Posts Tagged ‘Obama’

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It’s time now to focus on Arizona’s health-care system

Monday, April 19th, 2010
It's time now to focus on Arizona's health-care system

Since last spring, the noisy and sometime rancorous health-care-reform debate has kept all eyes and ears on Washington. It now appears the probability is high that a health-care-reform bill will be signed by President Obama. Given what our state is contemplating with respect to the next round of budget cuts, I think some sharp focus on health care in Arizona is needed – now.

Gov. Jan Brewer has rightfully placed all options on the table in her difficult and, at times, bruising work with other state leaders to address what is approaching a $2 billion shortfall in our state budget.

This includes a request by the governor to all state agencies asking for plans that will cut each agency’s budget by 15 percent. A significant part of these reductions will come from the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) and other state health programs. AHCCCS is Arizona’s Medicaid program.

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Guidelines for Health Risk Appraisals

Friday, April 16th, 2010
Guidelines for Health Risk Appraisals

Health Risk Appraisals are tools that identify and quantify an individual’s risk of morbidity or mortality using demographic, medical and lifestyle information. “Health Risk Appraisals and Medicare”, an evaluation report completed by RAND for CMS, reached the following conclusions.

• Effective Health Risk Assessment (HRA) programs have demonstrated beneficial effects on behavior, physiological variables and general health status
• Interventions that combine Health Risk Assessment (HRA) feedback with the provision of Wellness Plans are most likely to show beneficial effects
• To be effective, Health Risk Assessment (HRA) questionnaires ought to be accompanied by follow-up interventions (e.g., information, support and referrals)

High quality Health Risk Appraisals offer, a computation for individual risk from the following most common diseases and health risk factors.

• Chronic Asthma
• COPD
• Diabetes
• High Blood Pressure
• Ischemic heart disease
• Major depression
• Stroke
• Overweight and obesity
• Use of Tobaccos Products
• Mental health
• Immunizations

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Investing in Healthcare: Medical Staffing Sector Notes

Thursday, April 1st, 2010
Investing in Healthcare: Medical Staffing Sector Notes

Medical staffing and placement industry investment notes: medical professionals contracting & outsourcing, staffing challenge for small healthcare organizations, and more.

If you plan to invest into healthcare industry, which itself has long term growth potential, we recommend you to make a research on nurses and medical professionals staffing sector, which is relatively new and growing segment within Healthcare industry. In this small publication we would like to give you some highlights on medical staffing investment opportunities:

1. Workforce outsourcing & contracting. Nowadays businesses have to concentrate on their main product lines, and by doing so they have to outsource everything else to contractors. In healthcare outsourcing from one hand and placement and staffing from another are very important. Hospitals, and especially smaller healthcare organizations can not afford diversified staff of medical professionals, they would rather use it on as-needed basis, without indefinite commitment.

2. Flexible working hours. To healthcare professionals: doctors and nurses, medical staffing organizations offer flexibility opportunities – work as many hours per week as needed, take short term or mid-term contracts, decide on taking beneficial contract nationwide. These flexible options are important for working woman, especially in the maternity period

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Investing in Healthcare Recruiting: Risks and Opportunities

Saturday, February 27th, 2010
Investing in Healthcare Recruiting: Risks and Opportunities

Hospitals and healthcare are definitely on the reliable growth pace. Current industry trend is really reverse to what you would expect, being new to this sector – this is shortage of nurses and medical professionals, meaning that it is rather challenge to find certified applicants, and not really to get new contracts from healthcare organizations. This trends requires the investors to look at healthcare staffing agency from the perspective of its popularity among nurses community – getting nurses opinions on which company is “better” – in the senses of being more friendly, offering better conditions, including faster paychecks issuance. As medical staffing companies actually sells services in the form of recruiting fees, plus W2 services to their medical temps – you should feel the nature of the risks and the opportunities: they are at the management experience, passion and competence side, not in real material assets, such as plants, production tools or even buildings. Let’s try to see the pro and contra arguments:

1. Economy Cycles: Booms and Recessions – healthcare is always in demand, so it should be considered stable and not really exposed to economy cycling. This statement might be considered as a trend, however some companies will suffer from bad economy, but in our opinion mostly due to the recession “atmosphere”

2. US population “aging” – this is similar to what was long times seen in Europe and Japan, where immigration offset (or even new young immigrants inflow reversed the aging process) was not as active as in United States. Senior population requires more medicine attention and potentially will increase the workload for healthcare staffing organizations, who supply hospitals, nursing homes and retirement communities with nurses and medical doctors

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What You Need to Know When Choosing a Healthcare Staffing Agency

Saturday, February 27th, 2010
What You Need to Know When Choosing a Healthcare Staffing Agency

America’s best facilities, more often than not, work with healthcare staffing agencies to connect them to nurses, therapists and allied healthcare professionals. Thus, a lot of healthcare workers go to agencies to seek placement. As staffing agencies do the hiring and human resource management for these facilities, you, as a professional, will work with the agency on almost every matter concerning your job. So when hunting for an agency, you need to know how to choose the right one. Below are some guidelines.

