20150308-Z-WT236 003 - MED-1 mobile hospital part1
Personnel operating Carolinas Med-1 mobile hospital, provide simulated medical care to individuals with injuries caused by a hurricane during a Vigilant Guard exercise in Georgetown, S.C.,...
By: S.C. Air National Guard
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Thousands of Teachers Lobby at the Capitol
Texas AFT Lobby Day and Rally 2015. Teachers and school employees gathered at the state Capitol to lobby on issues such as Community Schools, fully funding public education, affordable health...
By: kxan
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President Obamas health-care law will cost taxpayers substantially less than previously estimated, congressional budget officials said Monday, in an upbeat note for a program that has faced withering criticism since its passage five years ago.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office attributed the savings to spending on medical care in coming years that will not be as great as previously forecast. As a result, the agency said, insurers are not expected to charge Americans as much for coverage, and the government will save on subsidies for low- and moderate-income people.
Whats more, the CBO has concluded that companies are not canceling health insurance policies as often as had been anticipated earlier this year. Fewer Americans consequently are planning to sign up for insurance under the Affordable Care Act, generating more taxpayer savings.
In total, the health-care law will cost taxpayers $142 billion, or 11 percent, less over the next decade than estimated in January. The cost of providing subsidies for people to buy insurance on the state and federal marketplaces the centerpiece of the law will be 20 percent lower than projected.
The savings are a positive development for a program that has been battered by bad news, from the botched rollout of the main enrollment Web site in 2013 to a legal challenge before the Supreme Court last week.
Theres certainly a lot of rhetoric by the laws opponents that costs are going to explode, that costs are out of control, that Obamacare had no cost containment in it, said John Holahan, an economist at the Urban Institute. I cant see how people can continue to say those things.
The report is one of a growing number of assessments of the laws impact on the nations economy, budget outlook and health insurance market long-debated topics since before its passage in March 2010.
On Monday, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell announced that as of Feb. 22, nearly 11.7million people across the country had signed up for or reenrolled in health insurance through the state and federal marketplaces.
Last week, Gallup reported that the share of Americans without insurance coverage continued the slide that began after the law went into effect, with 12.3percent of the population uninsured at the end of February.
A role in slower spending?
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Health-care law will cost taxpayers less than expected, CBO says
Just as the launch of Apple's iPod and iTunes proved to be the tipping point in digital music, some are speculating that Apple's new platform for medical researchers and its Apple Watch,could do the same for digital, data-driven health care.
"They've got the size, the influence, and they're integrating across consumer digital health to medicine," said Paul Sonnier, a digital health advocate and consultant. "It's all about ecosystem building and bringing in the right partners."
Read MoreHow many 'life-saving' watches will Apple sell?
Apple announced Monday a new open-source platform called ResearchKit to help health researchers enlist and monitor research subjects through Apple devices.
"This is a new era," said Yvonne Chan, director of personalized medicine and digital health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. "This is really, truly revolutionizing the way clinical research could be done in the future."
Mount Sinai Hospital is one of five medical facilities that will conduct clinical trials using ResearchKit.
Read MoreApple must think beyond the watch
Mount Sinai researchers plan to use their Asthma Mobile Health study app to recruit a large number of asthma patients, who will then use the app to track their day-to-day symptoms and habits. The hope is that the real-time tracking will help the researchers and the patients understand what triggers attacks, and document what practices can maintain better health.
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Political leaders challenged to attend meeting, provide answers
Guardian photo by Steve Sharratt
Souris Mayor David MacDonald
SOURIS Politicians of almost every stripe have been invited to attend a public meeting in Souris Tuesday night intent on improving health-care services for eastern P.E.I.
You could say our confidence is rather low since our message for better health care here has failed to gain any attention, says Alan MacPhee, eastern chair of Islandwide Hospital Access.
The goal of the group is to inform the public as a means of forming good public policy.
Thats why the group is hosting a public meeting at 7 p.m. tonight at the Souris regional high school and is taking the pre-election opportunity of inviting all the politicians. A distributed flyer says the group has invited all Liberal, PC and NDP leaders and candidates.
We have been poorly treated by Health P.E.I. and we are tired of it, said Souris Mayor David MacDonald. We need solid ambulance service as a start point to give rural communities some equity in the delivery of health services.
Health P.E.I. contends it is managing limited resources, but Islandwide Hospital Access says the problem is in the allocation of those resources. The group says Souris needs four doctors and is expected to be reduced to only two.
Health budgets have more than doubled, yet rural services have been cut, said MacPhee. This is the core of what we are calling rural discrimination. The problem is not the amount of money ... its the mismanagement of money.
