As denials pile up, NFL settlement ignores ‘critical’ tests | Attorneys promised a “state of the art” process to diagnose former players suffering from brain disease. But basic tools still aren’t being used, The Washington Post found, saving the NFL millions

https://preview.redd.it/seawehew90ld1.png?width=656&format=png&auto=webp&s=e5c2fb66ecead687930fef2f558678273694d567

>When the NFL agreed to settle lawsuits filed by thousands of former players alleging football left them with brain disease, the top lawyer for players promised a “state of the art” evaluation, paid for by the league, that would quickly connect players with care at the critical early stages of dementia, when treatment can help ease a patient’s suffering.

>But the settlement’s dementia evaluation was operating behind best practices the day it opened in 2017, a Washington Post investigation found. And the quality gap between the settlement’s evaluation and a state-of-the-art examination for dementia has only widened since, leaving thousands of former players with assessments that fall far short of the sophistication promised by their top lawyer.

>“It’s shocking to me that that’s not part of their evaluation,” James Castle, a neurologist and assistant professor at Rush Medical College in Chicago, said of MRIs. “This is a critical test.”

>The Post has spent more than a year investigating the settlement, reviewing thousands of pages of records relating to efforts by more than 100 former players to qualify for benefits and interviewing dozens of lawyers, doctors, former players and their families. In January, a Post report revealed how the settlement’s unique definition for dementia has saved the NFL hundreds of millions. The Post also documented administrative failures that left some players waiting years — and, in two cases, dying — before they could get paid.

>In examining the settlement’s evaluation process, The Post identified two common brain imagining technologies — MRI and amyloid PET (positron emission tomography) — whose exclusion probably has saved the NFL tens of millions in medical costs alone, according to expert estimates.

!ping HEALTH-POLICY&NFL