Swobidu Health

Archive for the ‘pain Relief’ Category

Consumer-driven healthcare. Sounds great doesn’t it? Knowing what it really is and how it will affect you personally, and if you run a business, professionally is important.

What IS Consumer-Driven Healthcare? It is the label being used by benefit consultants and insurers to mean the laws, products and services designed decrease health care benefit liabilities of companies and provide customers the “opportunity” to choose and pay for their own health expenditures.

Since healthcare costs have risen 4 times faster than inflation over the past 20 years and rises continue year after year, many healthcare consultants believe that consumers do not understand the real cost of the services they consume, so they believe that, when consumers have to pay more up front costs, they will become wiser medical consumers.

Most people with health issues are pretty savvy about treatment options, due to the Internet. However, medical pricing is been complex, tied to diagnostic and treatment codes, and tiered with discounts as complex as airline discounts, so it is not surprising that we not totally understand these costs. What is hoped is that consumer-driven healthcare will drive providers to educate their patients about this.

Laws allowing tax deduction for monies placed in a Health Savings Account or HSAs (and their predecessor Medical Savings Accounts) are the driver of adoption of these plans. Several million accounts have been opened in the past two years, but 2006 is expected to have major expansion of these accounts and more employers offer more options. The accounts work like your retirement IRA’s or 401Ks, with the exception, that it is expected that some monies will be withdrawn for medical expenses. These accounts need to be paired with a high deductible major medical type plan, which kicks in after the deductible, which is typically $2,000 to $5,000 of eligible expenses per year. Over time, companies will tend to pay for the high deductible coverage, with the funding of the HSAs tending to become more and more a personal responsibility.

The consumer-driven part of the consumer-driven healthcare is that consumers now will control which medical services they choose to spend their money on. HSAs plus high deductible policy results in individuals and families, SELF INSURING the majority of their medical costs. With deductibles this high, statistically, 80-90% of consumers annually will have less than $5,000 in expenses to meet the deductible.

This puts HSA participants in complete control of their healthcare consumption nine years out of ten. This is GREAT NEWS for the following types of medical consumers, all of whom will tend to be attracted to HSAs and high deductible insurance.

HSAs plus High Deductible Medical Plans tend to be a good fit for:

- Healthy consumers and young families with no chronic diseases, who may have a check up or well baby visit, or an occasional scrape or accidental injury, a mammogram or prostate exam.

- People with high paying jobs or businesses, will find the tax benefits attractive. Medical costs will be a smaller percentage of their income, than medical costs are of lower income people. They may choose the approach for the tax benefits alone.

- Very high income individuals, who when they do see medical professionals, plan to see the best of the best, regardless of who or what is covered by their plan. They pay out of pocket and THEY control, what medical services they choose.

- Chronically ill individuals, who still struggle with their health, for whom conventional approaches have NOT been successful, may find the freedom to choose liberating.

- People who are dissatisfied with the way their healthcare has been provided in the past. It will include people with negative health outcomes.

- People who prefer “alternative” , complimentary, holistic, preventative care to conventional US medical approaches will also have a framework, where as consumers, they can indeed direct their healthcare expenditures to those modalities which match their philosophy the best. This is consumer-driven at its best. For recent immigrants and those who believe in a more holistic approach, this is very good news.

With over half the population having made at least one visit to an “alternative” practitioner in the past calendar year, and with expenditures for alternative care equaling expenditures for primary care, internists, pediatricians and OB-gyn practitioners (New England Journal of Medicine Studies 1993, .) it is clear than many US consumers trust these holistic alternatives. This makes the decision about approach cleaner. It will not be about what is or is not covered by insurance; the decision will be about what is the best choice, given your own perspective and healthcare experience and beliefs.

However HSAs and high deductible medical plans are not for everyone. They tend NOT to be a good fit for the following:

- People with chronic diseases, who spend more than $2,000 a year in health costs, year after year.

- People with a family history of major illness or disease.

- Families who are planning a family and expect multiple trips to birthing center or delivery rooms.

- Lower income individuals and families, who do not qualify for government provided health insurance such as Medicaid. Health insurance can be as much as 30% of their take home pay. The RISK for these people is inappropriately high, to self insure.

- People who have already had a major illness, and while they may be healthy now, will never again qualify for NEW insurance with low deductibles and co-pays, should usually keep what they currently have.

- People who are covered by COBRA, may choose to keep their coverage to protect insurability as well.

Regardless, it will be offered by many employers and it will mean doctors and other healthcare providers will have to be more aware of customer satisfaction, or risk, lost patients.

To: HEALTH AND NATIONAL EDITORS

SILVER SPRING, Md., Oct. 17, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The best thing you can do to lower the chance of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is to place your baby on his or her back to sleep, with nothing else in the crib or bassinet.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090824/FDALOGO)

That’s the recommendation of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is working to prevent manufacturers of sleep products for babies from claiming that their use will prevent or lower the chance of SIDS. These products include infant positioners, mattresses, crib bedding, pillows, crib tents and baby monitors.

The agency has never approved a product to prevent SIDS–the unexplained death of a baby younger than age 1–and is asking manufacturers to stop marketing their products with these claims until they have received FDA clearance or approval, or to change their labeling to remove all medical claims.

Learn more about SIDS prevention and what FDA is doing to protect consumers at

http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm275847.htm

Sign up for e-mail notices of new FDA Consumer Updates at

https://service.govdelivery.com/service/subscribe.html?code=USFDA_9

View the FDA Consumer Update RSS feed at http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds/Consumers/rss.xml

FDA Consumer Updates may be posted and published elsewhere without permission. Please credit “FDA Consumer Health Information (www.fda.gov/consumer)” as the source. FDA values feedback on its consumer health information. Send questions, comments, or story ideas to: consumerinfo@fda.hhs.gov.

Media Contact: Erica Jefferson, 301-796-4988, Erica.Jefferson@fda.hhs.gov

SOURCE U.S. Food and Drug Administration

-0-

Minneapolis, Minn. (Vocus) July 3, 2009

The health care reform bills in being considered by the House, which has entrepreneurs worried about how this will affect health insurance for small groups and business insurance premiums. This latest development is prompting entrepreneurs to shop around for lower rates and more complete coverage by using sources such as Small Business Health Insurance Network.

Currently the plan proposes that employers need to pick up at least 72.5 percent of the cost of health insurance premiums for full-time employees. If a business chooses not to provide the minimum coverage required by the federal government, they will need to pay a fee based on 8 percent of their payroll.

There has not been a threshold determined for the size of a business. However, some are concerned about small business owner insurance. Rising rates of business insurance premiums and health insurance for small groups have been difficult for many entrepreneurs to manage.

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, health insurance premiums increased by 9.2 percent for US businesses this year alone. The same increase is expected for next year, with small businesses typically taking on much higher increases.

On June 19, the chairmen of three House committees with jurisdiction over health care introduced their draft legislation that gave information about how the new plan would affect small business owner insurance.

Under the proposed bill, small businesses could choose insurance plans from a national exchange that would include a government run plan and private insurers. In addition, small business owners would be able to utilize tax credits to help make the coverage more affordable.

To sort out the major details of the plan, there are some bullets that may be helpful to note.

• Small businesses and individual can choose to be insured from either private or public plans listed among a national health insurance exchange.
• If a small business cannot afford coverage, tax credits are available.
• The “play or pay” fee refers to the line item that states employers that offer coverage would pay for 72.5 percent of the premium costs for full-time employees or pay a fee based on 8 percent of their payroll to the government.
• The size threshold for businesses to be exempt from the “play or pay” fee has yet to be determined.

About the Small Business Health Insurance Network:
The Small Business Health Insurance Network is your premier choice for small business health insurance and self employed health insurance throughout the United States. Serving business owners nationwide; we access and provide insurance quotes from multiple healthcare providers.

