Making the right decisions for your health is important. Sometimes opting for too many procedures and scans can do more harm than good.
How far will some pharmaceutical companies go to push a drug for profits?
According to this article, Insys Therapeutics employed illegal and unethical practices to push their pain medication, Subsys, on patients who may have not needed it. I should mention that the leading ingredient in this under-the-tongue pain medication is the highly addictive drug called Fentanyl, which is ~1,000 times more powerful than Morphine and should be very carefully prescribed.
Insys Therapeutics is reported to have trained at least one employee in illegal tactics to ...
Continue Reading →Choosing Wisely – A Fresh Take on the Healthcare Industry
Under-Staffing and Over-Regulation Leads to Less Time with Patients
Hospital staff are being further and further bogged down by regulation and under-staffing, leading to less and less time spent with their patients. This is where Patient Advocates step in.
With patients spending less time with their care providers to fully understand their condition or treatment options, it’s no wonder that so many are left with inadequate or non-existent care, furthering the need to have an advocate at their side.
In most cases, the role of a patient advocate ends up falling ...
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Do you know how to wash your hands the correct way?
Washing your hands before you eat sounds like common sense, but you’d be surprised how often people skip such a basic and effective step to prevent the spread of germs and illness.
I came across this quick video from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) that explains how to effectively wash your hands in five easy steps – a must see for everyone, not just children and those in the healthcare industry. Following the steps in the video below ...
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Trump’s Changes to Healthcare
What will Trump be able to do to change and hopefully improve on the ACA? This writer suggests that Trump will open up the purchase of insurance over state lines, price transparency and many other things.
He goes on to remind us that no one has been happy with the “marketplaces” to shop for insurance, and quotes Bill Clinton saying, “the costs are up, coverage is down, it’s the craziest thing in the world”.
The author has several suggestions that should be ...
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Deciphering Medical Bills
Two articles I read recently, that I find quite alarming and you should too. The first is an article that talks about medical bills and what a mystery they are. The author talks a lot about how he cannot understand his medical bill because it is primarily test codes, scientific terms, CPT codes and ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes. None of which he understood.
The author goes on to tell us that when he questioned the hospital or clinic about the bill ...
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“Study Suggests Medical Errors Now Third Leading Cause of Death in the U.S.”
Johns Hopkins Medicine did this study, and was conducted over an 8-year period. The third leading cause of death equates to 250,000 deaths per year due to medical errors.
Heart disease and cancer are the top 2 leading causes of death and they get lots of funding. “National funding is informed from our national health statistics, but those statistics don’t recognize medical care gone awry as a cause of death.” Medical mishaps are not listed on death certificates and are not ...
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How to Get Discounted Medication
Are you paying too much money for prescription drugs? If the high cost of generic medications is hurting your wallet this app is a must have. www.BlinkHealth.com is a new app.
I read about it in an article from CNBC, “Blink Health looks to disrupt relentless rise of drug prices.” This app is free and they promise you can save up to 90% on generic drugs. The article stated, “According to Blink’s website 30 tablets of the generic cholesterol lowering ...
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Caregiving and Family Impact
Forbes magazine recently wrote, “Caregiving is Forcing Women 50+ to Leave the Workforce”. In consideration of the fact that the baby boomers are retiring in droves and people are living longer, this is presenting with a huge problem.
The article goes on to say that, “two out of every five adults – tens of millions of Americans – are family caregivers of loved ones.”
Women are generally the ones who end up quitting their jobs to care for the family member. ...
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