A new study brings the experience of physical therapists to a developing “Core Set” of criteria to guide evaluation and treatment for patients with osteoporosis, reports the April/June issue of the Journal of Geriatric Physical Therapy, official journal of the Section on Geriatrics of the American Physical Therapy Association. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
Part of an international validation project, the study adds the unique perspective of physical therapists to a new classification system for assessing functional status and disability in patients with osteoporosis.
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One of the more popular provisions of the PPACA has been the closing of the donut hole in Medicare Part D. Seniors who needed expensive prescriptions had previously been paying up to $3600 each year in out-of-pocket drug costs. Unless youre quite wealthy (which most seniors arent), having to pay $3600 a year for medications is a challenge, especially on top of the premiums for Medicare B, a Medigap policy, and Medicare D. So its no surprise that most seniors were in favor of closing the donut hole in Medicare D.
Of course, nothing is ever as simple as wed like it to be, and there is also some criticism of the closing of the donut hole. A
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One-third of immigrant children and more than 70 percent of foreign-born, nonelderly adults living in New Jersey five years or less lack health coverage, a Rutgers statewide survey finds.
The report, “Health, Coverage and Access to Care of New Jersey Immigrants,” by the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy (CSHP), also concludes immigrants face significant access-to-care barriers and their lack of health insurance is a much larger problem than for New Jerseyans born in the United States.
The research describes the health profile, insurance status and health care utilization indicators of New Jersey’s diverse immigrant population. Read more…
Privately insured patients turned away by doctors
Insured patients may soon find limited access to healthcare, according to a surprising finding from Weill Cornell Medical College study.
The study finding, which appears in the Archives of Internal Medicine, shows fewer physicians are accepting patients with private insurance.
According to Dr. Tara Bishop, assistant professor of public health at Weil Cornell, “Given the medical profession’s widely reported dissatisfaction with Medicare, we expected to find hard evidence that Medicare patients were being turned away.
Instead, we saw only a modest decline in doctors’ acceptance of patients on Medicare.
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Egocentric, self-centred, and insensitive to the needs of others: these social problems often arise in people with severe traumatic brain injury and have been attributed in part to a loss of emotional empathy, the capacity to recognise and understand the emotions of other people. Given that traumatic brain injuries are becoming more common, and resulting empathy deficits can have negative repercussions on social functioning and quality of life, it is increasingly important to understand the processes that shape emotional empathy.
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As required under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, millions of people will soon be added to the ranks of the insured. However, this rapid expansion of coverage is colliding with a different, potentially problematic trend that could end up hampering access to health care.
Since 2005, doctors have been accepting fewer and fewer patients with health insurance, according to a new study published in the June 27th issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. As a result, says Dr. Tara Bishop, assistant professor of public health at Weill Cornell Medical College, and lead author of the study, insured patients could face new obstacles to receiving the medical attention they need, and overall access to health care could actually contract.
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U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby writes about First Lady Michelle Obama’s trip to Africa and her focus on “youth leadership, education, health and wellness,” including HIV/AIDS, in this Office of National AIDS Policy blog post. “The Obama Administration is more committed than ever to build on the successes of the last decade and to continue to work with other governments and partners as we all work toward our shared goal of a world without HIV/AIDS. And we hope the millions of lives saved to date will inspire youth in Africa and around the world to continue their fight for an HIV-free future,” he writes .
This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J.
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