Program (Please Designate) Medicaid X: Fill & Download for Free

The healthcare in the US is not expensive because is a system designed for profit. If that were the case, hospitals would be following six-sigma quality guidelines and follow evidence based medicine.No.It is because it is a system where EVERYONE profits from waste.1) The doctor profits when he orders unnecessary tests and procedures. BUT if he works for a system where the insurer and the hospital are the same entity (For example, Kaiser Permanente) he may be penalized/rewarded for ordering/denying tests, procedures and referrals even if they are medically necessary.The hospital profits when doctor does (1) and(2) When the good doctor fucks up. See that healthy man that whose sepsis was misdiagnosed and resulted in limb amputations? He becomes a cash cow for the hospital for the rest of his life. If the crappy doctor on the other hand, works for a system such as Kaiser's, he/she will save millions of dollars to the HMO by refusing to order necessary tests and treatments. That is why poor doctors are kept on the job for years, even though according to the National Practitioner Data Bank Public Use File;The vast majority of doctors – 82 percent – have never had a medical malpractice payment since the NPDB was created in 1990.Just 5.9 percent of doctors have been responsible for 57.8 percent of all malpractice payments since 1991, according to data from September 1990 through 2005. Each of these doctors made at least two payments. (Source Public Citizen)But what about frivolous lawsuits? you may say. Tort reform and arbitration have made pretty much impossible to sue a doctor -but to go through that issue is the source of another long post. The reality is that only 3% of valid medical malpractice cases go to trial, and the plaintiff loses 75% of the time. The chances of the hospital having to do a huge payout to a patient are extremely slim. The cost of preventable medical errors is staggering - some estimates put it as high as $780 billion a year (source The economics of health care quality and medical errors. ). Guess who gets the majority of that money - you have it right: The Hospital and doctors. Medical boards all over the country are nothing but cartels safeguarding crappy doctors. Did you prescribe methadone as a pain reliever after a tonsillectomy and the patient dies of an overdose a few days later?. A "public" letter of reprimand will suffice (see Page on ca.gov ). No probation, no suspension. If the case is pretty bad, the good doc will lawyer up and settle for a single act of negligence and leave it at that.BUT! you may say, can't the victim testify or witness the proceeding?THESE HEARINGS, THEIR FINDINGS, THE NAME OF THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY ASSIGNED TO YOUR CASE (IF YOU MAKE IT THAT FAR) ARE ENTIRELY CONFIDENTIAL. Imagine a secret trial in which the prosecutor and the defendant can discuss as good pals what kind of disciplinary actions they would like, and the victim is not even allowed to show how badly harmed they were?. Yup, that is the way the disciplinary hearings from the Medical boards work in the US. In fact, they still are debating whether you, as a patient, should be notified if you good doc is on probation (Your doctor’s on probation: Should you be told?) You get more transparency in your pick of Vietnamese restaurant than of the doctor that makes life and death decisions for you.BUT!! you may say. How about the Insurers? Medicaid? Medicare?. Wouldn't it be in their best interest to improve safety practices and do evidence-based medicine?. Ideally, this would be the case, BUT!!!3) VENDORS do not have any sort of transparency in prices. From medications, to the cost of the band-aid, or a simple test, and you may get staggering differences in price (see A blood test can cost from $10 to $10,000 in Calif. hospitals, according to a study). Insurers negotiate prices with HMO's so this kind of magical math happens all the time.The cynic in me believes that the vendors and the insurers are in cahoots: inflate the price 1000%, and the 20-30% percent patient co-payment alone would shift the majority of the REAL cost to the patient -and even make a tidy profit. The poor fellow with the Bronze plan? please pay up the whole price, credit cards accepted, pronto.Not only that, but if the situation becomes too bad, Insurers can always raise prices. Or in the case of Medicare, instead of going against the powerful AMA and the health insurance and pharmaceutical industry, we start saving money by denying benefits to those who may need it. Prosthetic devices? See Rescind the Medicare proposal restricting access to prosthetic limbs and returning amputees to 1970’s standards of care. Same goes for wheelchairs Stop Medicare from Making Inappropriate Cuts to Complex Wheelchair Accessories. When Medicare goes into full mayhem mode, and refuses to pay for complications generated by easily preventable hospital conditions (see Medicare's no-pay events: Coping with the complications), then the hospitals start releasing the sick patients to SNF (skilled nursing facilities) and saying that the condition was acquired there.But how about the patients?, you may say4) But the patients have also a big responsibility in this whole mess. You have a kick ass program at work? You think nothing of ordering unnecessary tests "just to make sure", and "treating yourself" via chiropractors, accupuncturists and homeopaths, which are nothing but quackery (See Page on sciencebasedmedicine.org and https://www.Page on sciencebasedmedicine.org/acupuncture-doesnt-work/). You overburden hospitals when you to to the ER when nothing is wrong with you, you refuse to vaccinate your children because of something you read on the internet, you bitch when Obamacare rolls in and you say "hands off my health plan", you are the first to demand that undocumented immigrants be forbidden to buy insurance in the exchanges, even though they