Tag Archives: health care

Update to my Kentucky medical story and a flip side of the same coin

Update to my Kentucky medical story and a flip side of the same coin.

I spoke too soon on my belief that the American Medical Association would be interested in my comments about a Medicare patient and a doctor in a small town in Kentucky – but a “Kentucky Medical Complaint” Google search brought up some answers.

Update in my friends Kentucky case – she, as of Saturday, 24 September 2011 had not heard from the doctor for test results.  She called the local hospital where the cardio tests (2) were performed and told the results were in and she could pick them up.

She called the doctor’s office yesterday and told the PFTs were normal and the heart tests were normal too.  What justified the cardiac tests when the PFTs were normal?

Why would the PFT procedure be so different in a small town in Kentucky than in the rest of the nation?  Is the 29 days it took to wait for the doctor results due to a state raising fast horses and s l o w doctors in general or specific to one doctor in one small Kentucky town?

Having dependence on Medicare/Medicaid and being old, poor and trusting should not be a factor in a doctor’s way of making a living off the patients through unnecessary testing and no follow up contact with the patient.

The plus side is that she now has the physical test results of her lungs and heart but not a clue what they mean.  When she called the doctor’s office this time, she was told the results of the PFT and cardiac tests were ‘normal’.

Why did the doctor order cardiac testing if the Pulmonary Function Tests were normal?

I called the doctor’s office this morning, Monday, 9/26/11 and asked several questions including why the doctor didn’t call the patient in 29 days to give her the test results and was told that it can take two or three weeks to get the results and another week for the doctor to review the results.  My friend the patient was told two weeks.  When I asked why the cardiac tests were ordered when her PFT was ‘normal’ – BEFORE he spoke to the patient – I was told to call back later to speak with the office manager.

I was told if my Kentucky friend wanted to know the meaning of the test results, she should call and make an appointment with the doctor.

Fast horses and slow doctors in a small town in Kentucky – doesn’t seem right to me.  Are other seniors on Medicare/Medicaid being ill treated by this doctor? 

Are most Kentucky doctors as seemingly indifferent to their senior patients by failing to give test results in a timely manner and ordering cardiac tests without apparent need – or just this one based on my own PFT experience?

The flip side of the coin is the unfair treatment of the medical profession by Medicare and Medicaid.

I wrote the following in answer to a Letter to the Editor, Kitsap Sun:

“Well…health care costs...not one post has mentioned WHY doctors don’t take Medicare or Medicaid. The fact is physicians and the health care industry is the only profession in this nation that PENALIZES the doctor and health care businesses!

Any other business in the country can set their price and people pay it or go elsewhere. Not so the physician. Medicare and Medicaid pay only a fraction of the set price per service of each doctor.

Why should doctors take patients that COST them money to see them…they LOSE money.

If a plumbing business could take ten calls during the business day – why would they take a call from someone that will not pay their full price for the service?

Some doctors DO TAKE MEDICARE/MEDICAID patients and I for one – am grateful mine do.

I will mention here that I saw a medical devise recently that cost Medicaid/Medicare about nine thousand dollars per patient that has one. For a patient to buy it outright it cost about twelve thousand dollars.

If that isn’t outrageous enough for you – my opinion of the value of the devise – it MIGHT be worth one thousand dollars TOPS.

In my opinion, what seems to be happening in some cases is that the health care folks have tacked outrageous prices on cheap junk to make up for the low Medicare/Medicaid set prices.

Who loses? WE DO! The taxpayer AND the patient.”

Read more: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2011/sep/19/letter-to-the-editor-state-shouldnt-cut-more/#ixzz1YsPjzSZ4

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2011/sep/19/letter-to-the-editor-state-shouldnt-cut-more/

Speaking of a medical determined momma squirrel in Silverdale…

Thanks for reading… Sharon O’Hara

Health Care Not Color Blind?

