Grace cuts asbestos medical benefits

Recent reductions in health care benefits for people believed harmed by asbestos exposure in Libby, Mont., have again left residents there feeling betrayed by W.R. Grace & Co.

Grace started enrolling people in a medical plan specifically to cover asbestos-related health problems in 2001. Now, 890 people are in the program.

But late last month, 180 enrollees received letters telling them they did not have asbestos-related disease, and therefore would not be fully covered.

“Here I’ve been diagnosed with this 41/2 years ago and now all of the sudden I don’t have it,” said Bob Stickney, who received one of the 180 letters. “I had a CAT-scan done last week, and it confirms what he (the doctor) diagnosed. …

“I understand what they’re trying to do. They don’t want the liability anymore.”

The asbestos-related health issues are the legacy of vermiculite mining at the Zonolite mine north of town. Grace operated the now-defunct mine from 1963 to 1990, and in 2001 declared bankruptcy because of asbestos liability from the mine and related industry.

Stickney thinks he inhaled asbestos while working with his father one summer at the Zonolite mine site, and then later during his 23 years as a millwright at Libby’s Stimson Lumber mill, which also was contaminated with asbestos.

Now breathing is sometimes painful for Stickney, whose lungs are encased in a scarred and thickened lining. The health plan helps him ease the pain with medication, but no longer covers more than one visit a year to the doctor.

“There’s no other stuff that causes this disease,” said Stickney, adding that he’s never smoked.

After Grace filed for bankruptcy, company officials assured Libby residents that the medical plan, administered by Health Network America, would continue.

Many residents with asbestos-related disease are scared, said Leroy Thom, a former union leader at the mine. “They thought they had benefits … it’s just a continuation of Grace reducing their responsibility to this community.”

Grace spokesman Bill Corcoran said Grace had nothing to do with the change in benefits. And Dr. Jay Flynn of Health Network America said the reduction in benefits was not because Grace was trying to limit its liability or responsibility to the community.

Instead, it was the result of a 31/2-year medical audit that began after the first enrollees started to receive benefits, Flynn said.

During that time, all medical records of enrollees were reviewed, and their chest X-rays and CAT scans reviewed by a panel of four medical experts to determine if they had asbestos-related disease.

“You have to realize that in Libby, Mont., there’s more than just asbestos,” Flynn said. “There’s smoking among the (medical plan) members and there’s the issue of the air pollution up there,” he added, referring to wood-burning stoves and other contributors to particulate matter in the air that’s often trapped in the narrow valley.

Doctors treating people in Libby, however, have said that Grace’s health plan is ignoring the dangers caused by tremolite asbestos, the unique form of asbestos found in Libby’s vermiculite.

Many people, like Stickney, have developed a thickening of their lung linings, which makes it difficult to breathe. Radiologists employed by Health Network America, however, are trained to read X-rays for the effects of chrysotile asbestos and do not recognize such thickening as an asbestos-related disease, said Kimberly Rowse, clinical coordinator of the Center for Asbestos-Related Disease in Libby.

Rowse said all 890 patients on the Grace-funded health plan are experiencing reductions in coverage. A year ago, for instance, the plan restricted the number of pulmonary function tests it would cover to one every three years.

“High risk patients should have it every year or every six months,” Rowse said.

Meanwhile, at St. John’s Lutheran Hospital in Libby, it was almost a relief that the letters were sent out, notifying enrollees of their reductions in coverage.

“At least they know now,” said Jeanie Gentry, vice president of the hospital’s outpatient services. The hospital had a number of claims denied before anyone was informed of the change in coverage, she said.

“They were making denials prior to the letters going out,” she said. “There were patients who had been admitted to the hospital and their claims had been paid by the plan in previous years, and this year they had their claims denied.”

All of this just underscores the need for an independent trust fund to cover the medical needs of asbestos-exposed residents and former residents, said Rowse and Thom.

Community leaders are working with Montana’s congressional delegation to establish the medical trust fund. Thom said Grace should provide the money for the trust fund, but not have any involvement in its administration; “Obviously that’s like the fox in the chicken house.”

The plan also has to be around for a long time.

“We don’t even know how many people are going to get ill over the long term. The latency period is very long,” Rowse said. “We just saw a young man, 32 years old, short of air. He couldn’t even pick up his baby.

“He played king of the mountain on the asbestos piles out at the ballpark when he was a kid, and he has quite extensive disease.”