Monday, October 6, 2008
CBC News

The federal government has failed to enforce the Canada Health Act's requirements for equal access to hospital care, instead allowing more for-profit medical clinics over the last five years, the Canadian Health Coalition said in a report released Monday.

The health lobby group said it investigated 130 for-profit surgical, MRI/CT and "boutique" clinics across Canada that sell access to doctors and health professionals for thousands of dollars per patient per year.

Eroding Public Medicare report, Canadian Health Coalition (in .pdf format) http://www.healthcoalition.ca/OHCPCR.pdfThe report's authors said they found evidence to suspect 89 clinics in five provinces may have violated requirements by openly selling medically necessary services and double-billing both patients and governments for services.

The suspected violations were in:
Nova Scotia - 1
Alberta - 7
B.C. - 29
Ontario - 11
Quebec - 41

"For-profit clinics are also taking specialists, health professionals and operating room nurses out of local public hospitals to serve less urgent patients, often for extra fees," said report author Natalie Mehra, director of the Ontario Health Coalition.

"Despite claims about reducing wait times, we found direct evidence that poaching staff out of local hospitals by for-profit clinics worsened shortages in local hospitals, forcing the hospitals to reduce MRI hours."

At a news conference in St. John's on Monday, Kathleen Connors, national chair of the Canadian Health Coalition, called the research groundbreaking. The coalition held similar events across the country to highlight dozens of clinics it said are undercutting medicare, and to urge parties to make health care a priority in the federal election campaign.

"The report is the first of its kind, and has taken some 13 months to compile," said Connors, a retired nurse and former New Democratic Party candidate.

"Researchers set out to find all the for-profit diagnostic, surgical and boutique-type physician clinics across the country, to see how they work and how they're affecting the cost and access to public health care in this country," she said.

"We've heard increasing reports of companies selling the ability to jump the queue, to move patients up in accessing services without penalty and, in fact, the report validates what we're hearing out there."

In Ontario and Manitoba, for-profit cancer and cataract surgery clinics gave evidence of higher costs per treatment than non-profit clinics, the report said, noting Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and British Columbia are considering more for-profit privatization.

But governments of varying political stripes in Alberta, Ontario and Manitoba have rolled back for-profit MRI/CT clinics or surgical clinics and have instead boosted capacity in the public, non-profit health system, the report said.

The for-profit clinics told the group that they charge $13,000 to $20,000 or more for knee surgery and $1,200 to $2,000 for cataract surgery.

Dr. Robert Ouellet, president of the Canadian Medical Association, has said he doesn't see privatization as a step backward.

"I'm a doctor for medicare," Oullet said. "We're in favour of a universal system, but if the private sector could help, that's fine.

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have grids numbered 0 to 36 as well as other regions dedicated for outside betting. The American table, on the other hand, has grids numbered 0 to 36 with an additional slot for a 00, apart from the pre-marked regions for outside bets. The difference in the tables is also apparent in the roulette wheels. French and American Roulette wheels have 37 numbered slots, while the American wheels have 38 numbered slots.
The Bets
There are several bets available for roulette players. They are classified based on where you would normally put them, either inside the grid (inside bets) or outside the grid (outside bets). Placing the wager in a specific manner on the roulette table executes a specific bet.
There are six kind of inside bets, namely the straight, the spit, the street, the corner, the five-liner, and the six-liner. Inside Bets have the biggest payout of the game, but it has also the hardest one to make. Straight is a kind of bet made squarely on a number. Split is a bet made on two adjacent numbers, while street is a bet made on a set of number belonging in the same line. Corner is a wager on four numbers adjacent to each other. Five-liners is a bet that can be made only in American table because it is a bet on 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3 while the six-liner is a bet made on two adjacent rows.
Other Rules
There are several rules that are not generally implemented on all roulette tables. Some casino offers an En Prison rule where, when the number 0 appears, the players have the option to take the bet or to leave it there for another round. There is also the La Partage option where players who bet on even-money bets loses only half of their bets made on the table when the outcome is zero.