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This week is Patient Safety Awareness Week, and its time to recognize the secret sauce for any successful effort to improve health care quality: transparency. Thats something both sides of the aisle should be able to get behind.
We have a long way to go. Choosing a doctor or hospital is one of lifes most important decisions, but you will likely find more detail about the quality of, say, toasters on the market than you will about health care providers. That is not an accident. The idea that health care should be transparent is a fledgling movement, with some powerful opponents. Health industry lobbyists are collectively among the most well-funded interest groups in Washington, and they have succeeded in slowing the pace of change.
But they havent stalled it completely, thanks to the determination of coalitions of consumer and business advocates, as well as some enlightened health care providers and policymakers. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in particular has taken unprecedented steps to use its leverage to create a culture of transparent public reporting. Through all its efforts, more and more quality and safety data are reaching the light of day. And thats good news for consumers.
Progress In The Private Sector United in their common goal of driving transparency in the health care sector, a multitude of organizations have already pointed the direction for transparency initiatives. They have assembled data into useful and engaging online tools to help consumers make informed decisions and have pointed out data that is missing but desperately needed by consumers. A new independent study in Health Affairs analyzed the four most prominent and widely-used tools to rate hospitals: the Hospital Safety Score, U.S. News & World Report, Consumer Reports and HealthGrades. The authors found that each of these tools considers different aspects of hospital performance, and each one reaches different conclusions as a result. Some tools look at mortality rate for certain surgical procedures, some consider readmission rates, and some look at a mix of management practices and patient outcomes for particular conditions or procedures. (In full disclosure, one of the tools analyzed, the Hospital Safety Score, is a letter grade issued to hospitals by my nonprofit, The Leapfrog Group, and is focused exclusively on errors, injuries, accidents and infections.)
Based on the findings, one of the studys authors, Dr. Robert Wachter, a prominent patient safety guru (and volunteer expert at my organization) from the University of California, San Francisco, suggests consumers consult more than one rating when making decisions about hospitals. This is sound advice. Hospitals are complex places, and a hospital may have a world-class cardiac unit but a mediocre obstetrics program. Even hospitals with uniformly great surgeons might have a high rate of errors and infections. And just as consumers weigh such factors as airbag placement, console design, and gas mileage when purchasing a car, health care consumers should consider as much information as possible when choosing where to receive care.
Missing and Hidden Data So what information should patients have access to when making these crucial decisions?
Business advocates and consumers have a long wish list of data that is largely hidden from public reporting. In addition to more nuanced and comprehensive data on hospital safety, here are a few items consumers should be able to easily access online but cannot:
Some of this data is shielded from public view by law. Some is shielded by standard practice. And some is not collected because scientists havent put the resources into figuring out how to measure it.
But change isnt just on the horizon anymoreits here. Dr. Wachter is leading the charge for more openness among his colleagues. He recently co-chaired a multi-stakeholder roundtable at the respected Lucian Leape Institute of the National Patient Safety Foundation, which issued an exceptionally bold call to action on transparency last month. The report said health cares culture of secrecy needs to change, and it made a series of recommendations for far greater transparency among doctors and nurses, between health organizations, and with patients and the public. This report should be a playbook for the new Congress; transparency is a cause that cuts across partisan lines.
This Patient Safety Awareness Week, lets be more than aware lets be vocal about the change wed like to see. Consumers entrust their lives to the health care industry. The stakes couldnt be higher for our families, and we are entitled to know how the system really works.
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We spend more on our health care as we age. No news there. But you may be surprised to learn that all health spending is not created equal. For most of us, as long as we can stay out of the hospital or a nursing home, our costs are relatively modestand steadyeven as we grow older.
But that can change if we have a severe, acute medical episode that lands us in a hospital bed or a skilled nursing facility, or if our functional or cognitive limitations get so severe that we need home health care or even must move to a nursing home. While we use those services infrequently, we are more likely to do so as we age. Because they are extremely expensive and often not paid for by Medicare, our out-of-pocket costs for those services can go through the roof.
According to a new study by Sudipto Banerjee at the Employee Benefit Research Institute, out-of-pocket spending for routine (he calls it recurring) care changes very little after age 65. Even at age 85 and older,our spending for visits to doctors or the dentistor even for medicationremains pretty constant. In part, that may be because Medicare pays a big chunk of the costs for many of these services, including medications, though the program does require co-pays and deductibles (and, in the case of drugs, has the famous donut hole).
Banerjee did find a big gap between what a typical senior spends on drugs compared toout-of-pocket costs for a handful of the biggest users. For instance, an average spender aged 65-74 can expect to pay about $1,900 for medications over a two-year period (Note the study looks over two years, not annually). But the top ten percent of spenders will pay $4,800 for their meds.
