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On 23 Feb 2003 at 7:29, Linda J Herman wrote: > It's now official - as of April 1, 2003 Medicare will cover DBS > surgery in all 50 states in the U.S. Previously coverage was decided > by the local Medicare carriers, and only about half of the states' > carriers would cover it. Nationwide coverage happened because one > individual - Barry Green - a PWP from Texas filed a request for a > national coverage decision in October 2001 and set the lengthy > decision process in motion. CONGRATULATIONS BARRY! Linda Herman Hi Linda, Linda, Thankyou for the "NEWS"! It's long overdue... Barry Green, Perry Cohen, and anyone else who worked to achieve this.... The Parkinson's community world wide benefits from your efforts. Thank you very much! (unfortunately, this surgery is on hold in some locales in Canada due to a lack of funding... murray) Here is a wee bit of the timeline from the Parkinsn Archive.... First info was a "heads-up" from our friend in Germany... July 10, 1995 I have following information on this subject. On a recent PD seminar we had Dr. Moringlane, university hospital, Homburg/Saar (FRG) with us who explained the latest developments here in Germany on operations of the brain, so called Thalamus-stimulation. In a Europe-wide survey of 280 patients with implanted electronic devices in 88 % of all cases the tremor was considerably reduced. Impressive results have been confirmed by a patient on the seminar who enjoys a significant improvement in his life quality due to this operation. The cost for the operation is about US$ 10,000. The hospital in Homburg seems to be leading in Germany in this field, but faces financing problems for this operation, since this surgery is not yet reimbursed by the health insurances. Recent (English) literature on this subject: 1) Siegfried, J. and Lippitz, B. "Bilateral chronic electrostimulation of ventroposterolateral pallidum : A new therapeutic approach for alleviating all parkinsonian symptoms." Neurosurgery 35, 6: 1123 - 1130, 1994. 2) Benabid, A. L., Pollak, P. Seigneuret, E., Hoffmann, D., Gay, E., Perret, J. "Chronic VIM thalamic stimulation in Parkinson's disease, essential tremor and extrapyramidal dysdinesias. Acta Neurochirurgica 58: 39 - 44, 1993. Further information can be obtained from the company producing the electronic devices: Medtronic GmbH Deutschland Abtlg. Neuromodulation Am Seestern 24 40547 Duesseldorf Germany Fax: 0049 2111 5293 199 Don't hesitate to ask for information (in English) on this subject. Anyway I cannot believe that this treatment should be new in the US. Hope that this information is useful for some people. Dietmar Wessel August 16, 1995 --- New Web Page Announcement --- Medtronic, Inc. has opened a home page at http://www.medtronic.com/ Thalamic Stimulation for the suppression of disabling tremor due to Essential Tremor and Parkinson's Disease is highlighted. August 4, 1997 The Food and Drug Administration has approved a brain implant device to help control tremors in people with essential tremor or Parkinson's disease. http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/NEW00580.html February 14, 2003 It's now official - as of April 1, 2003 Medicare will cover DBS surgery in all 50 states in the U.S. Previously coverage was decided by the local Medicare carriers, and only about half of the states' carriers would cover it. Nationwide coverage happened because one individual - Barry Green - a PWP from Texas filed a request for a national coverage decision in October 2001 and set the lengthy decision process in motion. CONGRATULATIONS BARRY! Linda Herman Read the TEXT http://www.grassrootsconnection.com/issuedbs.htm http://www.cms.gov/manuals/pm_trans/AB03023.pdf Read the Background http://www.grassrootsconnection.com/issuedbsbackground.htm * * * Murray Charters <[log in to unmask]> http://www.geocities.com/murraycharters/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn