Dr. Ghassemian Fights To Save His Patients' Lives
While Blue Cross Fights to Save Profits

Dr. Ghassemian is a threat. This much I can attest to. But he is not a threat to anyone’s safety, he is a threat to bad doctors and medical bureaucracy. He remembers a time when
doctors had the luxury of spending quality time with their patients, getting to know them,

understanding them as people so that he could relate to their physical well being. He remembers a time when doctors got to make their own decisions without clearing it with accountants and office temps at Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Dr. Ghassemian saved my grandmothers life and gave her almost nine years of remission with Lupus. Until she met Dr. Ghassemian she had been told she had arthritis and to lay out in the sun when she was in pain. Anyone who knows about Lupus knows that it is caused by the sun and prolonged exposure can lead to death. My grandmother had seen dozens of doctors in Boston and none of them could diagnose her illness. Doctor Ghassemian took one look at her and said “Mrs. Duggan, You have Lupus we need to get
you into Boston right away and start treatment.” She could barely move because she had just spent the day in the sun on Plum Island. She was told she had arthritis.

Ghassemain’s frustration with the medical community and the disgraceful practices of insurance companies and HMO’s is a symptom of a deadly disease. As deadly to this country as my grandmothers Lupus. If we continue to allow nine dollar an hour insurance
company employees to make the decisions that doctors should be making our quality of care will continue to diminish and doctors will be nothing more than insurance employees
who follow orders.

Albert Ghassemian is building a full functioning health care facility in Methuen. No longer will his patients have to rely on the Holy Family or the Lawrence General for tests or a diagnoses. No longer will people have to rely on other medical employees to evaluate patients and work up blood. Dr. Albert Ghassemian will be able to perform his own tests in his own facilities, and order his own treatment. How much do you think the insiders in the medical community love this guy?

He routinely disputes other doctors when they are wrong and thinks nothing of stepping on the toes of a hospital to give his patients a little extra comfort or consideration To Dr. Ghassemian you are a person, not a number. He knows your name when you meet him at the store and he remembers your cousin’s name who only came in to see him once.

He is a noble man who is frustrated and lashing out, crying out for help for his patients and the future of medical care. He will openly tell you what doctors NOT to go to and he understands that this hurts him among his colleagues. He doesn’t care though, because it’s the right thing to do, he says.

Doctors are supposed to work for their patients and only get paid by the insurance company which acts on the patient’s behalf. This model assumes that the patient is the ultimate decision maker as to their own care. But it doesn’t work this way in real life. Insurance companies like Blue Cross and Blue Shield act as though the patient is lucky to have them pay the bills while the doctors are terrorized by irrelevant regulations and money making schemes that jeopardize people’s lives. Most doctors are afraid to speak out because the insurance companies are signing their paychecks. But not Dr. Ghassemian.

He isn’t afraid of anyone when he knows he is right and people are suffering. What I find sad is the fact that Dr. Ghassemian makes his decisions based on the very best education and facilities he has for his patients, while Blue Cross and Blue Shield make strive to turn doctors offices into assembly lines.

I Love Dr. Ghassemian because he has saved so many people’s lives and has stepped on the toes of the medial community to do it. I know many people who are here today because Dr. Ghassemian cared enough to go the extra mile. He is a maverick in his field and if man kind loses someone with his compassion and nobility we are not doing humanity any favors. The rules and laws of this country need to have some common sense
breathed into them. But that will only happen when we listen to people like Dr. Ghassemian when he cries out for the love of his patients.