Health All Day

Archive for July, 2010

Home Health Care Explained

With rising medical costs and an economic melt down to contend with, more and more patients are choosing home health care.  Patients and families prefer to go with home care rather than hospitalization and Medicare’s regulations have become the accepted standard for the health care agencies.  You need to be under a doctor’s care and homebound to avail of this medical treatment option.

Some of the reasons why the demand for home health care has increased rapidly can be summed up as follows:

Most patients prefer not to have to pay for expensive medical care at the end of their sojourn on earth.

Highly advanced technology has given rise to very expensive hospital costs. Patients prefer to be treated at home rather than lie in isolation from family, in a hospital. As the population ages, diseases that target the elderly are on the rise. Medical advancement in the field of HIV and AIDS means that the disease can be better managed at home.

Patients who qualify for home health care need to be ‘homebound’, meaning they are unable to leave the house or moving them will require considerable effort.  Anyone who seldom leaves their residence and when they do it is for the purpose of a medical visit will qualify for home care.  Going out for the purpose of religious worship does not disqualify a patient in any way from being qualified as homebound.  Anyone who needs the assistance of another person to go out or needs a walker or cane and even the mentally ill are all considered homebound patients.

The medical requirement for intravenous therapy, wound care, speech therapy and physical therapy all necessitate the need for the skilled care of a nurse or therapist, even a social worker.  A therapist usually performs the initial screening and assessment and a nurse may or may not be involved in the process.  A doctor has to certify that home health care is mandatory for the patient.

Some Types Of Health Care Degrees Online Better Than Others

The explosion in the popularity of online degrees is making news these days, with health care degrees online near the top of the list of popular courses. It’s important to keep in mind, however, that not every kind of health care degree is appropriate for online study while others are particularly well suited to this type of program.

A bachelor’s degree in nursing would be difficult, if not impossible, to pursue at an online university simply because there are so many hands-on courses that are required to become proficient. Programs in health care management, health care reimbursement and health information systems can all be studied online with excellent results. Most of these health care degrees online focus more on the management, procurement or organizational aspects of health care services rather than direct patient contact. They offer the ideal combination of a satisfying health care and business-oriented career.

The Proper Coursework for Getting a Health Care Degree Online

Courses that are typically part of the curriculum for health care degrees online will include some introductory biology courses such as anatomy (which anyone dealing in any aspect of healthcare services must understand) and a wide range of management and business courses that are geared to the health industry. Some courses you should look for if you are considering pursuing your health care degree online include:

Accounting
Physical anatomy
Health care legal issues
Health care management
Financial management and/or Clinical management
Human Resources management
Health care administrative practices

Online Degrees Will be Increasingly Popular

Some people mistakenly think that a health care services degree of any type is somewhat limiting. This couldn’t be further from the truth, as every type of health care provider in the United States requires a variety of management personnel, and many other industries outside of healthcare itself hire them as well. One example is a health administration or health services management degree; individuals with this type of degree can be encouraged by these statistics, which illustrate the diversity of opportunities available:

30 percent are employed by hospitals or large clinics
16 percent are employed by private facilities, small clinics or doctors’ offices
20 percent are staff at home health care, ambulatory and nursing facilities
The remainder work for insurance companies and the government in some capacity

In the next three decades the need for increasing expertise in managing the day-to-day operations and budgeting of health care services will become crucial as the population ages and increases. More and more people who are currently working in some capacity in health care services now will move up to management level positions by pursuing an advanced health care degree online, combining education and experience.

With such a vital need and online colleges and universities tailoring coursework to meet the need, it seems likely that the best way for anyone who would like to move from a receptionist or medical secretary to a management level position is to keep working and pursue a specialized health care degree online.

Paying for Health Care-health

The cost of health care in the United States is expensive and is escalating. A majority of Americans cannot afford the cost of medicines, physicians’ fees, or hospitalization without some form of health insurance. Health insurance is a contract between an insurance company and an individual or group for the payment of medical care costs. After the individual or group pays a premium to an insurance company, the insurance company pays for part or all of the medical costs depending on the type of insurance and benefits provided. The type of insurance policy purchased greatly influences where you go for health care, who provides the health care, and what medical procedures can be performed. The three basic health insurance plans include a private, fee-for-service plan; a prepaid group plan; and a government-financed public plan.