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Welcome to Aline Hatemis Austin Fitness for Women getting results in 8 weeks! Call for a free fitness evaluation at 512-423-3099. Or email austinwomensfitness@yahoo.com.
Top Ten Natural Sources of Important Vitamins and Minerals for Fitness in Austin
Vitamins are very easy to find if you know where to look in Austin.  Meats, grains, fruits and vegetables are all excellent natural sources of vitamins.  As an added bonus, your body will typically absorb the vitamins found in foods more easily than those found in supplements. 
Oranges
Oranges are not only jam packed with vitamin C, but they also contain potassium, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12.  Vitamin C is commonly know to help prevent and cure the common cold and helps aid in iron absorption but has also been tied to the prevention of heart disease.  Vitamin B6 is a powerful tool that aids your metabolism as well as other vital bodily functions.
Salmon
Salmon and other oily fish such as trout, orange roughy or sardines are all rich in vitamin A, D and two important B vitamins.  Vitamin A is essential for your immune and reproduction systems.
Carrots
Carrots are heavy on the Vitamin A and also have a good amount of calcium and vitamin C.  However, its important not to overcook them or all of the healthy vitamins and minerals will be cooked right out.  Tossing a fresh carrot into your lunch bag is a great way to keep all those great vitamins right where they should be - in the carrot.
Spinach
Folic Acid  or B9 is found abundantly in spinach.  Folic acid is vital to pregnant women because it can help reduce the risk of birth defects in newborns.  Spinach also has some other important nutrients such as vitamin A, C and E and should be eaten raw to get the most benefit from the nutrients it contains.
Blueberries
Blueberries are perhaps best known for their effects on memory.  Studies have shown that the vitamin B compounds in blueberries help improve memory and reduce the risk of Alzheimers and dementia.  They are also a great source for vitamin C.
Almonds
Almonds are chock full of calcium and vitamin E.  Vitamin E is thought to help prevent certain cancers and cardiovascular diseases.  Its also a great source of calcium which helps build strong bones.
Broccoli
Vitamin K, A and C, calcium and fiber are all very abundant in broccoli and a good dose of broccoli once a week will help prevent cancer as well as help build strong bones.
Cauliflower
Cauliflower is hands down the best source for vitamin K, which is vital to your bodys ability to make your blood clot.  It is also a good source of vitamin C, fiber and some great nutrients that are believed to help prevent certain cancers like breast and prostate cancer.
Beans
Beans are a great source of folate which is great for cell formation.  Iron is also found in beans which helps keep your energy up.  Other important substances in beans can help prevent cancer, reduce the risk of diabetes, aid your circulatory system and help control your weight.
Apples
An apple a day may just keep the doctor away.  Apples are a great source of vitamin C which will help boost your immune system.  However, studies have shown that apples also contain other vital properties that help boost your immune system in ways that vitamin C supplements cant.

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Collaborations between researchers and pharmaceutical firms are essential to the development of groundbreaking treatments and are painstakingly monitored to remove even the appearance of improper influence, said Ken Johnson, the senior vice president for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the advocacy group for the countrys drug research and technology companies. Some studies have found that placebos are as effective as certain psychiatric drugs at treating juvenile depression, raising questions about the usefulness of the drugs in the first place.

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HEALTH INSURANCE SCAMS
Watch Your Back
And you thought those examining gowns were scary. Now identity thieves are targeting your health insurance card--and the health care they can get with it
Dan Tynan


Last February, Maija Lamberts opened her mailbox and, amid a handful of junk mail and coupon circulars, found a statement for a health-care credit card she'd never requested. Immediately, her scam radar went up. A quick call to the company revealed that a stranger had used the card to give herself a $24,000 extreme makeover--breast implants, a tummy tuck, and liposuction. Two weeks later, when the suspect showed up at the surgeon's office for a follow-up visit, the cops were there waiting for her.

The 39-year-old pharmaceutical-sales rep had just become a victim of medical identity theft, a new scheme that criminals use to get free health services and leave you to clean up the mess. Since then, Lamberts has spent months trying to untangle the bills and restore her tarnished credit. "Even though I caught the crime quickly, it devastated my finances," she says. "Suddenly I'm scared of losing my house. My security has been yanked out from under me."

Lamberts is one of the 250,000 people the Federal Trade Commission estimates fall prey to medical identity theft every year. The offense can burden victims with huge hospital bills and max out their insurance coverage. And a thief's medical history can be added to your own, leaving health-care providers confused about whom they're really treating.

