Dr. Gruber tells how Obamacare discourages health care use
In a 2011 MIT lecture on health economics, Dr. Gruber admits what Americans weren #39;t told - the coming system intends to give us less health care, not more - but we need to cut much more in...
By: Tucsonjohnny
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Dr. Gruber tells how Obamacare discourages health care use - Video
How To Develop A Good Health And Wellness Attitude
http://spinecentre.com.au/how-to-develop-a-good-health-and-wellness-attitude/ How To Develop A Good Health And Wellness Attitude Wellness is not just about being physically fit or being free...
By: Dr Jon Powderly
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Best Adolescent Pediatric Specialist In Mumbai
Fayth clinic known to be as the complete health care clinic in mumbai. The clinical specializations include pediatrics and adolescent medicine, childhood obesity problems, cardiac treatment,...
By: Fayth Clinic
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Kenya conference to discuss African health care
African health care professionals are meeting in Nairobi, Kenya Monday for a three day conference. The focus will be on exchange of scientific results and debates on strategic ideas and applicatio...
By: SABC Digital News
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HCP CEO: Demographic Trends in Health Care Attractive to Investors
Lauralee Martin, president and CEO of HCP, Inc. (NYSE: HCP), joined REIT.com for a CEO Spotlight video interview at REITWorld 2014: NAREIT #39;s Annual Convention for All Things REIT at the Atlanta...
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HCP CEO: Demographic Trends in Health Care Attractive to Investors - Video
San Diego Human Dignity Foundation Operation Samahan HIV 2014 Impact Video
AIDS Walk Matching beneficiary, Operation Samahan offers free HIV testing and consultations to educate the community about HIV/STD risk reduction. Check out this creative video about their...
By: San Diego Human Dignity Foundation
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San Diego Human Dignity Foundation Operation Samahan HIV 2014 Impact Video - Video
What They #39;re Watching: Jeff Jessee
Jeff Jessee, CEO of the Alaska Mental Health Trust, offers the top issues he #39;s watching in health care, both in Alaska and nationally.
By: State of Reform
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NHS Staff on Strike
Angry health care workers set up picket lines outside hospitals across England and Northern Ireland to show their anger at the government #39;s refusal to increasae their salaries. Mohamed Walji...
By: PressTVUK
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BREAKDOWN: Launch the Denver Post investigative series.
At dawn, the shelters send them back to the streets. Or they wake up beside the river, another day to wander downtown among the workers and tourists. Two-thirds of them, the chronically homeless of Denver, have this in common: mental illness. Just one-third of those with mental illnesses are receiving treatment, based on national estimates.
The causes of homelessness job loss, family breakups, alcohol and drug abuse often are rooted in mental illness, and treatment of mental health problems becomes even more difficult without a stable home.
Housing is health care, the best form of treatment for those with mental illness living on the streets. Yet Denver has a shortage of affordable housing, leaving nonprofits and government agencies to offer a patchwork of psychiatric services to the homeless that barely reaches beyond the most severe cases.
"All of these things work together to create a feeder system into homelessness," said John Parvensky, president of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. "Once people are on the streets, their mental health issues intensify. What might be mild anxiety becomes more significant anxiety. Depression certainly intensifies as well."
The need is far greater than nonprofits and government clinics can handle.
The coalition's mental health clinic kept a waiting list for new patients until a few years ago. The staff threw it out when it reached 2,000 names.
It was not "kind, useful or ethical" to tell people what number they were, and by the time someone on the wait list was up for an appointment, it usually was impossible to find them again, said psychiatric director Dr. Elizabeth Cookson. Now the psychiatric team accepts patients mostly through referrals from the coalition's primary care staff. An unknown number are turned away when the clinic is full.
The coalition has capped its waiting list for housing at 100 names, a dent in the thousands of homeless in the Denver area. There are now hundreds of people waiting, for months or years.
Homeless for a year
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For Colorado homeless with mental illnesses, housing is health care
By LINDA A. JOHNSON and STEVE ROTHWELL
Associated Press
Merck scientist Janet Lineberger conducting research to discover new HIV drugs at the company plant in West Point, Pa.
* Drug makers trading to control costs and deploy surplus cash
In a big year for deal making, the health care industry is a standout.
Large drug makers are buying and selling businesses to control costs and deploy surplus cash. A rising stock market, tax strategies and low interest rates are also fueling the mergers and acquisitions.
It's all combining to make 2014 the most active year for health care deals in at least two decades. The industry has announced about $438 billion worth of mergers and acquisitions worldwide so far, about 14 percent of the $3.2 trillion total for all industries, according to data provider Dealogic. Overall, M&A is on track for its best year since 2007, the year before the financial crisis intensified.
"Health care has been a sleepy niche of M&A until recently, but the giant has been awakened," says Ken Menges, a senior partner handling mergers and acquisitions at law firm Akin Gump in New York.
