NEWS: Minnesota medical board to "look other way" regarding Lyme doctors
A proposed MN law to protect Lyme doctors who prescribe long-term antibiotics has been laid aside. The Medical Practice Board has agreed to a 5-year moratorium on actions against physicians which are based solely on antibiotics therapy for chronic Lyme disease.
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From the Vadnais Heights Press:
Chronic Lyme patients win reprieve
Physicians should not fear reprisal for prescribing long-term antibiotics
by Debra Neutkens
Staff Writer
MINNEAPOLIS — It was a bitter pill to swallow, but members of the Minnesota Medical Practice Board agreed to look the other way when it comes to disciplining physicians who treat chronic Lyme disease with long-term antibiotics.
The resolution circumvents legislation that would protect physicians who prescribe long courses of antibiotics for persistent Lyme patients. At a House committee hearing Feb. 17, a bill by Rep. John Ward (DFL-District 12A) was laid aside to give the state board a chance to find a non-legislative solution to the treatment issue.
The compromise barely passed by a 8-6 vote at the board’s monthly meeting March 13. It basically reads that in the interest of allowing time for science to resolve the issue, the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice (MBMP) voluntarily will take a five-year moratorium on the investigation, disciplining or issuance of corrective action based solely on long-term prescription or administration of antibiotic therapy for chronic Lyme disease.
Read the rest of the article here.
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I think it is very important to protect the Lyme doctors especially because of the fact that they are the ones who know more about this disease and I think they know what they are doing. However, that doesn’t give them full support or protection from the law. I am really disappointed that the Minnesota medical board is not giving any attention towards them in this regard! I think this will only make the situation worse for the Lyme patients as well as Lyme doctors!
My own case of undiagnosed/untreated (neg titer) Lyme (suspected) which I strongly believe lead to my MS, Fibromyalgia and Ankylosing Spondylitis, all of which are unsurprisingly NOT helped by repeated psych consults and have taken me from my work in NICU at precisely the wrong time in life, is deeply frustrating. It is, for all that, just one case.
The larger issue is far more concerning. Physicians are having their practice defined and controlled by non-professionals–by for-profit entities such as the insurance lobbies, an FDA run by Monsanto and other big pharma and chemical industry revolving door beneficiaries, and by other doctors who have placed the well-being of their portfolios over that of their patients.
We made great, no, near miraculous leaps in medical science in this nation before the number one priority became profit for FAR TOO MANY GREEDY EXECUTIVE MIDDLEMEN.
It’s time to put control of medical care, with as few necessary regulations as necessary, back in the hands of physicians. The primary relationship has historically existed between patient and physician. We are overdue for a return to that ideal, most certainly with innovative care of Lyme and other environmental diseases.