Congressman Blackburn Answers Health Care Reform Question by Dr. Bose on Capitol Hill
Dr. Bose #39;s Question: As an emergency room physician, I am concerned about ensuring patients have access to timely and appropriate care. How will health care reform allow professionals to triage...
By: The Battle Continues
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Congressman Blackburn Answers Health Care Reform Question by Dr. Bose on Capitol Hill - Video
Caring for undocumented children who cross the border
The U.S. Border Patrol has apprehended nearly 63000 unaccompanied minors at the southwest border in 2014. After relocating to different cities across the country, these children require health...
By: PBS NewsHour
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Caring for undocumented children who cross the border - Video
Standard Poor #39;s U.S. Consumer, Retail, And Health Care Weekly Review (Aug. 29)
In this segment of U.S. Consumer, Retail, And Health Care Weekly Review, Standard Poor #39;s Senior Director Lucy Patricola highlights sector trends and the ac...
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Standard & Poor's U.S. Consumer, Retail, And Health Care Weekly Review (Aug. 29) - Video
The patient-centered model needs to replace the practice-centered model. The patient's health should be a higher priority than the doctor's rush to keep moving and fit as many people as possible into his schedule and his practice goals.
We have a tendency to rely on life-saving, last-minute efforts to turn around a person's health. These strategies are often unsuccessful and always extremely costly. They usually do not result in a lifetime improvement in health.
In a rational model of health care, the consumer must have the ability to distinguish bad products from good, and must have enough information and emotional distance to make purely rational choices about their or their loved ones' health care. There are a number of reasons this simply is not the case.
Without an emotional language our relationship with ourselves will be fraught with difficulty. And yet most of us have never learned to listen to ourselves and rarely even think about our emotional health as an absolute priority..... until something goes wrong.
If the D.C. Circuit decision in Halbig v. Burwell became the law of the land, it would threaten to place health insurance once again out of reach for the approximately 4.7 million families and individuals living in the 36 states where the federal government set up the Exchange.
Unfortunately, for most patients, patient-centered care is an anomaly. Hospitals are trying to change the culture to one of patient-centered care rapidly. Even so, hospitals often miss the mark.
Finding a place of compromise is commendable. But the budget accord earlier this month was silent on a critical issue that can wait no longer: reforming the state's Medicaid program.
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Published August 31, 2014
June 15, 2009: President Obama delivers remarks on the health care system at the annual meeting of the American Medical Association.Reuters
WASHINGTON Thought HealthCare.gov had problems?
Another federal government-run website created under ObamaCare is suffering the same symptoms as the troubled federal health care exchange -- grappling with delays, data problems and other hiccups as the deadline to take it public nears.
At issue is a database known as the Open Payments website. It was created under the Affordable Care Act to shed light on the financial ties between doctors and pharmaceutical companies as well as device manufacturers.
The transparency initiative is supposed to include detailed information about drug payments made by doctors as well as the value of gifts and services given by drug makers. Such items can include everything from meals to swanky retreats.
The database project, though, is dealing with a minefield of technical problems and confusion over the data. The problems led the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to shut down what is currently a private site for 11 days earlier this month.
The government is hoping to take the site public on Sept. 30. But it's already a year behind schedule, and if some industry heavy hitters have it their way, the schedule will slip by another six months.
The American Medical Association as well as 112 other health organizations are pressing the government to delay the launch until March 31, 2015. They cite an overly complex registration process made up of more than 20 individual steps that require a doctor to register over a period of several days in order to see their data as one reason why the government should hold off.
Other complaints include the lack of guidance on the website, concern that industry groups can unilaterally dismiss disputes initiated by doctors, and errors in the information.
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OBAMACARE HEADACHE Another health care site suffers glitches, delays
The gig: As director of the California Department of Managed Health Care, Shelley Rouillard is the chief regulator for health plans that cover more than 21 million Californians. She's also a major player in the state's implementation of the federal health law.
Bicoastal: Rouillard, 58, was born in Los Angeles but spent much of her childhood in New England following the career moves of her father, an Episcopal priest and college chaplain. She wasn't happy about moving to a tiny town in New Hampshire after her freshman year in high school, but it taught her a valuable lesson. "You just have to find the silver lining when bad things happen," Rouillard said.
At a small school, she quickly became a student leader as yearbook editor and captain of the basketball team. Growing up, she thought women were limited in their career choices to teacher, nurse or social worker. She wasn't interested in the classroom and couldn't stand blood, so she got her bachelor's degree in social work at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Trophy job: She took a yearlong break during college to return to Los Angeles. Through a family friend, she landed a job doing engraving work at a badge and trophy shop. She recalls drawing the Ralphs grocery store logo hundreds of times for employee name tags. Rouillard saw the value of developing a skill that makes you stand out. Back at college, she found work at another trophy shop to help pay her tuition. "I realized how important it was to have a skill you could take anywhere," she said.
