Widow blames lack of prescriptions for husband’s death

Barbara Bryant of Rutledge said her husband, James, suffered from a hereditary bleeding disorder called von Willebrand disease, hepatitis C from blood transfusions, heart problems, diabetes and cirrhosis of the liver.

She said he had been taking about a dozen medications a month until TennCare capped prescriptions on Aug. 1. The 50-year-old was hospitalized three weeks later and died about a week after that.

Bryant said her husband was the victim of Gov. Phil Bredesen’s plan to cut thousands of people from TennCare and reduce benefits to reform the $8.7 billion public health care program. The reforms include restricting the number of prescriptions of those remaining on the program to five per month — two name brand and three generic.

Bryant said she only makes about $1,000 a month and couldn’t afford the out-of-pocket costs for the additional prescriptions. She said she also tries to help her daughter who suffers from the bleeding disorder and is subject to the five-prescription limit under TennCare.

“He needed more than the five drugs,” Bryant said of her husband. “I wish he could have gotten his medicine.”

But TennCare spokeswoman Marilyn Elam cited statements made by the doctor of Bryant’s husband in Tuesday’s editions of The Tennessean that dispute the widow’s claims.

Dr. Dean Mire of Knoxville refused to talk to The Associated Press, but he told the newspaper that he included “an absence of medicines for one week” as a contributing cause on Bryant’s death certificate.

“Anybody who doesn’t take their medicine is going to have that as a contribution to their demise,” Mire said.

“I don’t want to say that his not getting his TennCare medications caused him to die. He died because he had terrible heart and liver disease,” Mire said.

The doctor also said that because Bryant was extremely ill, he was likely to have died soon regardless of whether he took his medications.

“His physician made it clear that he did not die because he did not get his TennCare medication,” Elam said.

The state had plans to implement a so-called “soft prescription limit,” she said, which would allow enrollees to receive prescriptions over the limit if medically necessary.

But Elam said a federal court didn’t grant the state all the changes it wanted in a legal agreement made with advocates for TennCare patients in 1999. The modifications would have allowed TennCare enrollees to retain some benefits. The changes that were made are allowing the state to keep 97,000 of the sickest enrollees on TennCare.

Elam said the soft prescription limit would be in place if the state hadn’t gotten tied up in the courts with legal advocates for enrollees. She also blamed the advocates for “politicizing” Bryant’s death.

“It’s an unfortunate and sympathetic situation anytime we lose family members,” Elam said. “Grandstanding advocates preying upon grief and sympathy, this too is unfortunate.”

Michele Johnson of the Tennessee Justice Center, the main advocate for enrollees, said her organization did not orchestrate Bryant’s appearances in Memphis and Nashville on Monday to discuss her husband’s death.

But Johnson said the TJC did develop the news release about a memorial service for Bryant’s late husband and does continue to encourage enrollees and those losing coverage to tell their stories publicly. A TJC representative alerted The Associated Press to Bryant’s appearances and helped put a reporter in touch with her.

“It’s not surprising they try to blame us,” Johnson said of state officials. “They don’t want to be held politically responsible for the devastation their policies are causing.”