Obstruction of Justice: Destruction of Character by Elyssa Durant, Ed.M.

Please note that I am copying a third party with this e-mail.

1. Social Security must be advised immediately that they have

(a) The amount on the check is significantly less than the amount stated in the letter I received less than one month ago

(b) My former representative payee misreported my income on his last statement

(c) In addition to misreporting my income, he checked the wrong box so he never told them that I am longer working and do not receive any either income

This is important for several reasons because my re-certification for food stamps and TennCare (Medicaid) is tomorrow and DHS uses the income reported to Social Security to determine my eligibility status. There is somewhat of d domino effect since my Section 8 payment was also changed effective 8/1/2008 based on this information, and as you are aware, my former case manager never mailed in any of the documents requested last March.

I have taken care of the subrogation claim, however, that does not minimize my level of frustration because I am DROWNING in paperwork. I have contacted several agencies to provide assistance, however I do not have the resources necessary to provide them with timely response. There is a very limited time allowed to request reconsideration or file an appeal.

I have done everything humanly possible to clean up the slack, however ant this point, I feel I have no other choice than to file a formal complaint so that my entire case is reviewed. The number of mistakes is so overwhelming that I simply do not have enough time to documents each and every one with the respective agency.

I also want to be clear that every time I have to call Social Security or DHS, it only compounds my cost of living expenses (40 cents per minute on the telephone -- a bill which is not even considered to be a justifiable expense) Most agencies do not include self-addressed stamped envelopes, and I can not afford the postage required to mail out all of the requested documentation (e.g., utility bills, medical bills, pay stubs, etc.)

Fortunately, a number of agencies will take online complaints. Unfortunately, my internet was interrupted for non-payment for several weeks and there is no funding resource or community agency that provides subsidized Internet access or free printer ink.

View all

Get your own

Transportation costs are ridiculous so going to the library is not an option. Neither is returning to work right now, since it would cost too much to get to the interview or provide official (expensive) copies of my graduate school transcripts that were oh, such a good investment!

That aside, I am not the most user friendly person right about now, so I have found it difficult to put on a happy face so I can work at McDonald's which pays more than Metro anyway.

View all

Get your own

The subrogation claim has been resolved but I just learned that my breast biopsy was not [pre-authorized and I was told by my INSURANCE CSR (the person who answers the phone) that I should not have the surgery that has already been scheduled at the Women's hospital for 8/21/2008 since they did not authorize the biopsy last month, and have not received a request prior authorization for the surgery that has already been scheduled for next week...

This was a lovely 54 minute conversation because he would not mail me copies of my EOBs or confirm that what, if any, requests have been submitted for payment since my last inquiry and change of address. He finally told me that to call the state (Tennessee) which I have already done several times, and they told me to call Social Security but it was already past business hours and I am not authorized to make changes to my file anyway.

I will try to be more specific later without going into too much detail, but unfortunately, that level of detail is required to file the necessary appeals. Ironic, huh? This apartment is like my own little cage, and I am just pathetic enough to run around in circles, hoping to find the much like a hamster wheel, rodent chasing in circles hoping to found my way out my way out before I run out air. If only I had finished my damn PhD, I would do my own case study or reality show on how far we will go to have nothing at all...

And even though my life is a living hell, I have almost learned how to enjoy the sheer irony of it all... for someone with OCD and post-traumatic stress, this is truly a ridiculous little experiment.

I will be in touch when I can. Unfortunately, each agency has different deadlines, and it takes a lot of energy and time to scan in, copy, or respond to each inquiry in writing, so I find myself running out of time since I cannot seem to get anything done unless I just do nothing at all.

I am becoming increasingly inspired to just burn every last document I own, throw away my keys and my cell phone and take Spotty some place where we can live off the land and ignore the fact that society has me chained to a computer screen that screen that does provide the basic necessities I need to live.

I have come this far, and I am becoming rather skilled and at expressing myself without needing an audience or the obsessive need to check every fact, throw, and typo for capitalization and perfection.

So for now I write. Maybe later, I will read, but if there is any justice left in this world, someday, I might actually live.

Good-bye for now. I need a break.

With love,

Your little sis.

Elyssa Durant, Ed.M.
Nashville, Tennessee
Reply to: elyssa.durant@columbia.edu

"You may not care how much I know, but you don't know how much I care."


--- On Mon, 8/11/08, Lauren Durant laurendurant@durantlaw.com wrote:

From: Lauren Durant laurendurant@durantlaw.com

Subject: s.s. check - attached

To: ed70@columbia.edu

Date: Monday, August 11, 2008, 5:05 PM

$515.50

COINTELPRO: DESTRUCTION OF EVIDENCE

Notes from Day 6: Social Security Hotline

------------------
Date: 4/29/2010 5:20 p
Duration: 13:25
Ssa dc (Work)
1-800-772-1213
------------------
North Eastern Pennsylvania general information line for Social Security.

I was informed that the TN Office (as listed by the state on Document
MCC Change Schedule: Dev 10Aug09) was closed.