To a large extent, the deals are being driven by "cost pressure on the entire health care system," as insurers and government health plans increasingly hold down or even reduce reimbursements to drug, device and service providers, says Ashtyn Evans, pharmaceutical and biotech analyst with investment firm Edward Jones in St. Louis, Mo.
Companies also are looking to expand market share, and boost their portfolios in hot areas such as drugs for cancer and hepatitis C, she says.
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Norma Melendez, a community health worker with City Health Works, walks along Second Avenue on her way to meet a client. City Health Works is an organization that is attempting to bring an African model of health care delivery to the United States. Bryan Thomas for NPR hide caption
Norma Melendez, a community health worker with City Health Works, walks along Second Avenue on her way to meet a client. City Health Works is an organization that is attempting to bring an African model of health care delivery to the United States.
There's a project in the neighborhood of Harlem in New York that has a through-the-looking-glass quality. An organization called City Health Works is trying to bring an African model of health care delivery to the United States. Usually it works the other way around.
If City Health Works' approach is successful, it could help change the way chronic diseases are managed in poverty-stricken communities, where people suffer disproportionately from HIV/AIDS, obesity and diabetes.
One of the people behind the experiment, which builds on the public-health technique of community outreach, is Manmeet Kaur. Kaur is a native New Yorker who grew up in Queens.
About a decade ago, just after she graduated from college, she spent time in Cape Town, South Africa. While there, she worked with a community health group called Mamelani Projects that tried to tackle some of the chronic health problems in the poor neighborhoods of Cape Town, especially HIV infection and AIDS. The organization had an interesting way of tackling those problems.
"They hired people from the community as peer health educators," she says. These weren't people with medical backgrounds. They were just local residents people who were willing to help out.
One of the people Kaur was most impressed by was a woman named Thandi. "What was most powerful was her ability to draw from the life experiences of people she worked with to help them make better informed decisions," says Kaur. "No amount of training can help you do that when you don't have the same life experience of the people you're working with."
Manmeet Kaur and Prabhjot Singh in their neighborhood in Harlem. Courtesy of Elsa Haag /City Health Works hide caption
Manmeet Kaur and Prabhjot Singh in their neighborhood in Harlem.
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Published on November 25, 2014
Immunize or Mask policy in effect at Cypress Health Region facilities
Submitted
Emphasizing public, patient and staff safety, all visitors and members of the public will be expected to wear a mask when entering Cypress Health Region facilities and sites where patient care and services are provided, unless they have received their influenza immunization this fall.
Effective December 1st, anyone who has made the choice not to be immunized this fall against influenza (the flu) will be expected to wear a surgical/procedure mask in patient care and service locations until April 3, 2015. This marks the anticipated date of the end of the annual influenza season. Masks will be available at all facilities for visitors to utilize, along with gel hand sanitizer for further protection.
The requirement to be immunized or wear a mask is part of a new province-wide Influenza Immunize or Mask Policy in effect in all Saskatchewan health regions and the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency. It applies to all health care staff and members of the public who come into hospitals, long term care facilities, primary health care sites, public health locations, and other sites where health programs and services are accessed. It includes common areas in these facilities such as hallways, lobbies, and waiting rooms. As well, patient/resident rooms, wards, units, departments and other areas where health care is provided.
All Cypress Health employees and other health professionals including physicians were offered the choice to receive their influenza immunization or be required to wear a mask while in patient care areas during the provincially declared influenza season.
Visitors, including volunteers, students, vendors, and contractors, are also expected to wear a mask if they have not received their influenza immunization.
The policy will also apply in community settings where Cypress Health staff delivers services to patients or clients in their homes. In addition, public locations such as Wellness Clinics will be included in the policy.
The objective of the annual influenza prevention campaign is to optimize the health and safety of everyone, said Dr. David Torr, Consulting Medical Health Officer for the Cypress Health Region. Getting your immunization every year is the most effective way to guard against the effects of influenza, but the other measures are very supportive to the overall goals of the program.
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Visitors to health care facilities expected to Immunize or Mask
Written by: Klra Smolov Photo: Tom Kube
The Czech health care system is still in crisis. With accession to the EU rapidly approaching, total reform is inevitable but health care providers must now dig in, hang on, and make plans for maintaining their market positions.
