Health junction

OK, I was going to write about the new social caste-system determining how you pay for your health care, but the New York Times article about the errant Dr. Ghandi from Indiana (I kid you not) and his over zealous love of invasive cardiac treatments is too good to pass up. First of all, the full color photo in the New York Times of this woman's scarred chest is a shock. The sleeveless pink floral top (not enough of it to merit calling it a blouse) is the standard rag you find so many many American woman wearing to places they should not. I mean really, this is what you wore for an interview with the New York Times? One could make a case that the cardiac chest-crack surgical scar is more aesthetic than that mom tattoo. I thought you were supposed to put your kids names on your body, not the word mom, isn't that reserved for sailors? Read on to find out how this all went wrong in the midwest.  Malpractice and Medicare Rip-offs The woman in the New York Times photo had been treate...

Insurance Exchange Triage Long wait times, changes in coverage for those covered under high risk pools, and changes in provider networks are some of the problems which have occurred with the national insurance exchange implementation. This article provides pragmatic advice for those seeking insurance through an exchange, working with an agency who has to implement some of the mandates, and who want straight talk on how to accomplish your mission. First and foremost, apart from the standardization of insurance coverage and national role out of a quasi national health care policy, much of the griping over the exchange implementation is merely a ramped up �open enrollment process� which occurs annually for those covered by private insurance plans. To help allay some of the misconceptions, each of the concerns are addressed below. Timely Processing of Insurance Exchange Applications Firstly, we can all acknowledge that the federal exchange roll-out has been problematic and now let�s move ...

For all of the grousing about health care, reforms or not, we still need to figure out how to resource our needs in the bifurcated U.S. delivery system and to that end, I wrote Unraveling U.S. Health Care-A Personal Guide, for the average Joe and Joanne. This easy to read guidebook for the U.S. health care system and some global centers for health care, is available on Amazon and elsewhere now. http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/1442222972 https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442222977 I will be presenting material from the book on these dates: August 5th-6:00PM-Bremerton Public Library August 22nd-5:00PM-Book Release Event-La Toscanella September 4th-7:00PM-University Book Store October 15th-6:00PM-Seattle Public Library Main Branch And into the deep we swim-working on my strokes. Author-Roberta E. Winter AKA the healthpolicymaven

Up close and personal with the U.S. Health Care Trauma System October 16, 5:17 P.M. I received the call, �Your son has been hit by a car. �At this point everything slowed down inside my head and all noise from the outside world was muffled. First, I breathe and then ask, is he conscious? Thankfully, he was alert according to the paramedic on the scene. He was being transferred to the local hospital emergency room for further treatment. By this time it is too late to make it down to the 5:30 ferry, so I was relegated to the 6:45, which means I wasn�t on the beach to see my son until 7:45P.M. I gave the paramedic my information and called the hospital giving them my E.T.A. Traumatic Brain Injury 8:00 P.M. I arrive at the local hospital, a 262 bed facility with a Level III Trauma Center, and immediately found my teenager in the E.R. The treating physician informed me that he had multiple fractures, on his head and leg, the most worrisome of which was the skull fracture. (My son had just ...

One of the chapters in my book, Unraveling U.S. Health Care, which is a guide to the health care system, addresses surgery and tips on how to vet your surgeon and find the optimal facility. Finding a Surgeon The best web site for researching surgical specialties is the American College of Surgeons, which allows consumers to look up surgeons by specialty and location. The web site for this is: www.facs.org. For instance if you need a neurosurgeon, you can enter that and voila, the universe of neurosurgeons is revealed. These specialists are typically associated with university medical centers and large trauma centers. However, it is amazing that some health care consumers still think that neurosurgeons are available at rural 25 bed hospitals. Even if they were, why would you want to have this type of surgery done at that kind of facility? Hospital Safety Rankings Secondarily, it is worth your while to review hospital patient safety ratings before deciding on the facility. Methods to d...

Discerning Hospital Quality The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services(CMS) now requires health quality measures for specific clinical services, in order to recognize and encourage the best patient outcomes. Recognition will include greater financial reimbursement for those medical practices which conform to the CMS standards for clinical outcomes. This is yet another step in the right direction toward patient-centered-care as identified by the International Order of Medicine. This article highlights the primary hospital quality watchdogs in the United States and consumer tips on how to assess your hospital. Organizations Measuring Hospital Quality There are a number of ways to gauge your hospital�s quality, including accessing information from public sites, such as the Center for Disease Control, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Health & Human Services Agency. There are also nonprofit organizations devoted to measuring hospital quality including; the Joint ...