Health and Disability

http://goo.gl/4tVfLi

It looks as thought the advent of Obamacare and the provision of insurance to people who previously didn't have it has unleashed demand for health care services that simply wasn't there before.

See who is quoted for the article.....

http://goo.gl/tKfcTZ

In particular, the focus on “person-centered planning” in the MOU is a direct result of persistent advocacy efforts, especially by advocate RoAnne Chaney, with the Michigan Disability Rights Coalition. The person-centered planning process will be used to develop enrollees’ care plans, and will help honor enrollees’ personal goals and preferences, while maximizing their independence. In addition, ICOs will have to ensure adequate investment in ICO staff training on the person-centered planning process to assure competency in how it is used. Also, advocates worked hard to gain the inclusion of a requirement that each ICO assemble a diverse consumer advisory board and create a process for ensuring that the advisory board’s recommendations are shared with the ICO’s governing board. This approach to consumer engagement holds the promise of obtaining ongoing, meaningful feedback from enrollees to continuously improve the delivery system.

I would add that many insecticides have physiological impacts similar to low levels of nerve agents if doses are repeated many times.

http://goo.gl/Fr5Lbb

"Studies published since 2008 continue to support the conclusion that Gulf War illness is causally related to chemical exposures in the combat theater," White said of the new report. "And many studies of the brain and central nervous system, using imaging, EEG and other objective measures of brain structure and function, add to the existing evidence that central nervous system dysfunction is a critical element in the disorder. Evidence also continues to point to immunological effects of Gulf War illness."

Exposure to the nerve gas agents sarin and cyclosarin has been linked in several studies to changes in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that are associated with cognitive impairments -- further supporting the nervous-system effects of those agents cited in the 2008 report.

"The Committee concludes that the evidence to date continues to point to alterations in central and autonomic nervous system, neuroendocrine, and immune system functions," the report says.

http://goo.gl/urV1Xg

The Community First Choice Option provides states with a new opportunity and financial incentive to expand access to home and community based services to individuals with disabilities and seniors. States can receive an additional 6% federal match for qualified services and supports through their Medicaid state plan. Unlike Medicaid HCBS waivers, states cannot cap enrollment and maintain waiting lists for individuals who meet and institutional level of care. This webinar will feature insights from three states (Colorado, Montana, and Oregon) that are actively considering or implementing the Community First Choice Option.

All we thought we knew is wrong!

http://goo.gl/N0cvUK

(A)n international team of pain researchers led by scientists at McGill University in Montreal may have uncovered one important factor behind this vexing problem: the gender of the experimenters has a big impact on the stress levels of rodents, which are widely used in preclinical studies.

In research published online in Nature Methods, the scientists report that the presence of male experimenters produced a stress response in mice and rats equivalent to that caused by restraining the rodents for 15 minutes in a tube or forcing them to swim for three minutes. This stress-induced reaction made mice and rats of both sexes less sensitive to pain.

Female experimenters produced no such effects.

15 minutes long.....

http://goo.gl/uTvWDS

This week, ProPublica reporter Charles Ornstein talks with David Goldhill, president and CEO of the game-show television network GSN, whose book "Catastrophic Care: Why Everything We Think We Know about Health Care Is Wrong," was published last year. Spurred by his father's death from a hospital-acquired infection in 2007, his health-care writings have focused on how the dysfunction of the health care system speaks to the ways it's not held accountable like other industries.

A more extensive list than the ones I've posted in the past....

http://goo.gl/yBPkpT

Preventive measures could include moving the bedroom downstairs to minimize trips up and down stairs, having a non-medical senior care service help with laundry if laundry is in the basement (again to minimize the need to travel up and down stairs, especially if arms are full with a laundry basket), picking up scatter rugs to minimize tripping over them, getting physical therapy for strength and balance, or getting a personal emergency device such as Lifeline and wearing it!  You’d be surprised at how many seniors have personal emergency systems in place, but don’t wear their pendants, bracelets, or belt clips! 

These kinds of rationing queues are common in a wide variety of facilities, not just VA hospitals...

http://goo.gl/K8UKZE

At least 40 U.S. veterans died waiting for appointments at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care system, many of whom were placed on a secret waiting list.

The secret list was part of an elaborate scheme designed by Veterans Affairs managers in Phoenix who were trying to hide that 1,400 to 1,600 sick veterans were forced to wait months to see a doctor, according to a recently retired top VA doctor and several high-level sources.

http://goo.gl/nuzDN3

Health clinics that can provide primary care for low-income patients may ease the financial burden on both hospitals and insurance companies while improving patient health, researchers have concluded.

A study of hospital admissions suggests that health clinics that avoid costs associated with insurance administration can help hospitals save money by lowering hospital admission rates and emergency room visits, according to Mark Agee, professor of economics, Penn State Altoona.

The researchers estimated that the major hospital in the area saved $201,414 annually in lower emergency room visits and admissions. They also reported that the hospital showed a decrease of 56 admissions per 1000 patients during the three years that the data was collected.

There is a decades long observation about strep toxins and neurological symptoms. I had tics for two years after a series of a half dozen strep infections. Also, antibiotics are commonly used to treat ulcers now, a formerly psychiatric disorder....

http://goo.gl/CYtlvO

What Frankovich, a pediatric rheumatologist, and Dr. Kiki Chang, a child psychiatrist, concluded was that Tessa likely had an infection or other trigger that caused her immune system to mistakenly attack her brain, dramatically changing Tessa’s behavior overnight. It’s a condition called PANS — pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome — that in some cases, if caught early enough, could be cured by commonly used antibiotics. Without early treatment, they say, children can suffer needlessly.