Contact:
Marlene Brown
Public Relations Specialist
612-385-1331

Consumer health informatics – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Consumer Health Informatics (CHI) helps bridge the gap between patients and health resources. The Kaiser model is

For Consumers
Stay on top of health information from FDA. Consumer Updates. Timely and easy- to-read articles covering all FDA

CONSUMER HEALTH
Committed to the holistic, natural or alternative approach to health we emphasize prevention of disease through

Get expert, unbiased, and fact-based health . – Consumer Reports
Learn about medical treatments and conditions, prescription drugs, natural health , and tips for healthy living at

MedlinePlus – Health Information from the National Library of Medicine
Health information from the National Library of Medicine. Easy access to Medline and Health topics, medical

To: BUSINESS, HEALTH AND MEDICAL EDITORS

SILVER SPRING, Md., Oct. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — As it turns out, you really can overdose on candy.

To view the multimedia assets associated with this release, please click http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fda-consumer-health-information—licorice-trick-or-treat-132539708.html

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090824/FDALOGO )

Days before Halloween, federal regulators have a word of caution about an old fashioned candy treat — licorice. If you’re 40 or older, eating 2 ounces of black licorice a day for at least two weeks could land you in the hospital with an irregular heart rhythm or arrhythmia.

Learn more at http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm230283.htm.

Sign up for e-mail notices of new FDA Consumer Updates at: https://service.govdelivery.com/service/subscribe.html?code=USFDA_9.

View the FDA Consumer Update RSS feed at: http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/StayInformed/RSSFeeds/Consumers/rss.xml

FDA Consumer Updates may be posted and published elsewhere without permission. Please credit “FDA Consumer Health Information (www.fda.gov/consumer)” as the source. FDA values feedback on its consumer health information. Send questions, comments, or story ideas to: consumerinfo@fda.hhs.gov.

Media Contact: Jason Brodsky, 301-796-8234, Jason.Brodsky@fda.hhs.gov

SOURCE U.S. Food and Drug Administration

-0-

Pain relievers Aspirin, Motrin and Tylenol are seen on a shelf at a North Vancouver, B.C. durgstore Saturday, Oct. 1, 2011. go into any pharmacy looking for something to cure a headache or get rid of a backache and the options are overwhelming. How do you choose when you are standing in front of the wall of pain relief? THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

TORONTO – go into any pharmacy looking for something to cure a headache or get rid of a backache and the options are overwhelming. How do you choose when you are standing in front of the wall of pain relief?

Do you want acetaminophen or naproxen? Aspirin or Aleve? Gel caps or standard pills? In 24-, 48- or 100-pill packs? It’s easy to see why some people grab what’s on sale, or gravitate to the brand they’ve always used.

For healthy people, that approach to selecting an analgesic is probably fine, experts say. But for some people, or in some circumstances, pain medication — even the over-the-counter kind — ought to be selected with more care, they advise.

For starters, pharmacologist Dr. Muhammad Mamdani thinks we as a society ought to think first about whether we need an analgesic before reaching for one. We take too many of these drugs, in his opinion.

Too many is a judgment call, but there is no doubt we take a lot of them.

IMS Brogan, a division of health information provider IMS, tracks drug sales in Canada. It says manufacturers and wholesalers sold $190.8 million worth of non-prescription analgesics to Canadian hospitals and pharmacies in 2010. The runaway favourite was Extra Strength Tylenol, with sales of over $43.7 million.

Mamdani says non-drug options like massage therapy, exercise, or ice or heating packs can help with pain.

“Pain is highly subjective and … in many cases can be managed without drugs,” says Mamdani, who is director of the Applied Health Research Centre in the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital.

But if you are going to take an analgesic, his advice to healthy people is simple: “Take what works for you. go with the lowest dose and the shortest duration.”

The “take what works for you” portion of that message refers to a quirk about analgesics that doctors can’t currently explain, but nevertheless know is real. on an individual level, people respond better to some analgesics than others. Where acetaminophen is the bee’s knees for some people, it does nothing for others. They may find naproxen does the trick for them.