Private Fee-For-Service Insurance Plan

Until recently, private, fee-for-service insurance was the principal form of health insurance coverage. In this plan an individual pays a monthly premium, usually through an employer, which ensures health care on a fee-far-service basis. On incurring medical costs, the patient files a claim to have a portion of these costs paid by the insurance company. There is usually a deductible, an amount paid by the patient before being eligible for benefits from the insurance company. For example, if your expenses are 00, you may have to pay 0 before the insurance company will pay the other 0. Usually the lower the deductible, the higher the premiums will be. After the deductible is met the insurance provider pays a percentage of the remaining balance.

Typically there are fixed indemnity benefits, specified amounts that are paid for particular procedures. If your policy pays 0 for a tonsilectomy and the actual cost was 00, you owe the health care provider 0. There are often exclusions, certain services that are not covered by the policy. Common examples include elective surgery, dental care, vision care, and coverage for preexisting illnesses and injuries. Some insurance plans provide options for adding dental and vision care. Other common options include life insurance, which pays a death benefit, and disability insurance, which pays for income lost because of the inability to work as a result of an illness or injury. The more options added to the insurance plan, the more expensive the insurance will be.

One strategy insurance companies are using to lower insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs to the consumer is the formation of preferred providers organization (PPO). A PPO is a group of private practitioners who sell their services at reduced rates to insurance companies. When a patient chooses a provider that is in that company’s PPO, the insurance company pays a higher percentage of the fee. When a non-PPO provider is used, a much lower portion of the fee is paid.

A major advantage of a fee-for-service plan is that the patient has options in selecting health-care providers. Several disadvantages are that patients may not routinely receive comprehensive, preventive health care; health-care costs to the patient may be high if unexpected illnesses or injuries occur; and it may place heavy demands on time in keeping track of medical records, invoices, and insurance reimbursement forms.

Prepaid Group Insurance

In prepaid group insurance, health care is provided by a group of physicians organized into a health maintenance organization (HMO). HMOs are managed health-care plans that provide a full range of medical services for a prepaid amount of money. For a fixed monthly fee, usually paid through pay roll deductions by an employer, and often a small deductible, enrollees receive care from physicians, specialists, allied health professionals, and educators who are hired or contractually retained by the HMO. HMOs provide an advantage in that they provide comprehensive care including preventive care at a lower cost than private insurance over a long period of coverage. One drawback is that patients are limited in their choice of providers to those who belong to an HMO.

Government Insurance

In a government insurance plan the government at the federal, state, or local level pays for the health-care costs of elgible participants. Two prominent examples of this plan are Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare is financed by social security taxes and is designed to provide health care for individuals 65 years of age and older, the blind, the severely disabled, and those requiring certain treatments such as kidney dialysis. Medicaid is subsidized by federal and state taxes. It provides limited health care, generally for individuals who are eligible for benefits and assistance from two programs: Aid to Families with Dependent Children and Supplementary Security Income.

One-eyed National Health Care

National health care might be a disaster, due to the cost and the complexity. A government-controlled system also creates agonizing moral dilemmas (read about the eye treatment ruling covered further down). Still, despite my opposition to it, I can see it’s a real possibility, and soon. Keeping that in mind, here is what we can do to solve some of the inherent problems and make the system work better.

What’s Your QUALYs Score?

Who gets what health care? That would be a tricky decision for any of us, but some might argue that the bureaucrats in the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) are pretty good at it. They are evaluate and approve treatments for the National Health Services administration in Britain (their national health care bureaucracy). After all, the life expectancy in Britain is about the same as in the United States, and the government spends less on health care while covering ALL citizens.

Making such decisions, of course, does lead to some interesting problems. One example: In 2002 NICE recommended that a certain treatment for macular degeneration be used only in one eye – the one less affected by the disease. What about the other eye? It is presumably allowed to go blind. They arrived at this decision by using “QUALYs,” or Quality-Adjusted Life Years.

How does this methodology for measuring the value of treatments work? Let’s look at a couple examples. A surgery that gives you an average of ten years of life is better than one that gives you five, and so scores higher on the QUALYs scale. Years added to life matter, but so does quality of those years. Suppose you could be saved by a treatment but be in a coma for six years, while another person could be saved and healthy for six years by some other treatment. If funds are limited (aren’t they always?), the latter would be approved.

