Electronic Medical Records is the future. We have been in  the computer dominated world for the last several decades. What has been necessary for a long time is the alliance between computers, Medical Records Software, and their symbiotic ability to increase efficiencies in our medical deliver services.

Picture a Nursing Home Software of today. A company like Optimus EMR has the resources and knowledge base with their software to make it an efficient enterprise. With the baby boomers now retiring and filling these nursing homes and with limited budgets, then efficiency is of essence. The ability to automate records and establishing complete databases on all medical information is where these efficiencies would be realized from.

Make no mistake. The only solution our medical efficiency problem is computer medical software. OptimusEMR as a leader in the electronic medical records (EMR) industry has the preferred solution.  They develop software for hospitals that provides assistance in helping to organize information about patients, in order to allow other hospitals to have easily accessible information about them and thus preventing and ensuring that no information will be lost.

As the deadline nears for health insurance companies to return nearly $1.4 billion to consumers for wasting our money, the lobbyists have moved in to stop it.

Two bills have surfaced in Congress to undermine our rebates, putting most of the money we deserve right back into insurance company pockets!

We’re not going to let the lobbyists have their way. And we need you, and anyone you know who’s concerned about skyrocketing health insurance costs, to join us.

Tell Congress: Hold the health insurance companies accountable. It’s our money!

One of the most pro-consumer rules in the national health reform law is aimed squarely at how insurance companies spend our money. If an insurance company spends more than 20 percent of our premium dollars on their CEO salaries, paperwork, marketing and sales costs, we get a rebate, or lower rates.

The deadline for the first round of rebate checks is August 1. And it’s estimated insurers owe 9 million Americans nearly $1.4 billion! That’s a REAL incentive for companies to tighten their belts and get costs under control – just like the rest of us are having to do. 

We’re launching a nationwide campaign to support this common-sense rule in health reform and prevent it from being gutted by lobbyists and others. If you’ve ever been frustrated by a health insurance company that seems accountable to no one, now is the time to speak out.

Send your message now! It’s time consumer voices drown out the lobbyists!

This is shaping up as an epic battle, because we know the insurance companies don’t want to give our money back. Please take action, and stay engaged with us as we continue to fight for value in health insurance.

DeAnn Friedholm, PrescriptionforChange.org
Consumers Union, Policy and Action from Consumer Reports
1101 17th Street NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20036

Thanks for the post from Nora Mccoy

I truly could not remember the last time our family needed a break like we did this week. Our lives have been non-stop for almost two weeks now and we were all to the point of collapse. I just hate it when life takes a sharp turn suddenly out of nowhere and you’re left wondering what the heck just happened. We had spent loads of time out of town due to an ill family member and the kids had loads of work to make up. The house was beyond recognition and I worked my tail off to get our lives back where it belonged. By the time Friday rolled around, I had had it. This entire crew needed some rest and relaxation and I needed to make it happen. I had the idea to go to http://www.expertsatellite.com/direct-tv/direct-tv-saint-petersburg-florida.html and order a movie for my family and I to enjoy later in the evening. It was going to be great to take a break and catch our breaths together for the first time in weeks. To top it off, the pizza I ordered kept me out of the kitchen and in the same room with my family.

The Swiss Government’s Remarkable Report on Homeopathic Medicine

Dana Ullman Evidence Based Homeopath

Posted: 02/15/2012 8:56 am

The Swiss government has a long and widely-respected history of neutrality, and therefore, reports from this government on controversial subjects need to be taken more seriously than other reports from countries that are more strongly influenced by present economic and political constituencies. When one considers that two of the top five largest drug companies in the world have their headquarters in Switzerland, one might assume that this country would have a heavy interest in and bias toward conventional medicine, but such assumptions would be wrong.

In late 2011, the Swiss government’s report on homeopathic medicine represents the most comprehensive evaluation of homeopathic medicine ever written by a government and was just published in book form in English (Bornhoft and Matthiessen, 2011). This breakthrough report affirmed that homeopathic treatment is both effective and cost-effective and that homeopathic treatment should be reimbursed by Switzerland’s national health insurance program.
The Swiss government’s inquiry into homeopathy and complementary and alternative (CAM) treatments resulted from the high demand and widespread use of alternatives to conventional medicine in Switzerland, not only from consumers but from physicians as well. Approximately half of the Swiss population have used CAM treatments and value them. Further, about half of Swiss physicians consider CAM treatments to be effective. Perhaps most significantly, 85 percent of the Swiss population wants CAM therapies to be a part of their country’s health insurance program.

