House Calls - Physicians Can Accept Credit Cards with an iPhone and other Cell phones with GoPayment

<p> If you are a doctor making house calls, this may have some interest for collecting payments, as it certainly could make being mobile a bit easier.   The <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SniXsNH_WWI/AAAAAAAAZRM/6zlUga6hxrk/s1600-h/image%5B8%5D.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="150" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SniXtiLOToI/AAAAAAAAZRQ/0WBHXe2cqHg/image_thumb%5B4%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" width="134" /></a>software is free but a usual contract to set up and monthly charges apply.  Other mobile phones can also use the service.  BD</p> <blockquote> <p>QuickBooks maker Intuit on Tuesday announced the release of <a href="http://mobilepayment.intuit.com/">GoPayment</a>, a free application for the iPhone and iPod touch designed to help businesses process credit card payments. </p> <p>The software lets you enter the amount to be charged and the customer’s credit card number. Once the transaction is processed you can either e-mail or text message the receipt to your customer.</p> <p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:eb1f48a3-1cb1-4d89-a19e-7a9cbe5f808c" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent"><div id="9210064e-d519-4bf9-a90f-d8d7e9ba438e" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucp5Z2ueM4M&hl=en&fs=1&" target="_new"><img alt="" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('9210064e-d519-4bf9-a90f-d8d7e9ba438e'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = "<div><object width=\"261\" height=\"195\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/ucp5Z2ueM4M&hl=en&fs=1&&hl=en\"><\/param><embed src=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/ucp5Z2ueM4M&hl=en&fs=1&&hl=en\" type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"261\" height=\"195\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>";" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SniXu30dKcI/AAAAAAAAZRU/miB3GOQTri8/video8bb5ce442142%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none"></a></div></div></div> </p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://tech.yahoo.com/news/macworld/20090804/tc_macworld/intuitoffersfreecreditcardprocessingappforiphone_1">Intuit offers free credit card processing app for iPhone by Macworld.com: Yahoo! Tech</a></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:33d84e74-4a66-4a20-a941-eb07916ffa59" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Intuit" rel="tag">Intuit</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/mobility" rel="tag">mobility</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthcare" rel="tag">healthcare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/credit+cards" rel="tag">credit cards</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/payments" rel="tag">payments</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/physicians" rel="tag">physicians</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/co-pays" rel="tag">co-pays</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/consultation" rel="tag">consultation</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/house+calls" rel="tag">house calls</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/gopayment" rel="tag">gopayment</a></div>

House Calls - Physicians Can Accept Credit Cards with an iPhone and other Cell phones with GoPayment

If you are a doctor making house calls, this may have some interest for collecting payments, as it certainly could make being mobile a bit ...

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Medical Capital Holdings Closed by Federal Judge – IHHI Hospitals Waiting Outcome

<p> If you have kept up on news related articles over the last couple years, this hospital chain has had nothing short of a “soap opera” of events.  Now with the involvement of the SEC things are getting a bit more complicated with the investigation of where the funds were potentially diverted.  IHHI reported to the SEC that Medical Capital was holding onto $12.7 million more than its contract allowed.  </p> <p>Lack of disbursement of funds to the hospital chain put a strain on receivables although they continue to operate without affecting patient care the article states.  In the world of finance today we keep hearing stories of such, even with reinsurers too, and the big question is being asked in many circles, “are the funds there” or maybe this could be changed to “show me the money”.  It puts a potential loss of physicians and vendors for the <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SniLQEGCcbI/AAAAAAAAZRE/oBPXuzAhhCI/s1600-h/image%5B5%5D.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="136" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SniLRVAsQRI/AAAAAAAAZRI/PfkJbQve9xo/image_thumb%5B3%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" width="162" /></a>hospital chain down the road if financial obligations are not honored.  BD  </p> <blockquote> <p>The legal and financial woes of a Tustin medical lender could spread to four central Orange County hospitals.</p> <p>Medical Capital Holdings – which a federal judge shut down Monday – defaulted earlier this year on $12.7 million in financing to Santa Ana-based Integrated Health Care Holdings Inc.  </p> <p>That loss threatens the future of IHHI, operator of Western Medical Center-Santa Ana and three other hospitals.</p> <p><strong>"Medical Capital's nonperformance is a huge issue," IHHI attorney David Robinson said Monday. "For the time being, things seem to have stabilized, but the company is very concerned."</strong></p> <p>The SEC sued Medical Capital and top officers Sidney M. Field and Joseph J. "Joey" Lampariello last month, <strong>alleging they defrauded investors.</strong> The SEC claimed they wrongfully diverted $18.5 million of investors' money and failed to tell investors about several defaults.</p> <p><strong>U.S. District Judge David O. Carter on Monday ordered the company to stop selling investments, froze its assets and installed a receiver to take charge of the books.</strong></p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.ocregister.com/articles/medical-ihhi-capital-2517114-hospitals-investors">Lender crisis puts four O.C. hospitals at risk | medical, ihhi, capital, hospitals, investors - News - OCRegister.com</a></p> <p><strong><u>Related Reading:</u></strong></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/07/ihhi-hospital-exec-framed-doctor-on-gun.html"><font size="1">IHHI Hospital exec framed doctor on gun charge, lawsuit says – Orange County CA</font></a></h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2007/10/ihhi-announces-completion-of-re.html"><font size="1">IHHI Announces Completion of Re-Financing - Orange County, CA</font></a></h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2007/05/doctors-sue-hospital-firm-ihhi.html"><font size="1">Doctors sue hospital firm IHHI</font></a></h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2007/07/chaudhuri-buys-stake-in-ihhi-hospital.html"><font size="1">Chaudhuri buys stake in IHHI Hospital Group</font></a></h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/01/larry-anderson-quits-as-president-of.html"><font size="1">Larry Anderson quits as president of hospital owner IHHI - Orange County, CA</font></a></h4> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:9e18b4ef-5aac-45da-967d-c4a0338d560e" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Medical+Capital+Holdings" rel="tag">Medical Capital Holdings</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/IHHI" rel="tag">IHHI</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/SEC" rel="tag">SEC</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/hospitals" rel="tag">hospitals</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthcare" rel="tag">healthcare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/investors" rel="tag">investors</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/money" rel="tag">money</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/funds" rel="tag">funds</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Orange+County" rel="tag">Orange County</a></div>

Medical Capital Holdings Closed by Federal Judge – IHHI Hospitals Waiting Outcome

If you have kept up on news related articles over the last couple years, this hospital chain has had nothing short of a “soap opera” of eve...

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HHS Sponsoring a “Code-A-Thon” to improve the CONNECT Gateway – Health Information Exchange

<p> This is an effort to meet face to face and perhaps work out some bugs, as we all know with software, there are bugs everywhere.  You can find a listing of those <a href="http://www.connectopensource.org/display/NHINEVENTS/CONNECT-Code-A-Thon">registered here.</a></p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SniDcnUfAuI/AAAAAAAAZQ0/dGJglCmNcKU/s1600-h/image%5B14%5D.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="108" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SniDeCIu7kI/AAAAAAAAZQ4/ZscxZU_m9Mg/image_thumb%5B4%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" width="387" /></a> </p> <p>This is an open source project and the software can be <a href="http://www.connectopensource.org/display/NHINR21/Release+2.1+Home">downloaded here</a> for developers.  BD</p> <blockquote> <p>The Health and Human Services Department will sponsor a “code-a-thon” Aug. 27 so open source programmers can meet to collaborate on ways to improve the CONNECT gateway, software that lets organizations access the Nationwide Health Information Network. </p> <p><a href="http://www.connectopensource.org/display/Gateway/CONNECT+Community+Portal"><img alt="image" border="0" height="57" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SniDe17xihI/AAAAAAAAZQ8/1nOGMCBEuEA/image%5B7%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" width="240" /></a> </p> <p><strong>A code-a-thon is typically held by open source communities so that programmers can collaborate for a day or a weekend on writing code for specific high priority items for an open source project.</strong> </p> <p><a href="http://healthit.hhs.gov/portal/server.pt"><img alt="image" border="0" height="58" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SniDf9HkSyI/AAAAAAAAZRA/1YsoYcqIyu4/image%5B3%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" width="240" /></a> </p> <p>“The code-a-thon gives programmers an opportunity to meet face to face and get to know each other rather than simply just communicating by email,” said David Riley, the CONNECT program lead for the Federal Health Architecture (FHA) program in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.  </p> <p>At the code-a-thon, programmers will be able to write code to improve bug fixes, adapters, universal client applications, security and development tools in the CONNECT application. There will also be a discussion of ways to use the development tools more effectively, the status of security technical controls and new features available through CONNECT, including source code control and bug tracking.   </p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://govhealthit.com/newsitem.aspx?nid=71916">In the News</a></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:f53b2f68-5b3a-494a-b0a9-705d26f511d8" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/HHS" rel="tag">HHS</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Health+IT" rel="tag">Health IT</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/CONNECT" rel="tag">CONNECT</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/programming" rel="tag">programming</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/open+source+HIE" rel="tag">open source HIE</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/software" rel="tag">software</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Gateway" rel="tag">Gateway</a></div>

HHS Sponsoring a “Code-A-Thon” to improve the CONNECT Gateway – Health Information Exchange

This is an effort to meet face to face and perhaps work out some bugs, as we all know with software, there are bugs everywhere.  You can fi...