TennCare Solutions : 1-800-873-3192.

Even though she claimed to have no information regarding the Health
plan change in Tennessee, she did manage to tell me that any changes
to my benefits are NOT a Social Security issue and told me to call the
IRS.

Refused to give me her Employee ID or reference no. for the call.

Also refused to mail or provide any information regarding federal law
rights to legal representation. [Publication No. 05-10075]

She was brief, bitchy, and apathetic. Too busy to even log the call.
Told me to go to my "local office" if i wish to pick up a copy of the
publication i requested.

The one everyone seems to ignore: the law.
The one that says clear as day, that I do, in fact, have federal law rights.

$44 dollars round trip.  More than my food stamps, but less than my electric bill.

Completely oblivious to federal law and my rights to appeal. Or at
least, did a damn good job pretending.

I don't waste time with idiots.

So time marches on, as my life continues to stand still.

Tic toc...
     tic toc....


www.socialsecurity.gov/disability/appeal


I have six days till day Ten.


Social Security Administration
SSA Publication No. 05-10041
ICN 459260
January 28
--
Sent from my mobile device
Elyssa Durant, Ed.M.
Nashville, Tennessee
(615) 424-8810

"You may not care how much I know, but you don't know how much I care."

______________________________

Masters of Media Manipulation

The first course I took as a grad student in New York City was a fabulous seminar in public journalism. on the 4th floor at the infamous J- School at Columbia University.

Located inside the cool steel gates separating us from  the reality the of poverty that surrounded the Uniersity just outside the campus gates on the Upper  West Side of Manahattan. Alumni calle it "Morningside Heights" but in reality it is just a few blocks from Harlem.

As they were trying to tweak our skills turning us into experts in public journalism or public relations. 

16th street from the homeless and the winos’ asking everyone all the passer by's for money just before we walked through the iron gates leading to the Ivory Tower.

We would pass the men living on the streets each day, enter through the solid stone doors that were 12 ft tall, and write about them. With such eloquence you would hardly know they were homeless at all. We exploited them. The blocks surrounding 116th-120th where only the young and the talented get ready to take their place in society.

Just like Tuskegee exploited the Blacks, and the Army exploits the young, we exploited the sick irony of paying more per credit than they earned in one year on Veterans benefits or disability. We disgust me.

Karma is a bitch, because less than two years later there I was, sleeping in the law school stacks; showering in the indoor pool... gym because I “looked good enough to pass through the gates.” I had that Ivy League pedigree. The would-have-been Harvard Law student—maybe even have had it paid in full had I been a boy or born to a different mother.

What the fuck did they know? That cute little Jewish Girl from Long Island, the one from a "good" family... the Harvard Legacy with the beautiful mother always dripping in jewels and fur from her latest boyfriend or husband—that little girl was me.

I should have been the perfect example of how a power player in the making the benefits from good breeding. No one ever needed to know that beneath it all I worked my ass off to get into College and ultimately get a scholarship into the top ranked program in Sociology and Social Policy to effect change. The fact that I dropped out of high school at 16 could remain my dirty little secret.

And to this day, no one has ever come forward to expose that little truth. Probably because so few people know—Maybe three or four So would I reveal such an embarrassing little detail of my life and risk my reputation on something I should have left behind me over twenty years ago?

Because it matters.

No one needed to know. I can get by well enough on my looks.  I speak quite eloquently, and usually appear normal "n.o.s." to most, but it is an important little factoid because people constantly judge ME based upon who they think I am – either the girl with the wealthy parents; too lazy too stupid or to get off welfare.

It matters because what appears to be and what is are often two very different things. I am in fact, an Ivy League Alumnus. I did in fact get a full scholarship into the PhD program in Public Policy at a leading University.

I am in fact unable to find employment.  

my entire and sole source of live of income is SSI (Supplemental Security Income) the lowest of the low.

I am so far beneath the poverty level (already ridiculous) that I often wonder how I manage to live at all.

what happened to that "legacy," the access I once had to the Ivory tower on the 4th floor we wrote is now gone. Not because they didn't like my work-- they loved it! Solid A in Public Journalism.

Well if I were in New York today, I would most likely be one of the people o the streets. Actually, I would probably be sitting across the street at the Bookstore just so I could stay close to the vast amounts of wisdom and philosophy within the hollowed halls as classes break for the summer. I would be watching people go in and out and be envious that they had the one thing that I don't: access.

So I made it through the very Same J-School where Pat Buchanan refused to speak to his Alma-mater because he once punched someone in the face on the 5th floor. I made it through despite the fact that I often times slept in my car in the middle of winter because I could not afford gas for the commute and eventually lost my apartment. I made it through having no electricity and frozen water pipes.

The question is: can I make it through this? I paid my dues. I deserve a chance. Dammit, I deserve a do-over. I deserve a job. I deserve a little credit.

Will our policy decision be based upon our need for reform or the ability to perform?

