My Greece Vacation

GreeceI just returned from an amazing trip to Greece. On my vacation, I traveled to Athens, Mykonos, Santorini and Crete with several wonderful girlfriends who regularly travel together.

Although I had a fantastic time once I was in Greece, it was extremely difficult for me to make the decision to go on an extended vacation abroad. It’s always difficult to leave daily life, work and children behind. I struggled with the idea of being away from my business and in a different country than my daughters. My friends convinced me that the trip was a necessity, and now I know they were right! I needed the trip to relax, unwind and enjoy myself.  My daughters were fine and my business was still standing upon my return home.

Vacations are so important for your personal health and well-being! People forget the importance of getting away from the daily grind. In 2014 in the United States, employees only used 51% of their vacation time and 15% of people didn’t take any time off at all. Recently, some employers have started to encourage their employees to take vacations given the many health and workplace benefits.

Vacations are good for you — they increase your productivity and they reduce your stress. Vacations allow you to unwind, recuperate, and feel healthier. People even have a reduction in cholesterol after a vacation and feel more satisfied with their lives in general after a vacation.

Given all the perks of vacations, where are you going this summer?

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Are We Healthier With ObamaCare?

Happy group of friends, family with dog and cat jumping togetherMany people disagree over the positives and negatives of ObamaCare.

But it is important to know some basic facts:

We are healthier under ObamaCare.  

“Hospitals prevented nearly 15,000 deaths and 560,000 injuries by reducing additional illnesses and infections acquired in the hospital, preliminary data from the Health and Human Services. That would mean upward of $4 billion in overall health-spending savings between 2010 and 2012.

This decrease is partly due to the government’s program which penalizes hospitals for readmissions within 30 days of a hospital stay for the same problem.  The decrease is also due to the increase in reimbursement to hospitals for better quality under ObamaCare.  2,225 hospitals were hit with penalties for readmissions in 2013.  Article.

This data shows that if healthcare providers are rewarded for making  patients healthy – patients get healthier.

In the past, payment for health services was based on “fee for service.”  Thus, each time a patient gets a service, the healthcare provider gets paid.  There is no incentive to get the patient healthy.

The new model for payment rewards hospitals for making patients better and they will get paid more.  This doesn’t always work, but we are making progress.

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