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Congressional Town Hall Meetings Get Cancelled – Angry and Outraged Constituents

<p> There’s a lot on the table today and things are getting rowdy as citizens want reform, especially in healthcare.  This congressman feels that Congress needs to participate themselves in a national plan, which is really not a bad idea so everyone is involved.  Recently in testimonies in the Senate, <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/Snh2bY4MqnI/AAAAAAAAZQs/ZGEutL7iPic/s1600-h/image%5B4%5D.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="138" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/Snh2cpGteFI/AAAAAAAAZQw/ipIlUKfqGR4/image_thumb%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" width="178" /></a>angry doctors had to be escorted out too.  </p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/07/congressman-john-fleming-congress.html"><font size="2">Congressman John Fleming – Congress Should not be Exempt from Participating in a National Health Plan</font></a></h4> <p>Is the end of Town Hall meetings as we know them?  Chances are perhaps more will be held in a Webcam internet format, well for those who can either learn or have the staff members who can help them use modern technology.   BD </p> <blockquote> <p><strong>Reports are coming in today that Congressmen and Senators on Capitol Hill are so afraid of the ire of their constituents back home that they are canceling town hall meetings right and left:</strong></p> <blockquote> <p><em>Screaming constituents, protesters dragged out by the cops, congressmen fearful for their safety — welcome to the new town-hall-style meeting, the once-staid forum that is rapidly turning into a house of horrors for members of Congress.</em></p> <p><em>On the eve of the August recess, members are reporting meetings that have gone terribly awry, marked by angry, sign-carrying mobs and disruptive behavior. In at least one case, a congressman has stopped holding town hall events because the situation has spiraled so far out of control.</em></p> </blockquote> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.examiner.com/x-3704-Columbia-Conservative-Examiner~y2009m7d31-Congress-fears-voters-meetings-in-home-districts-cancelled">Congress fears voters; meetings in home districts cancelled</a></p> <p><strong><u>Related Reading:</u></strong></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/07/bill-gates-us-got-off-to-bad-start-with.html"><font size="1">Bill Gates – The US Got Off to a Bad Start With Using Computer Data – Healthcare Wasting Money and Needs a Better Model</font></a></h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/07/why-doesnt-anyone-in-congress-or-at-ama.html"><font size="1">Why Doesn’t Anyone in Congress or at the AMA Talk about their Healthcare – Do They Use Any New Technology Themselves, like a Glucose Meter or a PHR – Magpie Healthcare?</font></a></h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/10/will-greed-lead-to-meltdown-of-health.html"><font size="1">Will Greed lead to Meltdown of the Health System?</font></a></h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/06/senate-testimony-insurers-confuse.html"><font size="1">Senate Testimony – Insurers Confuse Consumers and Dump Those Who are Sick, a Wall Street Run System</font></a></h4> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:4369ecd2-01c5-4797-828e-2d7f2f0e14b7" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthcare" rel="tag">healthcare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthcare+reform" rel="tag">healthcare reform</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Congress" rel="tag">Congress</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/town+hall+meetings" rel="tag">town hall meetings</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/consituents" rel="tag">consituents</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/anger" rel="tag">anger</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/frustration" rel="tag">frustration</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/health+insurance" rel="tag">health insurance</a></div>

Congressional Town Hall Meetings Get Cancelled – Angry and Outraged Constituents

There’s a lot on the table today and things are getting rowdy as citizens want reform, especially in healthcare.  This congressman feels th...

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Where Are the PHR Mentors – Education Required as the Arizona Senior Project is Finding Out with Little Participation

<p>I am a big proponent of personal health records, and speaking first hand with helping my mother who is a senior, you need some real hands on help to convey the concept and help individuals understand the value.  If you just put it out there on the web with sparse meetings, it’s not going to have a lot of impact.  <strong>There’s physicians out there that don’t understand it either</strong> and I have experienced that first hand with statements to the effect that this is <strong>not important or my staff and I have other things to do</strong>, so again there’s one more area where training and value could use a hand.  <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnhwWlSa4II/AAAAAAAAZQk/A9KFJDWag2Y/s1600-h/image%5B8%5D.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="130" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnhwYNl1uAI/AAAAAAAAZQo/WlAzpv21XiM/image_thumb%5B4%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" width="148" /></a></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/11/cms-names-four-phr-vendors-for-medicare.html"><font size="2">CMS names four PHR vendors for Medicare pilot program and includes Google Health</font></a></h4> <p>Sometimes the tech folks seem to maybe forget there’s an entire area of society that needs help, baby steps I could say.  There’s been such a very small outreach effort in this area, lots of press, but press can’t fulfill the education process.  Perhaps when Microsoft opens their new retail stores we could maybe see some help in this area, education on personal health records.   I touched on the exact same subject when it was announced, links below.  CMS said they would like to see more involvement, well could they perhaps show some additional involvement themselves?  </p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/11/medicare-pilot-personal-health-care.html"><font size="2">Medicare Pilot Personal Health Care Pilot Program – Education and Awareness Needed</font></a></h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/11/are-electronic-and-personal-health.html"><font size="2">Are electronic and personal health records inevitable? – Sure they are but we need education and mentors to make it work!</font></a></h4> <p><strong>One other big part of the problem is the fact that we have very few role models,</strong> you don’t see anyone in Congress getting behind this either or anyone who is large in the public eye,<strong> maybe we need Oprah to sign up to make some impact or Dr. Oz to chime in to break some important ground here.</strong>  Even having someone like Mark Leavitt speak about how he uses a personal health record would be great, but again, no role models and so you reap whatever you put forward and sad, but this is the reality of non participation without proper and continued education processes.  <strong>Where are the PHR mentors and do they exist?</strong>  BD   </p> <blockquote> <p><strong>Arizona senior citizens have been slow to enroll in a federal program that encourages them to store their medical histories on Google or other commercial Web sites.</strong></p> <p>Officials from Medicare and participating software vendors acknowledge that a small percentage of Arizona seniors have signed up for the $2.5 million health-records program launched in January, raising questions about whether the one-year experiment should continue next year. </p> <p>"We'd like to see more involvement," said David Sayen, regional administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that oversees the government insurance programs for seniors, the poor and disabled. </p> <p>Medicare-claims data can be confusing for some consumers, particularly those who are not familiar with medical terms, Donnell said, adding his company works to make sure claims information is easy to understand</p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/2009/07/31/20090731biz-medicare0731.html">Seniors lag on medical-record plan</a></p> <p><strong><u>Related Reading:</u></strong></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/11/cms-names-four-phr-vendors-for-medicare.html"><font size="1">CMS names four PHR vendors for Medicare pilot program and includes Google Health</font></a></h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/11/are-electronic-and-personal-health.html"><font size="1">Are electronic and personal health records inevitable? – Sure they are but we need education and mentors to make it work!</font></a></h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/08/phr-vendors-and-testers-wanted-for.html"><font size="1">PHR Vendors and Testers wanted for a Pilot program in Arizona and Utah - Medicare Contractor</font></a></h4> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:98eefefe-fcb7-4989-9f05-7630c226dbca" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/PHR" rel="tag">PHR</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/personal+health+records" rel="tag">personal health records</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/HealthVault" rel="tag">HealthVault</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Google+Health" rel="tag">Google Health</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Medicare" rel="tag">Medicare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Mentors" rel="tag">Mentors</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthcare" rel="tag">healthcare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/medical+records" rel="tag">medical records</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/pilot+program" rel="tag">pilot program</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/education" rel="tag">education</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/CMS" rel="tag">CMS</a></div>

Where Are the PHR Mentors – Education Required as the Arizona Senior Project is Finding Out with Little Participation

I am a big proponent of personal health records, and speaking first hand with helping my mother who is a senior, you need some real hands on...