Disease crosses borders. Disease lacks discrimination between races…or so I believed until yesterday. Something is very wrong and we must fix it.

Early detection of some diseases, COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) for one is a key to survival. Early detection for Colorectal Cancer is another. Recent statistics show a health care gap giving blacks late diagnosis for Colorectal Cancer thus raising their death rate.

“… the disparities identified in their study may be due to differences in the quality of health care. Compared to whites, blacks underwent less colorectal cancer screening and their cancer was detected at more advanced stages…”

Bishop Larry Robertson of the Emmanuel Apostolic Church in Bremerton should consider adding an `adult Wellness Health Clinic to the planned community center.
Bishop Larry Robertson said the first phase of the project will provide recreation and education room for organizations trying to improve individual and family well-being.

(A `youth wellness center is already being planned for Bremerton Mayor, Patty Lent’s huge scale community center on the east side)

Read more of Steven Gardner’s article… http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/mar/04/downtown-community-center-to-be-named-for/#ixzz0yZxGJspU and
http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/aug/29/mayor-unveils-preliminary-plan-for-former-junior/

In this country today, how is it possible that health care isn’t color blind and gender blind?

“Researchers analyzed national colorectal cancer death rates between 1960 and 2005. During that time, there was a 54 percent reduction in deaths among white women and only a 14 percent reduction among black women.

The disparity was even more striking among men. While the death rate for white men decreased 39 percent, the death rate for black men increased 28 percent, the researchers reported.

The study also found that black patients had worse rates of stage-specific survival and life expectancy. For example, in the 1970s, the life expectancy for a 60-year-old white man with localized colorectal cancer was 1.01 years more than for a black man the same age. By the 2000s, that gap had increased to 2.7 years …

Soneji and colleagues said the disparities identified in their study may be due to differences in the quality of health care. Compared to whites, blacks underwent less Bremerton Mayor, Patty Lent, screening and their cancer was detected at more advanced stages.

The study was released online Aug. 19 in advance of publication in the October print issue of the American Journal of Public Health.”

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_102589.html (*this news item will not be available after 11/23/2010)

More later…. Sharon O’Hara

Seniors Learn and Chat New Government Benefits TODAY

The Department of Health and Human Services want Seniors to know stuff.

They’ve scheduled weekly web chats and TODAY, 8 April at 1:00pm “.. top experts on health care and seniors will join Secretary Sebelius live for a discussion about some important benefits for older Americans .” Don’t miss it.

Read on for more information to benefit Seniors, including the donut hole filler.

“Now that the Affordable Care Act is law, the Department of Health and Human Services wants you to be sure you are getting the information you need about the important early benefits that will be available this year.

Each week HHS will be hosting a weekly web chat with Secretary Sebelius and other top officials at HHS. You’ll be able to hear more about what the new health insurance reform law means for you, and you can submit your questions directly to Healthreform@hhs.gov.

Last week, the Secretary and SBA Administrator Karen Mills talked about the new tax credits that are now available to help small businesses buy health insurance for their workers. You can watch that web cast on demand by clicking here.

This Thursday, April 8th, at 1:00 PM EDT, two of HHS’s top experts on health care and seniors will join Secretary Sebelius live for a discussion about some important benefits for older Americans. Kathy Greenlee, our Assistant Secretary for Aging, and Marilyn Tavenner, Principal Deputy Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, will be available live to take your questions.

Join the conversation tomorrow at 1:00 pm EDT at http://www.hhs.gov/live.

Did you know that the new law will provide a $250 rebate this year on prescription drugs for those facing the gap in Medicare coverage known as the donut hole?

Did you know that the new law protects and strengthens Medicare by eliminating waste and fraud and ending overpayment to private insurance companies?

Did you know that preventive care will be available to Medicare beneficiaries at no cost?

We will be discussing all these benefits plus new details about a new retiree reinsurance program (pdf) that will bring much needed relief to many early retirees who cannot access affordable health coverage.

