A Better Deal for Delaware

Click here for the video.

The El Tiempo Hispanic magazine interviewed Mike. Click the link below to read the article (in both English and Spanish), page 5.

URL: http://www.eltiempohispano.com/PDF/th85.pdf

Audio Clip: Mike Protack on health care insurance Listen to Mike talk about health care on WGMD, September 8, 2007.

Why Can’t We Know The Costs?

About 100 million consumers used the internet last year to learn about their health. Still, while we search for such knowledge why can’t we find out what an exam will cost and what will a hospital charge for a specific procedure??

Part of Delacare 2008 is universal private coverage but also VALUE. About 25% of health care is paid for by individuals and 25% by employers with the government picking up the rest. However, you and I don’t what things costs and why the price for some procedures vary so much?

Sharing pricing information will not be well liked in some circles but is is our health-right??

The ongoing saga of DPC has gotten worse with the destruction of documents along with allegations of violence and marginal care. This chapter is a very shameful one in Delaware’s history.

The goals here are simple:

1) Adequate medical care for the patients
2) Adequate value for the taxpayer
3) A full investigation and those who violated the law should be held responsible and face the full extent of the law.

Reducing Health Care Errors
Is As Important as Coverage and Affordability

Wellness Productivity Security

By ROBERT PEAR,
The New York Times
Posted: 2007-08-20 06:33:39
Filed Under: Business News, Health News

WASHINGTON (Aug. 1 — In a significant policy change, Bush administration officials say that Medicare will no longer pay the extra costs of treating preventable errors, injuries and infections that occur in hospitals, a move they say could save lives and millions of dollars.

Private insurers are considering similar changes, which they said could multiply the savings and benefits for patients.

Under the new rules, to be published next week, Medicare will not pay hospitals for the costs of treating certain “conditions that could reasonably have been prevented.”

Among the conditions that will be affected are bedsores, or pressure ulcers; injuries caused by falls; and infections resulting from the prolonged use of catheters in blood vessels or the bladder.

In addition, Medicare says it will not pay for the treatment of “serious preventable events” like leaving a sponge or other object in a patient during surgery and providing a patient with incompatible blood or blood products.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that patients develop 1.7 million infections in hospitals each year, and it says those infections cause or contribute to the death of 99,000 people a year — about 270 a day.

Lisa A. McGiffert, a health policy analyst at Consumers Union, hailed the rules.

“Hundreds of thousands of people suffer needlessly from preventable hospital infections and medical errors every year,” Ms. McGiffert said. “Medicare is using its clout to improve care and keep patients safe. It’s forcing hospitals to face this problem in a way they never have before.”

The 8th leading cause of death in America is “medical error” and on a personal level I have seen the waste in medicine which raises costs and does not bring value to anyone. When my Father died three years ago he had many medications, many Doctors but little coordination with his care. To him, he was “covered” so what was the big difference? Well, he died a very miserable death because his medications were not being taken properly and he had switched Doctors and treatment plans too many times.

We need Electronic Health Care Records which are in compliance with privacy but inter operable so medical professionals and patients can deliver value and receive value.

please take a look;
http://www.healthpolitics.org/home.asp?preview=your_health_future

The Need for Some Sense in Health Care

The following article is of course out of the ordinary but we spend enough money in America to provide access to health care. Delacare 2008 is a simple but effective way to make sure we use wellness, productivity and security. Businesses deserve better and so do individuals.

Take a look:

Man Allegedly Throws Wife From Balcony
AP
Posted: 2007-08-16 18:37:35
Filed Under: Crime News

AP
Police say Stanley Reimer kissed his seriously ill wife goodbye and threw her four stories to her death.
(Aug. 16) - A man threw his seriously ill wife four stories to her death because he could no longer afford to pay for her medical care, prosecutors said in charging him with second-degree murder.

According to court documents filed Wednesday in Jackson County Circuit Court, Stanley Reimer walked his wife to the balcony of their apartment and kissed her before throwing her over.

The body of Criste Reimer, 47, was found Tuesday night outside the apartment building, near the upscale Country Club Plaza shopping district.

Stanley Reimer, 51, was charged Wednesday. He remained jailed on $250,000 bond and was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday.

In the probable cause statement filed with the charges, police said Reimer was desperate because he could not pay the bills for his wife’s treatment for neurological problems and uterine cancer.

Investigators said that Reimer was in the apartment when they arrived. He told them, “She didn’t jump,” but did not elaborate, they said.

Criste Reimer’s caregiver told police she could barely walk and would not have been able to climb over the railing of the balcony, according to the probable cause statement.

Reimer’s alleged motive emerged after several more hours of questioning, police said.

According to Jackson County Probate Court records, Criste Reimer had been in ill health for several years. Her weight had fallen to 75 pounds and she was partly blind.

According to the court records, she had no health insurance to pay for medical bills that ranged from $700 to $800 per week.

The Probate Court documents were filed in April, when Stanley Reimer petitioned to be allowed to sell personal property his wife owned in Wheeler County, Texas, for $20,000.

The documents listed her assets at approximately $6,700, with monthly income of $725 from oil royalties and Supplemental Security Income.

It was not immediately known if Stanley Reimer had an attorney.

The Key To Health Care

Delacare 2008

As companies try to rein in rising health care costs, workers in many industries are dealing with on-site health clinics, says the Detroit Free Press.

According to the consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide:
An estimated 23 percent of large employers — those with at least 1,000 employees — have on-site health clinics as of 2006-2007.

Another 6 percent of these large employers plan to add clinics next year.
Salisbury, Md.-based Perdue Farms is considered a pioneer in slashing health care costs by building on-site health clinics:

By taking charge of administering and managing its health plan, Perdue has reduced its health care costs.

The average cost per worker was 3 percent lower during fiscal year 2007, which ended for the company on March 31, compared with fiscal year 2004.

Nationwide, the cost of employer-sponsored health plans rose an average of 8 percent in 2006.
“It’s an issue of corporate will, not technical ability,” said Dr. Roger Merrill, chief medical officer at Perdue. “Companies don’t want to be in the medical business. My answer to that is you are already in the medical business if you are spending millions of dollars in medical bills.”

Source: Luladey B. Tadesse, “Companies using on-site health clinics to cut costs,” Detroit Free Press, August 13, 2007.

For text:
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070813/BUSINESS07/708130341/1002

The Time For Health Care Transformation is Now!

41 Nations have a longer lifespan than the United States. Delacare 2008 is a good answer.

Take a look:

http://news.aol.com/story/ar/_a/us-lags-behind-41-nations-in-life-span/20070811153609990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001