We used to joke about all the sell-out Journalist who give up on reporting the news to become speech writers for politicians. How people like Pat Buchanan (a J-School alum) became so skilled at using their words to sell ideas in such a way that people actually believed the propaganda they were spinning.

I have given much thought to this... the only people who are more arrogant and self serving than politicians and academics are reporters!

I think they become addicted to the their own power to manipulate people and they are willing to trade a little tarnished idealism for power and inflated self-esteem.

I am not one of those people. I care enough about the issues to take the time to examine them from all angles and I fell that the massive amount of money being spent by agencies that I hold in deep respect launching a counter-attack on the insurance companies and their ad execs will have serve to damage their reputation. I chose to volunteer with these agencies because I believe they are well informed and do a great job to involve the everyday average Americans like myself in the political process.

By spending $750,000 on advertising, these groups now seem to be on the same level as the Insurance Industry and others who exploit the poor and infirm at the mercy of the healthcare marketplace.

So I take issue with this campaign. Let Rick Scott be heard. Using such tactics will make the good guys no better than the Insurance Companies that exploit us all.  i take issue with all the FaceBook invitations and emails from candidates requesting a $10 donation I won't even miss-- really. hmmm... how you lived on $600 / month?  everybody does NOT have $10 too text to Haiti. some of do not have cable, television, or a even a telephone because can't have an "extra ten dollars" 

so how did i get here?  well, i would tell you, but at this toint it is completely irrelevant. what i do need is people. a community, a network... to stop decade. maybe to feel as if the pain i feel each and every i open my eyes, I am here only out of obligation. 

is that horrible to say? maybe? am i closer today than I ws one year ago? who I have new ideas for tomorrow? no.  i don't gaive a shit. 

i simply do not care.

there is no amount of joy or hope go a better tomorrow that would make today feel like any less of a chore... and I will be tomorrow knowing what do and how it ends. 

do you hea what i am saying? did  I stutter?

i hear birds chirping.  wow. i actually mafe it through deep hours of night when i had nothing to say write or communicate. 

but i hear the birds and some things I would like to read edit publish, i don't know...  i don't to "blog" about my post adolescent misery... it disgusts me.  so i'm going take a few minutes for cuddles with Spotty and to try to takek a few deep breaths. 

my right hand cold, so I can't  say much more anymore for right now... so another... and night... another diversion... reality bytes.

i am grieving. i am grieving for the loss of a future that will never be.  i am not okay. i will never be "okay" and no matter times you shove that down my throat, the bottom line is that my life is so empty that even if i knew it would be tomorrow, the past was so b that from it would keep from ever knowing inner peace and hapiness.  it is not in me. totally gone. forever. whooooosh..... 3/17/2010

so back these ads showing us from big meia: how to reform or how to perform?

The large amount of funds being thrown (public or private) being spent on media fluff, and emotional being spent on media propaganda and 'skittles' on both sides of the healthcare debate.

I am offended by the huge amounts of money being spent on propaganda and skittles by both sides of the healthcare debate. Excessive, exorbitant monies being spent to manipulate the public through misleading ads, expert analyses, media alerts~ this is insulting at best.

Real dollars being used to manipulate the public about real issues: the sick; the poor; the ignorant...we are selling bad data and information to those who need it the most.  Making promises we can't keep and giving false hope to des[erate for change they can believe in... do you? I don't.

Talk about adding insult to injury? I do hope HCAN, HealthJustice and others will reconsider this campaign. I am one foot soldier who is unwilling to participate in this one.

Bottom line is this: we need to stop manipulating images and perceptions about the reality of healthcare, education, and social welfare in the United States. All is not well in America. Not well at all.  And I am here to prove it!

Elyssa Durant, Ed.M.

United States of America

Is There Anybody Listening?

PLEASE HELP ME FIND A PLACE I CAN BE ME

Social Security barely covers the gas I need to get downtown, let alone the prescriptions I need to maintain some degree of sanity through this never-ending nightmare I have been living since 1995.

I would very much like to continue working as an advocate for the un and underinsured since I know how devastating and difficult it has been to go through this experience. Since many of you had me in class as a student, I am hoping—no. I am begging any of you to help me get off welfare so that I can contribute to society rather than live of your taxes.

I humbly request any assistance you may be able to provide to help me pursue my dreams of becoming an advocate and voice for people like myself who re trapped in a cycle of poverty.

I will not pretend that this experience has made me a stronger or happier person being, but it has taught what it feels like to be completely marginalized and written off by society. No one deserves to feel that way: ever!

I would like to attach a writing sample with this letter so you have a better understanding of just how devastating and incapacity such a loss can be to a young person who once had dreams, hopes, and possibly even a financially secure future.

After filing endless amounts of paperwork and appeals to anyone who would listen, I was ultimately “awarded”

$560, 000 in federal fines for ERISA violations; however, I was so devastated by the experience, I never civil that award simply because I did not feel I could relive the experience on the witness stand. Unfortunately, I now realize that swearing on a bible would not make this experience any less painful given the recurring trauma. dreams, panic I experience each day living in this world of nothingness.