"Imagine showing up at the ER in an ambulance and your medical records say you have diabetes, but you don't," says Byron Hollis, managing director for the BlueCross and BlueShield Association's national antifraud department. "If the doctor prescribes insulin based on false information, it could send you into insulin shock or a coma."

So how does a thief get his hands on your information? It can be remarkably simple and low-tech: He picks up the wallet you lost and lifts the health insurance card inside, snags a benefits letter from your mailbox, or overhears you reciting your Social to the receptionist at your doctor's office.

In other cases, that same receptionist may be selling your identity for cash. In 2006, Isis Machado, then a desk clerk at the Cleveland Clinic in Weston, Florida, made off with more than 1,100 patient records and used them to file $2.8 million in bogus Medicare claims.

And though only 3 percent of all identity-theft cases involve medical records, experts worry that as electronic and online files become more common, criminals will have more opportunities to cash in. According to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, since 2005 there have been more than 80 medical-data breaches, leaving millions of patients' records as exposed as if they'd been posted on MySpace.

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Well, yes, I am going to talk about a new book. So here is an autobiographical take on what it is like to live with insomnia by a woman who ought to know. Gayle Greene has the distinction of being a non-professional member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM). She wins this prize even though not a medical researcher because she is the patient representative on the board of the American Insomnia Association, which operates within the AASMs umbrella. In her spare time (sic), she labours at the Scripps College, Claremont California as Professor of Literature and Womens Studies. This latest tome (quite heavy at 520 pages) adds to her impressive resume of academic publications. This is a highly personal account by an articulate and intelligent woman who has been afflicted by insomnia for most of her adult life. In one sense, the only person who can really tell you what it is like in a foreign country is one who has been there. For those of us who have always been able to sleep without difficulty, insomnia is like a foreign country, and the idea of having to use a medication like Ambien as the passport to get into sleep is alien. Conventional wisdom always says that insomnia is somehow related to anxiety or stress levels, perhaps aggravated by drinking too many cups of real coffee. Greene comes up with a simple and practical explanation of what insomnia is. Insomnia means nothing more than you cannot get the number of hours of sleep you need to feel good about yourself and function efficiently. There is no reason for this. It is nothing more than a failure to sleep. There should be no pejorative implication. To use stress as an excuse is to blame the person for being weak or neurotic when there is no reason to blame yourself or anyone else. Instead of looking for some psychological explanation or a less judgemental physical cause, we should just accept that it happens to about 20% of the population at one time or another during their lives. Such a vast number of people yet so little is spent on researching the condition and its causes. Greene comments that the National Institutes of Health in the United States spent less than $20m in 2005, whereas Sanofi-Aventis spent more than $120m promoting Ambien in the same year. This is neither to praise nor condemn Ambien. It is all a question of priorities. Why bother to spend Government money on researching the cause of a condition when private capital has already invented Ambien as a cure for it? She debates what we really understand about cause and effect. It is so easy to get the cart before the horse, or should that be the other way round? Perhaps conventional wisdom has also got things back-to-front. Instead of stress and anxiety being the cause of insomnia, perhaps living with insomnia makes you stressed and anxious. Who is to say in these more modern times, that we did not have disturbed sleep patterns in past times living on the land? Folk tales may tell us that we went to sleep when dusk fell and waited for the cock to crow before waking. But was that actually the case? Who can say what the real biological norms were before electricity came along and gave everyone the chance to live through the darkness. As it stands, no researcher can actually explain why we have to sleep nor why some people sleep more than others. It is all guesswork. All that we can say with any certainty is that those who are deprived of sleep do not do as well as those who sleep through the night. The sleepless so often end up demotivated, their sense of humour worn thin, their judgement warped. Some grow fat. Others find their immune system affected. Sleep seems so indispensable yet no-one can really control it. Greene describes everything she has tried over the years from relaxation therapies to medication like Ambien, but concludes that, like any intimate relationship, how we relate to sleep is always personal. She is a passionate advocate for greater patient power to persuade disinterested bodies to research insomnia. For one who has had to depend on Ambien and the other medications for so long, she feels she and all other sufferers deserve better answers than those served up by the pharmaceutical companies. For one who has never had problems sleeping nor had to take Ambien, Insomniac was a riveting insight into the condition and the problems it causes. Required reading for everyone who reads this article.

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