Anita Likov
THE CZECH HEALTH care system, above all else, is short of cash. According to the Health Care Information and Statistics Institute, Czech hospitals owe their suppliers over CZK 9 billion, 5 billion of which is past due, with another CZK 280 million in unpaid leasing installments. Only half of the total 187 hospitals are financially in the black. The monetary situation inevitably affects the way the entire sector operates. Companies, for their part, must be extremely careful when selling expensive equipment to hospitals. Banks are loathe to extend installment plans to hospitals, due to their great indebtedness, and in this way the problem is shifted to suppliers, says Josef Krmenk, director of Siemens Medical Systems Division. Hospitals owe us half a billion crowns But this debt is not yet past due. We are currently looking for a strategic partner for financing. However, medical equipment accounts for only a portion of the firms turnover of CZK 37 billion in this country. Bayer, which specializes in laboratory equipment, has also become caught up in the debt spiral. We do have outstanding receivables, although they are rather marginal. But the situation affects our business and investment possibilities, says Marcin Kouri, Bayer Diagnostics director for the Czech and Slovak Republics. If hospitals lack money for purchasing new equipment, the result is a deterioration in quality of patient care. Debts have an effect on us: without money, you cant invest. While in the EU equipment is out-dated after six years, in this country its used for twenty years and more, says Roman Holba, a department manager for Miele Professional, a provider of washing and disinfecting machines. Hospital creditors also include pharmaceutical distributors. Four of the largest Aliance Unichem, Phoenix, Purus, and Gehe account for 70% of the market, and are owed some CZK 700 million. Last year, they decided to sue. We dont know when or whether well get it (the money), says Pavel Such, director of the Association of Drug Distributors (AVEL), a group that includes the litigating companies. Minister of Health Marie Soukov is expected to submit a health care reform proposal soon. Its main points are optimizing the health care facilities network, and implementing legislative standards and health care financing. One step toward gradual transformation has already been made district hospitals have now been placed under regional administration. Although most interested parties are concerned that the regions will not have sufficient funds to help the hospitals, they hope the situation will improve.
Transparent pricing and payment Greater pressure will be exerted on economic management, in order to determine whether a hospital has a solid basis for existence. This involves effective and professional management, opines Pavol Mazan, of the International Association of Pharmaceutical Companies (MAFS). Such of AVEL is of a similar opinion: not all of the hospitals are necessary; their role could also be played by polyclinics. Some of them must be eliminated, not due to their indebtedness, but rather because of their overall [lack of] efficiency. The need to close hospitals has been under discussion for some time, but its a sensitive issue with a lack of political will for resolution. Experts in the field, however, unlike politicians, are demanding prompt action. We think that the least sensible step would be to come up with a unique solution, instead of adopting an existing, well functioning model from an EU country, says Petr Polievka, the Liva pharmaceutical company spokesman, summing up the majority opinion. Polievkas is an opinion that may carry weight; Liva is a powerful company, currently the leading producer of medications sold on the Czech market.
Next year the Czech Republic is to become a member of the EU, and health care providers promise us that noticeably improved market conditions will follow. Many processes will be accelerated and unified, which will speed up the registration of top modern medications, for example, opines Marie Hrudkov, PR director for Abbott Laboratories, which supplies pharmaceutical products and diagnostic equipment. We believe that pricing will also be improved and made more transparent, as will the size of payments provided by insurers. Equal conditions will thus be created for everyone wanting to do business on the market. Jaroslav Dyka, the Czech and Slovak Republic director for Philips Medical Systems, sees the greatest shift associated with the Czech Republics entry into the EU in certification simplification. Every instrument, prior to its launch on the Czech market, must currently go through a complicated verification and certification process. In the future, certification by the manufacturer should suffice, Dyka says. In commercial terms, I believe that the number of private diagnostics subjects will increase substantially, he adds. Perhaps the health care system will see some basic changes soon, but so far it seems that systemic improvement is subject more to political agendas than the best interest of patients.
Many private health care facilities have emerged and continue to emerge in the Czech Republic, offering patients comprehensive care. Contrary to the widespread assumption that these facilities are only for the wealthy, the lions share of polyclinics operate on the basis of procedures paid for by insurance. Interestingly, it is precisely this subsidized system that causes problems for private clinics. Mediscan, for example, already has two branches in Prague in Prague 4 (diagnostic center) and in Prague 1 (providing a broad range of care). According to DC Mediscan Star Msto director Kateina ihaov, all standard procedures except physiotherapy and treatments for the obese are paid for by insurance. The center offers both therapies and preventive care to three types of patients: 1. employees of firms that have contracted for health care with Mediscan; 2. people who walk in off the street; and 3. foreign clients. We currently have 70,000 registered patients, and contracts with nearly 20 companies, ihaov says, also we are constantly expanding, and we may double our capacity. If someone is interested in above-standard services, he or she can pay extra for a membership card, which costs about CZK 1,000. Similar systems exist at other facilities, such as Soukrom ordinace (Private Clinic) on Mezibransk street or NPI Lkask dm (House of Medicine). The Mezibransk street clinic, where there are twelve treatment rooms for specialists (as opposed to the original four), provides services to about 20 companies, and NPI serves 60. However, private health care providers agree that making a living in health care in this country is very difficult. According to them, the main problem is that health care in the Czech Republic is controlled by insurance companies, which can essentially dictate conditions with strict limits. Inconsistent business conditions are the rule here. Large state-owned hospitals are at center stage, with private facilities marginalized, says Jan Maek, NPIs director, adding that unlike large hospitals that are foundering in debt, private facilities cannot afford to carry debts. According to Maek, prices for individual procedures are set so low by insurers that they dont even cover costs. Private facilities are very limited, they are not allowed to set up the new treatment facilities that they may need; there are set tables for everything, and if you exceed the limit you simply wont be paid for the procedure, Maek complains. ihaov has had similar experiences: So far we arent making money on anything. We would be able to make money if we had more foreign patients, as foreign insurers pay more than Czech ones. According to Maek, local health care still operates on the socialist basis of solidarity, but this results in inconsistent practices. Health care financing reform must appear hand-in-hand with amended laws, allowing evaluations of medical procedures according to realistic costs and above-standard care for anyone who wants it.
