Miscellaneous Health Care Information

“Five Core Principles to Ensure Patients Receive High Value Health Care” America’s Health Insurance Plans, May 29, 2008 

Principle #1 Patients and their doctors must have the information and tools they need to evaluate treatment options and make health care decisions on the basis of safety, quality and cost.

Proposal - Give access to a trusted source for providers and patients that compare the effectiveness and cost of treatment.

Principle #2 Patients and doctors want an efficient, interconnected health care delivery system that reduces medical errors.

Proposal – Encourage widespread use of health information technology, such as electronic health records and e-prescribing.

Principle #3 Doctors and nurses need the freedom to practice medicine without worrying about frivolous lawsuits. 

Proposal – Reform the legal system, replace the current medical liability system with a dispute resolution process to provide quick and fair resolution and promote evidence based medicine.

Principle #4 Health insurance plans are transitioning to a system that more closely aligns payments with the quality of care patients receive. 

Proposal - Build healthcare reform around quality improvement by rewarding safety, value and effectiveness.  Work for broader adoption of value based reimbursement mechanisms and provide consumers with more actionable information about healthcare value.

Principle #5 The nation must move towards a system of care that focuses on keeping people healthy, detects disease at the earliest possible stage and rewards chronic care management.

Proposal - Enhanced disease management, care coordination and prevention programs.  Develop new strategies that emphasize prevention, improve chronic care and tailor healthcare for patients to help them live longer and stay healthier.

“Hospitals Want Involved Patients” Chicago Tribune, June 10, 2008, This article discusses the importance of patients being involved in there care.  Hospitals are starting programs to empower patients and urge them to speak up if they don’t understand or have concerns about what a patient is doing.  Even though patients are being encouraged to speak up they are not comfortable doing it.  One study, of 856 adults showed 91% were willing to ask doctors or nurses to explain something they didn’t understand.  Only 25% were willing to ask providers if they washed there hands before an examination.  In an effort to reduce debilitating hospital-based infections and involve patients in there care, hospitals encourage questions.

“Stress and Diabetes” Jennifer Nelson, WebMD This article discusses the fact that stress, both physical and mental, can impact your blood sugar if you have diabetes. When you’re stressed hormones like epinephrine and cortisol increase blood sugar.  It’s called the fight or flight response.  When blood sugars aren’t regulated in a diabetic you’re at risk for blindness, kidney problems, nerve damage, cardiovascular disease and stroke.  It’s very important to identify when you’re stressed.  One recommendation is to make a note of how you’re feeling (a stress journal) when you test your blood sugar.  It often becomes clear the correlation between your stress and blood sugar level.  Pin point the stressors and take action to control your stress.

“A Lifetime of Danger” Washington Post May 19, 2008, One in three children are obese in this country.  Elementary school children have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, joint problems, increasing incidence of type 2 diabetes and gallstones.  Though it’s not completely understood the damage of being overweight as a child is far more dangerous then putting on weight later in life.  In the 6-19 age group obesity has tripled in the past 25 years.  This could be the countries first generation to have a shorter life span then the previous one.  This epidemic will add billions of dollars to the S.S. healthcare bill.  Its been called “a national catastrophe” by the acting Surgeon General Steven Galson.  It’s a cycle overweight women giving birth to larger babies that become obese and the cycle continues.

“You Name it Exercise Helps it” New York Times April 29, 2008 Exercise can lower the risk for heart attack, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, depression, dementia, osteoporosis, gallstones, diverticulitis, falls, erectile dysfunction, peripheral vascular disease and 12 kinds of cancer.  People with chronic health problems can benefit from exercise as well.  It increases your ability to battle your disease. 

“Training the Mind Changes the Brain” by Kathryn Britton, Neuroscientists who use brain imaging to study behavior and emotion are finding behavioral interventions have a biological effect.  They can cause more specific brain changes then psychotropic medications.  Patience, calmness, cooperation, and kindness are skills that can be trained.  They are not traits that are in born or set for life.

“More Health Plans Adopt ‘Never –Event’ Policies that don’t reimburse for Treatment Needed to Correct Medical Errors” AIS’s Health Business Daily, February 21, 2008, Insurers like Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross and Pennsylvania Medicaid in an effort to heighten awareness among hospitals of steps that need to be taken to prevent serious medical mistakes, have come up with events that they won’t reimburse hospitals for.  Examples are surgery on the wrong person or body part, infants sent home with the wrong parent and care to stage three or four pressure ulcers that the patient wasn’t admitted with. 

“Doctors Miss Cultural Needs, Study Says” New York Times, June 10, 2008, A study was done on 6,814 patients being treated for diabetes from 2005-2007.  The study showed fewer black patients adequately controlled their blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure then the white patients.  It has been theorized in the past that this disparity was caused by access to quality care.  This study has proven that not to be the case in this instance.  The doctors treated the patients the same.  That appears to be the problem.  The doctors didn’t take into consideration their cultural norms and tailor the plans to individual patients.  An example was telling a black or Latino patient to lower their carbohydrate intake by limiting rice, if rice is a family staple food that’s not a realistic strategy.  Also by listing examples of fruits and vegetables that are not a part of a persons culture their not providing the information the patient needs.  Health care providers need to learn more about minority cultures to treat and educate their patients appropriately.

“United States Spends The Most on Health, According To New Survey” Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, The U.S. has fewer health resources then the average OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation Development) countries and lower utilization of these resources.  The U.S. healthcare spending per capita was 2.5 times greater then the median OECD country.  The primary reason for this is our prices are so much higher.  Additionally chronic health issues such as obesity, alcohol consumption and smoking contribute to high healthcare spending.   Policy makers need to devote more attention to chronic disease.  Lifestyle changes must be made to decrease chronic diseases and lower overall healthcare spending.

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