Now let’s look again at the case of the eye treatment. The score for QUALYs is high for the first eye, since seeing presumably greatly increases the quality of life over blindness. But seeing with the second eye doesn’t boost the quality of life nearly as much, right?

We don’t need to get into the complexities of the system to understand the logic. Life matters, but quality of life also matters, an idea most of us can agree to. But it leads to some uncomfortable conclusions, doesn’t it?. For example a person with a debilitating disease or handicap presumably scores lower in QUALYs when considered for a life-prolonging heart operation. We might pass her over in favor of a healthier person who would benefit more according to the QUALYs score.

The real truth, normally ignored, is that there a financial limit to any national health care plan. As a result, we have to make decisions that can certainly be uncomfortable, and sometimes downright disturbing. What if a million dollars could prevent ten thousand people from getting a deadly disease, or that same million could be used to treat and possibly cure twenty people who already have the disease. Should we allow the twenty to die in order to prevent the deaths of ten thousand?

Of course, it’s easy to say we should cure the twenty AND run the prevention program. This may even be possible, and we certainly could pay for both eyes to be treated in the case of macular degeneration. On the other hand, we really can’t do everything. Honesty compels us to admit that perhaps going blind in one eye isn’t nearly so tragic as losing sight in both, and if treating just one eye for one patient saves enough money to treat another patient’s heart problem with a new procedure that saves his life, maybe we need to make that kind of decision.

Whatever utopian theorizing we do, tough choices will have to be made at some point if we decide on national health care. We’ll need to put a value on life, or on various qualities of life at least. Yes, we may even have to put a value on one eye versus two, or on eyesight versus saved limbs that might be amputated otherwise. In a market system medical providers compete to provide better treatments for your diabetes, but this will be, in part, a system where your diabetes competes with somebody’s migraine headaches or broken nose.

National Health Care – Some Suggestions

If we allow a market system of health care to exist alongside a government system, we could at least pay to have the other eye fixed. The rich will obviously get better care, but I don’t think we are such a petty envious people that we would vote against such a dual-system just because of this. The healthiness of the wealthy doesn’t hurt the rest of us. Also, we all would at least have the hope of raising money for whatever additional health care we desire. So let the market still exists.

There will also be the problem of demand. Free means higher demand, of course. At the moment I have a few teeth that I might have a dentist look at this week if the examination and treatment was free, but since it isn’t I’ll wait a bit. People often delay treatment because of the expense, but they also look for and find cheaper alternatives. That would change if we had free national health care.

There will be a big increase in demand. Naturally, cuts that might be bandaged will be more often be stitched if the service is without cost. A headache or sore throat that would normally be endured might mean a trip to the free hospital or clinic. Sadly, this would use government health care money that might otherwise pay for research or treatment for life-threatening illnesses, meaning more tough decisions.

How do we alleviate this problem of excessive demand? Design a system that isn’t free. After all, the problem isn’t that we have to pay for health care, since we find a way to pay for groceries, clothing and cable television without government handouts. The problem is the high price and unpredictability of health care expenses. An occasional surprise is one thing if it’s a few hundred dollars, but a few weeks in a hospital can eat up a lifetime of savings.

Address THIS issue, instead of encouraging people’s unwillingness to budget for unexpected, but affordable surprises? How? One way is to have national health insurance for all, but with a 0 annual deductible. When a person can’t afford this (it amounts to per month) it usually suggests a budgeting problem, not a problem of over-priced care.

Have each person pay 20% of all costs beyond that deductible as well, up to ,000 (,000 in costs). This would keep people from running to the doctor or hospital for every little thing. This also encourages them to look for cheaper effective treatments, so the system doesn’t destroy the usual incentive (money) for this creative process of health care improvement.

Prescription drugs shouldn’t be covered until the cost goes beyond that 0 annual deductible, and even then the patient should pay his or her 20%. People (even poor people in this country) find a way to pay for bigger expenses in life, and this would keep the system from being abused. What if some people really are too poor to afford even this? Address that problem through general welfare programs, rather than paying for prescriptions for tens of millions who can easily afford them.

I am not thrilled with the idea of a national health care system. On the other hand, if it is going to happen in any case, we at least make it sustainable and leave open more options for all of us. That’s what the system outlined above would hopefully accomplish.