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Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Missouri Using Twitter and Facebook

<h4><font size="2">Not too long ago I posted about another division of Blue Cross scanning Twitter and you can read at the link below.  Now another division of Blue Cross and Blue Shield is going social.  I never thought about health insurance information as being a social thing, but along with everyone else, they are on Twitter and <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnhnGxJKjAI/AAAAAAAAZQQ/o3fPHfdfzvk/s1600-h/image%5B9%5D.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="122" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnhnHm0Nf8I/AAAAAAAAZQU/jWNpRxTi8wQ/image_thumb%5B5%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" width="137" /></a> Facebook.  On the prior post it was kind of interesting to watch the video on how one woman used Twitter and the client Tweet Deck to line it all up.  She stated she didn’t spend time on the phone, just put her complaints or questions out there and Blue Cross found her, so something to be aware of<strong> next time you have a headache, don’t post about it if you are not up to being “pimped” with either services or advertisements from Twitter or perhaps even Facebook as more and more companies are now scanning to see what is posted out there so as not to miss a marketing opportunity.   </strong></font></h4> <p>We are marketed everywhere we go today and perhaps everywhere we comment.  In a related story there’s another attempt to help consumers understand the complicated algorithms of health insurance and you can <strong><a href="http://www.bcbs.com/innovations/askblue/">read more here</a></strong> as relates to Blue Cross.  BD</p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/04/customer-service-with-twitter-blue.html"><font size="2">Customer Service with Twitter – Blue Cross Blue Shield Health Insurance Will find You</font></a></h4> <p>"At Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, we understand that more teens, adults and even seniors are logging online to tweet, network, or blog about their daily activities, likes, dislikes, among other things," said Dennis Matheis,president of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Missouri . "Tools such as Twitter and Facebook provide an additional means of communicating with our members and all consumers in the communities we serve in a way that's convenient and of interest for them."</p> <p>Currently, Anthem is piloting a program in which it uses Twitter to identify members  who may have questions or concerns about their health benefits. Twitter allows Anthem to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, real time conversation, and respond to each <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnhnIqARhmI/AAAAAAAAZQc/XnnvqcggmJQ/s1600-h/image%5B4%5D.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="143" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnhnKdBCOYI/AAAAAAAAZQg/GMLR-addKHs/image_thumb%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" width="127" /></a>tweet about Anthem. </p> <p>Members can follow Anthem on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AnthemHealth.">www.twitter.com/AnthemHealth.</a></p> <p>Twitter is also one component of Anthem's collaboration with Bob Harper from"The Biggest Loser" to provide information and tools to help members and people in our communities live healthy lives. After only a month since the launch, more than 3,500 people are following Bob's regular tweets with tips on how to get healthy and stay healthy at www.twitter.com/BobHarperAnthem.</p> <p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS150721+03-Aug-2009+PRN20090803">Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Missouri Harnesses Social Media to Interact... | Reuters</a></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:ad478802-f422-4a53-bd6f-1804266f60f5" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/BlueCross" rel="tag">BlueCross</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/BlueShield" rel="tag">BlueShield</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/health+insurance" rel="tag">health insurance</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Twitter" rel="tag">Twitter</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Facebook.+social+networks" rel="tag">Facebook. social networks</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthcare+reform" rel="tag">healthcare reform</a></div>

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Missouri Using Twitter and Facebook

Not too long ago I posted about another division of Blue Cross scanning Twitter and you can read at the link below.  Now another division of...

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Health Insurance Exchanges in the Picture for Reform?

<p> Many have tried and failed in this area, due to members going outside and negotiating their own agreements if they had a group that didn’t have as many high risk individuals.  That does somewhat defeat the purpose but in part this is what Massachusetts has done.  To cover everyone it’s down to <strong>biting the bullet and giving everyone coverage, low and high risk,</strong> as those who are high risk pay premiums too, their expenses are more than others, but again that’s what insurance is all about, spreading the cost over a large population so nobody is hit hard individually with cost.  As long as cherry picking continues and groups are defined based on expenses, its’ hard to make a winner here and California had just that situation occur.  BD  </p> <blockquote> <p>As Congress debates creating insurance "exchanges" as part of a health-care overhaul, the failure of a similar effort in California may offer important insights, former participants in the program say.<a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnhglCNuDaI/AAAAAAAAZQI/Dcr5IfqD8-4/s1600-h/image%5B4%5D.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="143" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/Snhgm1tWmhI/AAAAAAAAZQM/R46Da3d_fDQ/image_thumb%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" width="186" /></a> </p> <p>From 1993 to 2006, small businesses in California could buy health insurance through an exchange run initially by the government, and later by a nonprofit group.</p> <p>The plan was undermined when some businesses with relatively healthy workers bought policies more cheaply directly from insurers, bypassing the exchange. That left the exchange with a shrinking pool of less-healthy workers, forcing rates higher and prompting many insurers to withdraw. Managers chose to shut the program in 2006 when one of three remaining insurers withdrew.</p> <p>Among those lessons, he and others said: Employers and individuals who qualify must be required to obtain health insurance through the exchange. Failing that, John Grgurina, who ran California's exchange from 2002 until it ended, said government must impose rules governing rates and eligibility to protect the exchange from attracting a disproportionate share of high-risk people.</p> <p>Massachusetts and Connecticut have had more success. Massachusetts created an exchange as part of its universal-health-care effort; the exchange has helped expand coverage, although some business owners have balked at the costs, and state officials have worried about the impact on the state budget.</p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124925648163600125.html">California Offers Lessons on Insurance Exchanges - WSJ.com</a></p> <p></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:23490a0c-1557-4e09-aecd-eabe4117c235" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthcare+reform" rel="tag">healthcare reform</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/insurance+exchange" rel="tag">insurance exchange</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/health+insurance" rel="tag">health insurance</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthcare" rel="tag">healthcare</a></div>

Health Insurance Exchanges in the Picture for Reform?

Many have tried and failed in this area, due to members going outside and negotiating their own agreements if they had a group that didn’t ...

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A Semi-automatic Taser with 3 Shots – Are These Really Safe?

<p>Are these really safe with no after effects?  This is an interesting video with 3 volunteers, all women, who get a jolt.  Afterwards they are interviewed and talk about how it felt.  Again, I think anyone though with a heart condition could be susceptible to damage.  </p> <p>Why was this demonstration all women anyway.  BD  </p> <p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:a3514912-4f59-4bc6-8388-d8b05a5cb3ab" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent"><div id="0b0aa23b-f922-4044-a04e-9cfb3473a623" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7uTLLF34_g&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" target="_new"><img alt="" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('0b0aa23b-f922-4044-a04e-9cfb3473a623'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = "<div><object width=\"296\" height=\"222\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/S7uTLLF34_g&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1&hl=en\"><\/param><embed src=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/S7uTLLF34_g&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1&hl=en\" type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"296\" height=\"222\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>";" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnfIbkADstI/AAAAAAAAZQE/z_NNJZk1_bI/video4d90e7d66f3e%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none"></a></div></div></div> </p> <blockquote>Thugs the world over are learning to outwit the Taser. As long as there’s more than one of you, you’re scot-free! The single-shot nature of the air Taser has always been frustrating to victims, too: once you zap a fool, you’re done! No “and here’s one for your old man” to be had there. But fear not, Taser hears your cries (and the cries of those you’ve tased), for they now have created a three-shot Taser that allows for multiple attacker takedown. Or just three times the punishment for a single attacker. I see no way in which this could be a problem for anybody.</blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/07/27/because-the-world-needed-a-semi-automatic-taser/">Because the world needed a semi-automatic Taser</a></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:431002b0-6b9d-4ee2-8223-06ec931e4e7e" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Taser" rel="tag">Taser</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthcare" rel="tag">healthcare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/shock+treatment" rel="tag">shock treatment</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/semi+automatic+taser" rel="tag">semi automatic taser</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/test" rel="tag">test</a></div>

A Semi-automatic Taser with 3 Shots – Are These Really Safe?

Are these really safe with no after effects?  This is an interesting video with 3 volunteers, all women, who get a jolt.  Afterwards they ar...

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UnitedHealthcare To Offer Quicken Health Expense Tracker to 700,000 Employer Health Plan Enrollees