contribute over $13 billion of dollars to our SS and Medicare systems on a yearly basis, and get less than $1 billion back (See Page on socialsecurity.gov) -and virtually ensure that they only get care in the ER's when their conditions are often lethal and incredibly expensive to treat. In fact, you, the patient, are a very integral part of the problem when you vote and without first getting a basic understanding of the inherent complexity of this matter.As a final note, here is a little reason of by I am so passionate about the subject.This was my husband - a triathlete, a marathon runner - handsome fella uhm?On January 2013, he sprained his ankle and developed a joint infection. His doctor, hurried and careless, told him it was just the flu and did not order any blood work nor cultures, even though he had a textbook presentation of septic arthritis of the ankle joint. Despite constant follow up calls to the hospital, they kept reassuring us that this was expected. The doctor that examined him initially, suspected that he has sepsis, but never told him to go to the ER. By the time we reached the ER he was in full septic and toxic shock from a common strain of Streptococcus pyogenes. A bacteria easily treatable with penicillin.Cost of treating him on time: $30.This is how my husband looks like nowNow, the breakdown of the cost of this errorHospitalization19 days in ICU: between $15,000-$$30,000 day (due to complex presentation, intubation, wound care and dialysis)= $285,000- $570,000141 days of regular hospitalization: on low end, $1975 x $ 141= $278,485Surgical costs (aprox 15 surgeries of 4-6 hours duration each) = Unknown, but average surgery for debridement costs $15,000. I am being conservative at putting the costs of surgery at around $225,00012 weeks of acute rehabilitation: $1,040,000 (and I got this much rehab because I bitched like a rabid dog)Total hospitalization: A conservative cost of $2,113,000Litigation: Our attorney (between experts, court reporters, etc) $150,000Kaiser (let's be conservative and assume they had the same costs as us) = $150,000But Kaiser alone had to pay for their attorney. Assuming the guy worked about 200 hours in the case (which is quite conservative, as the trial alone was about 80 hours), at $400/h, we are talking about $80,000 in fees.Arbitrator: 100 hours at $550/h= $55,000Total legal costs: $495,000Victim gets zero. Arbitration rules -but for insurers!!Anthem, and now Medicare, pay approximately $100,000/year in medical costs for husband. Prosthesis ain't cheap. At 20% copay, we had to pay close to $20,000/year in copays alone, that without including caregiver costs.Husband, an engineer, used to make close to $150,000/year. Luckily we had good LTD insurance, but still, I had to stop working in engineering as the time constraints and cost of care-giving made it impossible to continue working FT. That means that SS will stop receiving close to $620,000 in Medicare and SS taxes from us during our expected work expectancy.So to add it up:Costs of initial hospitalization: $2.1 millionLegal costs: $495,000Insurance costs through husband's lifetime (life expentancy of 75): $3 millionCosts to victims: $600,000 (based on same life expentancy)Loss of Medicare and SS earnings: $620,000Loss of wages: 2.3 million (wife), 1.1 million (husband - I am deducting his disability payments)Total cost to society: $10,215,000 (in 2015 dollars)So you can understand my frustration when PCP's tell me that it would be too cumbersome to test all suspicious cases?. With the cost of Husband's case alone, we would have been able to test and treat more that 300,000 patients.To this date, doctor still practices, despite having been found below the standard of care by the CA medical board. If we are lucky, she will get a public letter of reprimand and that will be it.You on the other hand, will pay dearly, when Medicare goes insolvent, or when your insurance rates increase. All because of the waste.

Unfortunately, Medicare does not cover any dental treatments at this time; only medical treatments are covered. Medicaid programs are run by each individual state, so coverage is going to vary depending on which state you live in. Check with your dental care provider to determine if the periodontal treatment you need is covered by your plan.Approximately one in four seniors aged 65 and over (23 percent) have gone five years or more since their last dental visit, according to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR). Additionally, 16 percent of individuals in this age range consider their oral health as “poor.”dentist and senior patient looking at an X-raySome of the links on this page may link to our affiliates. Learn more about our ad policies.The American Dental Association (ADA) adds that individuals 60 and over often face some rather unique dental concerns. For instance, there are more than 500 medications that cause dry mouth, some of which are prescribed for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s disease. This is important because the ADA cites dry mouth as a “common cause of cavities in older adults.”Other oral health concerns that appear more often in older adults include gum disease and mouth cancer, according to the ADA.Medicare and a Lack of Dental CoverageUnfortunately, having Medicare doesn’t always help with this issue. According to Medicare.gov: the official U.S. government site for Medicare, this federal health insurance program typically does not cover dental care, procedures, or supplies.Medicare doesn’t provide benefits toward regular cleanings or services designed to treat and/or correct problematic oral issues, such as fillings or tooth extractions.Medicare also does not generally offer benefits for dental devices, including dentures and dental plates.So, what does Medicare cover when it comes to dental health care?Medicare will also contribute toward oral examinations needed before kidney transplants or heart valve replacements in certain