Send us your questions today to Healthreform@hhs.gov.

We’ll answer as many questions as we can during the web chat and address others in the “Your Questions Answered” section of our website.

Jenny Backus
Acting Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs
Moderator of the HHS Weekly Web Chat

More later… Sharon O’Hara

Government Controlled Health Care

Please excuse my mention of politics and our current health care system dilemma. I am a patient, not a political party…disease does not stop at borders but it sure plays a part in medicine…

“It is a common misconception that the free enterprise system is at fault for the current high cost of medical care in the US, a misconception that the current administration has no desire to refute…”

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE HITS 10.2 PERCENT, WORST SINCE 1983; EMPLOYERS CUT 190,000 JOBS ”
http://email.foxnews.com/t?ctl=2163:7A6A4B31296F1CB1EA28BA15CAB80E79&

Now the White House is extending the unemployment insurance – again. Nothing happens overnight, we know…but I would feel more hopeful if our government wasn’t spending money we don’t have… and keeps spending the same invisible money.

President Obama reminds me of a cookie starved kid suddenly turned loose in Ma Kettle’s Cookie Kitchen – he keeps making cookies long after the oven died and the shelves are bare.

The car bonanza helped people buy all electric golf carts at a fraction of the cost or got them free – thanks to the taxpayer and generosity of the White House. (WH)

The Acorn shame was hidden by the mainstream media – Fox opened Pandora’s Box and we began to learn how the WH is manipulating the media and attacking Fox for telling us THE NEWS. Real news, not slanted.

Last night I did my usual click through stations and found one miserable health condition show after another…gee, right when the WH is manipulating for government controlled health care.

Once during the past few months, I joined in on a AARP phone town meeting and listened to one amazing comment after another…until I had a page almost full of comments and questions to ask.
I called the number given for questions and left the message. The impetus to call was when AARP bragged that California had the best system of superb health care in the nation. The California health care system should be the model for the country…no one mentioned that California is BANKRUPT.

Later, the last cookie of remaining respect crumbled when I watched the CEO on a Fox interview state over and over again that AARP did not have a position yet on health care.

I have a special interest in health care, as do most of us … and do not want another government controlled agency doomed to fail…just as government controlled Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are failed.

“Social Security is safe today but will run deficits in just 12 years. That’s not a very long time to fix the world’s biggest government program.”
http://www.socialsecurity.org/reformandyou/faqs.html

“…The current recession is wreaking havoc on the Social Security trust fund. But the real blame lies with irresponsible politicians. Instead of planning for the future—of which they had literally a generation in advance warning—politicians acted as if a severe recession would never come.

Now, instead of a trust fund filled with the accumulated dollars of previous generations to cover distributions to those taxpayers, the government is left with an empty bag of holes.
The trust fund’s annual surplus will all but vanish next year according to the Congressional Budget Office’s (cbo’s) most recent report.
With unemployment rising, there are 5.1 million fewer workers paying into Social Security than when the recession began in December 2007.

The end of the Social Security surplus could have enormous consequences.
For the government, it means not only will it need money to somehow pay those Social Security entitlements, but it will also need to find a new source of off-budget money to “borrow” from for other expenditures that were previously funded by stealing from Social Security. …

“Over the past 25 years, the government has gotten used to the fact that Social Security is providing free money to make the rest of the deficit look smaller,” said Andrew Biggs, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. “Instead of Social Security subsidizing the rest of the budget, the rest of the budget will have to subsidize Social Security.”

That is not good news for the 51 million retirees who depend on Social Security.

Already in massive debt, the government has limited options for financing Social Security.

The first two options—cutting benefits for retirees, and/or raising taxes on current workers—are probably politically impractical, especially since America is only in the early stages of the “Greater Recession.” …
…government with one last-ditch option: to just create more money…. may include discrediting the dollar, destroying America’s purchasing power and severe international consequences.