<p> The collaboration was created by <strong>Ingenix (who just received a <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/07/state-of-washington-awards-contract-to.html">big contract</a> in the state of Washington) and Intuit</strong> and the efforts are to help the patient understand those complicated algorithms that are used to determine what you are eligible for with your plan.  This is one more effort in shifting the responsibility to the patient so you know up front if you have money in the till and what has been spent on your healthcare.  It appears that pretty soon if you do not partake in learning some bookkeeping skills along the way you are going to be at a disadvantage.  They are not the only ones offering the software as you can read the post below from April. </p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/04/cigna-to-offer-quicken-health-expense_23.html"><font size="2">Cigna to Offer Quicken Health Expense Tracker, United HealthCare in Beta – Easily Identify Balance Billings?</font></a></h4> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/Snel89yZoSI/AAAAAAAAZP8/Npr5QRinC3g/s1600-h/image%5B3%5D.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="224" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/Snel-cV1kxI/AAAAAAAAZQA/o2sVHT06IA0/image_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" width="373" /></a> </p> <p><a name="2369247133474817413"></a></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/07/unitedhealth-to-spend-tens-of-million.html"><font size="2">UnitedHealth To Spend Tens of Million of Dollars with Cisco to Build Nationwide Telehealth Network</font></a></h4> <p>Ok so you will have your web cam visit and have it all downloaded to Quicken Health, right?   Oh and by the way, Ingenix will sell you an EMR too if you want to put all your eggs in one basket.  Ingenix is the business intelligence arm of United HealthCare with proprietary algorithms, in other words we don’t get to see or are not advised on how they work, like the ones Goldman uses for example on Wall Street, also proprietary.  </p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/07/wellpoint-blue-cross-and-aetna-profits.html"><font size="2">WellPoint (Blue Cross) and Aetna Profits Sink – UnitedHealthCare Profits Doubled</font></a></h4> <p><strong>Again, I ponder, is this an insurance or technology company?</strong>  BD  </p> <blockquote> <p>MINNEAPOLIS & MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(<a href="http://www.businesswire.com/">BUSINESS WIRE</a>)--<a href="http://www.unitedhealthcare.com">UnitedHealthcare</a>, a UnitedHealth Group<i><b> </b></i>(NYSE: UNH) company, is expanding the availability of <a href="http://healthcare.intuit.com/">Quicken Health Expense Tracker^SM</a> to help nearly 700,000 of its commercial health plan enrollees nationwide better manage their health-related finances and information. </p> <p>Developed by Mountain View, Calif.-based <a href="http://www.intuit.com/">Intuit Inc.</a> (Nasdaq: INTU) and UnitedHealth Group’s <a href="http://www.ingenix.com">Ingenix</a> subsidiary, Quicken Health Expense Tracker helps consumers organize and understand their health care financial information in a simple, clear way that will help them make more informed decisions about their medical expenses. </p> <p>Following a successful pilot program, UnitedHealthcare is now offering employees of select large-business customers access to Quicken Health Expense Tracker and expects to make it available to more than 20 million commercial health plan participants by year end. </p> <p><strong>“We are making it easier for consumers to manage their health-related finances</strong> at a time when these individuals are taking more ownership of their health care decisions,” said Mike Matteo, CEO of United Healthcare's national accounts business that serves large employers. “With this ownership comes a greater need for decision-making tools that help consumers simplify how they collect, manage and understand their health care expenses. Quicken Health Expense Tracker enables users to translate the oftentimes fragmented components of their health care costs into more transparent, usable information.” </p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090803005262&newsLang=en">UnitedHealthcare Expands Availability of Quicken Health Expense Tracker to Nearly 700,000 Consumers</a></p> <p><strong><u>Related Reading:</u></strong></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/07/connected-care-webcam-remote-visits.html"><font size="1">Connected Care – Webcam Remote Visits Explained by UnitedHealthCare</font></a></h4> <h6><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/03/ingenix-inquisition-hearing-requested.html">The Ingenix Inquisition – Hearing Requested by Senator Rockefeller</a></h6> <h6><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/11/prescriptions-risk-score-used-to-deny.html">Prescriptions risk score used to deny health insurance</a></h6> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2007/06/health-costs-push-companies-to-set.html"><font size="1">Health Costs Push Companies to Set Targets for Workers</font></a></h4> <h6><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/06/unitedhealth-ingenix-acquiring-aim.html">UnitedHealth Ingenix's acquiring AIM Healthcare Services in Tennessee</a></h6> <h6><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/05/united-health-care-says-cheaper.html">United Health Care Says Cheaper Efficient Doctors and Reducing Hospital Visits by the Elderly Would Help Reduce the Cost of Healthcare</a></h6> <p></p> <p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:a9a26efd-1c9f-47cd-9628-26f3272a0634" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/United+HealthCare" rel="tag">United HealthCare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Quicken+Health" rel="tag">Quicken Health</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/algorithms" rel="tag">algorithms</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/health+insurance" rel="tag">health insurance</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Ingenix" rel="tag">Ingenix</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Intuit" rel="tag">Intuit</a></div></p>

UnitedHealthcare To Offer Quicken Health Expense Tracker to 700,000 Employer Health Plan Enrollees

The collaboration was created by Ingenix (who just received a big contract in the state of Washington) and Intuit and the efforts are to ...

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Americans United for Change – Commercial that Takes on the Insurers

<p>This one uses Cigna as the example here with earnings and asks why the Republicans don’t want change.  I can almost bet there will be more to come.  BD  </p> <p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:47a98d07-c59e-4a82-b0b4-c336168e6196" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent"><div id="1dd2efa7-fbe6-4008-b11a-7b0258a6ac53" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULKJiRv-Lnk&feature=player_embedded" target="_new"><img alt="" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('1dd2efa7-fbe6-4008-b11a-7b0258a6ac53'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = "<div><object width=\"279\" height=\"209\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/ULKJiRv-Lnk&hl=en\"><\/param><embed src=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/ULKJiRv-Lnk&hl=en\" type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"279\" height=\"209\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>";" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SneaoO1mnuI/AAAAAAAAZP4/o9cBNyNd_0c/video1af9a003087f%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none"></a></div></div></div> </p> <blockquote>Remember this morning's articles describing how Democrats, in the debate over health-care reform, are going after health insurers? Well, the liberal group Americans United for Change has announced a new TV ad that -- you guessed it -- takes on the insurers.</blockquote> <p><a href="http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/08/03/2018083.aspx">Liberal TV ad targets health insurers - First Read - msnbc.com</a></p> <p></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:ae52dafd-3cda-434c-a6a0-fe41e9526256" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/health+insurance" rel="tag">health insurance</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Cigna" rel="tag">Cigna</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Americas+United+for+Change" rel="tag">Americas United for Change</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Congress" rel="tag">Congress</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthcare+reform" rel="tag">healthcare reform</a></div>

Americans United for Change – Commercial that Takes on the Insurers

This one uses Cigna as the example here with earnings and asks why the Republicans don’t want change.  I can almost bet there will be more t...

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Surgery to Become Taller – Cosmetic Limb Lengthening (CLL)

<p><strong> Vanity hurts,</strong> well in this case it does as this procedure is pretty severe.  Muscles, nerves, tendons, etc. all have to be forcibly moved in order to <a href="http://www.growtall.asia/grow-taller-quick/leg-lengthening-surgery-procedures/"><img align="right" height="212" src="http://www.shortsupport.org/gif/lengthening.gif" style="display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px" width="86" /></a>screw in the plate this type of surgery requires.  There is one center in New York that has somewhat become the pronounced specialty area to go to have this done, Hospital For Special Surgery in NYC. </p> <p>The surgery is not cheap and the consultation is a minimum of $1,000 or so.  The US has standards and to have the surgery here if you are female, you need to be under 5’3” and for a man 5”9 or less.  Other countries will operate on taller individuals.  This type of surgery is done to help those with bone problems, etc. and now it has evolved to the cosmetic level. </p> <p>Physical therapy, which is required, will set you back around another $15,000 or so.  You do need to turn the screws every day on the apparatus.  Websites are full of those who have had it done and everyone speaks of the pain, as they do break both your legs to do this.  One more thing, the procedure itself will set you back around 40k.  </p> <p>Additional Information <a href="http://www.growtall.asia/grow-taller-quick/leg-lengthening-surgery-procedures/">can be found at this</a> site as well.</p> <p>Russia is doing quite a few of these types of surgeries and one clinic advertises, the <a href="http://www.ladisten.com/index.shtml">Ladisten Clinic.</a>  A couple pictures below show the before and after, and I don’t what happened to his pants, you can see the same pictures at the site and more with others that repair bowed legs and other types of real problem issues that are not cosmetic too.  Before surgery he is shorter than the doctor and afterwards he towers over him in height, so I think this was the case of an “extreme makeover” here in the leg department as he grew a lot more than 2 inches it appears.  </p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnaCnWEIjZI/AAAAAAAAZPg/sdw8W_sove8/s1600-h/image%5B2%5D.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="240" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnaCpOYfhRI/AAAAAAAAZPk/-mnpexmsToo/image_thumb.png?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" width="161" /></a> <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnaCtDrb0hI/AAAAAAAAZPo/1n6hG7LQCGU/s1600-h/image%5B5%5D.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="240" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnaCwdNf22I/AAAAAAAAZPs/jmm1_Cy2pno/image_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" width="133" /></a> </p> <p>The procedure was actually developed in Russia and more about the device can be read here as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilizarov_apparatus">Wikipedia.</a>  Recently in the news a <a href="http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,,25399893-23272,00.html">31 year old lawyer</a> from Australia spent a lot of money for the procedure and 9 months in Russia before her return, will it make her a better lawyer?  </p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:f2b61578-b3aa-4231-90f7-a4a8c6022ad4" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent"><div id="45242597-1964-4b64-afd6-fb9f3e583f18" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6rUTlbaSkA&hl=en&fs=1&" target="_new"><img alt="" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('45242597-1964-4b64-afd6-fb9f3e583f18'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = "<div><object width=\"331\" height=\"248\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/v6rUTlbaSkA&hl=en&fs=1&&hl=en\"><\/param><embed src=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/v6rUTlbaSkA&hl=en&fs=1&&hl=en\" type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"331\" height=\"248\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>";" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnaCzNKJcCI/AAAAAAAAZPw/RH5v_kNpdIQ/videoae66be7691bf%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none"></a></div></div></div> <p>The Implantable Limb Lengthening Device will be attached to your leg during surgery. It has a telescopic rod that is inserted in a small incision and will<a href="http://www.growtall.asia/growth-techniques/list-of-world-wide-leg-lengthening-surgery-hospitals/"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="151" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnaC2Rj2KWI/AAAAAAAAZP0/DexF2kYP4Tc/image%5B11%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" width="112" /></a> be put in through the marrow of bone in the leg with four screws. After surgery the more movement of the leg, the more the growth is promoted.  The average lengthening is 2 inches, but some nuts have had it redone to gain more height.   This man here called Jack, reported back that it was the worst mistake of his life, perhaps not because it it working or not working, but the pain and recovery.  Like any surgery you are still subject to infections, etc.  BD</p> <p><a href="http://www.growtall.asia/growth-techniques/list-of-world-wide-leg-lengthening-surgery-hospitals/"><font size="2">World Wide list of Facilities that Perform this Surgery</font></a></p> <blockquote>Limb lengthening is a surgical technique that can be done to treat medical conditions or make someone taller for cosmetic reasons. The thighbones (not seen here) are sawed apart and an implant is attached in the break to add length to the bone. According to a Details magazine article, around 4,000 people around the world have had cosmetic limb lengthening (CLL) surgery. Apparently, it's an increasingly popular procedure for medical tourists who go to places like Brazil, China, and Egypt where the surgery is cheaper.</blockquote> <p><a href="http://boingboing.net/2008/06/17/elective-surgery-to.html">Elective surgery to increase height - Boing Boing</a></p> <p></p> <p></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:392baf61-c2a9-4214-bee1-f381825aaf7e" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Surgery" rel="tag">Surgery</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/vanity" rel="tag">vanity</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/cosmetic+limb+lenthening" rel="tag">cosmetic limb lenthening</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/CLL" rel="tag">CLL</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/orthpedics" rel="tag">orthpedics</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthcare" rel="tag">healthcare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/cosmetic+surgery" rel="tag">cosmetic surgery</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/bones" rel="tag">bones</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/surgery+to+make+you+taller" rel="tag">surgery to make you taller</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Russia" rel="tag">Russia</a></div>

