UMDM

Dance Marathon raises over $388k despite current economic climate

By Christy Hammond

More than 800 students chanted “Briggs, Briggs, Briggs” as the high school freshman slowly made his way to the center of the stage inside the Indoor Track & Field building on the Ann Arbor campus. The crowd of students had danced for nearly 30 hours as participants at the University of Michigan Dance Marathon (UMDM). Before they could take a seat on the floor, the throng of people eagerly awaited for Briggs Perry to perform “Say” by John Mayer on the xylophone.

The focus was evident on Perry’s face as he walked from the edge of the stage to the center with the help of his mom and three crew members. The 15-year-old’s arms splayed about in the air as he tried to maintain his balance. His bright orange t-shirt provided a sharp contrast between the black of the stage, making his struggle to walk even more apparent. After he sat down, a warm smile washed over his face and he prepared to perform on the xylophone.

At four months, Perry’s babysitter threw a cordless phone at Perry, hitting him in the chest and causing his heart to stop for 28 minutes. Surgery was not an option so the family had to turn to pediatric therapy for any hopes of rehabilitation. The simple act of walking to the center of the stage showed the multitude of students just how far Perry had come with the help of therapeutic activities.

Over the past 12 years, Dance Marathon has raised over $2 million to benefit various pediatric therapies ranging from programs at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital to Royal Oak Beaumont. Students fundraise throughout the school year and then dance for 30 straight hours to benefit these organizations. Despite the economic downturn, UMDM announced it raised $388,134.92 this year.

Most insurance companies place a cap on the number of visits a patient can have per calendar year, which can put families and children with chronic disorders in a tough situation as they try to cover the therapy costs through other means or out-of-pocket. Michigan does have a secondary insurance program called the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which will help cover some additional costs but not everything. The funds raised by Dance Marathon supplement what kids need in terms of physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy in a setting that is adaptive to the needs of each patient.

As a result, these funds help underwrite the cost of therapy. For example, a tree-climbing therapy may typically cost $50 per hour, but the UMDM funds will enable the families to only have to pay $10 per day. These therapy programs are usually not covered by insurance companies, but are important for the physical and social development of the patient.

By reducing the costs of therapeutic programs, families are able to spend that money on buying a new wheelchair, brace, or orthotics for their child. The secondary insurance program may cover the costs for a new brace, but if the child grows a couple inches within a year the insurance program will refuse to purchase another brace leaving the family to buy a new one.

There are significant out-of-pocket expenses for children with chronic health problems. These costs can include diapers in larger sizes at higher prices, special diets, and rehabilitation programs. Chronic conditions like cerebral palsy, autism, and cancer can strain the budgets of almost any family even those with health insurance. According to a study published in the journal Health Affairs, 30 percent of those who filed for bankruptcy said it was due to an illness or injury even though the individual originally had health insurance.

Many working families cannot afford to pay for health insurance even as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) petitions to increase its individual rates. The Center for Healthcare, Research & Transformation, which was created by the University of Michigan Health System and BCBSM, reports that 84 percent of Michigan’s uninsured children and adults under 65 had at least one adult in the family who worked full or part time.

With Michigan’s unemployment rate at a highest in the nation 12.6 percent according to Michigan Department of Energy, Labor & Economic Growth (DELEG), an increasing number of families are struggling to pay the bills and health insurance may be one of the first things families have to drop.

According to the Center for Healthcare, Research & Transformation, there was a 1.5 percent increase in the percentage of Michigan’s children who don’t have health insurance between 2006 and 2007. During the same time span, the report found that the percentage of children in Michigan covered by private insurance fell from 73.1 percent to 69.2 percent.

Lexandra Creitz, an Occupational & Physical Therapy Supervisor at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, has not yet noticed a change in their payer mix, which indicates the ratio of people who pay through private insurance, Medicaid, or out-of-pocket. However, she added that if her program was in Detroit, they would see a difference in the payer mix.

“It’s critically important for groups like Dance Marathon to keep doing what they’re doing in order to help supplement the other sources of revenue that the healthcare systems have as we continue through these difficult economic times,” Dr. Matthew Davis, an Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, & Public Policy at the University of Michigan, said.

Without UMDM, Beaumont pediatric social worker Therese Scarpace says her rehabilitation programs would be skeletal at best. “What would happen is that the kids would get the therapies, but not to the point where it makes them successful in terms of the real world,” Scarpace said.

The executive director of UMDM, Michael Spadafore, defiantly said in his address to the crowd of students at the conclusion of this year’s event that “nothing can stop us from providing these therapies to the kids we love.” Apparently, not even the economy can stop Dance Marathon.