Washington Township Health Care District Board Meeting - 2/11/15
Washington Township Health Care District Board Meeting - 2/11/15.
By: InHealth: A Washington Hospital Channel
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Washington Township Health Care District Board Meeting - 2/11/15 - Video
JARUMEH KOTO HEALTH CARE 3RD VISIT ... PART 3
By: Alh Hamfs
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Nova Scotias health minister fired an arbitrator Friday and said he plans to introduce legislation to finish the job.
Leo Glavine said Jim Dorsey, who delivered his report Friday, failed to complete his work by not assigning bargaining units to each of the provinces four health-care unions. The Health Authorities Act, which merges the district health authorities into one board, also narrows the labour field to four bargaining units: clerical, health-care, nursing and support.
BLOG REPLAY: Ruling and reaction EDITORIAL: Picking health unions a mess
Dorsey assigned the health-care bargaining unit to the Nova Scotia Government & General Employees Union and suggested the NSGEU would also get the clerical unit following a pending union merger. But he did not assign the nursing or support units because he said no union had a clear majority of workers.
A government regulation that gave the Nova Scotia Nurses Union a majority for nursing was thrown out in the report. Dorsey said he would return in April to address nursing and support, but Glavine said he wont get the chance.
We need to finish the work, the minister said. We know that arbitration brings final decisions ... We clearly asked Mr. Dorsey paid him well to arbitrate. He hasnt done that.
Glavine said the Health Authorities Act was clear that each of the four unions was to be assigned a bargaining unit. To date, Dorseys tab stands at $200,000 and Glavine said cabinet would determine if he would receive the full amount.
This report does not give us clarity on important questions and it does not respect the Health Authorities Act.
Cabinet will also discuss whether to recall the House early to pass new legislation in time for April 1, when the new provincial health board becomes operational.
NSGEU president Joan Jessome, who earlier in the day heralded Dorseys ruling as a victory for workers rights, said she was shocked by Glavines decision to dictate which union would represent which workers.
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Liberals fire health-care union arbitrator, promise legislation
How Health Partnerships Benefit Housing
To learn on how Housing and Health Care can work together to help older adults remain health and independent for as long as possible, visit http://www.LeadingAge.org/HousingHealth. Providers...
By: LeadingAge
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Create Life Changing Experiences with Charitable Surgical Missions
The charitable arm of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the Thoracic Surgery Foundation for Research and Education (TSFRE), is helping to fund a series of charitable surgical missions in developing...
By: ThoracicSurgeons
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Create Life Changing Experiences with Charitable Surgical Missions - Video
From Tom #39;s Desk, Health Care in America
From Tom #39;s Desk, Health Care in America http://isaan-live.com/ -uploaded in HD at http://www.TunesToTube.com.
By: tom isaan
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Far fewer veterans than expected are taking advantage of a new law aimed at making it easier for them to get private health care and avoid the long waits that have plagued Department of Veterans Affairs facilities nationwide.
Only 27,000 veterans have made appointments for private medical care since the VA started mailing out "Choice Cards" in November, the VA said in a report to Congress this month. The number is so small, compared to the 8.6 million cards that have been mailed out, that VA Secretary Robert McDonald wants authority to redirect some of the $10 billion Congress allocated for the program to boost care for veterans at the VA's 970 hospitals and clinics.
Republicans and Democrats insist the problem is the department and that it needs to do a better job promoting the choice program. They also want to change a quirk in the law that makes it hard for some veterans in rural areas to prove they live at least 40 miles from a VA health site.
The government measures the distance as the crow flies, rather than by driving miles, leaving thousands of veterans ineligible.
"Veterans put their lives on the line to defend this country. The very least we can do is ensure they don't have to jump through hoops to receive the care they need and have earned," said Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., whose vast state has just one VA hospital.
The choice program was a key component of last year's sweeping law approved in response to reports that dozens of veterans died while waiting for appointments at a VA hospital in Phoenix, and that appointment records were manipulated to hide the delays. A series of government reports said workers throughout the country falsified wait lists while supervisors looked the other way, resulting in chronic delays for veterans seeking care and bonuses for managers who falsely appeared to meet on-time goals.
The law, signed by President Barack Obama in August, allows veterans who have waited more than 30 days for an appointment to get VA-paid care from a local doctor. It also allows veterans who live at least 40 miles from a VA hospital or clinic to get private care and makes it easier to fire VA employees accused of wrongdoing.
The choice program expands an existing program that allows veterans to get outside care for emergencies or procedures not available at the VA. Veterans have long complained about waiting months or even years to be reimbursed for private care, and many are skeptical the choice card will alleviate those problems, despite promises by the VA.