situations.medicare fraudOriginal Medicare’s Part A Dental CoverageUnder Original Medicare Part A, participants may be covered for certain dental services received while in the hospital. These include any “emergency or complicated dental procedures” deemed necessary at the time, according to Medicare.gov: the official U.S. government site for Medicare.The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) explains that while blanket dental exclusions for Part A coverage are made under Section 1862 (a)(12) of the Social Security Act—an act that hasn’t been amended since 1980, according to the CMS—one example of an emergency or complicated procedure that is often at least partially covered is jaw reconstruction needed as a result of an accidental injury.Another instance in which Medicare Part A would pick up a portion of a typical dental care cost is if an extraction is needed to prepare a patient for radiation treatments as a result of jaw-related neoplastic diseases. Healthline says that this category of conditions are diseases involving the growth of tumors, both cancerous and noncancerous in nature.According to the CMS, Medicare will also contribute toward oral examinations needed before kidney transplants or heart valve replacements in certain situations. Specifically, this type of expense would likely be covered under Medicare Part A if the hospital’s dental staff performs the exam.Medicare Part B Dental BenefitsOn the other hand, if the physician conducts the examination needed prior to kidney transplant or heart valve replacement, the CMS states that Part B benefits will apply.However, when it comes to Medicare Part B, there are two specific sets of services that it will not cover.The first involves services used to care, treat, remove, or replace teeth to structures supporting the teeth. For example, this can include pulling teeth prior to getting dentures.The second set of services Medicare Part B won’t cover also include those related to the teeth and their supporting structures, unless those services are needed to effectively treat a non-dental condition.In this type of situation, the dental service must be performed at the same time as the covered service in order for Medicare to pay its portion. It must also be performed by the same healthcare professional who performed the covered service, whether that person is a physician or dentist.References: Are periodontal treatments generally covered under Medicare or Medicaid?A Guide to Medicare Dental Coverage | Updated for 2019 | AgingInPlace.orgPlease do Upvote & Share if you like !!!Also Follow me for more such answers.

It’s difficult and unique and interesting and not that interesting and boring and fun and useful and pedantic, all at the same time.Out at 18, Partying at 21I came out to my family at 18 after about 3 years of thinking on it, experimenting and weekly sessions with a high school counselor.I’d lost my virginity with a girl at 11 (she was 12) and then with a boy, technically at 14—because of how hetero and non-hetero sex and sexuality is viewed it’s difficult to construct what losing one’s virginity is in a non-hetero fashion.Does this include in the 2nd/3rd grade as a latchkey kid when Leroy and I (he was the cutest boy in our class with his bright grey/green eyes and golden honey skin) would race to my house, and roll around on my parents’ king sized bed naked playing kissyface and calling each other James Bond? This went on for over a year when we lived on Staten Island, then we moved.My parents divorced when I was 11 and my mother and i went to a counselor who not only predicted my prodigiousness would focus towards writing dozens of books but that my mother shouldn't be surprised if I wasn’t 100% heterosexual.My mother asked at 14, if I were still a virgin and I explained I’d lost my virginity with her best friends daughter. My stepfather then offered this beautiful but mentally slow girl for sex—-she was 18.Culturally I can say that there were good and bad boundaries around sex and growing up. My parents explained everything before I was 10 so I understood everything that I did and wasn’t doing throughout my teens. I also read a lot—-Jackie Collins actually explained in detail in one of her books what a blowjob was—-ooooooh!It just so happened that I didn’t go off to college until 21. I had a slight tumultuous affair with my best friend in high school, he vacillated—-I left high school early. I then worked in Manhattan and basically learned how to go out and party. I didn’t drink or do drugs but I was a great dancer, eventually ending up a cage dancer at a couple of clubs while working in Greenwich Village.It was then that I learned that White gay men, are still WHITE men, from America. It took about a year for that mixed level of prejudice and racism to become transparent to me. There was (and still is a lot of race projection)—-”Yeah, I love brown skin!” “Ooh, let me see your big Black cook! I love big Black cock!” “I love to be fucked by Black men!” “I love Black men!”Generally that projection comes from older White men and some peer age White men. It’s constant because it is attached to racism, the racism that has sexualized me. I may have gone on a date with someone once or a few times but I have never been sexual with anyone whom I detect fetishization of me, racially, from.My boo in high school was Latino and looked like Stedman Graham but we weren’t advanced enough to have racial issues. We broke up mainly from class issues. His family was Welfare poor and I wasn’t, so I went to the big city (Manhattan) for work (I was making $1000 a week at A&S department store.) and then potentially school. I actually used to come to Columbia University for LGBT parties on the weekends. It never occurred to me to attend it as a college.I did a lot of dating and experimenting and thinking about sexuality and buying lots of more detailed books about sex and sexuality (I had a lot of disposable cash though I was paying half the