Surgery to Become Taller – Cosmetic Limb Lengthening (CLL)

Vanity hurts, well in this case it does as this procedure is pretty severe.  Muscles, nerves, tendons, etc. all have to be forcibly moved ...

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Medical Marijuana In Los Angeles – Thriving and Growing and Users Don’t Mind Taxing It

<p>A good video from CBS News that looks at how the business is thriving in California.  In Oakland, everyone is happy to pay tax on legal marijuana and it <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnZ1V_piQlI/AAAAAAAAZPY/UzW6SZ2CTNA/s1600-h/image%5B4%5D.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="144" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnZ1XXsNCOI/AAAAAAAAZPc/0Cjei_bjZFI/image_thumb%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" width="117" /></a>could raise over a billion dollars in revenue for the State of California.  In watching the video, it is interesting to see the inside of one shop with everything from drinks to food to ingest your prescription for marijuana.   </p> <p>There’s even an <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/07/new-iphone-application-locate-nearest.html">iPhone application</a> you can buy to find the locations of legal dispensaries.  With some of the side effects for some of the other drugs coming to surface, it certainly is making pot look much less sinister these days.  </p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/07/big-marijuana-tax-widely-approved.html"><font size="2">Big Marijuana Tax Widely Approved – Supporters Pleased in Oakland</font></a></h4> <p>You do need to bring a “pot card” with your that shows are are a registered user in California.  BD  </p> <p><embed src="http://cnettv.cnet.com/av/video/cbsnews/atlantis2/player-dest.swf" FlashVars="linkUrl=http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5205364n&releaseURL=http://cnettv.cnet.com/av/video/cbsnews/atlantis2/player-dest.swf&videoId=50075144,50075148,50075147,50075142,50075146,50075145&partner=news&vert=News&autoPlayVid=false&name=cbsPlayer&allowScriptAccess=always&wmode=transparent&embedded=y&scale=noscale&rv=n&salign=tl" allowFullScreen="true" width="425" height="324" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed> </p> <blockquote>It's estimated that 14 Billion dollars worth of marijuana is sold illegally in the state of California. However, making it legal would bring in approximately 1.4 billion dollars a year. John Blackstone reports.</blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5205364n">Medical Marijuana Debacle - CBS News Video</a></p> <p><strong><u>Related Reading:</u></strong></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/04/change-with-medical-marijuana-laws-in.html"><font size="1">Change With Medical Marijuana Laws In California Has Opened Many New Retailers</font></a></h4> <h6><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/02/us-attorney-general-announced-plans-to.html">US Attorney General Announced Plans to End Raids on Medical Marijuana Dispensaries</a></h6> <h6><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/01/in-california-no-pot-cards-issued-by.html">In California, no Pot Cards Issued by the county, see you in court</a></h6> <h6><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/12/new-fingerprinting-process-reveals-drug.html">New Fingerprinting process reveals Drug Use and Medical History</a></h6> <h6><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/08/california-attorney-general-issues.html">California attorney general issues medical marijuana guidelines</a></h6> <h6><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/04/medical-marijuana-patients-face.html">Medical marijuana patients face transplant hurdles</a></h6> <h6><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/04/what-it-like-to-buy-medical-marijuana.html">What it's like to buy medical marijuana - Los Angeles</a></h6> <p></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:95ce06d4-fc46-4434-b483-3da1a74a6237" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Marijuana" rel="tag">Marijuana</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/pot+cards" rel="tag">pot cards</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthcare" rel="tag">healthcare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/california" rel="tag">california</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/medical+marijuana" rel="tag">medical marijuana</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/pain+relief" rel="tag">pain relief</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/taxes" rel="tag">taxes</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/pot+stores" rel="tag">pot stores</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/prescription" rel="tag">prescription</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/DEA" rel="tag">DEA</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/legal+dispensaries" rel="tag">legal dispensaries</a></div>

Medical Marijuana In Los Angeles – Thriving and Growing and Users Don’t Mind Taxing It

A good video from CBS News that looks at how the business is thriving in California.  In Oakland, everyone is happy to pay tax on legal mari...

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TrialX Mobile – Find Clinical Trials with an IPhone Coming Soon with Work in Progress

<p>If you are a regular reader of this blog, you may have noticed the widget on the page that allows you to easily search and find clinical trials from the site.  The software also works with PHRs, Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault to help you locate a trial that is specific to your health, in other words it saves having to rule out trials that do not apply due to either age, allergies, etc. so it is a big time saver and will connect the patient with an investigator almost immediately.  </p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/06/clinical-trials-widget-on-medical-quack.html"><font size="2">Clinical Trials Widget on the Medical Quack – Find Trials on Twitter Too</font></a></h4> <p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:ebf61c8d-789e-4477-aad8-384994b0bbf1" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent"><div id="a9af5b20-6445-4024-9637-2a18141982ca" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plDJSL6NJXA&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" target="_new"><img alt="" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('a9af5b20-6445-4024-9637-2a18141982ca'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = "<div><object width=\"316\" height=\"237\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/plDJSL6NJXA&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1&hl=en\"><\/param><embed src=\"http://www.youtube.com/v/plDJSL6NJXA&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1&hl=en\" type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"316\" height=\"237\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>";" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnYHyzZDFJI/AAAAAAAAZPQ/QAXBfTUuqMQ/videodb7d92e173fc%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none"></a></div></div></div> </p> <p>You can read below on how TrialX works with Google Health and HealthVault.  </p> <p><a href="https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=health&nui=1&continue=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fhealth%2Fp%2F&followup=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fhealth%2Fp%2F&rm=hide"><img height="38" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/DucknetServices/SGRPjPR9NVI/AAAAAAAAH30/dA55nv_qrf4/googlehealth%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="95" /></a> <a href="http://www.healthvault.com/"><img height="40" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/DucknetServices/SM3q6TdZm-I/AAAAAAAAI90/u04OgRqDvPI/image%5B14%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="96" /></a></p> <p><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/11/clinical-trials-in-us-begin-involving.html"><font size="2">Clinical Trials in the US – Begin involving the physicians and patients at the point of care to achieve greater success and participation with Personal Health Records</font></a></p> <p>In addition, you can also find the widget on the <a href="http://www.heroesandsurvivors.com/clinical-trials/">Blog of Heroes and Survivors,</a> those who have battled cancer.  BD</p> <p><a href="http://www.heroesandsurvivors.com/clinical-trials/"><img alt="image" border="0" height="140" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnYHzxVpB_I/AAAAAAAAZPU/AzfUm03Hw_U/image%5B4%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" width="323" /></a> </p> <blockquote> <p>TrialX iPhone App allows doctors, patients and their loved ones to </p> <ol> <li>Search for clinical trials by location, medical condition or treatment </li> <li>Share with your patients, friends or family </li> <li>Call the investigator conducting the trial</li> </ol> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://trialx.com/mobile/iphone/#demo">TrialX Mobile - Putting clinical trial search in your hands</a></p> <p></p> <p><strong><u>Related Reading:</u></strong></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/04/tweeting-for-trials-trialx-wins-new.html"><font size="1">Tweeting for Trials – TrialX Wins New York Entrepreneur Week Venture Competition Award</font></a></h4> <h6><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/11/clinical-trials-in-us-begin-involving.html">Clinical Trials in the US – Begin involving the physicians and patients at the point of care to achieve greater success and participation with Personal Health Records</a></h6> <h6><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/03/clinical-trials-in-us-running-low-on.html">Clinical Trials in the US Running Low on Patients – Need to Integrate EHRS and PHRs in the Process</a></h6> <h6><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/01/trialxorg-clinical-investigator-sign-up.html">TrialX.org – Clinical Investigator Sign up Now Available – Integrates with HealthVault and Google Health PHRs to locate available clinical trials based on health records</a></h6> <h6><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/12/clinical-trials-and-personal-health.html">Clinical Trials and Personal Health Records – New Resources on the Medical Quack</a></h6> <h6><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/11/clinical-trials-in-us-begin-involving.html">Clinical Trials in the US – Begin involving the physicians and patients at the point of care to achieve greater success and participation with Personal Health Records</a></h6> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:7a7ba5ad-2341-4e45-bb6c-7a0afc8eb905" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/TrialX.org" rel="tag">TrialX.org</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/clinical+trials" rel="tag">clinical trials</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/iPhone" rel="tag">iPhone</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthcare" rel="tag">healthcare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/technology" rel="tag">technology</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/PHR" rel="tag">PHR</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/personal+health+records" rel="tag">personal health records</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/HeathVault" rel="tag">HeathVault</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Google+Health" rel="tag">Google Health</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/mobility" rel="tag">mobility</a></div>

TrialX Mobile – Find Clinical Trials with an IPhone Coming Soon with Work in Progress

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you may have noticed the widget on the page that allows you to easily search and find clinical tri...