Therefore, I ask of you 2 things (1) kindly recommend a very experienced and aggressive ERISA litigator who would be willing to discuss the possibility of recovering some of the penalty fees as decided by the Penna. Insurance department, and (2) if anyone world be willing to write a letter of recommendation on my behalf or even accompany me to a meeting with “Someone” in charge at Vanderbilt to negotiate the fees associated with my reapplication, I would be extremely grateful for the opportunity to begin contributing to society rather Than sucking up all the welfare resources that could be better used elsewhere.

Please call me or e-mail me if any of you are willing to take that chance. Despite my chronic depression, anxiety, and lack of social skills, I do believe that I could be a tremendous asset to the community given the chance.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this letter and I truly hope that I will hear back from someone who may be willing to help me move in a forward director, my heart is in the right place. I only hope that I can get to a place professionally where I can help people like myself who are merely trying to better themselves and the lives of the people around them.

Please help me find someplace I can be me.

Elyssa

Part II: Duplication of Benefits: Medicaid to the Rescue

Part II: Duplication of Benefits: Medicaid to the Rescue

The Application and Appeal for Disability Benefits

I remember how difficult it was for me to obtain benefits when I first applied several years ago. I am deeply concerned about how the most recent decision to eradicate yet another class of TennCare / Medicaid recipients (the Daniels class made up of SSI recipients by way of a pending federal waiver) will affect the poor and disabled residents in Tennessee. Without my current level of benefits, I simply do not function.

Before my benefits were stabilized, learning to navigate the system consumed every waking moment of my life. I was unable to work or attend school on any substantial level and I am frightened to see at might happen if I were to stray from my established, stabilized, treatment plan. If I lose my benefits, will I still be able to work? To function? To be productive?

Any new public program requires careful planning if it is to be effective. Recent discussions have not focused on the true impact these changes will have on the “street-level.”

Has anyone asked recipients how they feel the new program (safety- net) should be designed, implemented, or evaluated? How will this impact the community and other social service or welfare agencies??? I want access, quality, and outcomes. I want... I want... I want!!!

The massive number of people being disenrolled or limited in their access to medical care and other social services will no doubt create significant anxiety, confusion, and chaos for everyone involved in the social service and health care industries.

I remember when Mr. Brian Lapps was somewhere very high up on the corporate TennCare ladder in 1999 when they adjusted the prescription formulary over Memorial Day in 1999. I see Mr. Lapps quite frequently since he now works at the local gas station down the street from where I live.

To this day, he insists that cell phones and TennCare are somehow contraindicated. Perhaps he knows nothing of the population he claims to know just all-too-well... housing conditions that may or may not have electricity, broken families-some riddled with community violence and domestic disturbances. In the hood, your cell phone is your very best friend. 9-1-1.

These people plagued by domestic violence and community instability makes a cell phone the only logical option. How can you find a job with out a phone? How can you find a home with out a job? Yet even 6 years later, Mr. Lapps uses cellular phones as an example how the TennCare program is being abused by lazy, cheap, and unscrupulous second hand citizens who are just shiftless lazy bums waiting around for their next free hand-out.

Anyone who has EVER applied for or relied upon any kind of government subsidy to have their basic needs met, e.g., food, shelter, medical care, dental treatment, etc... Let me personally assure you that there has never been a single time where I felt I was “pulling one over” on the government. I am not just one of the poor saps who believed what they told me they in school, I bought it hook, line, and sinker for the mere price of $152,718.130 and not a shred of financial security to show for it.

Even after consolidating my student loans, the interest alone is $10 less than my monthly income from social security.

Tennessee is in the process of applying for yet ANOTHER federal waiver to eliminate the “Daniels” class of Medicaid recipients—the poorest and sickest of all. Social Security Recipients. Can you live on $623.00 / month? Can anyone?

So what happens now that the state of Tennessee will begin to cut off social security recipients from TennCare? I honestly do not think I can survive yet another re-certification process—God knows the first one almost killed me. After three years of appeals, my condition had deteriorated so severely that I was forced to drop out of school, lost my home, lost my sanity, and lost hope. In short—I lost my dignity and my belief in the social welfare system.

By the time my benefits were approved, I had already checked myself in to NYU Psych Ward because simply could not cope with the reality of what my life I had become. I weighed 94 pounds and suffered in excruciating pain that has only gotten worse with time. My extremities were ice cold, and my hands were numb since I went without medical treatment for the spinal injury that was first discovered when I was 22.

I am now 36 years old. My spinal cord is now damaged from years of delayed, sub-standard medical treatment. I owe the federal government $152,000 in student loans and when I am able to work, I make $10.46 / hour as a substitute teacher in an urban school district. That job comes with no security and no benefits. It does however offer the flexibility I need to receive the bi-monthly epidural injections and other procedures necessary to manage my pain and alleviate the numbness I feel because of the damage to my nerves. And even though I cannot afford the gas money to get my appointments, pay for all of my medication, or even to get back and forth to work, it does allow me a few weeks of mobility so I can drive, use my mouse or hold a pen.