mortgage.) At first, at 18 coming out, my parents were adamantly against my sexuality so I went into my room and began packing. I was willing to forsake them, leave forever, never see them again. I will not be minimized or sexuality tasked to. This I’ve later found out is unusual.In Black and Latino families, there’s an awareness, rejection and a closeted mentality towards non-hetero relatives. I was squarely standing in: “Fuck that. I earn my own money, I am my own man, I’ve been assisting in paying bills for years. I will not be minimized.”That initial stance, folding into the next two decades of my life is what makes me unique in what I’ve done and not done. Pointedly as an Out Black man.Mommy NearestThen my mother’s business started working out and there was a window of opportunity to go away to college after a couple of years of staying home and working to help pay the mortgage. Again there was a level of attempted leveraging control over me. If I didn’t attend the colleges she approved of, because they were in near the house and co-op we owned, I would not get any of my trust fund for school. I politely told her to go fuck herself, applied as an adult student, over 21, and went to the university of my choice.Another issue that I am “different than” which my high school boo—-and scads of Black and Latino non-hetero men go through—-is they become their mother’s best friend. I rejected this. And for that rejection, which is really what the struggle was about, she took away my trust fund. I didn’t blink, I packed my shit and went to Buffalo on my own dime as an adult student.Black and Latino family structures tend to exert undo influence on non-hetero males to conform to not only heterosexuality but submission. My mother owned a modelling agency and on school breaks encouraged me to go through her catalog of models, pick the one I found the most attractive and she would pay her off with $10k to have my baby, sever parental rights an my mother would raise the child while I was away at school. I refused and what my mother had trouble understanding was that was the last part—-her raising my child, that was my issue.Looking back at this a lot my family tried to control my sexuality, projecting that there would be family shame, collapse, etc.—-when in fact my family includes a multitude of alcoholics, drug addicts, pedophiles, prostitutes, thieves, bigamists, child support cheats, etc.. I refused their hypocritical judgment and this has made me different from a Black/minority-sexuality context. A lot of my LGBTSGL Black and Latino peers, including a trans friend that my mother took in, were shunned by their families. I have always been of the independent thought that my crotch, unless you’re participating with it, and me with yours, is frankly none of your business.Dating White MenTo that further thought, when confronted then (and now) with White men who go on some color trip about BBC or friends/family who try to control me or debase me based on sexuality (or race), I mercilessly skewer them, if I have the time and attention.See, I think you could racialize me but you have to be an almanac of racial knowledge and interests and such for me to give you a pass. I’m talking Romare, Baldwin, Morrison, Marshall, Angelou, X, MLK, Rev Franklin, Prince, Coltrane, Chessimard, BPP, BLA, SNCC—your knowledge, has to be extensive and at least a foot deep.Oh, you can want Black but I have to see that you’re down for the team.“Frank likes Black men.”“Bully for Frank. Don’t come near me with some half-assed you really liked Empire bullshit. Or you think Idris Elba is attractive. That’s not knowing me, my culture, Pinero, Diaz, Allende, etc.. Go to Barnes & Noble, come back at me in a year.”State University Level-SexualityMy experience in being out has always been on a public stage level. I went to a state university and my trans friend from middle school was there a year previous—-her RA friends needed a student program for an evening. The LGBT organization on campus was supposed to show up and didn’t. So the RAs asked would me and my trans friend be panelists. I’d been out for 3 years, worked in NYC before getting to Buffalo and was reasonably comfortably out—-it simply wasn’t a thing to me anymore. I’d been to clubs for years, had friends, relationships, sex.For 2 hours we talked and answered questions of about 40 people. It went very well. The RAs then pass the word and within a couple of months we’d done almost a dozen of them, been in the campus newspaper, invited by Public Safety to not only work for them. PS even offered us a campus wide TV show (which ironically was not to be the last time the SUNY system offered me a TV show.)It was weird being out in undergrad because I got there at 21 and had a chunk of life experience and awareness about myself and everyone around me was 18+. Or conversely the ones I worked for and became friends with were older professors, who I hung out with. Being Black and Out and working on my writing made me unique, there was only one other extremely productive Out guy, Tony, who is White, who worked his way up the ladder to teaching as a professor there.It was like being a celebrity, particularly because I was published a lot in the campus newspapers, magazines, chapbooks, graduate journals—-all as an undergrad AND I was a TA to three professors, the first undergrad as a TA in the SUNY system (who got paid on a grad student level.) I didn’t understand concretely what people were projecting and expecting of me until my senior year when one of my mentors told me I was officially a big fish in a little pond.Was I racially sexualized?Yes, based upon some of my writing of erotica (I was in an experimental writing class, decided to write some erotica—-it was amazingly graphic but the experiment was to dismantle it by deleting graphic words until it devolved into you, the reader, inserting your words. The campus magazine wanted to publish it, debated for weeks if/how to publish. I explained