Health Information Center

Q: What is home health care?
A: Home health care is a service that permits patients to receive personalized health care, maintaining their quality of life in the privacy and comfort of their homes.

Q: Why home health care?
A: Home health care is a cost-effective option for receiving health care services. Returning to one’s home and family can quicken recovery and improve the quality of life for both patient and family or caregiver.

Q: Who pays for home health care?
A: Most health insurance companies, HMOs, PPOs and Workers Compensation cover home health care. In addition, Medicare and Medicaid pay for home care services. Some insurance providers do not cover all home health services. Our staff will verify health coverage for the patient.

Q: What criteria are required for Medicare to approve services?
A: The following criteria are used to meet Medicare requirements:
• The patient is a Medicare recipient.
• The patient must be homebound. This is defined by Medicare as “normal inability to leave the home and that leaving the home requires considerable and taxing effort.”
• The skilled care must be medically necessary as determined by the physician.

Q: What if I have a problem at night or on the weekend?
A: We have registered nurses on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Q: Do I need a physician’s order for home health care?
A: Yes, all health care provided in the home occurs under direct order and supervision of the patient’s physician.

Q: What types of services can be provided at home?
A: Many medical conditions that previously required hospitalization can safely be treated in the home. Home care services may include but are not limited to: Continue reading ‘Frequently asked questions about home health care’ »

You and your family can save a lot of pain, worry, and money by avoiding health problems in the first place. If you can’t prevent a problem altogether, the next best thing is to discover it early, when it is easy to treat. Here are Ten ways you should do to stay healthy.
Continue reading ‘Ten Wise Tips to Stay Healthy’ »

The 2008 election has brought the topic of “affordable health care” and “affordable health insurance” to the forefront and, along with it, a slew of misconceptions. So, what is true and what is false? The purpose of the following article is to dispel some of these myths and misconceptions and provide information to make a muddy topic a bit clearer.

1. The first misconception is that, for some reason, Americans equate affordable health care to be “socialized medicine.”

This is not the case at all. According to Wiktionary, socialized medicine is “an umbrella term for any system of government-run health care.” Many people balk at the idea of socialized medicine because the citizens inevitably pick up the costs through higher taxes. Affordable health care, on the other hand, is as simple as the phrase states – it is health care with costs low enough for everyone to afford. The government does not necessarily oversee it and individuals are free to go to physicians of their choice. It is not discriminatory to those with lower incomes and services are equal whether one is poor or financially privileged.

Continue reading ‘Misconceptions About Affordable Health Care’ »

The quality and the cost of medical care depend more on you than on your doctor.
To become a wise medical consumer, start with three basic principles:

* Work in partnership with your doctor and health care team.
* Share in every medical decision.
* Become skilled at obtaining medical care.

By following these three principles, you will gain more control over the quality and cost of your health care than you have ever had before.

Work in Partnership With Your Doctor

Good partnerships are based on a common goal, shared effort, and good communication. If you and your doctor can make these things happen, you will both gain from the partnership. You will get better care and your doctor will practice good medicine.

Five Ways to Be a Good Partner

1. Take good care of yourself. Both you and your doctor would prefer that you don’t get sick in the first place. And if problems arise, you both want a return to good health as soon as possible.

2. At the first sign of a health problem, observe and record your symptoms. Your record of symptoms will help both you and your doctor make an accurate diagnosis. And the better job you do recording early symptoms, the better you and your doctor can manage the problem later.

- Keep written notes on the symptoms. Record when, how long, how painful, etc., for each symptom.

- Note anything unusual that might be related to the problem.

- Measure and record vital signs.

- Add regular updates and watch your progress. Are your symptoms getting better or worse? Continue reading ‘The Wise Medical Consumer: Work in Partnership With Your Doctor’ »

Health care is one of the most promising industries in the health and hospitability sector today. Health care relates to the prevention as well as to the treatment of illness. It also implies the overall mental and physical well being of individuals. A health care system refers to the organized functions which are involved in promoting the overall health of the country. The United Kingdom is the only industrialized country that does not offer health care universally. The National Health Service in the United Kingdom deals only with healthcare in the UK.

Overview of The Rising Health Care Sector

The health care industry is an industry that is considered to be one of the most budding among all other recent upcoming industries. Health care deals with delivering quality service towards improving the health of the people residing in a country. In recent years, the health care sector has been witnessing an upward surge. In a developed country, the health care industry contributes to 10% of the country’s gross national product. The professionally trained people serving the health care system ensure that all processes run smoothly.

