Project Walk on TV and our 1st insurance client

[Snowman]

http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif PW on TV http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

Project Walk was featured this past week on a local San Diego TV program: San Diego Insider Magazine. If you live in the area or have friends in the area please email us and we can give you times it will be on. Also, we have copies of the program and may be able to send out those to a few people.

projectwalk@cox.net


http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif Insurance http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

In June, we will be getting our first client whose insurance is paying the entire cost of the program. Her father is in the process of gathering information for others who are interested in using insurance to pay for the program. We hope this is a promising trend in the insurance industry.


Eric Harness,CSCS
Project Walk (http://www.projectwalk.org)

[Chris Chappell]

I'd like to see the video and am interested in the insurance info.

Thanks.

Eric, are you guys looking into acquiring the Autoambulator or Lokomat?

Onward and Upward!

[angel7]

Eric,

I would also like to know how they got their insurance company to pay for this therapy.

Thanks,

Deb

[Snowman]

Chris

We are currently using a similar device that was designed and developed by one of our client's father, who is an engineer. He is in the process of patenting the device, so I not sure if it would prudent for me to completely describe it. I will just say that it uses a harness system to partially load the legs while the machine moves them through a walking pattern. Hopefully, we will have pictures and videos up on our website soon...

Eric Harness,CSCS
Project Walk (http://www.projectwalk.org)

[etexley]

The more I read, the more I begin to think it's the therapies themselves that are going to be a major part of the answer to our little common problem...


By Amy Norton

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - New research in monkeys is shedding light on how the brain controls the body's movement--suggesting that single spots in the brain govern actions far more complex than previously thought.

It is known that a brain's motor cortex contains a "map" of the body that is used to control movement, but the exact role of this area in performing movement is unclear. Whether the motor cortex is primarily involved in muscle control or "higher-order" control of movement--such as direction and trajectory--is a central question.

In the new study, researchers at Princeton University in New Jersey found that electrical stimulation of particular sites in monkeys' motor cortex caused the animals to take on complex "postures"--such as coordinating the arm, hand and mouth into an "eating" stance--as opposed to initiating simple muscle contraction.

This is in contrast to the "traditional" view that each location within the motor cortex controls only a muscle, according to the study's lead author, Michael S.A. Graziano. In this view, if you stimulate a given spot in the cortex, then the single muscle it governs contracts, he told Reuters Health. This would also mean that another part of the brain must be in charge of tapping the right spots in the motor cortex to execute movement.

But, Graziano said, "our results show that the motor cortex is not a look-up table of muscles. Instead, each spot in the motor cortex corresponds to a complex, coordinated motor act."

In his team's research with monkeys, such complex acts included bringing a gripped hand to the mouth as if eating food, and bringing the hand near the face while turning the head away, as if for protection.

"The fact that a single spot in the (motor) cortex can represent such a complex part of the animal's repertoire is new and totally unexpected," Graziano said.

The findings are published in the May 30th issue of the journal Neuron.

Dr. Richard J. Krauzlis, who wrote a commentary accompanying the report, agreed that the study suggests that stimulating the motor cortex "elicits postures that are far more complex than would be expected based upon current thinking."

Krauzlis, a researcher at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, told Reuters Health that understanding how complex movements are generated is important for human health.

He pointed out that various nervous system disorders--including stroke and Parkinson's disease--involve problems with motor control.

"Understanding the basic mechanisms underlying motor control is therefore a crucial step toward developing therapies, if not outright cures, for these nervous system disorders," Krauzlis said.

SOURCE: Neuron 2002;34:673-674, 841-851.

Eric Texley

[foster]

eric I hope the move went well.tell ted were still trying to there out there.did mario move if he did were. how is everybody doing good I hope.

[rbyrd49100]

Eric,

I keep receiving these strange emails with strange titles that originate from Project Walk. I have emailed asking why I am recieving them, but no response in the three weeks it has been happening. The one I am pasting below was titled,"look at my beautiful girlfriend" http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif There is also a file attached but no way am I going to download it until I receive a response from you guys:)

Return-Path: <projectwalk@cox.net>
Received: from rly-xj01.mx.aol.com (rly-xj01.mail.aol.com [172.20.116.38]) by air-xj01.mail.aol.com (v86.11) with ESMTP id MAILINXJ12-0603105102; Mon, 03 Jun 2002 10:51:02 2000
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for <Rbyrd2531@aol.com>; Mon, 3 Jun 2002 10:50:45 -0400
From: MWMCWHINNEY <MWMCWHINNEY@kingschools.com>
To: Rbyrd2531@aol.com
Subject: Re:Rbyrd2531,look,my beautiful girl friend
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Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2002 10:50:48 -0400

Russ Byrd

[Snowman]

Our director got a virus on his computer and it has been emailing itself to everyone on his address book...I thought it had only been a few days that this was happening. He had to get an entirely new computer yesterday as the virus was extrondinarly stubborn to remove.

We apologize for any inconvience this has caused.

Eric Harness,CSCS
Project Walk (http://www.projectwalk.org)

[Carl C]

I would like some more information about the insurance coverage. I am cover through a canadian insurance, Worker's compensation board. I would like to know what i can do to convince them to cover the costs. Can you share any particulars about the insurance company that is covering your client?
Please send info to carlchampion@hotmail.com
Thank you

[janacv]

Hi Eric, what Insurance company is it?

[john smith]

I am moving this to the Exercise Forum. This particular thread is nearly four years old. The insurance situation has not changed. Very very few insurance companies will pay for alternative intensive exercise therapies for SCI. To Project Walk's credit they advocate for their clients to attain coverage but, if anything, the insurance picture has deteriorated since 2002.

So, 24 more hours in Cure and then off to Exercise.

John

[Norm]

I'm trying to get my insurance to cover PW now. They paid for Biofeedback years ago.

[Snowman]

Wow...OLD thread!

The insurance was auto insurance from Michigan. They have some sort of total coverage that pays for anything and everything...

Sorry if this has gotten anyone's hopes up.

[Norm]

I would be shocked if my insurance didn't cover PW.

[Tim H]

that is great...that will help a ton of people! just curious, how do they cover the program if you don't have a PT? what codes can you bill under?

[Tim H]

never mind, just saw about the date from 2002!!!