• About Us
  • Brain Injury Network (BIN)
  • Abuse, Expoitation, Victimization
  • Academic Attribution
  • Blast Exposure Brain Injury
  • Ban Football
  • Brain Injury Survivor Priorities
  • Brain Injury Advocacy by and for People
  • Brain Injury Advocates Book
  • Brain Injury Network Forums
  • Brain Injury Survivor Identifiers
  • Brain Injury Survivor Movement
  • By and For the Brain Injury Survivors
  • California Dept. of Rehabilitation
  • California or Local
  • Calif. Senate Health Committee Testimony
  • Cautionary Tale
  • College Disability Programs
  • Contact Us
  • DOR CA TBI
  • Easy Picture Links
  • Easy Text Version
  • Health Care Reform
  • Hospital Trauma Centers
  • How You Can Help
  • Human Rights of People With Brain Injury
  • International Standards
  • Laws and Legislation
  • Lawyers and Attorneys
  • LInk To Us
  • LINKS
  • Mandated Reporters
  • mTBI and Neuroimaging
  • National Standards
  • Online Community
  • Please Donate to the BIN
  • Policy Advocacy ABI Forum
  • Post-Acute Sequelae of Covid-19 (PASC)
  • Postsecondary BI Programs
  • Postsecondary Protocols
  • Post-TBI Syndrome Dear Medical Community
  • Privacy Policy
  • Protect Your Privacy
  • Public Policy
  • Public Policy in Chronological Order
  • Public Policy Index
    • Best Practice Guidelines
    • Bicycle Helmet Law
    • Brain Injury Community
    • Brain Injury and Parental Rights
    • Building Code Standards
    • Classification of TBI
    • Clinical Research
    • Cognitive Retraining
    • Community Reintegration
    • Comprehensive Health Reform
    • Concussion and Sports
    • Conflict of Interest in Medical Research
    • Counselor Training
    • Crime
    • Department of Mental Health
    • Devicing While Driving
    • Disability Rights and Issues
    • Disclosures, Advocates
    • Disclosures, Medical Providers
    • Disclosures, Researchers
    • Disclosures, Web Sites
    • Doctor Education
    • Driving While Devicing
    • Drug Companies
    • Empowerment, Patient
    • Exposing Brain Injury Survivors' Identie
    • Feeding Tube
    • Financial Institutions
    • Fluorescent Lighting Mandate Waiver
    • Food and Water
    • Funding Priorities for Survivors
    • Gold Standard Research Studies
    • Helmet Laws
    • High School Graduation
    • Hospital Privacy and Consent
    • Hospital Settings and Patients
    • Hospital Trauma Centers in the USA
    • Human Research Guidelines
    • Identification as People
    • Law-Abiding Survivors
    • Incarcerated Criminals with ABI
    • Law Enforcement
    • Laws and Recommendation
    • Least Restrictive Living Environment
    • Living Environments
    • Local and County Services
    • Locked Facilities
    • Mandated Medical Review
    • Mandated Reporter Law
    • Medical Device Makers
    • Mental Illness
    • National Centers: Costly Duplication
    • Nursing Home Placements
    • Nutrition and Hydration
    • Online Recruitment of Patients
    • Patient Recruitment to Medical Studies
    • Organizations or Providers Offering Mone
    • Parental Rights and Brain Injury
    • Patient Data Harvesting
    • Patient Empowerment
    • Persistent Vegetative State (PVS)
    • Persistent Wakeful but Unaware State
    • Physician Disclosures
    • Political Correctness
    • Political Sensitivity
    • Post-Acute Medical Environments
    • PostConcussion Syndrome
    • PCS is Physiological in Origin
    • Post-Secondary Education
    • Post-Secondary Programs
    • Privacy Online
    • Privacy Settings on Web Sites
    • Profiting from Exposing Our Identities
    • Psychologist and Counselor Training
    • Psychotropic Drugs, Use of
    • PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)
    • Post-TBI Syndrome-Proposal
    • QEEG
    • Raising Money to Promote Med. Research
    • Recruitment Methodology
    • Removal of Life Support
    • Research Studies Full Disclosure
    • School Age Children with ABI
    • Sports or Athletics Activities
    • Skiing and Helmets
    • Social Community On-Line Networking
    • Social Media Recruitment
    • Sports Medical Review
    • Stakeholders, Third Party
    • State Brain Injury Survivor Councils
    • Stigma and Brain Injury
    • Stigma, Marginalization, Stereotypical
    • Strokes are not TBIs
    • Subclassification Hierarchy of ABI
    • Support Group Facilitation
    • Survivor Advocacy
    • Survivor Advocates
    • Survivor Identity, Exposure of
    • Survivor Community Priorities
    • Survivor Stories in Media
    • TBI is a Subset of ABI
    • Terminology
    • The Term "Survivor"
    • Universal Health Care
    • Veterans, US Armed Forces
    • Victimization
  • Search This Site or the Net
  • Services Prioritization
  • Survivor Advisory Council
  • Survivors As Stakeholders
  • The Survivors' Point of View
    • A Chronic Disease
    • A Cure for Brain Injury?
    • A Stroke is Not a TBI
    • Advocates: Conflicts of Interest
    • Brain Injury Awareness
    • Brain Injury Support Groups
    • Can We Be "Trained"?
    • Definitions of ABI and TBI
    • Facebook Is Not Safe
    • 2009 Independence Day Message
    • Internet Providers Share Your Info
    • Medical Designations
    • Our Own Advocacy
    • Politically Correct Terminology
    • Post-TBi Syndrome (PTBIS)
    • Research, Clinical Trials, Studies and P
    • SABI Brain Injury Advocacy Forum
    • SABI
    • Survivor Organizations
    • Social Communities
    • Use of the Term "Survivor"
    • Why We Need Collective Advocacy
  • What We Survivors Need
  • Who Represents Us?
  • Worldwide Brain Injury Community Awarene
  • Blank 2
Donate
DONATE

Medical Designations (Brain Injury Classifications)

We want designations that will most help our survivor community.