to them that perhaps a campus magazine’s fiction section wasn’t mature enough for this. (I was regularly submitting and being published throughout the country by then.) They wanted dibs on it. They wanted both versions—-graphic and devolved to read and understand. They published the graphic one—-10,000 copies.The student body went delightedly apeshit to the point of plastering it on dormitory doors and walls; the Buffalo Archdiocese threatened the school and the SUNY administration threatened to shut down the magazine; there were several credible bomb threats.I became sort of famous—-known, popular, infamous? Being Black, in a predominately White student body added a salaciousness to it, a licentiousness when at it’s best it was NC-17, a menage e trois short story. Some of that infamy came from the fact that I was both Black and Out and then in being personally sexualized had broadcast a 1st person writing piece about sexuality—-hetero-bi-gay. And I hope, because it was also well written.Other publication wrote about me and my work and often I would be going back and forth, I was the subject of discussions by strangers-people around me-there weren’t many photos of me, none with the work so people would talk about me (unbeknownst) in front of me. Classes/professors wanted me to come in and discuss it—literature, legal, etc.. It got to be a lot. Some of it though yes, did have to do with race and specifically my sexuality and the sexuality—-Trois—-a menage e trois between a woman and two men—-that hyper-fueled/inflated the response.Teachers and students sexualized me, yes. Tried to seduce me. The projection was further enhanced by my Blackness. I was a TA for several Black Literature classes therefore closer to the Black Student Union group as well as the LGBT group. There was a lot of interest in me, as a person, lots of people worked hard (pun!) to get close to me, to have sex with me. Ironically I dated men off campus, adults, over 30. One was a banker and another an ex-convict who looked like The Rock and enjoyed making out in front of a full length mirror. But he was a genuinely nice guy.Because I was older than half the student body, the guys who hit on me I found immature and only clicked with some of the older female students. It was an odd juggling of immature friendships and crushes and adult level relationships outside of school.Professionally Raced and SexualityAfter undergrad I migrated through Pennsylvania for about 6 months, commuting back and forth, until I found a great position and apartment in NYC and was solidly working in corporate America. I was Out the whole time.Did it affect me professionally? Yes.I temped and then consulted for about 5 years and I worked for two gay VPs, one White guy at MetLife and one lesbian at Madison Square Gardens Network. The Black lesbian and I never really talked about it. The closest it got was all the whispers from coworkers about her partner calling and to put the call through.Working for Black/Latino OrganizationsAs a consulting favor I transitioned to a charter school/non-profit—Black—- and from there to a Black LGBT organization, GMAD—Gay Men of African Descent then to GMHC, Gay Men’s Health Crisis and in and through there attended meetings, facilitated and served on the board of Black Men’s XChange, all the while juggling other organizations and universities that weren’t specifically LGBTSGL nor specifically Black, but had large clienteles from both, like Phoenix House and other smaller non-profits..At GMAD I was the Youth Coordinator and had a cohort of about 80 youth clients (14–27) and also ran a men’s group of about 50–100 men of color for 4 years.I often don’t talk about GMAD, specifically the environment, because it was the most unhealthy, corrupt, racist, sexually predatory space I’ve ever been in. Fortunately GMHC (who stole me away—-more like rescued me from a concentration camp) by the time I got there, was about 50/50 White males/minority & women as clients, was like professional night and day compared to GMAD. Yet, they immediately went into dire financial straits so I was there only a short period of time before moving on to Columbia.I personally, after putting together a youth program and men’s program, from the ground up because of the intense corruption and dysfunctionality, spent my last 6 months there deconstructing the program by finding other places for the LGBT youth to go and making sure they didn’t return.By the time I left GMAD:one of the Directors had designed a web page on a escort service to pimp out youth under 18;another regularly had PlayStation nights at his house—-he was in his 40s—-so youth would come over for video games and he would encourage them with alcohol and weed to have sex in front of him;another, the social worker/therapist, was regularly chasing after an HIV+ youth half his age (I didn’t realize how insidious it was until one night we went out to dinner and a club, came back to my house and the social worker contrived to get into the bed with the youth, who’d I’d given my bedroom to—-nothing happened and I cut off friendship with the social worker based on that);the Executive Director, after I left, began embezzling money (which is why I tanked several $100k plus grants that my previous contacts were going to get us before I left) and then falsified HIV reports to the CDC and the City of NY as well as attended barebacking parties in NYC to infect others. Ironically, he’d recruited me into the organization years before that as I lived across the street in Harlem from a notorious barebacking/breeding apartment party—-I think I’m doing my civic safe sex duty by telling the Daily News and then NY1 TV news the dangers of barebacking and he turns into the biggest one in the City, infecting others over the years.there were several staff and members who were deeply, insanely predatory towards the youth, to the point of not just sexual exploitation but also getting the homeless youths Social Security