I have an advanced master’s degree from an Ivy League Institution. I am eight credits shy of completing PhD in public policy. And despite maintaining a 3.83 grade point average while completing an advanced masters in social and educational policy at an, “Ivy League” institution; a 3.2 GPA during the 3 years I spent working on my doctorate at a not-quite-so-prestigious Graduate School; The Powers That Beat in that damn Ivory Tower don’t will not grant me any leniency by extending the amount or time permitted to complete my degree—a rule that was changed while I was on a formal leave of absence tending to my health (and my Medicaid appeals!). Not only did they decide 8 years was the rule instead of the 10 it had been previously, I was also told that I could not even transfer the credits I had earned toward a different degree towards another program at the same institution. It has been just over ten years since I first enrolled. What a mistake that was!

The “Harvard of the South” no longer officers the degree to which I was admitted—and enrolled so they actually suggested that I pay for a 3rd application to the school (I was admitted into two degrees—the MPP as well as the PhD program in a separate college) requiring two independent applications, fees, official transcripts, graduate test scores, even way back when I was still considered a promising candidate. Now “they” think it is reasonable to ask that I do it all over again??? It goes without saying that I do not have the financial resources available to finish my last semester, take the GREs or GMATs one more time, or even the money to release my transcripts from the Graduate School into any other program at the same University, I guess I am just shit out of luck.

To be clear, WE ARE ALL PAYING for that student debt because I can assure you that their endowment is far greater than any income or earning potential I have given my current financial status and student loan debt! To be clear, YOU ARE ALL PAYING to keep me on Welfare. Yes, all of us are paying some price... I want to work. I want to be productive. I want to be a part of something greater than myself. I want to share what I have learned.

So throughout the years I struggled to stay in school, believing somehow that social justice would prevail, and my heart and dedication towards the greater good would show through to whomever, wherever, or whatever that could make my degree worth while—the Medicaid and disability applications managed to take front seat. So as I filed appeal after appeal after appeal, I managed to acquire well over ¼ million (yes—MILLION) dollars in debt due to uninsured medical expenses and student loans. Despite having three Major Medical insurance policies, I still went bankrupt applying for Medicaid. Morally Bankrupt.

My life will never be the same. My heart will never be the same. I want to pay my bills on time. I want to get off welfare, but no one ever taught me how to be poor.

So after all this—now I face losing my healthcare once again. Where is the safety net? Where is the American Dream that I so diligently chased after for so many years? What was the point spending so much on an education that will never be utilized? I understand the how; I just don’t understand why.

Maybe one of these days Vanderbilt University or and the Department of Education will realize it might just be cheaper to hire me that harass me, because unless I find a real paying job soon, their collections department will no longer be able to reach me on that extravagant lifeline my friend, Brian Lapps, refers to as a luxury.

If anyone on your staff would like to “trade places” with me for one month-I will gladly assume his/her responsibilities for that position if you can find a writer who is willing to endure and write about the reality of social services in our fine state. I do not want a paycheck from your organization; I just want the opportunity to put the myth of freeloading welfare mother s to rest. Live in my shoes for 30 days. Can you find the out? Can you balance my budget and make it work? Can you get the bill collectors of my back? Can you afford Internet service to file state job applications and apply for services online? Can you maintain pride and dignity without feeling the least bit sorry for yourself and the choices you have made?

When I go to the pharmacy, I am humiliated that I do not have the $3.00 necessary for the co-pay on my covered TennCare prescriptions. At least when it was $40 dollars, I was not so damn embarrassed by my lack of funds.

Remind me again why I went to school. Remind me once more, why I bother to speak out. Then remind me right now that that there is somebody listening. I cannot be the only one who actually gives a crap. My contact information is listed below.

An Appalling Appeal: 11 Months and Counting

Today I was finally able to submit handed in the appeal I waited over three years to submit. And it is just an APPEAL! Not even a decision. Not a win, but also not a loss.

The APPEAL has given me the strength to keep going. In part because it shows that I haven't lost and in part because it means that somebody actually listening.

So listen carefully, my friends. It was not too long ago that I had almost everything a young person needs to succeed in this world.

Or maybe not.

As for my most current insurance dispute... I feel that I have done everything humanly possible to be sympathetic towards health care provider who is NOT providing care. I cannot sacrifice my own well being for every bright eyed bushy tailed wanna be who is too stupid to see that I am far from.

I had such a battle this week. It culminated in the end like every other battle I have taken on. I only won because ultimately but we are all losing.

For every underqualifed, health care provider who has NOT provided the adequate, there are many more like me. Alienated just enough to give up on fashion, etiquette and social norms, but not enough to walk from it all.

We are keeping watch. We are taking names, and I for one do not give a rat's ass about "keeping the peace."

Having been on both sides if the proverbial couch, I have the perspective is both enlightening and scary at the same time.
I look back and want to say shout "told you so" from the nearest roof top.