Dr. David Henry of the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Toronto advises the so-called “suck it and see” approach — try different kinds until you find something that does work for you. (Though you probably want to swallow, not suck, these pills.)

A few decades ago, it was all so much simpler.

Pharmaceutical giant Bayer had the ache-and-pain relief market sewn up with Aspirin, the brand name for the drug acetylsalicylic acid. The company even sold a children’s formulation — baby Aspirin, which came in tiny pink chewable tablets.

But Aspirin’s star began to fade when doctors discovered a nasty side-effect — the drug was very hard on the stomachs of people who took it.

“It really irritates the stomach lining, like no other drug in common use,” Henry explains.

“I trained as a gastroenterologist. And if you put an endoscope down into someone’s stomach and had a look after they’ve had a couple of doses of Aspirin, it’s a lining that only a mother could love. It looks really bad.”

It was also discovered that kids who took Aspirin when they had the flu or the chickenpox could develop Reye’s syndrome, a sometimes fatal condition that attacks the brain and the liver. Aspirin is no longer recommended for children.

While Bayer Aspirin’s distinctive yellow and brown boxes are still displayed among the products for sale on pain relief shelves of pharmacies, the drug is now mostly sold as a blood thinner used by seniors to lower their risk of heart attack.

As Aspirin fell out of favour, the market shifted to acetaminophen, sold as Tylenol in North America and Paracetomol in other parts of the world.

Later came medications known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs. There’s ibuprofen, sold under the brand names like Advil and Motrin. another is naproxen, sold as Aleve or Naprosyn.

Each has its pros and cons.

Acetaminophen is easier on the stomach than Aspirin and should probably be the choice of people who have or who are prone to stomach ulcers, Henry says. He suggests it may also be the safest pain relief option for pregnant women, if they have to take anything.

Mamdani agrees that the drug is pretty mild and a good starting place for people looking for pain relief. It may also be safer, from a heart-health point of view, than some of the other drugs, he says.

As well, acetaminophen doesn’t have the same blood thinning powers that Aspirins and NSAIDs do. so someone told to avoid pain meds in advance of surgery or a procedure such as a colonoscopy might be able to use acetaminophen safely. (It’s a good idea, though, to check with your doctor.)

People with asthma may find acetaminophen their best choice too. Aspirin and NSAIDs can aggravate asthma, Henry notes.

But one big negative with acetaminophen is the potential to damage critical internal organs. Too much of this drug can cause serious liver problems and kidney damage too. Henry says deaths due to accidental acetaminophen overdoses are not uncommon.

The potential for liver damage means acetaminophen and alcohol are an especially poor mix, Mamdani adds.

Ibuprofen and naproxen are NSAIDs, the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. as the name implies, they combat inflammation, which is helpful if you want to bring down the swelling on a sprained ankle or ease an achy back.

NSAIDs aren’t as gentle on the stomach as acetaminophen, but they are easier to take than Aspirin. And of the two, ibuprofen is probably kinder to the stomach lining, Mamdani says.

On the other hand, naproxen is probably easier on the heart, which is something people with cardiovascular problems ought to consider, Henry notes. He co-authored a recent study looking at the risks analgesics pose to people with cardiovascular problems.

If you are taking naproxen, take it with food to protect the stomach, Mamdani warns.

Seniors and people who take Aspirin as a blood thinner need to choose an analgesic with care if they want to take one. That’s because ibuprofen interacts with Aspirin, undermining the older drug’s ability to play the blood thinning role. Henry says acetaminophen would be a safer bet.

But he says older, sicker people really ought to use these drugs with care. “People with heart and kidney complaints really need to consult their doctors before taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.”

Old or young, normally healthy or afflicted with chronic ailments, everyone ought to be careful about how many analgesics they take during cold and flu season, Mamdani and Henry agreed.

The over-the-counter cold and flu formulations — be they powders dissolved into hot water or pills — will all have one of these compounds in them already. taking doses of analgesics on top of cold and flu meds is doubling up on the dose.