5-20-09
There is an effort in by the BIA USA to reclassify "brain injury" into a disease. Up until now, it has not been classified as a disease.
We at Brain Injury Network have written to Congress about this effort to reclassify (traumatic) brain injury as a disease. The main point is we at BIN have thought that the designation “Traumatic Brain Injury”, which has always referred to the causation aspect, should be maintained. We suggested adding the category “Post-TBI Syndrome” to reflect the new medical research about the long-term, chronic “disease” potentiality due to but after the TBI. Additionally, we sought and continue to seek that TBI be classified as a form of ABI here in the United States. And we recommended that Congress seek wide medical peer review prior to legislation of any designation changes.
However, upon further reflection, if reclassification of “brain injury” to a disease would mean that people with traumatic brain injuries are going to get services and benefits that have been withheld from them then we would be for it. We are aware of certain survivors being denied government Medicaid benefits on the pretext that they do not qualify as having had a “medical condition”, i.e. disease. (Apparently Medicaid sometimes denies benefits by stating that the person with the TBI merely has a “neurological impairment”, not a “medical condition”.) This type of determination also may reduce significantly the services reimbursed by insurance companies. We merely ask for an assurance that services and benefits will improve for persons disabled by TBI if this designation change is implemented.
There seem to be several TBI situations to reflect upon for the purposes of service delivery, funding, research, benefits, and insurance reimbursement. (1) There is the initial acute phase in which immediate medical sequela arise. This phase sometimes results in permanent impairments. (2) Secondary medical conditions arrive fairly quickly during and after the initial acute injury and can sometimes produce permanent impairments. (3) There is the subacute phase which requires recovery in a medical facility, but past the intense initial acute phase. (4) So, the initial acute and subacute phases of TBI can often result in long-term, even life-long chronic afflictions. (5) According to newer medical research, there are also the long-term chronic issues that sometimes don’t appear for years after the TBI. (Post-TBI Syndrome?) (6) A related topic that contains both medical and nonmedical aspects is life after TBI which may include “community reintegration services”; on-going physical, neuro-cognitive, occupational and speech therapy or rehabilitation; adaptive equipment; assistive devices; medical maintenance; accommodations and additional supports in day-to-day living (examples: supports in the areas of employment, housing, paratransit, money-management, in-home services, etc.).
It was a mental leap for some of us at BIN to move the acute brain injury stage from injury classification to disease classification, (and it probably will be for some others as well) but if the doctors think that is how it should now be, and at least this Dr. Masel and the Brain Injury Association think so, then we will defer to the doctor’s opinion, if it will increase, not decrease, services and benefits for people tragically impaired because of TBI. We want the medical designations that will be most helpful to our survivor community.
Note: It came to our attention the week commencing 5-17-09 that the U.S. Congressional Brain Injury Task Force is not spearheading any medical reclassification system. According to a top aide of a key Congressman on the task force, the task force expects any reclassification system changes to come from the medical community, not the Congress.
See also: Is Brain Injury a Chronic Disease?
See also: "Post-TBI Syndrome"
See also: Use of the Term "Survivor"
ABI/TBI Definitions, About BIN, Ban Dangerous Sports,Brain Injury Advocacy, Brain Injury Forums,Brain Injury Names, By and or Brain Injury Survivors, California Area BIN, Cautionary Tale, Classification, Contact Us, Chronic Disease?, Concussions and Football, Distribution List, Easy Version, Global Issues,Health Care Reform, Home, How You Can Help, Human, Legal and Civil Rights, Independence, International Standards, Laws and Legislation, Links, Mandated Reporters, National Standards, News, Online Community, Please Donate, Postsecondary Program Protocols, Post-TBI Syndrome, Privacy Policy, Protect Your Privacy Public Policy, Public Policy Index, Research/Clinical Trials/Studies, SABI Advocacy Forum, SEARCH, Shop OnLine and Help BIN, The Survivor Movement, The Survivors' Viewpoint,Terminology, Who Really Represents Us, Who We Are,Worldwide Brain Injury Community,Your Privacy Settings on the Internet
© Copyright 1998-2023. Brain Injury Network
All rights reserved.

We use cookies to enable essential functionality on our website, and analyze website traffic. By clicking Accept you consent to our use of cookies. Read about how we use cookies.

Your Cookie Settings

We use cookies to enable essential functionality on our website, and analyze website traffic. Read about how we use cookies.

Cookie Categories
Essential

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our websites. You cannot refuse these cookies without impacting how our websites function. You can block or delete them by changing your browser settings, as described under the heading "Managing cookies" in the Privacy and Cookies Policy.

Analytics

These cookies collect information that is used in aggregate form to help us understand how our websites are being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are.