"I don't believe any of us thought that there would be a wholesale rush to leave the VA system at all, but we are still early in the program," Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, told reporters during a recent tour of the VA.
McDonald's bid to shift the money has met a bipartisan wall of opposition in Congress, where leaders said the landmark law they adopted last summer to overhaul VA has not been fully implemented. Taking money away from the choice program just three months after it was launched is premature, even irresponsible, lawmakers and veterans advocates said.
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Published: Saturday, 2/21/2015 - Updated: 4 seconds ago
BY JON CHAVEZ BLADE STAFF WRITER
Toledos Health Care REIT Inc. said Friday its funds from operations in 2014 were a record $1.3 billion, or $4.13 a share, up 20 percent from a year earlier when FFO was $1.1 billion, or $3.81 a share.
The real estate investment trust, which owns and manages a real estate portfolio of senior housing and health-care properties, had annual revenues of $3.34 billion, compared to $2.88 billion in 2013.
Funds from operations is a better metric than net income for real estate investment trusts because, unlike a manufacturing plant or other fixed asset, the assets of a REIT real estate properties are expected to appreciate in value rather than depreciate. Funds from operations excludes depreciation.
Calendar 2014 was a resounding success for our organization, shareholders, and portfolio performance, said Tom DeRosa, the companys chief executive officer. We were among the best performing REITs in the S&P 500, generating a 48.5 percent total return. Our existing portfolio delivered the consistent, resilient growth that has become our hallmark, with same-store cash [net operating income] growth of 4.2 percent including phenomenal 7.3 percent growth in our seniors housing operating portfolio.
Mr. DeRosa said the company completed $3.7 billion of new investments and disposed of more than $900 million of nonstrategic assets during 2014. It also successfully raised more than $3 billion in capital.
For 2014, its net income was $446.7 million, or $1.45 a share, up from $78 million, or 28 cents a share a year earlier.
In the fourth quarter, Health Care REIT had funds from operations of $337.6 million, or $1.03 a share, up from $286.2 million, or 99 cents a share for the same quarter a year earlier.
The companys shares closed at $78.05 Friday, up $1.83 on the New York Stock Exchange.
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Published: Friday, February 20, 2015 at 2:18 p.m. Last Modified: Friday, February 20, 2015 at 2:18 p.m.
Floridians facing a tax penalty for going without health insurance in 2015 got a reprieve on Friday, when federal officials announced an enrollment extension through the end of April.
The extension, for those who missed a Feb. 15 deadline for 2015 coverage, is intended to help consumers who were either unaware or did not understand the implications of the fee for not enrolling. Consumers who remain uninsured in 2015 will have to pay at least $325 per adult, or 2 percent of their 2015 income.
Florida is one of the 37 states that uses a federal exchange, so residents will be able to take advantage of the extension, which begins March 15 and runs until 11:59 p.m. on April 30.
Fees will be assessed for 2015 on federal tax returns next year.
We recognize that this is the first tax filing season where consumers may have to pay a fee or claim an exemption for not having health insurance coverage, said Marilyn Tavenner, the administer of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, in a statement.
Our priority is to make sure consumers understand the new requirement to enroll in health coverage and to provide those who were not aware or did not understand the requirement with an opportunity to enroll in affordable coverage this year.
To date this year, 44,072 people in the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton area have signed up for insurance coverage on the federal health exchange, according to federal data.
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Radio 3Fourteen - Matthew Buckley - How Monsanto is Destroying the Brains and Health of Everyone
http://www.radio3fourteen.com http://www.redicecreations.com/radio3fourteen https://twitter.com/radio3fourteen https://plus.google.com/113418328935577511830 ...
By: Red Ice Radio
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United for Down - February 8, 2015
A long-term health care program by Unilab Foundation and Down Syndrome Association of the Philippines, Inc.
By: HealthierPH
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P4A Stories, m-health
Brbara Vallespin Manager of the mHealth Competence Center at Mobile World Capital shares with P4A her vision on mobile technologies and the future of the health care system. Help us caption...
By: Prosperity4All
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OhioMHAS DACC African American populations
The African American community experiences a range of disparities relating to mental health. African Americans face higher rates of serious mental health problems and have less access to mental...
By: OhioMHAS TrainingandDevelopment
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Hyannis February 13, 2015 Cheryl Bartlett, a drug abuse expert and former commissioner of the state DPH Photo by Alan Belanich
If youre sick, Cheryl Bartlett is the nurse you want at your bedside.
Why? Shes got the top echelon of Bay State health care officials on speed dial.
