Posted on Friday, January 2, 2015

Helpful Health Care Links: January 2, 2015

Happy New Year! We start 2015 with no shortage of healthcare news you can use.

Our helpful health care links focus on a variety of topics — a report the high rate of influenza and the deadline for using health flexible spending accounts. We also include an article from The Dr. Oz Show with a quiz to discover your resolution personality. All are worth your time. And, as always, if you ever come across a healthcare story that you think merits more attention, please send it our way!

What’s Your Resolution Personality?

A new year is a time to make good on the goals we’ve been meaning to accomplish. Take this quiz to find out if your personality type will make you more likely to keep your resolution, partially achieve it or abandon it completely.

Health Plan Enrollment Numbers Show Importance Of Coming Supreme Court Case

The subsidies that the court may eradicate are helping a large majority of HealthCare.gov customers pay for their medical insurance.

This Season’s Flue Activity Has Reached The Epidemic Threshold, The CDC Says

Fifteen children have died across the country from influenza, as the number of states reporting a “high” level of influenza activity jumped from 13 to 22 in one week.

Deadline Looms For Spending Health Flex Account Money

More than 15 million workers have employer-sponsored health accounts, which gave customers a chance to set aside up to $2,500 in pre-tax wages this year for health-related expenses not covered by insurance. But these accounts come with a big catch: Often you have to use the balance before the plan year ends or you lose it.

Federal Funding Bill Includes Alzheimer’s Accountability Act

Congress recently signed a funding bill including the Alzheimer’s Accountability Act, enabling scientists at the National Institutes of Health to tell Congress the amount of funding they need on an annual basis to reach the national goal to prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer’s disease by 2025.

♦◊♦

Want to avoid unnecessary grief and expense when you get sick? Then you need this essential guide to the business behind your healthcare decisions. HealthSpin’s “Easy Healthcare: Before You Get Sick” ebook guide gives you all of the practical advice you need to take charge of your healthcare options!

Available for download NOW!

Posted on Monday, December 22, 2014

Talking Family Healthcare at the Holidays

The holidays are filled with friends, shopping, and being together with family you only get to see this time of year. And while your visit with parents and siblings should be about catching up, it’s also a good time to check in with your family about important healthcare topics. These conversations are often difficult but necessary.

Do all the members of your family have a Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare? MyHealthSpin’s Easy Healthcare: Your Hospital Stay provides easy and specific steps to complete before being admitted to a hospital.

A durable power of attorney for healthcare or patient advocate designation, is a legal document in which you name the person who will make medical decisions for you if you can’t yourself. This document is often included in your will or trust. That person, called a patient advocate, will only be able to make decisions for you in the event that you can’t communicate yourself. Your patient advocate can only make medical decisions. He or she won’t be able to make decisions about your finances unless you also give them that power in your will or trust. You can also give your patient advocate the power to donate your organs or your entire body upon your death.

Often, people do not like to talk about how they will handle their healthcare if they get sick or age. But finalizing these issues BEFORE you need to is the key. The holidays are a good time to discuss these issues since it is one of the rare times that many family members are together. Even if it’s only to get them on the family radar.

Do you know where Dad keeps his will or trust? Do you know what your Mom and Dad want done when they die? These are important topics to discuss with your family so there will be no surprises. Communication and preparation can avoid conflicts in the family and unnecessary expenses that arise when your family’s wishes are not known when they get sick or die.

So enjoy the holidays but also find some time to have the important discussions that are necessary to be prepared prior to an illness.

♦◊♦

Although we’d all like to avoid it, it’s likely that most of us will at some point be admitted to the hospital. Whether you are staying in a hospital for a happy event, such as the birth of a child, or are being admitted due to an emergency or serious illness, you should understand how a hospital works. MyHealthSpin’s Easy Healthcare: Your Hospital Stay reveals the easy and practical answers that only an insider knows.

Available for download NOW!

Posted on Thursday, December 18, 2014

Managing Your Health Remotely

Is your smartphone doubling as a health monitoring device? If it isn’t now, it will be in the future.

If you’re a high risk patient, your doctor needs to know as much as possible about your health…if you’re a diabetic, what your insulin levels are throughout the day or if you’re a heart patient, when your blood pressure rise and by how much. But short of following you around with a clipboard, your doctor can’t know in real time when and how your health changes.

That is until now.

Doctors are currently testing personal data trackers for high-risk patients. For example, an electrocardiogram is placed in the patient’s smartphone to monitor the patient’s heart as he or she goes about his or her day. That real-time data is then downloaded by the doctor who can then use it to determine the best treatment for the patient.

Information is a doctor’s best friend and these emerging technologies maximize the amount of information a doctor has to make the right decisions about your care Right now, mobile apps, scales, and activity trackers gather all kinds of data that you can use to live a healthy life. The next generation of devices will allow healthcare providers to to take that to the next level.

As with all new technology, a few hurdles will have to be overcome before these devices become commonplace:

1) Patient Ability: These next-generation devices will have to be “patient friendly.” If it’s overly complicated or requires too much time or work on the part of the patient, the device won’t be successful.

2) No FDA Approval: Many of these new technologies are not approved by the FDA, which monitors medical devices.

3) Privacy: There is always a concern that any device that utilizes the internet may not be secure and meet the necessary privacy standards.

These concerns among others are being addressed as the various technologies are being developed. What’s more, you may soon be able to automatically download your health-monitoring data directly into your medical record at your doctor’s office.

♦◊♦

Want to avoid unnecessary grief and expense when you get sick? Then you need this essential guide to the business behind your healthcare decisions. MyHealthSpin’s “Easy Healthcare: Before You Get Sick” ebook guide gives you all of the practical advice you need to take charge of your healthcare options!

Available for download NOW!