However, even among those high users there is little change in costs as people age. In other words, if you were a big spender at 85, you were probably also a high-cost user at 65.
The story is very different, however, when it comes to less frequent but very expensive medical care or long-term supports and services. Banerjees data comes from the Health and Retirement Study, a comprehensive national survey of people 50 and older.
As we age, we are far more likely to use these costly services. For instance, about 27 percent of those 65-74 had an overnight hospital stay during the period 2010-2012, while more than 42 percent of those 85 and older spent at least one night in a hospital. Similarly, less than 4 percent of younger seniors spent a night in a skilled nursing facility but nearly one-quarter of those 85 or older did so.
Interestingly, a separate study by Tricia Neuman and colleagues at the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that per-person Medicare spending increases with age until people reach very old age, when it begins to steadily decline. This suggests that the very old choose to use fewer in-patient services or other costly forms of treatment.
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Kerala Speaker G Karthikeyan Dies at 66
BREAKING: Kerala Speaker G Karthikeyan Dies at 66 Kerala Speaker G Karthikeyan passed away on Saturday, 7 March in Bengaluru. He was 66. Karthikeyan was undergoing treatment for liver ...
By: ExpressNews
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Huge Haul Review | CNDirect Dresslink | Pt 1
a little bit of a spontaneous ending to this one 😉 Links Other Fun Stuff cndirect Toys for Baby http://bit.ly/1L7e8Pz cndirect Toys for Baby http://bit.ly/1L7e8Pz ...
By: Jingleheartart
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Dr Alvarez Shares What Led Him To Bariatric Surgery | Gastric Sleeve Doctor | Endobariatric
http://www.endobariatric.com #GastricSleeveDoctor Dr. Alvarez introduces himself and gives a brief description of his practice and why weight loss surgery. Top notch health...
By: Endobariatric (Weight Loss Surgery Center)
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Dr Alvarez Shares What Led Him To Bariatric Surgery | Gastric Sleeve Doctor | Endobariatric - Video
Medicaid Expansion in Michigan
Push for better health care available to all in Michigan. Will you sign this petition? Click here: http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/affordable-and-accessible?source=c.em.cp r_by=12650474.
By: Sara Maine
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WHAT THE BEST WEIGHT LOSS PROGRAM IS NOT.
The best weight loss program is probably NOT about diets, diet pills, fad diets, or even about dieting! While it involves physical activitywere all adults here, Ill use the word..exerciseit is NOT about pushing your physical limits, embarrassing yourself in front of the neighbors, joining an expensive gym, or hiring a personal trainer. It is NOT about joining a cult, avoiding friends, alienating your family, eating only unappealing and unappetizing foods or feeling guilty and depressed. Most of all, it should NEVER be about BEING ALONE in your struggle.
WHAT THE BEST WEIGHT LOSS PROGRAM IS!
Most simply stated, the best weight loss program is the one you will stick with. Lets modify that a little and say that it is a healthy, doable, rational, flexible program you will stick withthat works!
THE BASIC FACTS ABOUT DIETING AND WEIGHT LOSS!
Diets dont work. Yep! It is that simple. Oh, if you want to drop 5 or 10 lbs to look good at your sisters wedding, a quick diet might be okay. But if you truly have a weight problem, as over 50% of Americans do, it is a lifelong condition and requires lifelong measures. However, dont consider yourself doomed to a life without pleasure or happiness, and dont give up. Go back and read the first paragraph, and realize that there are things that CAN be done, and YOU CAN DO THEM. In the meantime however, let me just cover a few facts. Quick and dirty. You can scan through them and just get the basics. This article is not going to be big enough, nor intimidating enough, to include everything.
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NEW YORK New York City lawmakers are taking a hard look at the quality of health care inmates receive at the Rikers Island jail complex and whether the city should renew a $126.6 million contract with a private health provider.
Tuesday's City Council oversight hearing follows a report by The Associated Press last year that raised serious questions about the medical care inmates received in at least 15 deaths. Those cases included inmates who were denied medication, improperly assessed or not treated in a timely manner.
Some lawmakers are questioning whether the Brentwood, Tennessee-based Corizon Health Inc., has performed well enough to have its three-year contract renewed when it expires Dec. 31.
"The most recent history surrounding Corizon in the past few years at Rikers is beyond troubling," said City Councilman Corey Johnson, chair of the council's health committee. "And if you look at Corizon's record around the country it raises more red flags."
Contract evaluations obtained by the AP show that officials downgraded Corizon's performance from "good" in 2012 to "fair" in 2013 citing inconsistent leadership in mental observation units. The downgrade followed the September 2013 death of Bradley Ballard, a mentally ill, diabetic inmate locked alone in his cell for six days without medication. A state oversight panel called his care "so incompetent and inadequate as to shock the conscience."