numbers to declare them on their taxes.several members and staff used the fact that they had homes to coerce the youth, who were homeless, to have unsafe sex with them, to their pleasure, for shelter.Now, having held that projection up—-as a milieu—-I was working at and socially moving through, I will offer that it is the Black and Latino LGBTSGL milieu. The elements folded into the batter of why men would do this to young men and teens is folded into the racism, sexism, misogyny, misandry, HIV trauma, homophobia, Church psychic battering and fatherlessness/acceptance and general identity closeting through a Black and Latino family, and therefore, social community structure, towards LGBTSGL men of color.I know it’s a lot to unpack and luckily I had degrees and experience and such so I could, over time, see, document and then bluntly, flee the milieu with both my sanity, professionality, dignity, integrity and most importantly, remain HIV- and STI free. But that had to do with the fact that I came from more of a Middle/Upper Class background, education and work history. Those elements have allowed me to observe the psychic trapdoors of race and sexuality but hop over them, not fall prey to them.The Dept. of Health/CDC did an in-service training and talked about how coordinators of programs were the highest infection rate for HIV because we saw HIV normalized in our clients, we made it acceptable for others making it acceptable for ourselves. I got a life coach and started plotting my way out of there after the training.A friend said to me once, as I was doing non-profit work at GMAD, GMHC, Covenant and Phoenix House, the NY Department of Education and then including Columbia University, in the poorest of neighborhoods in Manhattan and Brooklyn, putting in a good 80–100 hours a week=—-that I was “… for the People but not of the People….”By that he meant the distinct slight differences I’ve had/grown up with in terms of Social Class which yes, does shift how I think of myself and my sexuality, in terms of my race.How I Perceive RaceMy parents met in college, my father was in the Black Panthers and then the more radical Black Liberation Army, so I was not raised with a servile or inferiority complex towards White people, or Black hetero people for that matter. I was also able to get some solid fathering and therefore validation in with my biological father and two stepfathers.My parents, extremely intelligent, supported my being smart, enjoying reading and writing—-there were no expectations placed upon me to be anything other than what I self-designed. Negatively, I can also see that being autonomous gave my parents space or leeway not to have to do too much heavy lifting parenting with me; I am also an only child and conscientious. They directly taught me how to think with things like chess before I was 4; strategic thinking; asking and answering real life questions and hypotheticals. Again, the sum total of that form of attention, unusual for a Black or Latino, young male.Further, my mother’s majors were psychology and dance with a minor in French so mental health—-seeing a family counselor, expressing one’s feelings, seeking out AA and NA, rehab, life coaches was not frowned upon for my family and then family therapy—-it was supported, encouraged, role-modeled. It meant that when I had questions and issues with myself in high school, I was comfortable privately talking to the school counselor about myself, my sexuality.Then in my 20s a therapist to deal with severing toxic friendships and establishing boundaries with family and friends; then in my 30s to shift my mindset to being an entrepreneur—-and when I understood the difference, seeking out a life coach and working with him for 6 months.When my mother decided to get and stay clean and sober in my early teens, she took me with her for 4–5 years to AA and NA meetings and I sat there quietly and absorbed, saw all of the errors, the self-destructiveness and the healing/self-work that people did on themselves. Again, role modelling for self reflection and personal development.I say all of the above because having worked with thousands of LGBTSGL men of color, this is highly unusual. Their extreme or unique behavior WAS my workshops—-that was their first foray into introspection, reflection, self-development and discovery about their identity. What I learned over about 10–15 years of facilitating and teaching men of color, a lot of the time around sexual identity, was that so many of them did not have a solid, formed, core identity. By that, I mean they could be easily negatively swayed, didn’t have goals, were plagued with anxiety/doubt, self-contempt—-each state reinforcing the others—- so that often times I had to start with basics of mental work.“You Are Divinely Intended.”Simply the above statement could be 15 minutes every week to unpack with 20–50 men, getting them to simply accept that they were intended by a Creator, that they had purpose and value. Then we could look at definition of self, of identity, of sexuality. Then build to safe sex, dating, relationships, intimacy over sex, intimacy including sex, how to take care of themselves.I will honestly tell you that I fell into the work not through my educational work but because I was one of the saner, healthier, stable men, in the GMAD group—-and I was about to leave when the facilitator asked would I maybe come up with a workshop and teach it? I was about to leave because I saw no viable partners in the room and we’d just finished a 6 week safe sex cycle—-Many Men, Many Voices—-that I felt was a solid capstone to my having been there a year. When asked to first volunteer and then a few months later, work there, I essentially presented the materials, ideas, sense of self that had carried me for 10 years prior to being there after coming, out, what I’d learned. From AA, therapists, Tony Robbins, Marianne Williamson, Oprah, hundreds of books on dating and sexuality, my own experimentation