick up on his CCHD, Ungar reports. A day later, he went by ambulance to Kosair, and could have died if his parents didn't notice the little signs of a problem. Unfortunately, such signs sometimes show up at night, when parents are asleep or not paying close attention. Other times, the disease isn't caught quickly enough, leading to serious serious problems such as infections, brain damage, disability or death, Ungar reports.


Pulse oximetry will allow health care providers to detect seven types of CCHD. For more information about the test, the law or to watch a video in which Shooter's parents share their story, click here.

Medically unnecessary procedures are part of culture of disability in Eastern Kentucky, professor writes

St. Joseph London Hospital is taking heat over accusations of performing medically unnecessary cardiac catheterizations and other invasive cardiac procedures, and a look at the health data by a Kentucky physician suggests that the phenomenon is broader and reflects cultural problem in Eastern Kentucky.

An examination of health data by Dr. Peter Hasselbacher, a retired internist and professor emeritus at the University of Louisville, confirmed that St. Joseph London performed a large number of invasive heart procedures for such a relatively small, rural hospital.  Many patients have sued the hospital, alleging unnecessary procedures, notes a story in The Courier-Journal.  And when the hospital came under federal supervision, the frequency of its most commonly performed stent-angioplasty procedure dropped by 37 percent, Hasselbacher reports on his Kentucky Health Policy Institute blog.

As the number of St. Joseph London procedures dropped sharply, there was a more dramatic increase in catheterizations and angioplasties statewide. From 2010 to 2011, the number of the most commonly reported angioplasties in Kentucky increased from 12,803 to 22,688, a 77 percent increase, reports Hasselbracher.

This map showing how many people living in each of Kentucky’s counties underwent a percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) in 2010. This is the most common invasive cardiac procedure in Kentucky and is used to prevent and treat heart attacks.

In this map, the darker the shade of blue, the greater percentage of people living in that county had an angioplasty in 2010. The differences among the counties is staggering. It ranges from a low of 42 people per 100,000 in a single year, all the way up to 1,700 per 100,000 – a 40-fold difference. In the counties with the highest rates, between 1 percent  and 2 percent of the county's population underwent the procedure in a single year.

These rates are based on where people live, rather than where they go to the hospital, and the counties with the highest rates are in Appalachia. Hasselbacher calls Eastern Kentucky is "an angioplasty factory" and says the phenomenon can't be be fully explained by the simple fact that people in the region are sicker than those in the rest of the state; he offers another explanation.

"It is my belief that a major, perhaps even the major segment of the economy of Eastern Kentucky revolves around the getting of disability and the keeping of disability" and its government benefits, Hasselbacher writes. "As other industries such as coal and tobacco have faded in importance, the pursuit of disability, medically justified and not, has drained away resources from medical services into an ersatz unemployment and social support program."

Hasselbacher, left, says he doesn't wish to imply that the people of Eastern Kentucky are morally distinguishable from the rest of us, or that their health-care professionals are any less professional. He acknowledges that the region has had an uphill struggle for many years, and it is easy for providers to fall into the trap of wanting to do everything and anything to help patients.

"A culture has evolved in which being sick or just having a diagnosis of being sick is a gateway to economic security for people and professionals alike," Hasselbacher writes. "Some patients, doctors, hospitals, and lawyers wittingly or unwittingly support that process. Doing medially unnecessary diagnostic testing and treatment is part of that culture. It is also good for business." (Read more)   

Childhood obesity is linked to more immediate health problems than doctors formerly realized

While a plethora of research on childhood obesity has linked it to long-term health problems, a new UCLA study focuses on the condition's more proximate consequences, showing that obese children are at a greater risk for immediate health problems than previously thought. That's important for Kentucky, which ranks poorly in many health measures and is third highest in child obesity. (Photo by Tara Kaprowy)

"This study paints a comprehensive picture of childhood obesity, and we were surprised to see just how many conditions were associated with childhood obesity," said lead author Dr. Neal Halfon, a professor of pediatrics, public health and public policy at UCLA.

Compared to kids who are not overweight, the study found that obese children have nearly twice the risk of having three or more reported medical, mental or developmental conditions. Specific medical conditions included bone, joint and muscle problems; asthma; allergies; headaches; and ear infections. Obese children also reported a greater tendency toward emotional and behavioral problems, higher rates of grade repetition, missed school days and other school problems, ADHD, conduct disorder, depression, learning disabilities, and developmental delays.

The study provides the first comprehensive national profile of associations between weight status and a broad set of associated health conditions, a UCLA release said. Halfon said these findings should serve as a wake-up call to physicians, parents and teachers, who should be better informed of the risk for health conditions associated with childhood obesity. (Read more)

Open enrollment period for 2012 Medicare Part D continues now through Dec. 7

The open enrollment period for 2012 Medicare Part D began this week and will continue through Dec. 7. The open period is a time for seniors and persons with disabilities to take advantage of prescription drug benefits or, if they've been previously enrolled in the program, to modify their existing plans. The Part D program, now in its sixth year, was set up to assure those 65 and older, or those with disabilities, easy access to their medications.

According to the Medicare Rx Access Network of Kentucky, nearly 11 million Americans over 65 gained comprehensive prescription drug coverage as a result of Medicare Part D's implementation including 63 percent of Kentucky’s seniors. Currently, more than 40 million people with Medicare -- 90 percent of all beneficiaries and 89 percent of Kentucky seniors – now have comprehensive prescription drug coverage.

For additional information on the Medicare Part D program, or to view and compare Medicare plans, go here.