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Jun. 28, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

HEALTH CRISIS: Aid from Congress isn't coming

Officials hoped for $5 million to cover hepatitis C investigation

By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
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WASHINGTON -- Southern Nevada health officials may face a financial squeeze after Congress failed to come through with $5 million to defray costs of responding to the hepatitis C health crisis in Las Vegas, officials said Friday.

Money that had been earmarked for the Southern Nevada Health District was stripped from an emergency spending bill before federal lawmakers completed their work on Thursday and sent the bill to the White House.

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    • Also jettisoned was $21 million inserted by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., for outbreak prevention strategies at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    A portion of the CDC money would have been budgeted in Las Vegas, where authorities continue to investigate clinics affiliated with the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada.

    Health investigators said patients could have been exposed to hepatitis strains or the HIV virus through unsafe practices such as the reuse of syringes and anesthesia vials that were documented at the clinics.

    More than 50,000 patients were advised to take blood tests for the diseases, including a number of uninsured or underinsured people whose tests were being conducted at community clinics.

    "It would have been very helpful if we did receive the funding, not so much from the perspective of the health district but from the perspective of the public that would have been affected and had their needs met," health district spokeswoman Jennifer Sizemore said Friday.

    "What that means is we will have to meet those needs through community resources that are already in place, which are pretty tapped at this point," she said.

    "We understood going in that it would be difficult to get the money included in that bill," Sizemore said.

    In the meantime, the Southern Nevada Health District has redirected funds from other grants and accessed other sources including fines that were levied against the owners of the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada, Sizemore said.

    Democrats said they encountered tough resistance from the Bush administration, which had insisted that the emergency bill be limited to $162 billion for continued military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and selected foreign assistance.

    Over the past several weeks, House Democratic leaders and the White House reached agreement to add $21 billion for domestic programs.

    Money was included to improve veterans benefits, extend jobless benefits by 13 weeks, repair Midwest communities hit by floods and rebuild levees damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

    But another $10 billion worth of domestic spending was discarded, including money to help poor families pay heating and cooling bills, and community grants for law enforcement. The Nevada funding was in that category.

    "Getting anything through this White House is enormously difficult," Reid said in a statement Friday. "The hepatitis C scare in Southern Nevada is a serious issue I will continue to work to address in Congress."

    Reid said he has initiated Plan B. He said he has placed money for the hepatitis C investigation in a separate Department of Health and Human Services spending bill that the Senate Appropriations Committee approved this week and that may be completed later in the year.

    A Reid aide said that bill contains $550,000 for the Southern Nevada Health District, and $5 million for the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention.

    Separately, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said he has been trying to persuade the Department of Health and Human Services to reprogram unspent funds in other programs towards Las Vegas. He has not reported progress on that effort.

    Of the health district's $5 million request to Congress, $3 million was to be spent on blood tests on 15,000 uninsured and underinsured patients, and $1.3 million for followup tests on persons found positive for HIV or hepatitis strains.

    Sizemore said much of the federal funding would have been forwarded to community clinics operated by Nevada Health Centers, a nonprofit that has been offering blood tests to patients.

    Sizemore said she did not know how the funding situation was affecting ongoing testing. Officials at the Carson City-based Nevada Health Centers had no immediate comment on Friday.



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    Cindy wrote on July 08, 2008 04:42 PM: What happened to the money Desai said he was going to put in a fund for all the people that required testing?

    He took out a full page ad in RJ HIMSLEF, saying he would fund an account for the people needing testing.

    HE LIED, HE HASN'T PUT ONE RED CENT ANYWHERE. HE HASN'T PUT UP A PENNY
    TO HELP THE PEOPLE HE BURNED. HE IS A KILLER.


    Don wrote on July 08, 2008 04:29 PM: Why should the taxpayers pay for this?
    Desai and his butchers should pay, not the federal government.

    Since Desai's daughter was working in Harry Reid's office, perhaps Harry will cough up some bucks.

    They are all in bed together.

    This state was sooooo much better off when the mob was running it. The mob would have taken Desai out a long time ago. Oh, for the old days.


    w.riley wrote on July 03, 2008 05:53 AM: I was one of the people tested,and thank god i was neg.
    Why are these doctors still living in there posh mansions, and driving there mercedes... They should be stripped of there wealth,and sent to prison,for life,where they have time to think about what has occured,to save a buck!!


    CF wrote on June 30, 2008 07:30 AM: The fact of the matter is that the state and local government can not get the $ for this mess from the Endoscopy Center because they have not been prosecuted and therefore are technically not accountable for any of this; yet. Plus, if by some miracle they were to pay some reparations prior, it would give the impression of admission of guilt. The lawyers have made sure to drag this out for at least the next few months or years at which time, it will be too late for any government agency or person to get what they need financially to help with the crisis at hand. I feel really sorry for the people who have to deal with this. In the end, there will probably be no real justice for anyone. We can thank both Gov. Gibbons and especially Tony Clark for this Debacle. Thanks for the attempted (or alleged) cover-up Tony, I hope your paid hansomely or awarded a great job in Desai's camp when this is all over. Way to look out for the public.

    Remember both their names for later.


    Eddie wrote on June 29, 2008 06:58 AM: Evidently "whatcost" and "publicvoice" didn't have a procedure done at these facilities. The people who now have hapatitis will incur large costs, regardless of their insurance. I know it isn't a large number of people at this point, but one is one too many when carelessness like this goes on. Evidently you're interested in this subject, because you read the article.


    WHAT wrote on June 28, 2008 11:25 AM: 4 BILLION A WEEK FOR THE IRAQ WAR...


    whatcost wrote on June 28, 2008 08:39 AM: Yo, what cost? Reid signed into legislation an additional $20 mil to cover the costs of testing over to months ago, which was integrated into some Iraq funding bill. Also, many people have insurance providers that took care of these exams or in some cases, labs provided exams free of charge without any intention of collecting after. Then what is the big cost? The only thing costing us is our mental sanity by you people writing about this sh---- every day. Give it a rest. Talk about the election man, or how about the recession in Las Vegas, or maybe even gas prices. Anything but this stuff, that is long over and caused by overzealous and uneduated reporters. Figure it out, talk about the important stuff. Thanks man.


    publicvoice wrote on June 28, 2008 08:34 AM: Don't go about blaming the clinic doctors. They have nothing to do with this. The media makes up stories about their greed when they have given millions in dollars of free care to an unnamed county hospital, which anyone with half a brain can figure out. This whole thing is just driven and orchestrated by media sensationalism. If anyone should be made to answer is that Health district Labus dude. Why did he cause this public health scare by informing tens of thousands of people who did not exhibit any risk of having this particular genotyped virus? He's probably thinking about his own career and wanting to advance to the next level by making his name public and known. People should focus on the motivations of these health district guys who just want to capitalize off of something at the expense of distorting the truth and ultimately hurting the general public.


    br wrote on June 28, 2008 06:31 AM: Desai and his merry band of quacks should be made to turn their heads and cough up ALL cost of resolving the mess they have created.


    b wrote on June 28, 2008 05:12 AM: If Reid and Ensign are so interested, they should go after the Indian doctors who instigated this deed, not ask me and other taxpayers across the USA to pay for the damage that group of Indian doctors done