A spokesman for Corizon, the nation's largest private provider of correctional health care which is responsible for 345,000 inmates in 27 states, said providing quality health care to a difficult population was a company priority.
"As an organization committed to continuous improvement, we look forward to speaking to the New York City Council," said Andrew Moyer.
The treatment of inmates at Rikers has come under increased scrutiny in the past year since the AP first revealed the deaths of Ballard and Jerome Murdough, another mentally ill inmate who died after he was locked alone in a jail cell that sweltered to more than 100 degrees because of a malfunctioning heating system.
An October report by the AP, based on hundreds of investigative documents, found that treatment, or lack of it, was cited as a factor in at least 15 deaths filed away as "medical" since 2009, including that of a 32-year-old man who died of a bacterial infection in his stomach and intestines after days of bloody stools. He received treatment only after fellow inmates staged a protest.
Officials have said Mayor Bill de Blasio is conducting a comprehensive review of the Corizon contract but hasn't yet made a decision about its future.
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Quality of private contractor's health care focus of New York jail oversight hearing
Obamacares new Supreme Court battle
The Affordable Care Act is facing another challenge at the Supreme Court in King v. Burwell, which deals with subsidies for health insurance. The case could cut out a major provision of Obamacare,...
By: Washington Post
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Genetics and disease
Presentation on some basic ideas in genetics and how these can effect our role in health care.Ultimately, all aspects of anatomy and physiology depend on, and derive from our genes. It is the...
By: Dr. John Campbell
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Stokes Co. makes health care improvements
A Triad county is moving up on the list of the healthiest counties in North Carolina. WXII #39;s David Jeannot has the details. Subscribe to WXII on YouTube now for more: http://bit.ly/1mVq5um...
By: WXII 12 News
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5 Tips to Cure Your Lower Back Pain - Yoga for Back Pain - BeActive - BEXLIFE
GET YOUR BEACTIVE WRAP: https://app.reelio.com/l/2170z1/ 21 DAYS TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE: http://bexlife.com/21mantras SIGN UP FOR FREE GOODIES: http://bexlife.com/signup ------- GET.
By: Rebekah Borucki
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5 Tips to Cure Your Lower Back Pain - Yoga for Back Pain - BeActive - BEXLIFE - Video
Platt Tech Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
Optimus Health Care Inc. SBHC Platt Technical High School Ribbon Cutting Opening Ceremony Wednesday, March 4, 2015.
By: Optimus Health Care
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Las Vegas HEALS March 2015 Medical Mixer at Parkway Surgical Center
Become a member: http://www.lasvegasheals.org/join Thank you to all those who attended Las Vegas HEALS March 2015 Medical Mixer. This month #39;s mixer was hosted at an on site surgical center,...
By: Las Vegas Heals
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Las Vegas HEALS March 2015 Medical Mixer at Parkway Surgical Center - Video
When Barbara Van Dahlen was brainstorming ways to address veterans mental-health needs 10 years ago, she was inspired by Craigslist and the way the site made it easy for buyers to find sellers.
I thought I should be able to use technology to connect mental-health professionals all over the country with veterans and their families, said Van Dahlen, a licensed clinical psychologist and president of nonprofit group Give an Hour. The organization gives troops and their families access to free mental-health services through video sessions with a network of volunteers.
Give an Hour was founded in 2005 when few had heard of telehealth and the iPhone did not exist yet.
Fast forward to 2015: The charity now teams up regularly with technology firms to help veterans. It has worked with the likes of Google to reach more veterans through a series of video chats. It paired with Booz Allen Hamilton to analyze program data to better deliver services. And it is exploring a partnership with Doctor on Demand, an app that gives users 15-minute appointments with doctors, virtually.
Technology is critical in overcoming the stigma around mental-health issues, said Van Dahlen, who launched a national campaign to raise awareness about the topic in Washington last week.
Technology allows people from the privacy of their own computer screen to say, I dont know if Im depressed, but Id like to find out more, she said.
In 2013, Give an Hour partnered with Googles veteran network group on an experiment called Google Helpouts that lets ordinary people connect with subject-matter experts using the video-chat platform Google Hangouts. Experts were available on a range of topics from health to cooking to home repair, some for free and others for a fee.
The partnership brought Give an Hours model to a vast network of Google users, Van Dahlen said, but Google said in a blog post that it would end Helpouts on April 20, because it hasnt grown at the pace we had expected.
Give an Hours technology initiatives come as the Department of Veterans Affairs ramps up its own efforts to integrate technology in its health-care system.
For example, VAs Connected Health program seeks to give veterans better access to medical care through smartphones, tablets and other mobile technology.
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