The Federal Reserve Bank has already announced that it has started down this path. Inflation will almost inevitably result.
America is facing some tough choices, none of them easy: reduced benefits, higher taxes, more borrowing, higher inflation, a damaged dollar. The consequences of big government and even bigger spending are about to slam home with landslide force.

The Social Security debacle is just one more should-have-been-avoidable financial crisis to add to the growing list. … •
http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?q=6106.4502.0.0

President Obama is NOT RESPONSIBLE for the SS crisis…he inherited the SS, Medicare and Medicaid disasters.
President Obama IS RESPONSIBLE for his outrageous borrowing and throwing more billions of invisible money into the pit of no return.

Between Fannie, Freddie, Ginnie and the FHA, an astounding near 90 percent of all loans being issued in the United States are now backed by the government. If home prices continue to fall, and defaults continue to grow, these organizations have the potential to destroy government finances. Yet instead of trying to mitigate this unfolding disaster, America is actually plunging in deeper. http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?q=6697.5217.0.0

The writing is on the wall–the Social Security system won’t be able to sustain itself much longer. When the Social Security trustees issue their 2010 report next May, the viability of this system will have deteriorated further—a fact trustees cannot hide any longer under the proverbial “political rug.” However, with media attention focused on healthcare and the death of Michael Jackson, most Americans are simply unaware of this coming tempest….”
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/08/why_social_security_will_go_ba.html

“…Not only will Obama ration your health care — especially if you are a senior citizen — and have the government decide what treatment and benefits you get, the proposed plan will also build and expand the government’s surveillance and control grid.

Section 163 of the bill now in Congress allows the government real-time access to a person’s bank records, including direct access to bank accounts for electronic fund transfers. “Even-though the bill mentions privacy aspects, the fact remains that if approved, Obama’s health care plan will allow government access at any time to your personal bank records,” KFYI News reports.
“It’s pretty Orwellian, it certainly gets the government pretty darn deeply involved in private matters in our lives,” Arizona Congressman John Shadegg told the news radio station…. http://www.infowars.com/obama-health-bill-allows-government-real-time-access-to-bank-accounts/

“It is a common misconception that the free enterprise system is at fault for the current high cost of medical care in the US, a misconception that the current administration has no desire to refute. However, the government’s regulatory and control practices are really at fault. Ever increasing and more punitive government and Medicare regulations set the standards for the actions of the private insurance companies. … Government over-regulated and managed health care makes as much sense as government managed flying.
Frank S. Rosenbloom, M.D. “Government Health Care Won’t Fly””
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/06/government_health_care_wont_fl_1.html

More later … Sharon O’Hara

Dentists and Doctors Intertwine for Health

Here is exciting news and further proof that teeth and gum health is linked with our body health and should be a part of our health care insurance and patient education. Oral hygiene, health and disease go hand in glove.

According to the report by Judy Siegel-Itzkovich in the Jerusalem Post …” growing evidence that what is going on in one’s mouth can trigger or worsen systemic disease, and studies have linked gum disease to premature births, heart disease and diabetes. “

“…Researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine and University Hospital of Cleveland have found that treating pediodontal disease reduces arthritic pain, the number of swollen joints and the degree of morning stiffness. Their study appeared in the Journal of Periodontology…”

“Dr. Nabil Bissada, head of the school’s periodontics department …worked with Dr. Ali Askari, chairman of the department of rheumatology at the hospital. “It gives us a new intervention …should prompt rheumatologists to encourage their patients to be aware of the link between periodontal disease and rheumatoid arthritis, said Askari.

Both inflammatory diseases share similarities in the progression of the disease over time – the soft and hard tissues are destroyed from inflammation caused by toxins from bacterial infection. One toxin from the inflamed areas, called tumor necrosis factor-alpha, is a marker present in the blood when inflammation is present in the body and can initiate new infections or aggravate sites where inflammation already exists….”

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1249418611441&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

More later… Sharon O’Hara