Organizing change: After college, Rouillard returned to the Golden State in 1979 and put down roots in Santa Barbara. She held jobs at a senior day-care center and later led a nonprofit program distributing food and other assistance to the poor. She also became more active as a community organizer. The rents in her apartment building went up 50% one year, so she helped organize the Santa Barbara Tenants Union to negotiate with landlords.
Rouillard developed a knack for bringing people together to confront a common problem. "People who didn't have a lot of power and information needed to band together to make it better," she recalls.
Campaign office: Those experiences led her to local politics. She ran twice unsuccessfully for the Santa Barbara City Council in 1983 and 1985, enduring some personal attacks along the way. "You have to develop a thick skin," Rouillard said.
Capital move: Her campaigns behind her and turning 30, she paused to reflect on what her next career step should be. She decided her job opportunities might be limited in Santa Barbara so she headed to Sacramento for a lobbying job with a legal aid group. Then she got a taste of the private sector negotiating contracts with hospitals and physician groups for a company in the insurance industry.
Patient advocate: One of her big breaks came in 1996 when Peter Lee called. Lee, the current director of California's Obamacare exchange, tapped Rouillard to found the Health Rights Hotline in the Sacramento area. That consumer hot line became the model for her current agency's help center, the prime clearinghouse for patients' health insurance complaints statewide.
Early on, Rouillard said, she saw the value of paying close attention to consumer gripes and analyzing them for signs of systemic issues that need to be addressed. She left the hot line after a decade for a state job overseeing health plans for low-income children and people with preexisting medical conditions.
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NBC News - Wal-Mart has played it safe when it comes to retail clinics, partnering with regional hospitals to offer services like flu shots. But now, the retailer is taking a more aggressive tack, with in-store branded clinics offering primary care at a price competitors may find hard to match.
"It was important to Wal-Mart that we be able to maintain or be a price leader in this space," said Jennifer LaPerre, Wal-Mart U.S. senior director for health and wellness, who is overseeing the rollout of the company's new Walmart Care Clinics.
LaPerre was in Carrollton, Georgia, in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, to open the ninth Walmart Care Clinic. Three more are planned this year as part of a pilot program to offer primary care services such as health screenings and disease management of conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure in stores.
The price? Just $4 for employees and dependents on the company's health plan. For customers, the price is $40about the same as an online consultation with a doctor.
"We wanted to be able to monitor and manage and control price. We wanted to be able to focus on a scope of services that were meaningful to our customers and associates," LaPerre said.
Wal-Mart is able to price it that low, in part, because the clinics are staffed by nurse practitioners from Quadmed, a provider of on-site workplace clinics.
"These particular set of services that are going to be provided are really ideal for a nurse practitioner to manage," said Dr. David Severance, corporate medical director for Quadmed, though each clinic is overseen by a supervising physician.
Severance said he expects the low price could make a big difference for patients with conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure, who need to get check-ups every three to six months.
"If a patient has a fairly sizable co-pay, just to see the provider for each one of those visits, there's a much greater likelihood that they won't follow through with what the prescribed treatment is," he said.
Offering its employees a visit with a nurse practioner for the price of a latte at Starbucks could also help Wal-Mart control its own health-care expenses. Recently, the retailer revealed its health costs were expected to increase by $500 million this year because more of its workers than expected are signing up for its health-insurance benefits.
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Big Box Health Care: Are You Ready for Walmart Care Clinics?
Wal-Mart has played it safe when it comes to retail clinics, partnering with regional hospitals to offer services like flu shots. But now, the retailer is taking a more aggressive tack, with in-store branded clinics offering primary care at a price competitors may find hard to match.
"It was important to Wal-Mart that we be able to maintain or be a price leader in this space," said Jennifer LaPerre, Wal-Mart U.S. senior director for health and wellness, who is overseeing the rollout of the company's new Walmart Care Clinics.
LaPerre was in Carrollton, Georgia, in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, to open the ninth Walmart Care Clinic. Three more are planned this year as part of a pilot program to offer primary care services such as health screenings and disease management of conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure in stores.
The price? Just $4 for employees and dependents on the company's health plan. For customers, the price is $40about the same as an online consultation with a doctor.
"We wanted to be able to monitor and manage and control price. We wanted to be able to focus on a scope of services that were meaningful to our customers and associates," LaPerre said.
Wal-Mart is able to price it that low, in part, because the clinics are staffed by nurse practitioners from Quadmed, a provider of on-site workplace clinics.