Read more »

YouSendIt for Outlook – Built in Secure Sending of Large Attachments with Email

<p>This is a great add on for Outlook, <strong><a href="https://www.yousendit.com/">YouSendIt,</a></strong> and I use it when I have those occasional large files to send.  You can enroll in the free program or pay if you need  <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnX5vsl9AeI/AAAAAAAAZOQ/G5pWZjlODME/s1600-h/image%5B12%5D.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="111" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnX5warWgMI/AAAAAAAAZOU/rHQCRQFAaeY/image_thumb%5B6%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: 0px" title="image" width="124" /></a>the capabilities for even larger attachments.  It’s like having a built in FTP program in Outlook and you can set your preferences to ask when sending or if you like, have all your attachments go via the program.  If you have the capacity and depending on the size of the folder, you can send an entire Outlook folder too.  </p> <p>This is what is seen at the recipient end with using Outlook.<strong>  If you are a physician and need to send Word documents that need secure transmission and your email is not encrypted, like using the free version of Yahoo for example, sign up for this to have SSL protection on those documents and don't’ sent HIPAA covered documents as an attachment without protection.  </strong></p> <p>There’s an <strong><a href="http://www.yousendit.com/cms/iphone">iPhone version</a></strong> you can download as well.  </p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnX5w8zRNxI/AAAAAAAAZOY/we0E0_Dheog/s1600-h/image%5B16%5D.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="103" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnX5x3d8YpI/AAAAAAAAZOc/Nu45GdMJjIA/image_thumb%5B8%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" width="348" /></a> </p> <p>The link in the email takes me here, so their server to download so the recipient does not need an account to download.  If you purchase an account, the downloads can to up to 2gb.  </p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnX5yVyl1cI/AAAAAAAAZOg/dWe-BWk4WeI/s1600-h/image%5B21%5D.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="100" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnX5zCKhwOI/AAAAAAAAZOk/tG9AW4-wId0/image_thumb%5B11%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" width="352" /></a> </p> <p> <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnX50NcNv8I/AAAAAAAAZOo/O0eLSDaGcT8/s1600-h/image%5B38%5D.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="254" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnX51YOSV7I/AAAAAAAAZOs/e-wpye29geQ/image_thumb%5B22%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" width="246" /></a> </p> <p>This is how it integrates with Microsoft Office, a Word Document for example.  </p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnX53CVpb8I/AAAAAAAAZOw/Jf3yNfUqgHE/s1600-h/image%5B37%5D.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="260" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnX54ronSBI/AAAAAAAAZO0/pBNMkYC43YI/image_thumb%5B21%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" width="243" /></a> </p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnX56wlDREI/AAAAAAAAZO4/P17jW8Yvd9I/s1600-h/image%5B7%5D.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="138" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnX574VH4HI/AAAAAAAAZO8/_dtb4rCxRhQ/image_thumb%5B3%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" width="345" /></a> </p> <p>If you do work beyond Outlook, here’s a few more desktop programs YouSendIt will integrate with.  This makes it easier than having an FTP client set up to securely transfer files too.  </p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnX59C86IwI/AAAAAAAAZPA/ElypTYQ1EAk/s1600-h/image%5B36%5D.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="253" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnX5-T180qI/AAAAAAAAZPE/eBb8P3LLMxU/image_thumb%5B20%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" width="233" /></a> </p> <p>If you don’t want to integrate with other applications, there’s the basic desktop software for download, but in today’s age, I integrate everything were I can to save time.  In the related reading below I have listed some prior posts with other helpful Outlook add ons and most are free or have a freeware version, which is pretty much what I use as an individual.  Outlook is my individual CRM with all these add ons and they all work together well, so why do things the hard hard way, and again if your are an MD, look at the attachment program here seriously if you send HIPAA covered information.  BD</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnX6AevqN5I/AAAAAAAAZPI/BgO4OjHhlO8/s1600-h/image%5B35%5D.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="176" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnX6BxsG-FI/AAAAAAAAZPM/whh8pyfCq5Y/image_thumb%5B19%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" width="240" /></a> </p> <p><a href="http://www.yousendit.com/cms/applications">YouSendIt Plug-ins and Applications | YouSendIt</a></p> <p><strong><u>Other Related Outlook AddIns:</u></strong></p> <p></p> <p><a href="http://on10.net/blogs/sarahintampa/Email-Entire-Folders-in-Outlook-with-New-YouSendIt-Plugin/"><font size="1"><strong></strong></font></a></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/06/outlook-add-ins-map-your-calendar.html"><font size="1">Outlook Add Ins – Map Your Calendar Meetings, Events and Contacts in Outlook 2007</font></a> <p></p> <h6><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/04/outlook-twitter-and-facebook-add-ins.html">Outlook Twitter and FaceBook Add Ins and a couple more useful free utilities…</a></h6> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/01/zoom-zipi-add-in-for-microsoft-outlook.html"><font size="1">Zoom (ZIPI) Add in for Microsoft Outlook – Zoom Address Book in Outlook</font></a></h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/05/sms-link-for-outlook-2007-free-service.html"><font size="1">SMS Link for Outlook 2007 – A Free Service to get Text Messages Sent to your Cell Phone from Outlook</font></a></h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/08/tablet-pc-software-teo-30-is-now-free.html"><font size="1">Tablet PC Software - TEO 3.0 Is Now Free for Outlook</font></a></h4> <p><a href="http://www.gottabemobile.com/Tablet+Enhancements+For+Outlook+30+Inkshow.aspx"><font size="1"><img alt="image" border="0" height="67" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/DucknetServices/SJ82utJeaZI/AAAAAAAAIdE/fMe4KWW0Q0Q/image%5B14%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px" width="208" /></font></a></p> <p><strong><u><font color="#669966" size="1"></font></u></strong></p> <p><strong><u><font color="#669966" size="1"></font></u></strong></p> <p><strong><u><font color="#669966" size="1"></font></u></strong></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/05/xobni-for-outlook-plug-in-outstanding.html"><font size="1">Xobni for Outlook Plug In - Outstanding!</font></a></h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/03/linkedin-tools-outlook-toolbar.html"><font size="1">LinkedIn Tools: Outlook Toolbar</font></a></h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2007/02/quickbooks-contact-synch-for-outlook.html"><font size="1">QuickBooks Contact Synch for Outlook</font></a></h4> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:781f5f53-5f57-487b-a6b4-09548d8b176b" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Outlook" rel="tag">Outlook</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Addons" rel="tag">Addons</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/YouSendIt" rel="tag">YouSendIt</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/FTP" rel="tag">FTP</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Microsoft+Office" rel="tag">Microsoft Office</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Healthcare" rel="tag">Healthcare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/email" rel="tag">email</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/email+attachments" rel="tag">email attachments</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/SSL+email+attachments" rel="tag">SSL email attachments</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/HIPAA" rel="tag">HIPAA</a></div> <p><strong><font size="2"><u>Hat Tip:</u></font></strong></p> <p><a href="http://on10.net/blogs/sarahintampa/Email-Entire-Folders-in-Outlook-with-New-YouSendIt-Plugin/"><font size="1"><strong>Sarah in Tampa Channel 10</strong></font></a></p>

YouSendIt for Outlook – Built in Secure Sending of Large Attachments with Email

This is a great add on for Outlook, YouSendIt, and I use it when I have those occasional large files to send.  You can enroll in the free p...

