X-Message-Number: 4699 From: Brian Wowk <> Date: Wed, 2 Aug 1995 01:55:07 -0500 Subject: Patient long term survival Norton, Brook <> writes: > I believe the basic idea would be to somehow legally tie a lot of funds > to the patients. Enough funds so that the interest not only pays for > upkeep, but provides a healthy profit for the overseer. When a co goes > under, the funds tied to the patient(s) are untouchable. The next co > would take over the patients to get access to the profit generated by > the "excess interest". If my cryonics provider goes under, I want to > be viewed by the rest of the world as an opportunity for profit rather > than a burden to be delt with. This is a very, very important point. Your survival does not depend on the fortunes of any particular company as much as it depends on the safety of the *money* that pays for your care. As long as enough money exists to support your care, there will always be someone (even on a wartime black market if necessary) that can provide liquid nitrogen to keep you in. Setting aside money for your care *outside* the hands of your cryonics company is certainly a good idea. This will protect it from potential abuse, lawsuits, creditor claims or other calamities that might befall the company itself. The first step in this direction took place about six years ago with the formation of the Reanimation Foundation in Leichtenstein by Saul Kent and Bill Faloon. The Reanimation Foundation was (and is) intended as a repository for "surplus" funds of wealthy suspendees to safeguard their care should their primary cryonics company fail. Recently Dave Pizer of the Venturists has proposed forming similar "backup" trust funds under the oversight of the Venturist organization. The disadvantage of either of these plans is that they require thousands of dollars in up-front setup fees, and surplus funds far in excess your cryonics organization minimums. Enter CryoCare. When CryoCare was formed in 1993, the importance of segregating patient care funds from the companies that provide care was recognized immediately. Consequently, when a CryoCare member is cryopreserved, all funds remaining after the upfront costs of the procedure are IMMEDIATELY and AUTOMATICALLY transferred to an INDIVIDUAL account in a separate money management organization called the Independent Patient Care Foundation (IPCF). The IPCF is legally, financially, and administratively independent of CryoCare. Even if CryoCare one day fails completely (embroiled in lawsuits and red ink?), the IPCF would remain intact as the ultimate custodian of patient care funds. Yet another "separation of powers" exists in CryoCare as well. CryoCare contracts out the actual physical storage of patients to other companies. (We currently have agreements with CryoSpan in California and the Cryonics Institute in Michigan.) This gives us the option to move patients between companies should any individual storage company fail. >I know that implementing the above is financially and legally very difficult >and so I'm not criticizing existing cos for their survival strategies at this >time... Difficult, yes. But we have done it, and we would like to see other organizations with primary responsibility for cryonics patients take steps in this direction as well. Brian Wowk President CryoCare Foundation Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=4699