"These particular set of services that are going to be provided are really ideal for a nurse practitioner to manage," said Dr. David Severance, corporate medical director for Quadmed, though each clinic is overseen by a supervising physician.
Severance said he expects the low price could make a big difference for patients with conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure, who need to get check-ups every three to six months.
"If a patient has a fairly sizable co-pay, just to see the provider for each one of those visits, there's a much greater likelihood that they won't follow through with what the prescribed treatment is," he said.
"It was important to Wal-Mart that we be able to maintain or be a price leader in this space."
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By Michael Norton
State House News Service
BOSTON -- A federal waiver critical to the efforts in Massachusetts to pursue universal health-care coverage, rein in cost increases and deploy payment delivery reform is hung up in secret talks between outgoing Gov. Deval Patrick's administration and the Obama administration.
In late 2011, when Patrick announced the current $26.7 billion, three-year waiver, he said more than 98 percent of Massachusetts residents were insured and predicted the waiver would help the state tame health-care cost growth. Now, as his time in office winds down and with the state's Medicaid rolls growing, negotiating details of a new waiver represents one of his biggest remaining responsibilities.
The Patrick administration last September applied for a five-year extension of the waiver, calling it "the centerpiece of the state's health-care reform," but talks over conditions of the waiver have extended beyond the scheduled waiver start date of July 1 and will continue into September, the News Service learned on Friday.
"Of all the fiscal risks facing the state in the near future, the outcome of these negotiations is far and away number one," Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said this week. "There is a huge amount at stake in getting the maximum possible federal funding. I mean, the state's Medicaid costs are soaring so it's absolutely critical that we get as much federal support as possible."
Federal officials have agreed to two monthly extensions of the current waiver and on Friday, a Patrick administration official said another extension, through Sept. 12, has been received. "We are now doing shorter extensions as we move closer to finalizing the waiver agreement," said Health and Human Services spokeswoman Julie Kaviar.
Administration officials will not discuss negotiations, but people familiar with the underlying issues believe points of conflict could be funding levels for so-called safety net hospitals in Massachusetts, cost sharing for problems that have arisen during the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, as well as the length of the new waiver.
The waiver -- known as the Massachusetts Section 1115 Demonstration Project -- dates back to 1997. It provides a base of support to the extensive and expensive efforts within state government to pursue universal insurance access under a 2006 state law, enact cost containment and new payment models authorized in a 2012 state law, and implement elements of the federal Affordable Care Act.
Josh Archambault, senior fellow at the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy, said that since Gov. Mitt Romney signed the state's universal health-care law in 2006 "negotiations with the federal government have seemed to take longer and longer" on waiver renewals and updates.
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OMAHA, Neb. If you are a committed Christian, the contract begins, you do not have to violate your faith by purchasing government-approved health insurance.
Every year, Gary Duff signs an updated version of these 40-page terms, which detail one way Americans can avoid buying private insurance or paying into the Affordable Care Act.
The deal, made possible by a little-known provision in the health-care law, has one particularly important requirement: The Duff household of nine must abstain from general debauchery.
Samaritan Ministries, a health-care sharing group, will charge its national network to cover the familys medical bills, but only if they agree to forsake binge-drinking, extramarital sex, illegal drugs and tobacco (with the exception of celebratory, post-birth cigars). The organization describes itself as a Biblical approach to health-care, guided by Galatians 6:2: Bear one anothers burdens.
This appeals to Duff, a 60-year-old former missionary and international business instructor. He and his wife, Sheryl, have home-schooled all seven of their children and taught them to avoid MTV-approved anything.
Samaritans rules, however, extend beyond the religious realm to the practical one of saving money. Sinful behavior threatens more than a souls entrance to Heaven, Duff and his cohorts believe: It damages the earthly body and amplifies the price of health-care.
Christians are just healthier people, he says. Think of all the physical problems we can attribute to a sinful lifestyle.
The ACA, the Samaritan contract states, is undesirable because it covers costs that result from immoral practices, such as STD treatments or out-of-wedlock births. The law creates a moral dilemma for Duff, who now works as an assistant pastor in downtown Omaha.
Simply put, he says, I dont want to pay for that or encourage it in any way.
Neither do the estimated 100,000 other Samaritan users. The health-care sharing ministry, recognized in ACA as a viable insurance alternative, covers up to $250,000 per need. About 37,000 households are in the network.
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Christian health-care sharing group offers alternative to ACA
Standard Poor #39;s U.S. Consumer, Retail, And Health Care Weekly Review (May 23)
In this segment of U.S. Consumer, Retail, and Health Care Weekly, Standard Poor #39;s Managing Director Bob Schulz discusses the actions we recently took on Ev...
