Letters to the Editor

Patience should have a right to know

Do patients have a right to know if an insurance plan is going to force them to use a mail-order pharmacy or the insurance-owned mail order system during open enrollment? Do patients have a right to chose who they receive medical and pharmaceutical care from?

As a pharmacist at a local independent pharmacy, I have been fielding questions from patients using Kaiser Permanente insurance, who began receiving letters indicating they must transfer their prescriptions to a Kaiser pharmacy for continued coverage.

Starting in January, the Kaiser benefits offered by the Public Employees Benefits Board (PEBB) and School Employees Benefits Board have a provision that requires “maintenance medications” to be filled by a Kaiser pharmacy. This new policy was not disclosed to members during open enrollment.

Instead, Kaiser began notifying patients once they filled a medication at their local pharmacy in 2023. Patients are outraged by this covert operation and wonder how they can trust their health with a company that doesn’t have the decency to be transparent with new policies.

Our pharmacy is over 50 miles from a Kaiser pharmacy. Wouldn’t it be reasonable for Kaiser to allow rural patients to use their local pharmacy?

The best patient care isn’t provided by undisclosed regulations and coercive behavior. The best practice in healthcare is patient centered.

On behalf of my patients, I challenge Kaiser to reconsider this restriction and allow patients to have an active role in their healthcare and choose their pharmacy provider.

Katie Johnson

Spokane

Be part of the chamber excitement

The mood in the room was upbeat as Becky Main, treasurer of the Ritzville Chamber of Commerce, spoke about upcoming activities in 2023.

She emphasized the fun and surprises the board is working on, including the community parade, Memorial Day ideas, the all-city yard sale, Christmas plans and more. We enjoyed a delicious Mexican meal, voted for new officers — Kellen Hays, Kaylin Bell and Reya Huitron — and joined committees. All are welcome to join the chamber by calling City Hall.

Please join me in helping to make this community a great place to live!

Marsha Smith

Ritzville

LOL at outlandish

hair-colored people

Who would have ever imagined that a fashion would prevail whereby women would purposely choose to look “not pretty?”

I am past 80, no longer pretty and right in style.

I just wish the green-, purple- and orange-haired people would add a big red nose, which would be a sign that it’s OK for their audience to “Laugh Out Loud (LOL).”

Amazed in 2023

Nancy Parry

Moscow, Idaho

Greenhouse gases raise Earth temp

We all need to understand climate science.

Climate fundamentals are simple: Sunshine warms the Earth, and the Earth radiates heat back into space as infrared. Earth’s temperature results from how much radiant heat gets trapped by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. GHGs are trace gases but have a disproportionate influence on temperatures.

Nitrogen, oxygen and argon represent 78%, 21%, and 0.9% of our atmosphere and are not greenhouse gases.

Greenhouse gases only make up a fraction of the remaining 0.1%; gases such as carbon-dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are Earth’s “thermostat gases.”

Of these gases, carbon-dioxide is responsible for more than three-quarters of the greenhouse effect.

Atmospheric water vapor complicates this simplified description.

Water vapor traps infrared, is almost all from natural sources, is short-lived and is highly variable. Water vapor supercharges temperature swings and stores the energy released in hurricanes and tornadoes.

When we increase greenhouse gas concentrations, we raise the temperature, which increases atmospheric water vapor and the destructive power of weather events.

Since the industrial revolution, when we started burning fossil fuels, carbon-dioxide levels have risen from 0.028% to 0.042%, a 50% increase.

And once you realize that we’ve raised Earth’s thermostat by 50%, you don’t need to be a scientist to understand why we need to turn it down again. And quickly.

Simon Smith

Pullman