Crazy is crazy does... out loud. I may be enjoying this just a little too much.

Sometimes I try to look at this fight, (I meant to say this life) objectively.

I can see my own future, and I can see where it is taking me. I know how it will end it I don't keep up the pace.

It is amazing at how far we will go to have nothing at all.

I have come this far, and on some level I almost enjoy the dance. No. On some level, I actually love the dance.

No. I won't give up now. Because without this turmoil, this means to an end, this demonstration project of futility and determination, and without it, I am nothing at all. I can't lose what I never had. I won’t be another sell-out-- mostly because I don't know how.

I am then the voice of perseverance. I am one voice of perseverance. I am one of 47 million Americans. And today I am I am still fighting the good fight.

This battle; this challenge; this half won war this fight has come to define me. And without that, I am not really much of anything at all...

As someone once told me, if you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything. I've already fallen, but I sure as shit stand for something.

"... so for now, I write. Maybe later listen. And if there is any justice left in this world, maybe someday, I'll actually live. "

Good night, folks. It is time for that break.

Elyssa Durant
Nashville, Tennessee

Reviewing Reform: This Reform is a Farce!

I did not need another reason to demonstrate the need for immediate action concerning healthcare reform, however for those who feel Obama's current plan for reform is right on target, let me try to convince you otherwise. We need IMMEDIATE intervention.

However for anyone who needs to be reminded that we need to move forward, please read the excerpt below from KnoxViews:

"Blue Cross CEOs gorge on profits from premiums."

"The chief executive officer of Blue Cross of Tennessee got a big salary boost to over $2 million this year. Searches for "salary president ceo blue cross [statename]" will get you the figures for the rest of the states. To keep it simple, though, let's just assume that the 50 CEOs of each Blue Cross operation in each of the 50 states makes roughly what the top guy in Tennessee gets, Tennessee not being exactly one of the wealthiest states. That means we're looking at well over $100 million of our health insurance premiums poured into the homes, yachts, and kids' private schools of a tiny elite instead of going into the provision of health care for Americans."

-Vigil Proudfoot, KnoxViews available: http://knoxviews.mobi/node/11418

To learn that the CEO of Blue Cross Tennessee received a $2 million bonus is really not news at all. It is merely more of the same, and exactly what we can expect if the Healthcare Industry is expected to "curb" their spending. It just ain't gonna happen.

To learn that the CEO of Blue Cross Tennessee received a $2 million bonus is really not news at all. It is merely more of the same, and exactly what we can expect if the Healthcare Industry is expected to "curb" their spending. It just ain't gonna happen.

This just goes to show that we MUST have immediate intervention, regulation, oversight, and accountability over the Healthcare Marketplace. Not just the private companies such as Aetna or US HealthCare; make no mistake about it CMS Medicaid and Medicare have plenty of problems that must be addressed those programs are to intended to be the model for the rest of the country.



Obama's plan to come to the table with the Healthcare Industry is being passed off as Healthcare "reform" is a farce. The concept of self-regulation as the newest chapter in healthcare reform effort is a joke and my concerns continue to grow with each passing day. Since that compromise was made, have any of us seen any movement towards reform? Is there any evidence that we are moving toward covering the uninsured, lowering the cost of American healthcare or making it more accessible?


Asking or expecting the health industry to reduce costs through self-regulation without accountability is simply ridiculous. Especially when we see reports such as these that show a CEO salary of several million dollars.

Health care is already completely self-regulated and controlled. A person does not have free choice when choosing a provider. Due to an unholy alliance of provider networks, insurance underwriters, pharmaceutical conglomerates and private for profit hospital corporations such as HCA.

By negotiating with providers and developing one-size-fits-all prescription formularies and treatment protocols, we remove the ability for the consumer to make independent informed decisions about the value of various treatment options.

We rely upon one the ratings of physicians who have self-interest in controlling access and information to accurate information through their reliance upon Certification and Licensing Boards. By limiting access into the profession, health care costs are inflated and it is near impossible for the consumer to determine the fair value of a health care service.

Second, the consumer is far removed from the negotiating process, so we do not have a good sense of the fair, free market value of one particular service in comparison to another. All you need to do is look at any EOB (explanation of benefits) report for your last trip to the hospital.

Billing codes are used and assigned through various service departments and the insurance carrier then decides which services are covered and at what rate. They use the terms like “Reasonable and Customary Rates” and then choose to pay 80% of that amount. Therefore, by definition, that 20% must be built in to the billing rates to adjust for the actual (and expected) rate of reimbursement.

Such complicated billing procedures and methods are so complicated and technical that the end recipient of services (the consumer) really has no idea if an X-ray costs $90 or $73. Add into that a separate fee for the radiologist, and sometimes a charge just to use the facility, and even smart people find it difficult to understand.

The bills are then processed by an insurance adjuster who must determine primary and secondary (supplemental) plans and determine who is responsible for what, the end cost and intricate design is truly “priceless.”