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Standard & Poor's U.S. Consumer, Retail, And Health Care Weekly Review (May 23) - Video
Obscene: Gitmo inmates get better health care than our veterans
By: AFRTALK
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Obscene: Gitmo inmates get better health care than our veterans - Video
Home remedies for Bloating stomach
Symptoms for Gastritis: Burning feeling in the stomach. Indigestion Nausea or stomach upset Abdominal bloating Abdominal pain Vomiting Please watch the above video for remedies.
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Larkin Cunningham: "Health Care Overhaul"
Larkin Cunningham: "Health Care Overhaul"
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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
27-May-2014
Contact: Raul Reyes rareyes@utmb.edu 409-747-0794 University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
GALVESTON Researchers have concluded that providing better access to health care may lead to the overuse of mammograms for women who regularly see a primary care physician and who have a limited life expectancy.
The cautionary note from researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston is that screening women in this category could subject them "to greater risks of physical, emotional and economic suffering."
Dr. Alai Tan, a senior biostatistician in UTMB's Sealy Center on Aging and lead author of the study, said that "there has been little systematic attempt to define guidelines that would help determine when breast cancer screening might not be appropriate or overused.
"The American Cancer Society guidelines on screening, for example, have had no upper age limit," Tan wrote in the study. "This is different from the case with prostate-specific antigen screening, where both the American Cancer Society and the American Urological Association have longstanding guidelines that exclude men with a less than 10-year life expectancy."
The study was published in the June edition of Medical Care, the official journal of the Medical Care Section of the American Public Health Association.
Using data from 2006 through 2009, researchers studied about 5 percent the Medicare claims filed during that period by women whose life expectancy was less than seven years. They further studied where the women lived and whether they had a primary care physician.
In general, the researchers found that the use of mammograms decreases as a woman's life expectancy grows smaller. However, they found that the general downtrend as a woman ages could be offset by better access to health care.
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More access to health care may lead to unnecessary mammograms
Healthcare is changing fast in the United States, and many industry providers are scurrying to keep up. Citrus Health Network, a behavioral/mental health organization, is striving to create a system that will make it easier for healthcare providers to access and use patient electronic health records. TheCUBE hosts Jeff Frick and Steve Kenniston sat down with Citrus Health Networks director of IT, Renato Nodarse, at EMC World 2014 to discuss the companys plans for the future of health care.
Citrus serves the Dade County and Broward County areas of Florida, providing behavioral health services. It utilizes VDI solutions from VMware and Vblock storage solutions from EMC to offer IT services to its 300 users, providing them with mobility and connectivity. The companys applications are 100 percent virtualized, from its SharePoint installation to its proprietary behavioral health application.
According to Nodarse, there is a different set of metrics for behavioral health and few software solutions out there are capable of doing those metrics effectively. Citrus wants to create a more streamlined system that connects behavioral health data with primary care data. Essentially, when healthcare providers access an electronic record for a patient, they will be able to view a patients entire medical history, including physical health care, rather than relying on the patients memory when they fill out forms.
Eventually, he said, everyone will have an electronic health record, and silos of information will merge. The healthcare industry will share health data universally, and the whole of a persons health history will be available to providers. The next step is to determine the best way to analyze and manage that Big Data. Nodarse talks about this and more in the full interview, which you can watch right here.
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Citrus Health Network aspires to implement universal health records
How can colon cancer be prevented?
Dr. John Webb, of Baptist Memorial Hospital - North Mississippi, explains how colon cancer can be prevented.
By: Baptist Memorial Health Care
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American Veterans: Culture Change Needed to Fix Broken Health Care System
As Americans commemorate Memorial Day to honor the country #39;s fallen soldiers, a scandal is unfolding that highlights the federal government #39;s failure to properly care for veterans. As VOA #39;s...
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American Veterans: Culture Change Needed to Fix Broken Health Care System - Video
Obama 2009: "We #39;re Keeping Our Promises"; Veterans Health Care Fully Funded
Remarks by the President at signing of the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act October 22, 2009 As a nation, we #39;ll pledge to fulfill our ...
By: AmericanCommitment
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Obama 2009: "We're Keeping Our Promises"; Veterans Health Care Fully Funded - Video
Live Q A: Military Vegans, Breakfast, Stress Tips, Body Care, Events + More!
Product Links and TimeStamps Below!* - Didn #39;t get your question answered? Ask it and I #39;ll answer in an upcoming Q A video, happening live every week! http://bit.ly/evgweeklyqa * EvG voice...
By: Eco-Vegan Gal
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Live Q&A: Military Vegans, Breakfast, Stress Tips, Body Care, Events + More! - Video