Continue reading ‘Health Care: an Emerging Industry’ »

Though the recent campaign for presidency brought affordable health care into the limelight, many small business owners and their employees felt this struggle long before it gained public attention. One of President Obama’s campaign calling cards is his plan for affordable health care. Intertwined within the general theme of affordable health insurance was the more specific aid to assist small businesses in providing health care for their employees.

If California is any indication of the lack of affordable health care in small businesses created in the rest of the United States, there is a major problem. According to Small Businesses for Affordable Healthcare, out of all the businesses in California, more than three million employees are uninsured. Those who do have the luxury of health insurance provided by their small business employers have faced a rise in premium costs at over fifty percent. These grim numbers have made small businesses in California less than an ideal place to work.

Continue reading ‘Can Small Businesses Afford to Offer Their Employees Affordable Health Care?’ »

Funny thing pain, if you’ve never had a severe pain then the suggestion of taking simple analgesia and resting the affected area all seems quite reasonable. I was reminded of this when I read recently of a doctor’s advice to someone who was suffering from sciatica. Having personally experienced sciatica, it’s a condition I would not recommend to anyone who wishes to walk, sit, laugh, sleep, or to just simply pull up your trousers. It’s a bit like a dentist drilling your teeth without an anaesthetic, but it affects your whole leg. In other words the pain is consuming, exhausting and without respite. Clinical studies do show that in the majority of cases the pain will eventually subside and surgery may not be necessary, but in the meantime the patient has to deal with the pain or deal with the medication required to dull the pain. Remember, pain-killers are not selective to the area affected. They affect the whole of the nervous system and elsewhere so there may be significant side-effects from these medications.

Continue reading ‘Cooperating In Our Health Care’ »

There have been many modern advances in the world of health care, and research has unlocked many mysteries when it comes to medicine. One of the areas that has seen some advances is the treatment of substance abuse, where professionals are learning how best to treat individuals addicted to drugs or alcohol. But still today, the number of lives affected by drug abuse and alcoholism is increasing, and many people have turned to prescription opiate such as hydrocodone or oxycodone, and it really hasn’t gotten much easier to help those people get sober. It is still a long, hard process that often lasts a lifetime.

Drug detox, and particularly opiate detox, can be a very scary and difficult thing. The reality is that no matter what method they choose, drug addicts still have to go through it if they are going to be sober. A few modern techniques have been designed to make the process easier, however.

Continue reading ‘Modern Approaches to Opioid Detox’ »

Home health care helps seniors live independently for as long as possible, given the limits of their medical condition. It covers a wide range of services and can often delay the need for long-term nursing home care.

More specifically, home health care may include occupational and physical therapy, speech therapy, and even skilled nursing. It may involve helping the elderly with activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, and eating. Or it may include assistance with cooking, cleaning, other housekeeping jobs, and monitoring one’s daily regimen of prescription and over-the-counter medications.

At this point, it is important to understand the difference between home health care and home care services. Although they sound the same (and home health care may include some home care services), home health care is more medically oriented. While home care typically includes chore and housecleaning services, home health care usually involves helping seniors recover from an illness or injury. That is why the people who provide home health care are often licensed practical nurses, therapists, or home health aides. Most work for home health agencies, hospitals, or public health departments that are licensed by the state.

How Do I Make Sure That Home Health Care Is Quality Care?
As with any important purchase, it is always a good idea to talk with friends, neighbors, and your local area agency on aging to learn more about the home health care agencies in your community. Continue reading ‘Fact Sheets Home Health Care’ »

So what is the cancer industry worth? A study funded by the Lance Armstrong Foundation, estimated that the global cancer industry is worth $305 billion in 2009, with an estimated 12.9 million new cases of cancer. That’s equivalent to all the exports of Russia in 2009. It is estimated that the industry could be worth $638 billion by 2030.

There is a collusion that centers around the lobbying industry. Lobbying is the process by which representatives of corporations approach the policy makers in Washington to enact or change legislation to benefit their corporate profits. In return the government policy makers receive various forms of payments – either legal donations , promises of future benefits or illegal bribes (as has been shown by previous congressional scandals).

Former corporate health care executives, are often hired by the U.S. government as health care advisors to create national health care policies and after a few years they are rehired back by the same corporations to only repeat the cycle years later. Liz Fowler, of the Wellpoint health care corporation, is one such person that has rotated through two cycles, and each time she helps to formulate national health care policies that are beneficial to Wellpoint profits. Continue reading ‘Asbestos Mesothelioma – The Cancer Industry Is A Money Printing Machine. Do You Trust It?’ »