In truth, Bartlett is no ordinary nurse. Shes the former commissioner of the Department of Public Health, having recently stepped down from the role toward the end of Gov. Deval Patricks administration in December.
Bartlett has also spent years in the weeds of public health care and administration, with a specialty in outreach, reorganization and rallying the troops.
And best of all, shes the Capes very own and has returned home full time after years of spending her weeks on Beacon Hill. Bartlett is from the peninsula -- with homes in Hyannis and in Yarmouth Port -- and now her new job is here, too.
Bartlett began working at Cape Cod Healthcare in December as the organizations executive director of the Cape Cod Regional Substance Abuse Prevention Initiative and Public Health. The initiative -- a conglomerate of health and human services groups began about a year ago.
Commissioner of the DPH since May 2013 and with years of practical nursing and administrative experience on the Cape and Islands, Bartlett sat down with the Patriot last week, exploring challenges and opportunities as she comes to the aid of the region during perhaps its time of greatest need: a wave of heroin overdoses and death.
Some of her thoughts and views are express verbatim here:
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MIAMI - CORAL GABLES CHIROPRACTOR - Kids Alternative Health Care
ALTERNATIVE HEALTH CARE FOR KIDS TO HELP WITH EAR INFECTIONS,COLDS,STOMACH ACHES! THERE IS MORE TO TRY THAN JUST THE TRADITIONAL MEDICINES! MIAMI - CORAL ...
By: Dr. Martin Grossman
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MIAMI - CORAL GABLES CHIROPRACTOR - Kids Alternative Health Care - Video
The Real USA: Grass roots health care in Brooklyn #39;s African community
The Real USA, hosted by Alexandra Hall, takes a look at the stories not making headlines in the US commercial press. Today #39;s program features health care organizing at the neighborhood level...
By: teleSUR English
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The Real USA: Grass roots health care in Brooklyn's African community - Video
Top Health Care Stocks
JNJ +0.48%
PZE -0.90%
MRK -0.43%
ABT -1.36%
AMGN +0.12%
Health care stocks were narrowly lower today with the NYSE Health Care Sector Index slipping 0.2% and shares of health care companies in the S&P 500 falling about 0.1% as a group.
In company news, Healthstream Inc. ( HSTM ) tumbled Thursday after the health care enterprise software company reported Q4 net sales narrowly trailing analyst projections.
Sales rose 22.4% over year-ago levels to $45.58 million, lagging the Thomson Reuters consensus estimates by around $200,000. Per-share earnings for the quarter climbed to $0.10 from $0.07 during the same quarter last year, matching the Street view.
Looking forward to FY15, the company is projecting consolidated revenue growth of 18% to 21% over its $170.7 million in total revenue last year. That translates into a range of $201.4 million to $206.5 million, in-line with the Capital IQ consensus expecting $201.39 million in 2015 revenue.
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PHOENIX -- The company that provides health care to Arizona inmates is Corizon. Its website states, in part, the company provides "high quality healthcare (sic)... that will improve the health and safety of our patients. Our people, practices and commitment to success through evidence-based medicine enable us to consistently meet and exceed client expectations."
But several nurses who currently work for Corizon Health tell 3TV that's not true.
What's more, one family says their father died because Corizon failed to live up to its promise.
"He was always in great shape," Mark Dehe said of his father, Manfred. "He walked all the time. He actually walked quite quickly."
Dehe said he spent as much time as he could with his father, but that changed when Manfred was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Dehe knew his dad would serve time but would eventually be released. The family would be reunited.
Dehe had no idea what three years inside an Arizona prison would do to his father.
"Infuriating," he said. "Infuriating."
Soon after Manfred went to prison, he complained to his family that he was in severe pain.
Dehe ignored him at first.
"I thought he was overreacting," Dehe explained. "I told him, 'Dad, this isn't the Ritz.' I told him it's prison you might just have to wait a little bit longer."
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For undocumented immigrants in the United States, obtaining health insurance through the government is next to impossible, with both the Affordable Care Act and a recent executive immigration order explicitly declaring them ineligible for health care coverage. That means many are forced to put off preventative care measures and eventually turn to expensive, overstressed emergency rooms once they become severely ill.
Now, state officials are trying to find ways around the federal government's prohibition and provide various kinds of coverage to immigrants who don't qualify for Obamacare. Using state funds, California and New York are pioneering ways to offer comprehensive coverage for undocumented immigrants and others with temporary work visas. A handful of other states offer limited insurance coverage tosubsetsof immigrant populations. But experts warn such programs remain in the minority, and that the overall lack of health care coverage for immigrants in the United States could result in much higher medical bills in the future.
