Suicide Prozac 02/05/1998 California Televised Suicide on Freeway Watched by Over 1 Million People in California
 
 Summary:<br><br><div>Paragraphs 12 &amp; 13 read:&nbsp; &quot;A friend of Jones who asked not to be named said Jones had <strong>complained that his treatment for HIV consisted mostly of antidepressant medications.<br /><br /></strong>``&#39;He was of the opinion that since the HMO knew that he had AIDS they would just let him die,&#39;&#39; said the friend. &#39;`<strong>They just gave him wads of Prozac. That&#39;s why he did what he did. I understand it fully. I told him you&#39;ve got to put this in a little perspective and (write) a statement. My God, this is the statement he made.&#39;&#39;&#39;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /><br /></strong>___________________________________________________________________________<br />FREEWAY DEATH COULD GALVANIZE RESENTMENT OF HMOS<br />Daily News of Los Angeles (CA)<br />May 2, 1998<br />Author: Paul Hefner Daily News Sacramento Bureau <br />Estimated printed pages: 3 <br /><img src="../images.newsbank.com/infoweb/agg/shim.gif" alt="[]" width="1" height="1" /> <br /><br />The horrific, televised <strong>suicide</strong> of an HIV-infected man angry with his HMO has become a stark, new symbol of frustration with California&#39;s health care industry, patient advocates said Friday.<br /><br />Taking his own life on a Los Angeles freeway Thursday after unfurling a banner that read ``HMOs are in it for the money,&#39;&#39; Daniel Jones has hit a nerve with the public - regardless of whether his claims were justified. <br /><br />State regulators receive from 5,000 to 7,000 complaints a month from HMO patients, although Jones was never one of them.<br /><br />``I think people have had horrific experiences with HMO bureaucrats. This touched a note,&#39;&#39; said Jamie Court, director of the watchdog group Consumers for Quality Care.<br /><br />``If this is a genuine medical horror story, then we are talking about a symbol of the frustration that too many Americans feel with HMO penny-pinching,&#39;&#39; Court said.<br /><br />The death of the 40-year-old Long Beach man came at the same time that state officials are debating proposals to better regulate California&#39;s managed care industry. There are dozens of bills in the Legislature, most of them focused on giving patients more rights.<br /><br />Many officials didn&#39;t want to speculate how such a macabre incident might affect those deliberations.<br /><br />But others said the tragedy might strengthen the hand of groups pushing to expand patients&#39; rights, which some say have taken a back seat to keeping down the cost of health care.<br /><br />``I can only liken this to a pendulum. Maybe the pendulum has swung too far,&#39;&#39; said Craig Thompson, executive director of AIDS Project Los Angeles. ``This situation in L.A. may help spur some of those reforms getting passed in Sacramento this year.&#39;&#39;<br /><br />Friends and relatives of Jones claimed that his HMO had transposed his records with another patient&#39;s and allowed a physician&#39;s assistant to oversee his care. His sister said Jones once went to his HMO with flu-like conditions and was sent home, only to find his appendix had burst.<br /><br />``I believe my brother was killed by an HMO,&#39;&#39; his sister, Janet Jones, told The Associated Press.<br /><br />A friend of Jones who asked not to be named said Jones had complained that his treatment for HIV consisted mostly of antidepressant medications.<br /><br />``He was of the opinion that since the HMO knew that he had AIDS they would just let him die,&#39;&#39; said the friend. ``They just gave him wads of <strong>Prozac</strong>. That&#39;s why he did what he did. I understand it fully. I told him you&#39;ve got to put this in a little perspective and (write) a statement. My God, this is the statement he made.&#39;&#39;<br /><br />Jones never reported his complaints to the state Department of Corporations, which oversees HMOs. Though the department receives up to 7,000 complaints a month about managed care providers, Jones was not in the agency&#39;s database, a spokeswoman said.<br /><br />Industry officials expressed sadness over Jones&#39; death, but said it remains to be seen whether there was any wrongdoing by his health care plan. Exactly which HMO he belonged to could not be determined.<br /><br />``We feel horribly for the family. We feel horribly for him. But we don&#39;t know anything that was going on with his care, we don&#39;t know that anything was going wrong,&#39;&#39; said Maureen O&#39;Haren, executive vice president of the California Association of Health Plans.<br /><br />She insisted that HMOs treat people with AIDS appropriately. ``There was a lot of hope for this man,&#39;&#39; O&#39;Haren said. ``It&#39;s sad that he chose to end his own life.&#39;&#39;<br /><br />Also Friday, Gov. Pete Wilson announced plans to create a new Department of Managed Care to oversee the industry. The plan must be studied by a state panel and considered by the Legislature before going into effect.<br /><br />Administration officials said the announcement had nothing to do with Jones&#39; death.<br /><br />To lodge complaints against an HMO, call (800) 400-0815.<br />TV RATINGS UP<br /><br />The televised <strong>suicide</strong> drew more than 1 million households to tune in local broadcast television stations between 3:45 p.m. and 4 p.m. Thursday. That was 130,239.2 more households than during the same period last week, according to Nielsen Media Research. <br />&nbsp; Caption:<br />Photo, Box <br />&nbsp; Caption:<br />PHOTO: (Color) JONES <br /><br />BOX: TV RATINGS UP (see text) <br />Memo:&nbsp; Related Story: TV stations considering changes in live coverage. <br />Edition:&nbsp; Valley <br /><br />rop<br />Section:&nbsp; NEWS<br />Page:&nbsp; N1<br />Index Terms: LOS ANGELES<strong>; </strong>DANIEL JONES<strong>; SUICIDE; </strong>DEATH<strong>; </strong>CENTURY FREEWAY<strong>; </strong>HARBOR<strong>; </strong>FREEWAY<strong>; </strong>PROTEST<strong>; </strong>HMO<strong>; </strong>HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY<strong>; </strong>REACTION<strong>; </strong>CRITICISM <br />Record Number:&nbsp; 9805030005 <br /><br />OpenURL Article Bookmark (right click, and copy the link location):<br /><a href="http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&amp;rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:NewsBank:LANB&amp;rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&amp;rft_dat=0EF80A92381BF6FD&amp;svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated4&amp;req_dat=0FC00B934DD580D0">FREEWAY DEATH COULD GALVANIZE RESENTMENT OF HMOS</a><br /></div> 
</font>
<br><br>