On 12/27/04 2:14 PM, "Georgia Morrow" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> 
 A major obstacle to the provision of donor milk to all babies who need it is
> lack of insurance coverage.  We do not have a shortage of mothers willing to
> donate.

     In most states, there is limited third-party coverage for the
> donor milk processing fee (costs incurred by donor
> screening,pasteurizing,shipping/delivery, etc). There are a few states which
> do provide Medicaid coverage for outpatients, however, they pay a
> predetermined fee which does not cover the entire cost of processing the milk.
> This lack of coverage presents a barrier to its use by hospitals and
> post-discharge families. It requires recipient hospitals to allocate funds for
> the milk processing fee from their limited patient-care budgets, which they
> are often reluctant to do due to a lack of awareness of the importance of
> human milk.  Ongoing education by the lactation community and studies such as
> that done by Nancy Wight, M.D. that support donor milk useage are essential to
> necessary change in health care policy and complete coverage of the donor milk
> processing fee.  This shift to a model in which access to human milk is
> recognized as a right of all newborns is a lengthy process, but has begun.
> Each of us has a role to play in this.
 In the meantime, the HMBANA milk banks
> continue to keep the donor milk fee below cost to encourage its use.  This
> requires private funding (not from formula companies or their associates) and
> support from the community and/or hospital with which the milk bank is
> affiliated.
  Warmly,
  Georgia Morrow
-- 
"A Person's a Person No Matter How
> Small"

-Dr. Seuss, Horton Hears a Who



Thanks you for elaborating, Georgia. My Canadian bias is showing - I thought
you were referring to a milk bank's need for liability insurance, not health
insurance coverage for individuals. :-)

- Jodine Chase 

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html