By 2016, 5.1 million undocumented immigrants in the United States will be uninsured, a group of UCLA researchers hasestimated. In 2012, there were anestimated11.2 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. Under the 1986 policy EMTALA, hospitals cannot turn away a person in need of care, regardless of immigration status or ability to pay. Emergency treatment costs to Medicaid amounts to about $2 billion a year, mostly for illegal immigrants, according to a 2013reportby Kaiser Health News. In 2009,researchby the Center for Immigration Studies estimated the cost of treating uninsured and undocumented immigrants at $4.3 billion per year at safety-net facilities like emergency rooms and community health clinics.
Advocates for immigrant health coverage say these sums might be less exorbitant if undocumented immigrants had regular primary care, which would be more accessible if they had insurance. Those bills couldve been drastically reduced, Frank Rodriguez, president of the Latino Health Care Forum, which offers health care outreach and enrollment assistance to the uninsured and underinsured in Texas, said. There are no preventative health measures, so they [undocumented, uninsured immigrants] end up having to use emergency care.
Critics, however,arguethat providing health care to illegal immigrants will encourage more illegal immigration and that taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for social services for those in the country without legal status."County hospitals are overwhelmed with uninsured people, and they've been forced to come up with more money to accommodate these people largely because they've encouraged them to come in," Ira Mehlman, media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, hastoldthe Los Angeles Times.
Unauthorized immigrants could theoretically buy private health insurance, but that option is usually prohibitively expensive.Unauthorized immigrants are not eligible for almost any of the federal, state and local health care programs, and they tend to work in jobs that dont carry employer coverage, Randy Capps, director of research for U.S. programs at the Migration Policy Institute, said.
The other health care option for undocumented immigrants is federally qualified health centers, which are reimbursed by and receive other funding from the government and do not ask questions about immigration status. But federally qualified health centers dont do much primary health care because theyre not reimbursed [for it], Rodriguez said. If a person sought primary medical services at such centers, they would likely have to pay out of pocket, albeit on a sliding fee scale. The undocumented immigrants wont go, he said.
Alvaro Huerta, a staff attorney at the National Immigration Law Center, called it "shortsighted" not to give undocumented and deferred action immigrants access to primary care, given how cost-effective such care be. Every principle of health reform, [for the] documented or undocumented, says, put your money into preventative care, because youre going to be spending 100 times the investment in preventative care when people wind up sick in emergency rooms or hospitals," he said.
On Jun. 15, 2012, the Obama administration issued an executive order granting certain undocumented immigrants immunity from deportation and making them eligible for work permits. A few months later, the administration explicitly restricted its policy so that these immigrants were not eligible for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.
California has long been the vanguard for ensuring that immigrants have access to health care and insurance. It allows deferred action grantees under Obama's policies to enroll in Medi-Cal or a parallel public health insurance program, andlawmakers have also proposed legislation to grant all undocumented immigrants eligibility for the same two programs. Most recently, in December 2014, State Senator Ricardo Lara of California introduced SB 4,a bill that tries to make all undocumented immigrants eligible for Medi-Cal.
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Health insurance doesn't always spare consumers from big health care bills.
Having done her homework, she was stunned to get a $10,000 bill from the surgeon.
"I panicked when I got that bill," said the 60-year-old retired civil servant who lives near Roseville, Calif.
Like Durocher, many consumers who take pains to research which doctors and hospitals participate in their health insurance plans can still end up with huge bills.
Sometimes, that's because they got incorrect or incomplete information from their insurer or health-care provider. Sometimes, it's because a physician has multiple offices, and not all are in network, as in Durocher's case. Sometimes, it's because a participating hospital relies on out-of-network doctors, including emergency room physicians, anesthesiologists and radiologists.
Consumer advocates say the sheer scope of such problems undermine promises made by proponents of the Affordable Care Act that the law would protect against medical bankruptcy.
"It's not fair and probably not legal that consumers be left holding the bag when an out-of-network doctor treats them," said Timothy Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee University.
Adding insult to injury, insurers are not required to count out-of-network charges toward Obamacare's annual limit on out-of-pocket expenses.
Efforts by doctors, hospitals and other health providers to charge patients for bills not covered by their insurers are called "balance billing." The problem pre-dates the Obamacare and has long been among the top complaints filed with state insurance regulators.
Because the issue is complex and pits powerful rivals against one another among them, hospitals, doctors and insurers relatively few states have addressed it. What laws do exist are generally limited to specific situations, such as emergency room care, or certain types of insurance plans, such as HMOs.
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Even insured consumers get hit with surprisingly large medical bills