Fighting the Department of Health

I had an interesting day on Wednesday. I testified in support of Senate Bill 1054 at the Arizona State legislature.

Let’s back up a bit. About a year ago my parents became friends with an Arizona State Senator, Wendy Rogers. We all went out to dinner.

Turns out Senator Rogers was a former Air Force pilot and was at the Air Force Academy around the same time I was there. We had lots of common interests.

Fast forward to about 2 months ago. I was looking into hyperbaric oxygen for my residents. We had taken a few residents to do it at outside facilities and seen good results. The problem was logistics. A lot of our residents are not very mobile and the treatment center is about 40 minutes away.

It looked like we could purchase a mild hyperbaric chamber and put it in our home. We could have one that could accommodate a wheel chair.

I called the Department of Health to tell them my plan and find out what do I need to do to comply with the regulations.

Their response was ‘hyperbaric is beyond your scope of services. You can’t do it.’

I didn’t want to give up that easily. I emailed my friend Senator Rogers and asked if there was anything we can do about it.

She asked me to give her a couple of days. Sure enough, about a week later, Sen. Rogers emailed me the draft of her Senate bill:

Perfect.

She then emailed me about three weeks ago and asked me to testify in front of the Arizona Senate’s Health and Human Services committee on Wednesday.

I jumped at the chance. This might really happen.

On Wednesday I showed up and testified in front of the committee. I explained to the committee:

• We will follow all the rules and regulations for hyperbaric oxygen in our homes

• Mild hyperbaric oxygen chambers are in thousands of residential homes across the US without any medical supervision other than a doctor’s prescription

• Our homes have a mobile medical doctor and nurses who come over to our homes and will provide oversight

• I am not asking for any state money or insurance claim. I’m just asking for the freedom to work with my residents and families with a therapy they want

• The risks are very minimal and all our residents will receive a full medical evaluation before using hyperbaric to ensure there are no contraindications

One state Senator asked me about oxygen toxicity. I explained that I was a former scuba instructor and that these chambers would be the equivalent pressure of being in the deep end of a swimming pool. Oxygen toxicity is only a problem at much deeper depths and pressures.

The Senator told me that is not an apples to apples comparison. It actually is. It’s just physics.

After I spoke, the Department of Health Services rep spoke and just said something like “It is the position of the DHS that assisted living homes are not clinical settings and therefore should not have hyperbaric oxygen.”

Then they called up a lawyer and representative for nursing homes and assisted living businesses who spoke in support of us. I did not see that coming.

The next step was for the committee to vote. It passed 4-3 along party lines. One of the Senators who voted for it stated she is a nurse and she loves to see innovation in healthcare such as hyperbaric oxygen.

When we left the meeting that lawyer came up to me. She thought we could have hyperbaric approved without legislation and said she will work on it.

Overall it was a good day. And I loved the fact I was doing this the same day as the hearings for Robert F Kennedy Jr. Hopefully the tide in healthcare is changing.