Your local neighborhood hospital might have been founded as a charitable institution by a religious group or civic minded citizens as a “not-for-profit” or “non-profit” hospital. By definition, such a hospital does not have shareholders and does not distribute dividends. Many of these hospitals have grown into huge medical centers. They pay no federal income tax, and generally no state or local government taxes. They can accept donations as tax-deductible for the donor. They can issue bonds. They have been granted this privilege with the understanding that their primary purpose is to serve th ..read more

Grandma was very wise. From adages like “So eat a little something” to “feed a fever” to her chicken soup cure, most of us survived. Imagine that it has taken medical science all these years since, and a clinical trial, to reach a similar conclusion, thanks to our colleagues at Kaiser. See: Article in JAMA Health Forum What did they do? Approximately 12,000 hospitalized elderly patients, average age 79, 4000+ with heart failure, and nearly 8000 with other illnesses, were offered a home meal delivery service for the 30 days after they went home from the hospital. They received either 2 or 3 mea ..read more

In a widely criticized policy change, United HealthCare decided to require prior authorization for diagnostic colonoscopy. Diagnostic means the test is needed, in the opinion of your physician, usually a gastroenterologist, because you have an abnormality that needs to be further defined. The most important reason for the test is to detect CANCER. I have performed prior authorization reviews and there are few circumstances where these requests would not be approved. They are so few that we decided that the hassle and delay in care is not worth the trouble or minimal money saved. Interestingly ..read more

“More than two months ago, on Feb. 18, the family of Jimmy Carter, 98, announced he would forego additional medical care and instead would enter home hospice to spend his remaining days with family. While we are not surprised that after two months President Carter is still alive, we know that timing of hospice and care provided is misunderstood.  Hospice care focuses on keeping patients comfortable while not prolonging life with curative treatments. Hospice provides in-home visits, medications, medical equipment and supplies. The hospice care team includes a physician, nurse, social worke ..read more

Brenda Yamashita gave an excellent presentation on the many things your health department does to keep you healthy, from helping deal with pandemics to helping manage your diabetes. You can watch it on our you tube channel or CLICK HERE TO WATCH ..read more

Susan Bucker, LCSW, gave an excellent presentation on how to prepare yourself mentally for the stress and enjoyment of the holiday season. Practical tips on how to deal with troublesome situations and personalities, gift giving, guilt, anxiety, and other issues. You can watch it now on our you tube channel Watch Vido Here ..read more

Every health insurer is required to have a process for appealing claims denials, yet very few patients do. The Affordable Care Act (ACA=”Obama Care”) guarantees external appeal rights to enrollees in all non-grandfathered private health plans. When issuers uphold denials at the internal appeal level, consumers have the option of requesting an independent review by an outside entity, whose decision is binding A recent study examined claims denials in the ACA plans, all of which are administered by private companies. It can be accessed on line here: Claims Denials and Appeals in ACA Marketplace ..read more

See the Video at https://youtu.be/h3piWSrcExY We discussed how to enroll in Medicare, What is Covered, How to speak insurance, How to select the best option within Medicare, and how to interpret the medical bills and insurance explanations of benefits PRESENTERS: ASSOCIATED PATIENT ADVOCATES SHERYN HONEST MBA MLS HARLEY SCHULTZ MD   ..read more

LEARN ABOUT A GREAT RESOURCE FOR THOSE WITH CANCER ..read more

This used to be a line used by stick-up artists when they demanded your wallet. For those in need of health care in the US, however, there is an entirely legal form of taking your money in exchange for care. Consider the Kaiser health news “Bill of the Month:” ($38,398 for a Single Shot of a Very Old Cancer Drug | Kaiser Health News (khn.org)   In this case a man was charged this amount for an injection of leuprolide (trade name lupron), which has a wholesale price of $5866 in the US, and $260 in England. Hmm… After 2 injections, the patient was charged $73,000 and left with a $7000 indiv ..read more