Pharmaceutical companies are also indirectly affected by problems in the system, and the lack of funding in the health care sector. Most products are sold through distribution companies, which pay producers with nearly no problems. But what does not please drug producers is the way prices are set in the Czech Republic, particularly payments for medications by insurers. One of the main complaints raised by pharmaceutical companies is that they are forced to cut their prices substantially in the Czech market. Even with unique, original medications, prices are often among the lowest in Europe, says Marie Hrudkov, from the public relations department of Abbott Laboratories, an American firm that manufacturers diagnostic instruments and pharmaceuticals for treating diabetes, respiratory diseases, and HIV. The same is true of Veobecn zdravotn pojiovna (VZP General Health Insurance Company), which often forces original producers to cut back their activities in the Czech market, she adds. Pavol Mazan, the executive director of the International Association of Pharmaceutical Companies (MAFS) confirms this. Prices are constantly being lowered. There are dozens of medications for which the ministry has unilaterally decided to decrease payments, hoping that producers will set their prices so as not to force patients to pay too much extra. Naturally, this system benefits generic drugs that are no longer protected by patents and are therefore older and less expensive compared to new drugs. The Ministry of Health boasts that in this country there is a fully paid drug for every disease. But the problem is that a drug paid for (by the insurer) is the least expensive, and in many cases it is less effective, Mazan claims. The result is that of the six most important therapeutic groups, there are no new, imported drugs in five of them. For purposes of comparison, in the Czech Republic, generic drugs account for 45% of all medications sold, while in the EU they account for only 15%. The Ministry of Health decides which drugs will be paid for by insurers, and how much will be paid, based on twice-yearly recommendations by the so-called categorization committee. However, Mazan says that the decision-making process is neither transparent nor flexible with respect to the market entry of new drugs. This is why MAFS, which associates the major pharmaceutical companies operating in the Czech Republic, such as Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, and Novartis, has entered into negotiations with the new Minister of Health on changing the system, which should make decisions more transparent and give producers a chance to appeal them adding medications to the register on a more steady basis. One of the subjects on the agenda will also be a variant for setting fixed prices for medications.
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March of Dimes Works to Reduce Premature Births
The March of Dimes program Healthy Babies are Worth the Wait educates women and health care providers on how to prevent preterm births. For more New Jersey news, visit NJTV News online at ...
By: NJTV News
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Health Care Acceleration Challenge Finalists
Harvard Business and Medical Schools are excited to announce the four finalists for the Health Acceleration Challenge. The goal was to find successful innovations that, if widely adopted, could...
By: HarvardBSchool
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Universal Health Protection: A right for everyone - everywhere
Does everyone have the right to health care? If we look at the current global state of health care, what needs to change? Find out more on https://www.social-protection.org!
By: International Labour Organization
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Universal Health Protection: A right for everyone - everywhere - Video
Bonnie Stevens - Nursings Role in Changing Care Practices and Outcomes
Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by the School of Nursing as part of the 2014 Marion Woodward Lecture. Nurses are positioned ideally to affect patient and...
By: UBC
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Bonnie Stevens - Nursings Role in Changing Care Practices and Outcomes - Video
fitness: Fitbit One Wireless Health Personal Care
http://amzn.to/1vsWVu4 Product Description Fitness means being active, sleeping well, and eating smarter and the Fitbit one helps you do all three. During the day, it tracks your steps, distance,...
By: Abdellatif Erradiy
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Brooks and Marcus on immigration executive action precedent
New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus join Judy Woodruff to discuss President Obama #39;s call to arms on immigration, a lawsuit by the Republican House...
By: PBS NewsHour
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Brooks and Marcus on immigration executive action precedent - Video
PBS NewsHour | Brooks and Marcus on executive action precedent, prospective presidential candidates
New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus join Judy Woodruff to discuss President Obama #39;s call to arms on immigration, a lawsuit by the Republican House...
By: PBS
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