Insurance companies offering coverage under Medigap or the Medicare Supplemental Insurance plan have premiums that vary by as mush as 400% in Connecticut. This may also apply to other states. What are the differences? Are there any differences? Sam Deibler, Director of the Commission on Aging in Greenwich CT discusses Medicare and in particular Medigap. Buyer beware applies here, Listen and learn.

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 The enactment of the recent health reform act may be the just the catalyst needed to move Americans in the direction of taking personal responsibility for wellness. While it seems that Washington may have just discovered this approach to better utilization of health care services, hospitals like Greenwich Hospital in Connecticut, long ago realized this and launched very successful programs. Working with individuals and corporate employers in the area, they have helped to bring health awareness and proactive health care to a group of people not previously in the system. Donna Guadisio Zeale, Director of the Center for Healthy Living discusses their approach and plans for the future.

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“Hospitals tend to focus their efforts on the admissions process, because that’s when the patient is most sick,” said Dr. Mark V. Williams, one of the authors of the study. “The discharge process can be just as important but rarely gets the same level of attention.”

How putting in a pacemaker wrecked a family’s life. When (the doctor) suggested the pacemaker for the second time, my father was too stroke-damaged to discuss, and perhaps even to weigh, his trade­offs. The decision fell to my mother — anxious to relieve my father’s pain, exhausted with caregiving, deferential to doctors and no expert on high-tech medicine. She said yes. One of the most important medical decisions of my father’s life was over in minutes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/magazine/20pacemaker-t.html

Since the passage of this landmark legislation, much has been discussed about what it does or doesn’t accomplish. Interpreting and implementation of this new law is a very big next step. Dr. Michael Marks, Chief of Staff with Norwalk Hospital (CT) discusses both the bills ramifications and it’s shortcomings.

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Patient satisfaction is a highly desirable outcome of clinical care in the hospital and may even be an element of health status itself (1). A patient’s expression of satisfaction or dissatisfaction is a judgment on the quality of hospital care in all of its aspects. Whatever its strengths and limitations, patient satisfaction is an indicator that should be indispensable to the assessment of the quality of care in hospitals.

http://www.the-hospitalist.org/details/article/256805/Patient_Satisfaction_the_Hospitalists_Role.html

Who’s Peeking? – Part of President Obama’s stimulus package is a plan to computerize all medical records in 5 years. Privacy is a key issue and may stall what hopes to save Time, Money and LIVES.

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What? Me Pay? – Poor Long Term Planning – a study conducted by Connecticut into what residents understandings and abilities are to plan for or provide for their long term care. The frightening results prompted the creation of a state website www.ct.gov/longtermcare is a resources for residents and others on what long term care is all about.

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Why Hospitals Want Your Credit Report – Are they meddling or do they have a good reason. Knowing who won’t pay their bills is important, cause someone’s gonna have to.

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Digitized Medical Record – Becoming more and more a means of containing information that may help to clarify information and avoid life threatening mistakes.

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