Good luck to those people who actually purchased supplemental plans they saw advertised on TV, you have been duped. Giving people (especially the infirm and the elderly) a false sense of security is unfair and unjust.

Without regulation, intervention and enforcement, many people will continue to believe they are prepared and protected from that ultimate for “just in case” scenario that results in major, catastrophic medical loss.

The administrative cost alone on the part of the “Responsible Party” is probably more costly than the initial service they received at whatever hospital for whatever condition.

You cannot apply basic economic theory and free market principles to health care. Health care is fundamentally different and should be considered a public good.

We cannot believe or expect health insurance conglomerates will control their own spending and free from government intervention. We need to do something NOW!


"You may not care how much I know, but you don't know how much I care!"



Available online: http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/elyssadurant/gGGGBH

SCREW THE BLUES: Reform the Reform

To learn that the CEO of Blue Cross Tennessee received a $2 million bonus is really not news at all. It is merely more of the same, and exactly what we can expect if the Healthcare Industry is expected to "curb" their spending. It just ain't gonna happen.

This is just goes to demonstrate that we MUST have immediate intervention, regulation, oversight and accountability over the Healthcare Marketplace.

I did not need another reason to demonstrate the need for immediate intervention, however for those who do, please read the excerpt below from KnoxViews:

"Blue Cross CEOs gorge on profits from premiums."

"The chief executive officer of Blue Cross of Tennessee got a big salary boost to over $2 million this year. Searches for "salary president ceo blue cross [statename]" will get you the figures for the rest of the states. To keep it simple, though, let's just assume that the 50 CEOs of each Blue Cross operation in each of the 50 states makes roughly what the top guy in Tennessee gets, Tennessee not being exactly one of the wealthiest states. That means we're looking at well over $100 million of our health insurance premiums poured into the homes, yachts, and kids' private schools of a tiny elite instead of going into the provision of health care for Americans." -Vigil Proudfoot, KnoxViews available: http://knoxviews.mobi/node/11418


Obama's plan to come to the table with the Healthcare Industry is being passed off as Healthcare "reform" is a farce. The concept of self-regulation as the newest chapter in healthcare reform effort is a joke, and my concerns continue to grow with each passing day. Since that compromise was made, have any of us seen any movement towards reform or seen our healthcare dollars get more bang for the buck?

Asking or expecting the health industry to reduce costs through self-regulation without accountability is simply ridiculous. Especially when we see reports such as these that show a CEO salary of several million dollars.

Health care is already completely self-regulated and controlled. A person does not have free choice when choosing a provider. Due to an unholy alliance of provider networks, insurance underwriters, pharmaceutical conglomerates and private for profit hospital corporations such as HCA.

By negotiating with providers and developing one-size-fits-all prescription formularies and treatment protocols, we remove the ability for the consumer to make independent informed decisions about the value of various treatment options.

We rely upon one the ratings of physicians who have self-interest in controlling access and information to accurate information through their reliance upon Certification and Licensing Boards. By limiting access into the profession, health care costs are inflated and it is near impossible for the consumer to determine the fair value of a health care service.

Second, the consumer is far removed from the negotiating process, so we do not have a good sense of the fair, free market value of one particular service in comparison to another. All you need to do is look at any EOB (explanation of benefits) report for your last trip to the hospital.

Billing codes are used and assigned through various service departments and the insurance carrier then decides which services are covered and at what rate. They use the terms like “Reasonable and Customary Rates” and then choose to pay 80% of that amount. Therefore, by definition, that 20% must be built in to the billing rates to adjust for the actual (and expected) rate of reimbursement.

Such complicated billing procedures and methods are so complicated and technical that the end recipient of services (the consumer) really has no idea if an X-ray costs $90 or $73. Add into that a separate fee for the radiologist, and sometimes a charge just to use the facility, and even smart people find it difficult to understand.

The bills are then processed by an insurance adjuster who must determine primary and secondary (supplemental) plans and determine who is responsible for what, the end cost and intricate design is truly “priceless.”

Good luck to those people who actually purchased supplemental plans they saw advertised on TV, you have been duped. Giving people (especially the infirm and the elderly) a false sense of security is unfair and unjust.

Without regulation, intervention and enforcement, many people will continue to believe they are prepared and protected from that ultimate for “just in case” scenario that results in major, catastrophic medical loss.

The administrative cost alone on the part of the “Responsible Party” is probably more costly than the initial service they received at whatever hospital for whatever condition.

You cannot apply basic economic theory and free market principles to health care. Health care is fundamentally different and should be considered a public good.


We cannot believe or expect health insurance conglomerates will control their own spending and free from government intervention. We need to do something NOW!


Elyssa Durant, Ed.M.
Nashville, Tennessee

"You may not care how much I know, but you don't know how much I care!"