with dating 100 men one year, my TAing experiences helping me to codify it all.What it further did, was it allowed me to press and explore different topic areas, to get clients to open up more, talk about their lived experiences that I might not have been able to probe or challenge as a peer. Also as the Youth Coordinator I got a solid chance to track, follow, mentor, question, give advice to a cohort fro 14 to 27. The only problem with this was the agency itself was fundamentally corrupt so eventually I left.Being Even More OutIronically GMAD was a place where I suggested or encountered what I thought were fertile areas for development—-a TV show on sexuality and identity and other issues for men of color; and literature—-self help, fiction etc geared towards these men as I found so little when I started book clubs, a lack of non-pornographic videos/books, to use as teaching aids.Eventually I created them all—-The Kyle Phoenix Show, a cable TV show that’s been on for 10 years. 100+ published books and eBooks about sex and sexuality for men of color and others—-mainly because so many of the materials I was working from were by and for White men. And videos about dating, sex, sexuality, relationships, finances, etc.. All of that leading to blogs and appearances and more workshops and so for a decade past my time at GMAD.Men of Color Who Are LGBTSGLWhat I can offer first as a explanation for some of my following experiences is that non-heterosexuality and race—-pointedly being a Blake and Latino men simply doesn’t jive for about 80% of the men who are both—-race & LGBTSGL.It is literally like being given two cups of LSD or having two shackles on your legs. For many it’s too much, it’s too soul crushing and ostracizing and infusing of self hatred and doubt and anxiety and then rampant diseases, which more often than not happen not from one night stands but 60% from intimate long term relationships. Your partner knowing but more often, unknowingly, brings a disease to your bed.Black Men’s Xchange in it’s initial decade as a chapter here in NYC, several other micro chapters across the USA, tried to address the race AND sexuality issue—-hence the moniker SGL—-same gender loving, to expand beyond simply gay or homosexual—-as one is slang, created by White men and the other a scientific description of action/state of being.But the problem there was that it was populated by that 80% of wounded men.And as a further layering, those wounded men are still men, born to and taught all forms of misogyny, misandry, narcissism, abusiveness, and corruption that comes from fatherless, hopelessness, poverty, lack of self care, mental health and substance issues.Think of Triage Wards where the patients from yesterday vacate their beds to try and be doctors to the patients of today. Most agencies like GMAD and BMX hire from within their community-network, which means all the issues are directly present in the staff that are present in the clientele. It then becomes a merry go round of intermittent healing, destructiveness, corruption, healing. I left both for the same reasons, the same financial, social and psychic corruptions, simply perpetrated by different Black male faces.I found that I was healed and therefore was giving far more than I was receiving for my own life challenges. As my mother got iller and iller, moving towards terminal time, I asked the assembled room of BMX men, all older than me, my elders, whether as brothers or father figures, what should I do, how to prepare?Silence.So many of them had checked out of their own lives, their own families, let responsibility fall to other relatives that no one could talk to me about a power of attorney, a medical power of attorney, burial insurance, how the Medicaid system worked,, family issues that might come up. No one.I realized I was the resource when a member took me to visit his parents and brother—-his father had been severely sexually abused when younger ——and it was affecting the whole family. I was brought to be a counselor, direct, advise. I realized then that there was no one to do so for me.And sure enough when terminal time came, when I brought her back to NYC to die—-they scattered like homosexual roaches into shadows, into invisibility, into uselessness. I handled Life Death and Life Afterwards but I came to understand that I’d been a supercharged engine in those vehicles and had no need for them. That the “friends” who were Black and Latino men who were not out—-because they had played games and mindfucks about skeeting and fleeing, not caring about other men—-when it came time to assist me, when I called on them, they vanished.I turned the snow globe upside down and saw how many of them had these closeted identities along with race, and they were to the man, the one’s who didn’t help, never returned calls, returned calls laughing and making jokes, tried to push off their parents onto me, as I was caring for a dying parent. They were helpless. Learned helplessness.I recently had one of the youth from the program contact me—-he and his brother are both HIV+ and homeless. I had come into some extra money and was debating how to and which charity to give it to and they came along. I thought it was kismet. We talked about school, work, apartments, a timeline that I could help him over, network him to opportunities. His parents and sister are dead, his aunt who had a home they’d been all living in was ill a decade ago and I’d encouraged the GMAD men/coordinators who were friends with him and his brother to use their maturity, stay in contact with them, they would need our help, adult help, one day when she passed.Helping Those Past Men in the PresentThey vanished on them too, So when he contacted me I slightly chastised him that we, older Black men are his network when times are tough—there is no pride—-we have a responsibility to try and aid you, reach out.I generally,with all my students, invite them to a restaurant, get a meal into them so we can