It is therefore not surprising that more than 50 percent of the Swiss population surveyed prefer a hospital that provides CAM treatments rather to one that is limited to conventional medical care.

Beginning in 1998, the government of Switzerland decided to broaden its national health insurance to include certain complementary and alternative medicines, including homeopathic medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, herbal medicine, anthroposophic medicine, and neural therapy. This reimbursement was provisional while the Swiss government commissioned an extensive study on these treatments to determine if they were effective and cost-effective. The provisional reimbursement for these alternative treatments ended in 2005, but as a result of this new study, the Swiss government’s health insurance program once again began to reimburse for homeopathy and select alternative treatments. In fact, as a result of a national referendum in which more than two-thirds of voters supported the inclusion of homeopathic and select alternative medicines in Switzerland’s national health care insurance program, the field of complementary and alternative medicine has become a part of this government’s constitution (Dacey, 2009; Rist, Schwabl, 2009).

Dana Ullman: The Swiss Government’s Remarkable Report on Homeopathic Medicine

Health Care Fraud Judgments: Federal Authorities Recovered $4.1 Billion In 2011

By By KELLI KENNEDY 02/13/12 06:37 PM ET

MIAMI — Federal authorities say they recovered $4.1 billion in health care fraud judgments last year, a record high which officials on Monday credited to new tools for cracking down on deceitful Medicare claims.

The recovered funds are up roughly 50 percent from 2009. Attorney General Eric Holder and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius were expected to make the announcement at a news conference Tuesday.

The Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services told The Associated Press that agencies are doing a better job of screening providers before they get in the system and have beefed up enrollment requirements. Now investigators are conducting site visits to make sure moderate risk providers have a legitimate office. Higher risk providers are also subject to fingerprint and criminal background checks.

Authorities have long said the solution to solving the nation’s estimated $60 billion to $90 billion a year Medicare fraud problem lies in vigorously screening providers and stopping payment to suspicious ones.

They also say it is important to end the antiquated system of paying the claims then chasing suspicious ones. By the time officials catch on to bogus billing patterns, crooks typically dump that provider ID and open a new one, or flee the country. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has come under fire for lax screening as violent criminals and mobsters are also getting involved, seeing the fraud as more lucrative than dealing drugs and having less severe criminal penalties.

Halting Medicare fraud has become even more paramount as the scams that once bilked $1 million or $2 million a decade ago have morphed into sophisticated multimillion dollar networks involving doctors, patient recruiters and patients.

"Fighting fraud is one of our top priorities and we have recovered an unprecedented number of taxpayer dollars," Sebelius said in a statement. "Our efforts strengthen the integrity of our health care programs, and meet the president’s call for a return to American values that ensure everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules."

Federal health officials said Monday they are also doing a better job of sharing data with other agencies.

Officials credited the spike in recovered funds in part to strike force teams set up in fraud hot spots around the country, including Miami, Detroit and Los Angeles.

Health Care Fraud Judgments: Federal Authorities Recovered $4.1 Billion In 2011

Thanks to Lemuel Craft

I graduated from high school almost ten years ago. It is hard to believe it has been that long. Soon I will be going to my ten year reunion and seeing several people I have not seen in a long time. It is strange how reunions have changed over the years. When my parents were younger, high school reunions were a time to brag about your life’s accomplishments. People would show pictures of their kids, drive fancy cars or even lie about occupations. Now with high speed internet and facebook, no one can lie. Everything is instantly available on facebook. If someone has a kid, pictures are normally posted on facebook within 24 hours. Someone gets a promotion and their status changes. It is amazing how facebook has changed everything. Now high school reunions are really just a party. Everyone already knows everything going on in one another’s life, so they just get together to hang out one last time. Do you think high school reunions will become obsolete or will they remain a tradition?

Before last October, 17-year-old Thera Sanchez was a healthy cheerleader at LeRoy Junior-Senior High School in New York. But when she woke up from a nap on Oct. 7, she was beset by uncontrollable Tourette-like tics, that she continues to have today.

MSNBC reported that Sanchez is not alone — 12 girls at the high school experienced an onset of these same symptoms, which include outbursts, shaking and tics.

"I used to cheer every day … I used to go to two art classes every day," Sanchez told NBC. "Now I’m not in school."

New York health officials said that they investigated the school, but did not find anything that could cause this strange illness in the students, Fox News reported.