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Connecticut’s Stamford Hospital Selects eClinicalWorks To Connect Physicians - Software as a Service

<p>The hospital is offering the physicians an opportunity to use the software from eClinical as a subsidized price, thus making it more affordable and having the ability to connect and they are also offering the mobile solution to be used on a smartphone/cellphone.  eClinicalWorks also has the capability to connect with the HeatlhVault to allow patients to share information.</p> <p> <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/03/healthvault-device-connector-works-with.html"><img alt="image" border="0" height="199" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnXtBPlyOpI/AAAAAAAAZOE/JgvlsS1Cl50/image%5B4%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" width="373" /></a> </p> <p>Here’s one more screenshot from a prior post  According to the article, the hospital will have a ready made portal for patients.  Physicians can be anywhere and be able to access information through a secure sign on and have the ability to share with other MDs.   A few months ago in Orange County, CA <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/10/hoag-hospital-selects-eclinicalworks.html">Hoag Hospital also announced</a> subsidizing the purchases for affiliated doctors with eClincalWorks.  BD</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnXtDOvJZaI/AAAAAAAAZOI/gCYk-qDMLmI/s1600-h/image%5B8%5D.png"><img alt="image" border="0" height="279" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnXtFdZu-vI/AAAAAAAAZOM/wXj_EteTapo/image_thumb%5B3%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" width="385" /></a> </p> <blockquote> <p>WESTBOROUGH, Mass.--(<a href="http://www.businesswire.com/">BUSINESS WIRE</a>)--<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eclinicalworks.com&esheet=6016108&lan=en_US&anchor=eClinicalWorks&index=1">eClinicalWorks</a>®, a market leader in ambulatory clinical systems, today announced that <a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stamfordhospital.org&esheet=6016108&lan=en_US&anchor=Stamford+Hospital&index=2">Stamford Hospital</a>, serving Connecticut’s lower Fairfield County and a major teaching affiliate of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, has selected eClinicalWorks’s unified electronic medical records (EMR) and practice management (PM) solution for its employed and affiliated physicians. In addition to the EMR/PM system, <strong>Stamford will use eClinicalWorks’s Patient Portal,</strong> Electronic Health <strong>eXchange (eEHX), Enterprise Business Optimizer (eBO) and eClinicalMobile</strong> – all designed to extend the use of electronic health records beyond the practice’s walls to improve communication and access to real-time information. </p> <p>“We are very pleased and excited at Stamford Hospital to be able to offer our physician community a state-of-the-art electronic medical records platform at a subsidized price that practices can afford. We believe enhancing patient information exchange is an essential step to improve the quality and efficiency of the medical care we deliver,” said Andrew Snyder, MD, Vice President Ambulatory Physician Network Development at Stamford Hospital. </p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090728005372&newsLang=en">Connecticut’s Stamford Hospital Selects eClinicalWorks EMR/PM System and eEHX for Community Interoperability</a></p> <p><strong><u>Related Reading:</u></strong></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/04/sam-club-eclinicalworks-heres-web-page.html"><font size="1">Sam's Club – eClinicalWorks – Here’s the Web page…</font></a></h4> <p><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/03/healthvault-device-connector-works-with.html"><font size="1">HealthVault Connects with eClinicalWorks EHR, NextGen EHR/EMR Systems and more…Shop Wal-Mart (Sam’s Club) in the Spring</font></a></p> <h6><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/03/healthnet-in-indianapolis-receives.html">HealthNet in Indianapolis Receives Grant for EHR/EMR systems – eClinicalWorks Selected</a></h6> <h6><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/11/eclinicalworks-users-annual-meeting.html">eClinicalWorks Users Annual Meeting – Integration and the Future of EHRS and PHRs</a></h6> <h6><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/01/eclinicalworks-electronic-medical.html">eClinicalWorks Electronic Medical Records Scores with 2 new large installations</a></h6> <h6><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/11/tufts-medical-center-in-boston-to.html">Tufts Medical Center In Boston to Subsidize EHRs</a></h6> <h6><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/10/hoag-hospital-selects-eclinicalworks.html">Hoag Hospital Selects eClinicalWorks for Its EHR Subsidy Program- Newport Beach, CA</a></h6> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:7ab955a9-b73c-4a7f-8fc7-47bcd33ae240" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/medical+records" rel="tag">medical records</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/EHR" rel="tag">EHR</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthcare" rel="tag">healthcare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/eClinicalWorks" rel="tag">eClinicalWorks</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/hospital" rel="tag">hospital</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/stark+Laws" rel="tag">stark Laws</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/interoperability" rel="tag">interoperability</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/integration" rel="tag">integration</a></div> <p></p> <p></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:8ecf9643-919c-4fa6-9a33-5ff72828b6a3" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/eClinicalWorks" rel="tag">eClinicalWorks</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Stamford+hospital" rel="tag">Stamford hospital</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Health+IT" rel="tag">Health IT</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthare" rel="tag">healthare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Stark+laws" rel="tag">Stark laws</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/subsidize" rel="tag">subsidize</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/hospital" rel="tag">hospital</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/ingegration" rel="tag">ingegration</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/HealthVault" rel="tag">HealthVault</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/PHR" rel="tag">PHR</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/EHR" rel="tag">EHR</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/medical+records" rel="tag">medical records</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/software+as+a+service" rel="tag">software as a service</a></div>

Connecticut’s Stamford Hospital Selects eClinicalWorks To Connect Physicians - Software as a Service

The hospital is offering the physicians an opportunity to use the software from eClinical as a subsidized price, thus making it more afforda...

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Aetna to Acquire Horizon Behavioral Services – Provider of of Employee Assistance Programs for Employers

<p>If your company participates in a wellness program you could already be familiar with the company and the benefits offered.  It seems as if the <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnXmSlX7MgI/AAAAAAAAZN8/BtCXOiph_8s/s1600-h/image%5B4%5D.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="83" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnXmTbpfsnI/AAAAAAAAZOA/cJahkD-W6_0/image_thumb%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" width="123" /></a>insurance companies are investing in both providing mental wellness/illness services.   Perhaps some of the information analyzed is helping to create programs to somehow communicate how to understand the complicated world of health insurance too.  Recently the company also contracted with Jellyvision to provide visuals to help provide additional information in a different format.  As mentioned, this company is the same one who uses interactive entertainment in other media areas.  BD  </p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/07/aetna-personal-benefits-advisor-you.html"><font size="2">Aetna Personal Benefits Advisor – “You Don’t Know Aetna”</font></a></h4> <p><em>“Jellyvision is best known for its best-selling interactive entertainment properties such as YOU DON’T KNOW JACK and the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire CD-ROM, so maybe the sequels here might be “<strong>who wants to get a health care claim paid” </strong>or <strong>“You don’t Know Aetna”.  </strong>  They could always opt to make the plans simpler but that would be too easy I guess to just take care of patient health issues.”</em></p> <blockquote> <p>Aetna (NYSE: AET) today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Horizon Behavioral Services, LLC. Headquartered in Lewisville, Texas, Horizon Behavioral Services is a leading provider of Employee Assistance Programs to many mid-sized and large employers. </p> <p>The purchase price is approximately $70 million. Aetna expects to finance the transaction from available cash. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including Hart-Scott-Rodino anti-trust approval and applicable regulatory approvals in California.</p> <p><strong>Aetna will acquire Horizon Behavioral Services from its parent company, Psychiatric Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: PSYS) the nation’s largest operator of owned or leased freestanding psychiatric inpatient facilities.</strong></p> <p>Horizon Behavioral Services is the third-largest domestic provider of EAP services by membership with approximately 1,400 contracted <strong>employer clients representing over 5 million covered employees in all 50 states and countries around the globe</strong>. The company provides unlimited 24/7 confidential telephonic consultation, comprehensive online employee assistance program and work/life resources and access to a referral network of more than 14,000 licensed clinicians. Horizon’s clients include publicly and privately held companies, including Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and various not-for-profit entities such as hospital systems.</p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.euroinvestor.co.uk/news/story.aspx?id=10558972&bw=20090731005330">Aetna to Acquire Horizon Behavioral Services, LLC</a></p> <p><strong><u>Related Reading:</u></strong></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/07/aetna-and-unitedhealthcare-to-offer.html"><font size="1">Aetna and UnitedHealthCare to offer WhiteGlove House Call service to customers in Texas</font></a></h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/07/wellpoint-blue-cross-and-aetna-profits.html"><font size="1">WellPoint (Blue Cross) and Aetna Profits Sink – UnitedHealthCare Profits Doubled</font></a></h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/07/here-come-health-coaches-aetna-locks.html"><font size="1">Here Come the Health Coaches - Aetna Locks Contract with Bank of America for Health Insurance for 3 Years – Cigna Lines Up 3 Major Employers</font></a></h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/07/aetna-and-united-healthcare-secure.html"><font size="1">Aetna and United HealthCare Secure Military Contracts with Tri-Care</font></a></h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/05/aetna-web-site-data-breach-employees.html"><font size="1">Aetna Web Site Data Breach – Employees and Former Employees Affected</font></a></h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/11/aetna-and-costco-create-yet-another.html"><font size="1">Aetna and Costco create yet another prescription program</font></a></h4> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:50167a56-21d2-485e-8de0-b9ea266ff4a2" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Aetna" rel="tag">Aetna</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/health+insurance" rel="tag">health insurance</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/mental+health" rel="tag">mental health</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Horizon+Behavorial+Services" rel="tag">Horizon Behavorial Services</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/phsychiatric+care" rel="tag">phsychiatric care</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/acquisitions" rel="tag">acquisitions</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/wellness+programs" rel="tag">wellness programs</a></div>

Aetna to Acquire Horizon Behavioral Services – Provider of of Employee Assistance Programs for Employers

If your company participates in a wellness program you could already be familiar with the company and the benefits offered.  It seems as if ...

