PROVIDENCE, R.I. - State lawmakers will convene a hearing into the "totally unacceptable'' treatment by the Rhode Island Department of Health of a company,
licensed in 28 other states, to provide a rare kind of in-home nursing service to severely ill people with pain-medication delivery pumps implanted in their bodies.
On Monday, Rep. Joseph McNamara, the chairman of the House Committee on Health, Education & Welfare confirmed plans to call a hearing early in October into the circumstances that forced the Philadelphia-based Pentec Health Inc. to terminate the service in Rhode Island, and withdraw its application to resume.
Pentec Health is authorized to provide in-home nursing services in 28 states, including Massachusetts. Since 2009, at the request of Boston and Providence doctors, it had been seeing a handful of severely ill patients in Rhode Island.
But Rhode Island health officials told Pentec it had to get a certificate of need and offer proof that its service was wanted, affordable and safe. It would also have to open a Rhode Island office -- which it did, at the cost of $1,000 a month, even though no patients would ever be seen there.
Starting last January, Pentec spent about $100,000 trying to get state approval for its service. Three hearings were held. But after waiting for seven months for a decision, Pentac decided to cut its losses.
"There was seemingly no end to this process,'' Pentec executive vice president Michael Abens told the Journal. "They made us feel like criminals," he said of those reviewing the application. It was evident that "we were not welcome here."
After reading this account in the August 25 Sunday Journal, McNamara said: "The treatment they received is totally unacceptable...We have many questions for the Department of Health.''
There was no immediate response from the Department of Health to McNamara's comments.
Over the course of several hearings, McNamara said he would like his committee to explore: "What were the issues with the Pentec application?....Why did it take so long? Is there an [expedited] CON process for companies that are operating in 28 states and should there be a reciprocity agreement for companies that are licensed in our neighboring states, such as Massachusetts, and have received...gold seals of approval ?''
(In 2011, Pentec announced it been received "Gold Seal of Approval" Accreditation from the Joint Commission for Specialty Infusion and Renal Nutritional Home Care Services.)
"To me there has to be a less cumbersome and quite honestly, a more business friendly approach,'' McNamara said, "as well as it being in the best interests of...[a] population that deserves our attention.''
He cited, as examples, people with acute and chronic pain and/or severe muscle spasticity from spinal cord injuries, stroke and diseases such as cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, and cancer.
The story focused on Bea Burns, 59, of Wakefield who has been bedridden for 17 years with advanced multiple sclerosis. Fifteen years ago, Burns had a pump implanted in her body to help control her pain and uncontrollable muscle spasms.
At first, her brother would take her to Rhode Island Hospital whenever she needed her pump refilled. In 2009, when she could no longer ride in a car, her Providence doctor arranged for her to get her pump refills at home, from a nurse employed by Pentec Health.
That stopped about 11 months ago more when the state Department of Health told Pentec Health that until it obtained a home nursing care provider's license, it cannot treat patients in Rhode Island homes.
When she needs refill now, she has to be carried out of her home on a stretcher and taken by ambulance to Rhode Island Hospital.
McNamara said the Journal story about "hit home'' with him, on a very personal level. of his brother Gerald from an exceptionally aggressive form of lung cancer.