Simple Steps That Employers Should Practice to Increase Their Value of the Health Care System

In the United States, there are a lot of employers who see health care benefits as the enemy. This is due to the fact that some health care providers fix their attention on the growing cost of the services that are included in the health care package, and this has led them to take steps to lower the rates. Most countries have put this subject on the sideline and they expect that the government will take care of the issue. Some of these health care providers hope that the insurance companies of the patients, or the government will take on this responsibility.

One thing that employers fail to understand is that no matter how hard they try to avoid the subject of health care issues, it will forever haunt them, no matter what kind of health care system is being implemented. The responsibilities of these health care insurance companies include the liability of paying the medical costs, absenteeism, and any other health related issues that they have to pay due to poor health.

According to one study in the United States, most employers use up millions of dollars paying for the indirect expenditure due to unfortunate health condition rather than spending their dollars in health benefits. The expenses that the employers have to pay when it comes to poor health are significantly higher. Conditions like diabetes, heart conditions, and respiratory troubles are among those medical conditions that can cost an employer a fortune, and getting out of this situation will not solve the problems of these health care providers because it will continue.

Most European countries have discovered that investing in the health of their employers by providing them with wellness programs will significantly increase the productivity of their employers, thus decreasing the amount of money that they have to pay for the cost of poor health. One of the approaches that the employers use is bargaining for the best and maximum amount of discounts that they can get from other health plans providers and third party health proprietors. Often they are constantly searching for companies that can help them to provide better deals for their employers. This action on the part of the employers can cause confusion among their employees.

Due to the increase of health care costs, some employers have passed on their responsibility of paying the cost of the health care to their employees. Many of the steps that these employers take as far as health care issues are concerned has cost them more. So, one vital thing that any employer can do to improve their health care system is to consider the value of the health care services and not just the cost alone. After all, it is the results that both employers and employees are after. The main objective of this approach is to increase the value of the services and not to reduce the costs of the overall health care benefits.

Allforone Home Healthcare: Tips on hiring a home health care employee

Providing essential care to your elderly loved ones such as your parents or grandparents can such be a rewarding experience. Just imagine that now is the time to bring back all the love and caring by personally doing it to them. Seeing your parents live each and every minute of the day in your arms is such a gratifying experience that no other things in this world can match. But we have to face the fact that devoting all our time just to take good care of them is pretty much impossible to happen. You have to consider your own self, family, career, social needs and other pertinent things like personal enjoyment and advancement of living. There are some who submit their parents to nursing homes where tender loving care is always available 24/7 but for many wise and emotional people, getting a home health care employee at home is more convenient and emotionally clever.

If you are planning to hire someone as your parent’s home health care employee, read these tips and tricks first shared by Allforone Home Healthcare and determine the right dos and don’ts.

Choose between hiring a worker thru an agency or by your own resources – many people hire home health care employees thru agencies to save valuable time and effort but there are some who wants to do things personally. When hiring someone from an agency or company, ask all pertinent details like credentials of the person, work and training background, qualifications and even temperament. On the other hand if you wanted to personally search for that right home health care employee, remember that posting the job thru the internet will give you an overwhelming response. You should also apply the above criteria when choosing the best candidate.
Ask for vital stuffs – if you already got one at home, the first thing that you need to do is to ask for different verification documents like worker’s permit, licenses, certificates, trainings, social security cards, drivers license and other valid IDs. Make sure to check each and every document and asses its compatibility with each other. You can also do some background check to ensure that the person is not convicted with any crime or legal cases. Remember that safety should be your main concern that is why seeking help thru trusted home health care companies like Allforone Home Healthcare is very much advisable.
Discuss the nature of the work – after verifying the identity of the person, you have to clearly discuss the nature of the work point per point. The responsibilities and objectives should also be stated on hand to ensure that everyone is on the same boat. You also need to discuss the everyday needs of your parents or grandparents and do not forget to introduce your new primary home healthcare employee to your friends, families and medical advisers.
Discuss the pay and modes of payment – if you are hiring thru medical agencies, you should follow the given format and mode of payment but if not, you need to discuss the mode of payment as well as your own payment system.

Always remember that when hiring a home healthcare employee, security is your main priority concern but vital things like skills and qualifications of the person should also be considered utmost. Keep these tips and tricks shared by Allforone Home Healthcare and good luck finding that perfect person.