Salary and benefits are important criteria when selecting an agency, but not the most important ones. Understand that these companies make a living by practically managing your career. You need to know how the agency cares about you, both as a professional and as a person. What support system can they offer you when you get a job? Will they assist you in relocating if the new job requires it? Can you reach them after office hours for emergencies? What opportunities do they provide for you to grow professionally? Getting answers to these questions will give you an idea of how supportive they are of you and your career.

Second, see if the agency can actually get you a job. Although it’s true that the healthcare industry always has a vacancy to fill, it takes an experienced recruiter to finalize a placement. Ask them about the lag between your application and actual placement. Inquire if they were actually able to deploy previous applicants in the facility or location of their choice. Assess how capable the agency is in giving you a job before committing to one; try asking the number of placements they’ve had the past year. The best agencies are the ones that guarantee you a job, and actually get it for you.

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The Importance of Pursuing Mental Health Integration

Friday, February 26th, 2010
The Importance of Pursuing Mental Health Integration

Why Pursue Mental Health Integration?

It is the right thing to do: The NCCBH vision statement provides the foundation for our work: We are committed to creating and sustaining healthy and secure communities, achieved through a system that holds the needs of consumers paramount, regardless of their ability to pay.

Vital to this commitment is a network of organizations and advocates promoting services of unparalleled value.

NCCBH members primarily serve public sector consumers, those with severe and persistent mental illness or serious emotional disturbance-the needs of this population are often overlooked in primary care and integration planning. We must assure that their needs as well as the needs of the broader community are appropriately addressed.

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Start-up Health Products Business

Friday, February 26th, 2010
Start-up Health Products Business

Public Health is the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting  health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private communities and individuals. However, as individuals we must take an active role in maintaining our health by leading healthy lifestyles and making sure that we are using proper nutrition daily.

Nutrition is the science that studies how people eat and how eating affects their health and performance. This includes foods or food components that cause diseases or deteriorate health such as eating too many calories. This is a major contributing factor to obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Personal health depends partially on the social structure of one’s life.

Healthy eating is a choice but not much of a choice for those who simply lack the knowledge, awareness and clear understanding about healthy cooking. Health is a positive concept emphasizing social and personal resources as well as physical capacities. Health represents the amount of damage a character can take before death.

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Is Private Healthcare Right for You?

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
Is Private Healthcare Right for You?

You may well have asked yourself the question, do I need private healthcare? After all, there is always the National Health Service and you already pay for that with your national insurance. Well, of course, this is correct and we all have access to the NHS but with long waiting lists and reports of some hospitals having less than great reputations for service and hygiene, perhaps it’s now worth taking a look at private medical insurance.

Private healthcare ensures that your health is a priority and that you will be seen as quickly as possible. You will be seen in pleasant, comfortable surroundings that have a more personal touch to them. This helps alleviate that faceless feeling that can often be found in hospitals where large volumes of people, means that unfortunately, medical staff only have a certain amount of time to spend with each patient so appointments can sometimes seem rushed.

When you are ill the last thing you want is to have to wait in a lengthy queue. It may be that you require specialist treatment or medication that is not available on the NHS or in some cases is too expensive for your health trust. Private healthcare alleviates these problems by ensuring that you are seen promptly and that any necessary treatment covered under your policy is available to you.

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Healthcare Costs: Can We Lower Them?

Saturday, February 20th, 2010
Healthcare Costs: Can We Lower Them?

 

Personally, our healthcare costs are so far up over $2,000 from 2007 and $3,100 from 2006. How can that be? In 2006 my husband fought cancer and our spending is more than doubled this year?!?!

 

It is absolutely insane. I wonder about the families that don’t have healthcare coverage or are on limited income. What do they do? How do they make it? How do they get through a health crisis?

 

It has been estimated that a half-million people file for bankruptcy each year due to medical costs/bills.

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Healthcare Boom Opens Up Huge Demand for Support Staff

Friday, February 19th, 2010
Healthcare Boom Opens Up Huge Demand for Support Staff

If you’ve always wanted to work in a hospital or doctor’s office, becoming a healthcare support staffer might be just the shot in the arm your career needs. With training from a top-notch career college, in about 8 to 12 months, depending on the program, you can be a valued team member in a hospital, lab, pharmacy, physician’s office or dental practice.

According to the Department of Labor, healthcare will generate three million new jobs between 2006 and 2016, more than any other industry, employing over 12 million workers*. California, in particular, has a shortage of healthcare professionals, with vacancies across the state, raising salaries and increasing employment opportunities for high school graduates, career changers and other job seekers.

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