talk, so I invited him to pick for one of my free days, we’d meet, talk, plan.He vanished. Then came back with bs excuses. Then vanished again.I gave it some days, tried to contact a couple of times but then I had to delete contact info,etc.. He, Black and gay, and in poverty, very smart but stuck, homeless, agreed to the shackles. I felt both bad and saddened and a little pissed at the GMAD agency that for years got paid off of his membership by the City, by the CDC but can’t help him, has failed him, as it’s failed countless others. And then mad yes at him for his own doubts and anxieties and foolishness that will make this 3 years of homelessness probably a permanent state of instability.Black and Latino men, this student not the first, one of a dozen I could name in the same instability because of the challenges of being one a Black man and then a gay one.Now my parents, working always, having skills, traveling, tempting, going to higher education, being resilient, willful, ambitious, productive is unusual. Most survive, get by, take dick where they can get it. Perhaps a third are able to self-develop, find healthy relationships, go to school, become something more than just a “worker”—-become something they want to be.HIVThe CDC estimates that 50% of all LGBTSGL men of color—-Black and Latino will be HIV+ by the time of death, within the next 20+ years.I spend a lot of time dodging that disease-dating bullet, Listening closely to dates, putting dates, going on dates, between me and immediate sex as a form of protection, looking at smoking and drug and drinking rate (smokers are 5x higher to be at risk for HIV; 3x for alcohol and drugs—-the logic being that those are already known health threats, so why would you be super safe sex and a smoker? or drug user?)I pointed out to GMAD and BMX—-initially my time overlapping with them as I was trying to find a place for my youth to get positive male, Black male, role models. (The natural evolution should’ve been for GMAD and BMX to merge—-to integrate—-one had the sexuality resources/education and business form—-the other a strong social network and membership. BMX-NY crumbled from a Diana Ross-Mary Wells man-fight; and GMAD-BMX alliance crumbled from a Madonna-Lady Gaga rivalry).In many ways my visitations and invitations and cross-pollinations and inviting one group membership to the other’s events, didn’t work. At one point I could see I was the bridge but they were too terrified of the other—-hung up on the word gay vs. SGL. (I identify as neither—-would’t it be a kick in the rubber parts for them to time travel and actually hear me when I said so? lol)Yes, little distinctions like that kept them from unifying, integrating.Today?Both defunct.How Black Am I and Where At?I knew I’d be eventually disassociating from the agencies as a whole, even GMHC has…issues. Not corruption but racial issues (I had a 50 year old White man stand up in a full computer class and announce that he wouldn’t be in the same class with them—-Black women. Yes, I had him kicked out. It seems GMHC should only be a White man’s agency in some eyes.)I’ve joined other things—-things that focus on business and entrepreneurship. I socialize lightly with groups of interest but not always sexuality. Yes, social class means that Black men like me date and socially make ourselves available to more mixed crowds—-Latino, Asian, White. I never understood in Black groups when they would rail on and on about dating only Black men. I would challenge back, as workshop participant or facilitator:No matter how much semen you throw at or into the bodies of two men—-no babies will be born. Hence miscegenation does not apply.You’ve put a man’s cock in your mouth, your mouth on his ass and hues of melanin is your Ick factor?Who and What Are you Being Loyal To? Your family ain’t throwing you a wedding; the Black Church wouldn’t host the wedding; and most of your Black relatives and friends wouldn’t attend. Remind me again how you’re being culturally aligned and in solidarity to a culture that has you down as somewhere between a progressive non-full man option and the product of a mental health issue from sexual abuse and White colonialization. (Yo, yo, Dr. Umar Johnson!)Because of the melange of health and madness in the Black LGBTSGL community, I’ve had to open my doors and loving arms to a wider range of mellinated and non-mellinated folk. Don’t get me wrong—-those other guys are assholes too—-insane, barebacking, closeted to the point of insanity, corrupt, petty, bitchy, self-destructive but I’m looking from a numbers perspective—-if I was sifting for say 3 out of 10 my numbers go up to 6–8 possibles out of 10 when I drop in all the rainbow Skittles possibilities of the Man Rainbow.So that’s what it’s like.I’m kind of known, popular here in NYC form the TV show, books, videos, past work..I try to balance out my upset with understanding and some generalized forgiveness. I try to help but I have strict boundaries and limits.I expand my dating pool because to just skin align means too much absorption of one or two communities’ issues. I’m like “Fuck all White folks!”…then you know I go and fuck some White folks.Having fun, smiling, dancing, eating well, doing good work.Kyle Phoenix's answer to Why is it so hard for America to recognize it has not reconciled with African Americans for its role in slavery?Kyle Phoenix's answer to Do Black people feel safer with other Black people? Do they ever feel unsafe due to race among Black people?What is it like to be an openly gay African American male in America today? Please describe your experience.Kyle Phoenix's answer to Why does the character played by Samuel Jackson in Django Unchained hate blacks? Were there some blacks like that in real life too?Why do white people talk on behalf of black people when no one is talking to them?Kyle Phoenix's answer to Why is Covid19 killing more African Americans but killing less Africans?#KylePhoenix#TheKylePhoenixShow