Available online: http://knoxviews.mobi/node/11418

How The Unemployed Pass The Time

At 22 I was diagnosed with a degenerative spinal condition. Yes, there are times when the pain is so terrible, I cannot lifet myself out pf ed or tie my shoes. But far worse is having the knowledge that the level of damage to my spinal cord could have been stopped had I received adequate health care.

Yes, I had insurance. But who was there to make them pay???

14 years later, I finally received surgical intervention, and can feel my hands again-- and as a writer, that has been a miraculous gift.

Through the toughest times in my life, no one told me I was wasting my time and money on an education I would never be able to use.

After all I just wanted a diversion.

Even more disturbing than the damage to my spinal cord, is the realization that I missed mosre than 14 years of my life. So not only did I waste my time and money on an education I will never be able to use, I wasted a window of opportunity. A moment in time when I almost had a world the world at my fingertips.

Without any real place to go after college, I felt I had no other choice than to become a professional student of sorts—you know, the ones who stay in school forever to take advantage of cheap housing, health insurance, and student loans.

Unfortunately, I wandered aimlessly through the system acquiring useless knowledge and letters after my name that do not mean jack in the real world. But it distracted mye from the fact that my spinal cord continued to worsen my physical and emotional health.

So with no prosepects on the horizon-- and so thrilled thto feel my hands today, that the one thing I can do is write. So for now, I write, maybe tomorrow I'll read, but if there is any justice left in this world, maybe someday I will actually live.

http://thepowersthatbeat.blogspot.com/

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/elyssadurant/gGxh4R/commentary

Another Letter to Congress: NOT

well.. it started out well enough.. but I don't this I'll twit this shit to Congress... went just a LITTLE off track... oh well, such is life and the mind of Elyssa...



Dear Senators:

I am writing to you from TN District 51, and US House District 5 from Nashville, Tennessee. I am writing in support of the Employee Free Choice Act. I urge you as my Senator and Representative to vote yes on the final passage of the bill.

I am a recipient of Social Security disability and have tried unsuccessfully for several years to find a job that will allow me to earn a decent living wage and provide benefits so I can get off the state's welfare roles.

I never dreamed that it could be so difficult to (1) go through the initial application process and disability evaluation; and (2) to maintain my benefits and each August I must go through re certification process all over again.

I have not been successful in my endless search for a decent paying job, and even while in the employ of the State of Tennessee, I was not offered health benefits and was ineligible for unemployment or other benefits that would help me transition into a more permanent position.

I have an advanced degrees from Columbia University, and completed 63 of the 72 credit hours necessary to complete my PhD in public policy at Vanderbilt University.

To be clear, the longer I stay out of work, the more our taxpayers must pay to keep me in this perpetual state of poverty. There are many more out there like me...

People who just need a little support, a little guidance and a lot of encouragement. I live trapped within four walls in a prison of poverty.

There are a lot of things in the financial world that do not make sense. Such as having my tax return rejected from the IRS because someone had filed a tax return using my social security number.

Countless calls to the IRS, and although they were able to identify the person who had used my number fraudulently, they would not release that information to me so I could file a police report for identity theft (as I was instructed to do by regulatory authorities.) It took the IRS 9 months to send my refund, something that most people receive in less than 2 weeks.

So, after about a decade of this situation, and going through the motions year after year, to provide alternative forms of Income verification, I think I am well within my rights to be a little agitated.

This year I will be fling for an extension, as other related issues are currently under investigation.

Now I don't have much money, in fact I don't have any, but I find white collar crime despicable and repulsive.

When taken into account the substantial cost to society, not to mention the havoc it wreaked on my life, I respectfully think that maybe you should not assume that someone is making false claims just because you don't think it sounds "right."

Lots of things don't "sound right" however that doesn't mean they aren't true. Gotta go now, I have a date with eBay too auction my social security card to the highest bidder. Clearly, it is not worth anything to me so long as the authorities fail to do their part in ENFORCING the laws associated with Identity theft. Sure, it is easy to blame the victim as being irresponsible or somehow negligent in these situations, however I will refer you to some fascinating research that has been done on the emotional consequences of Identity theft.

The cost is far more than just an issue of financial discomfort, it is something that can ultimately leave you questioning your own identity.

It should be noted that Identity theft is a criminal matter, so whatever costs associated with such events, the victim is not reimbursed for any of the costs associated with having their life disrupted by something that is ultimately completely beyond their control.

It happens more often than you think, and it is a complicated, intricate, and time intensive to resolve such crimes. It is like trying to unravel multiple sets Christmas lights only to find that after you have put the time in, the damn things don't even work; and 2. Having to test each and every mini bulb in the chain to find the weakest link.

Now I don't fuck with Christmas lights, one I'm a jew, 2. I think they're tacky as hell, and 3. I have OCD OCD OCD- with fear of fire at the top of the list!

I once waited two years after moving in to
along the 1. They don't work the details only to find yourself in more complicated... To be continued...

I urge you as my Senator and Representative to vote yes on the final passage of the bill.

Thank you for your service,

Elyssa Durant, Ed.M.
615.424.8810
ed70@columbia.edu
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile