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David.... As you know from my List-posts and from our email exchange, I have had the collagen injections performed by Dr. Gerald Berke at UCLA's Neck & Throat Clinic (phone # (310) 206-6688). Currently I've started taking steps to get Kaiser Permanente's Woodland Hills facility (in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley) to do this procedure. I've already seen my internist there who referred me to a neurologist, who in turn referred me to an E.N.T. there. I see the E.N.T. this Friday. That said, I strongly urge you to go above this head of the MD you saw at your local Kaiser. I suggest you call Dr. Berke's office at UCLA, tell them that Kaiser claims their procedure to be "experimental" and ask them to mail you back confirmation that this is NOT an experimental procedure, and that it's SO mainstream that it's EVEN covered by Medicare! Take THAT to Kaiser.... and also maybe to the local press and TV? (I'm a great believer of utilizing the press/media for human interest issues!) Keep in mind that Kaiser is extremely sensitive to their public image - more so than any other HMO I've come across. They bend over backwards to present themselves as a patient-sensitive and caring entity. Take advantage of that!! As I said, I've got that appointment on Friday at Kaiser and have my "turned-down-by-Kaiser-contingency-plan" ready to go (and heck... I haven't even BEEN turned down by 'em yet!" ) <grin> BTW... I went thru Kaiser's Speech Therapy program and it's for MUSCLE and BREATHING control. It cannot help you at ALL if your vocal cords are slackened because of the PD. The only way to "fix" slack vocal cords are to UN-slack them, and the only way that's being done today IS be collagen injections. "Experimental?" Excuse me, but collagen injections have been used in geriatrics to strengthen the voices of the elderly for several years (same exact procedure). It's also been used in cosmetic surgery for years. It's been a mainstay in restorative surgery to accident victims as well. EXPERIMENTAL?? Not hardly!! So don't you let Kaiser get away with telling ya THAT! Finally - if I'm OK'd for the injections at Kaiser, I'll let ya know because then you'll be able to point out it's being done at a Kaiser facility. But if I'm NOT given the go-ahead on it (and it's likely they'll turn me down, since they don't seen to understand that their Speech Therapy is totally ineffectual for vocal cord strengthening), then I think you and I AND any other of our List-family belonging to any Kaiser facility should band together and ALL write Kaiser as a UNIT asking that this procedure be made available to us. One other thing, David... I think you should contact every university hospital in your area (if ya live in an area that supports one or more university hospitals and get ahold of THEIR neck and throat clinics and/or ENT departments to see if THEY perform the collagen injections. If any of them DO you then have additional weapons for fire at Kaiser!! Ya can then remind Kaiser that this is SUCH a common, every-day procedure that it's done locally at respected medical centers. DON'T GIVE UP, DAVID!!! Ohhhhh.... HEY.. I just thought of something! Kaiser runs several Web sites including a couple of ones for Kaiser northern and Southern California. You might also logon to them and post a PUBLIC question asking why you cannot get a simple procedure done at Kaiser that is OK'd by Medicare, fer goodness sake, to restore your voice! Barb Mallut [log in to unmask] ---------- From: Parkinson's Information Exchange on behalf of David Moreland Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 1997 4:45 PM To: Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN Subject: Re: Speech Problems Listers, I was referred by Dr. Gancher to the Kaiser E.N.T. surgeon, Dr. Brock with the hope that Dr.Brock would work to get Collagen injections for my vocal Chords. Well that didn't happen. Dr, Brock said that Collagen injections are experimental and no one in the area is doing them. so he referred me to the speech therapist for three months of speech therapy. That will not restore my voice. It might teach me how to make more volune. All in all i was left a bit un happy. I am just wondering how many places give Collagen injections, and what are the requirements to get into those programs. I don't want to give this up yet. Yours and His David L. Moreland [log in to unmask] http://www.teleport.com/~davelm