"The investigation has not revealed environmental or infectious causes as the origin of the students’ illness," Jeffrey Hammond, spokesman for the New York State Department of Health, told Fox News.

Sanchez and her friend, Katie Krautwurst, went on the TODAY show to talk to Ann Curry about the strange onset of symptoms, and the frustration they feel about not finding a cause for the bizarre illness.

"I’m very angry, I’m very frustrated, no one’s giving answers," Sanchez told Curry on the TODAY Show. Sanchez said she was told that her condition is caused by extreme stress.

What exactly it is that Sanchez and the other girls at her school have remains a mystery, but the symptoms are similar to Tourette Syndrome. Tourette is characterized by tics, which include things like eye-blinking, head-jerking, eye-darting, shoulder-shrugging and yelling or throat-clearing — all of it uncontrolled, according to the Mayo Clinic.

According to the Mayo Clinic, Tourette symptoms typically show between the ages of 7 and 10, and the condition is more common in men than in women. The cause isn’t known, but genetics and brain abnormalities may influence risk.

Thera Sanchez Develops Mysterious Tourette-Like Illness — Along With 11 Other Girls From School

By Kristin Kirkpatrick, R.D. for YouBeauty.com

Americans are getting sicker. Seventy percent of the diseases we are acquiring as a nation are caused by behavior, and food choices top the list.

In the past two decades alone, we have observed the overwhelming impact that poor food choices has on our waistlines. It’s not just about our pant size either — these choices have additional repercussions such as increased disease and even dull skin, hair and nails.

Often overlooked are the additional mechanisms in the human body that are affected by the types of foods we are choosing to put into our mouths at each meal. Several studies have uncovered a strong correlation between diet and poor sleep quality.

More from YouBeauty.com:
QUIZ: How’s Your Sleep Quality?
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Are You Eating Pretty?

Getting too few z’s has detrimental effects on our bodies, and our appearance! Simply put, lack of sleep is not pretty! Too few hours in the sack has been shown to increase triglyceride levels, alter hunger hormones and compromise energy levels. Worse yet, it leads to graying, less vibrant skin.

As if that weren’t enough, our lack of sleep causes a vicious cycle of eating more, gaining weight and sleeping less. Could we be more beautiful if, before reaching into the refrigerator, we contemplated which foods would not only satisfy our appetites but improve our nighttime sleep quality as well?

Based on recent evidence, the answer is yes!

The results of many recent studies identify poor diet as an underlying factor of sleep apnea and excessive daytime sleepiness. Approximately 2 to 4 percent of the adult population is affected by obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, a medically diagnosed disorder that causes frequent breathing disturbances during sleep, consequentially upsetting normal sleep patterns. The incidence of sleep apnea is exponentially greater in obese people, demonstrating a direct association between weight and quality of sleep.

A recent study in the European Respiratory Journal found that adherence to a Mediterranean based diet* paired with regular physical activity for six months improved sleep parameters in forty obese adults with moderate to severe obstructive

How To Eat For Better Sleep

You have one body. You only have the body that you were born with. As such it is in your best interest to do you research before you put you precious resource, your body in the hands of the medical profession. You want to find a website that can provide you with valid information on any medical procedure you may be contemplating.Whether it is brachioplasty, butt implants, or a panniculectomy.

After all, if you have just lost a lot of weight you know that a panniculectomy will definitely be in order. How do you know exactly your options? Informative and reputable websites are in order for said eventuality. You must ensure that the hospital and surgeon of choice meets the criteria you deem necessary to work on and with your body.

Vanity is not the only reason to have  butt implants. One may be needed to enhance ones modeling, acting, or entertainment carrier. It can mean the difference between an excellent offer or no offers. Again you want to research your options that reveal potential outcomes to maximize your investment. It is as simple as that.  Skimp not on your research lest you are willing to pay the price for said lack of diligence in the future.

Many people at the end of the year are in to New Years resolutions. They decide that this is the time that they will lose the weight that they have been wanting to lose every year. They decide that they will get aerobically more healthy.

Many making these changes are avid smokers and always insist that smoking is one vice they will not give up because in the gist of things this vice cuts their appetite which is a great good that will moderate their caloric intake. The reality is that they must and they should stop smoking now.

I understand that many believe that they simply cannot stop smoking. There are however many that have used sensible humane programs to do so and you can too. One of the best ways to solve our health problems is to take positive steps now that will reap benefits for some time to come. The question is ; Are you ready? I am positive you are. If you were not ready I am sure you would not have gotten this far into this prose.