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Psych Drugs Gaining Widespread Acceptance – Study Shows Growing Number of Americans Like Them?

<p> This study certainly is interesting with publishing some consumer perceptions and the change of paradigms of where we have moved on with less <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnXfwGMtayI/AAAAAAAAZNs/m09uoxDOb0I/s1600-h/image%5B4%5D.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="135" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnXfxWsrSKI/AAAAAAAAZNw/DgOIplYv-Qg/image_thumb%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" width="150" /></a>effort on psychotherapy and just tossing a pill at a patient instead of working through the process of healing through self realization.  As stated, the old way, which in my opinion still needs to be available by all means, is not cost effective.  So have we abandoned working out issues with counseling and other psychiatric methodologies in favor of popping a pill?   </p> <p>The study also looked the effect of advertising with patients asking for medication by brand name, so if this is not an example of successful advertising and branding, I don’t know what is. <strong> We also have more items to diagnose</strong> today that fall into mental illness areas, such as restless leg syndrome, which is still questioned by many on whether it is a real disease or syndrome and leads many to question some of the diseases in mental illness, are they real or created at times to help market selected drugs.  <strong>The numbers are big, five times the use of antidepressants.</strong>  </p> <p><strong>Also, we are also learning about the side effects,</strong> so sometimes the <strong>cure may be more complicated than the diagnosis when</strong> all this is taken into account.  The study also wanted to find out if the black box warnings with side effects warnings were having any impact.  When you see a commercial with happy people enjoying life and smiling ear to ear over and over, well some of that gets stuck inside our brains somewhere along the line and maybe we forget that the black box warnings are there, <strong>so you could be happy and smiling on the outside, but your liver could very well be frowning on the inside.</strong>  BD  </p> <blockquote> <p>FRIDAY, July 31 (HealthDay News) -- A growing number of Americans now have a positive opinion on psychiatric medications, a new study contends.  </p> <p><strong>About five out of six people surveyed felt psychiatric medications could help people control psychiatric symptoms,</strong> but many also expected the medications could help people deal with day-to-day stresses, help them feel better about themselves and make things easier with family and friends. </p> <p>"People's attitudes regarding psychiatric medications became more favorable between 1998 and 2006," said study author Dr. Ramin <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnXfyKOWwII/AAAAAAAAZN0/I_bhVftk3Tk/s1600-h/image%5B9%5D.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="111" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnXfzZUHd5I/AAAAAAAAZN4/7xBiJDnb1hk/image_thumb%5B5%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" width="149" /></a>Mojtabai, an associate professor in the department of mental health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.</p> <p><strong>Between 1990 and 2000, he said, the use of antidepressants increased fivefold.</strong> Another reason is that the government has allowed direct-to-consumer advertising for the drugs. And finally, he said that <strong>he wanted to learn if the recent FDA black box warnings on some antidepressants and antipsychotics had any effect on people's opinions of these drugs</strong>.</p> <p><strong>Mojtabai said that advertising may have helped increased people's positive perceptions of these drugs.</strong> But, he added, there is also an increasing awareness that many psychiatric disorders have a biological or organic cause that medications may be able to help correct.  <strong>Today, psychotherapy often isn't affordable,</strong> and the <strong>nature of treating symptoms has shifted toward medications.</strong> When these drugs work -- for anxiety, insomnia, depression, mania -- they can be miraculous for that person. But, none of them work universally."</p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20090801/hl_hsn/psychdrugsgainingwidespreadacceptance;_ylt=AmBXuIc6enrVhwowz5sHXI7VJRIF;_ylu=X3oDMTNiczU4ZWp2BGFzc2V0A2hzbi8yMDA5MDgwMS9wc3ljaGRydWdzZ2FpbmluZ3dpZGVzcHJlYWRhY2NlcHRhbmNlBHBvcwM2BHNlYwN5bl9hcnRpY2xlX3N1bW1hcnlfbGlzdARzbGsDcHN5Y2hkcnVnc2dh">Psych Drugs Gaining Widespread Acceptance - Yahoo! News</a></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:1daa2d18-7c34-4ea6-bbb1-168c7f16e6c4" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Psych+drugs" rel="tag">Psych drugs</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthcare" rel="tag">healthcare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/FDA" rel="tag">FDA</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/study" rel="tag">study</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/psychotherapy" rel="tag">psychotherapy</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/anxiety" rel="tag">anxiety</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/insomnia" rel="tag">insomnia</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/depression" rel="tag">depression</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/black+box+warnings" rel="tag">black box warnings</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/advertising" rel="tag">advertising</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/drugs" rel="tag">drugs</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/pharma" rel="tag">pharma</a></div>

Psych Drugs Gaining Widespread Acceptance – Study Shows Growing Number of Americans Like Them?

This study certainly is interesting with publishing some consumer perceptions and the change of paradigms of where we have moved on with le...

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UBS in Switzerland will not pay fine in U.S. Evasion Settlement – Names To Be Released, Healthcare Bankers Leave to Work for Competitor

<p> It appears we will have some insight with which US firms have money in Swiss banks, or at least one of the banks.   What is even more interesting here is <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnXYT5xGSzI/AAAAAAAAZNk/LPm1JdbdCj4/s1600-h/image%5B4%5D.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="126" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnXYVV22cJI/AAAAAAAAZNo/AvXobAhRz8U/image_thumb%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" width="170" /></a>that in the last couple of weeks, <strong><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstateNews/idUSN1443600020090714">UBS competitor</a></strong> , Jeffries stole most of the healthcare bankers.  </p> <p><em><strong>“Last month, Jefferies hired away three dozen UBS employees,</strong> including nearly all of its <u>healthcare investment bankers</u>, in what the Swiss bank had called a "massive, premeditated raid."</em></p> <p><em>“Since 2005, the UBS healthcare group has closed more than $567 billion of transactions, bringing in more than $1 billion of revenue. UBS had sought damages and other relief.”</em></p> <p>Due to economic conditions, UBS in Switzerland is one bank who actually cut bonuses, etc., unlike what we seem to hearing here in the US.<em>  </em></p> <p>This could get very interesting with the competitor, Jeffries, with some of the accounts that could have moved to a new location, and the US has not announced any similar investigation with this firm, so perhaps the list due to be released could shrink when it comes to announcing the names of the biggest US investors.  There have been many items published in the news of late alluding to big pharmaceutical and other healthcare companies who keep their money oversees.  BD  </p> <blockquote> <p>ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland's UBS will not have to pay a fine as part of the settlement of a tax evasion dispute with the United States, two Swiss newspapers reported on Sunday. </p> <p>The NZZ am Sonntag and SonntagsZeitung both also reported that data of some 5,000 UBS clients would be released to the U.S. authorities. The two papers cited unnamed sources familiar with the case.</p> <p>Spokesmen for the Swiss justice and the foreign ministry declined to comment on the reports. UBS was not immediately available.</p> <p>The U.S. government and UBS struck a deal to settle a dispute over tax evasion and Switzerland's bank secrecy on Friday, heading off a showdown that had threatened to sour relations between the U.S. and Switzerland.</p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE5710I320090802?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0">UBS not to pay fine in U.S. tax settlement: reports | U.S. | Reuters</a></p> <p></p> <p></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:a2cb1e57-16da-4466-a002-b176b8e7ae8d" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/UBS" rel="tag">UBS</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Switzerland" rel="tag">Switzerland</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Jeffries" rel="tag">Jeffries</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/heatlhcare" rel="tag">heatlhcare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/investing" rel="tag">investing</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/IRS" rel="tag">IRS</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/tax+evasion" rel="tag">tax evasion</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/banking" rel="tag">banking</a></div>

UBS in Switzerland will not pay fine in U.S. Evasion Settlement – Names To Be Released, Healthcare Bankers Leave to Work for Competitor

It appears we will have some insight with which US firms have money in Swiss banks, or at least one of the banks.   What is even more inter...

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Osco Partners in the Midwest with Physician’s group for First Retail Clinic

<p> Osco Drug stores has it’s first retail clinic coming soon in the Midwest.  This is partnership with a Physician’s Group and will accept most major <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnXPgu2g-PI/AAAAAAAAZNc/wOnSdespZEg/s1600-h/image%5B3%5D.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="150" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnXPiOPcuxI/AAAAAAAAZNg/cGH9cnLBazQ/image_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" width="153" /></a>insurance plans and Medicare.  This is a first move for Osco and in the past retailers such as CVS and WalMart have been in the retail clinic business now for a couple years or better.  BD</p> <blockquote> <p><b>FRANKLIN PARK, Ill. — </b>Jewel-Osco, a Supervalu-owned Midwest chain based here, will put a Physicians Prompt Care Express clinic in its Orland Park store starting mid-August.  </p> <p>The retailer is partnering with Tinley Park-based, board-certified Physicians Prompt Care Centers to give patients convenient, yet affordable health care. </p> <p>Most major insurance plans, including Medicare, will be accepted at the Physicians Prompt Care Express, which will be located in the southwest corner of the store, adjacent to the pharmacy.</p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://supermarketnews.com/news/jewel_clinic_0731/">Jewel-Osco Partners on First Health Care Clinic</a></p> <p></p> <p></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:d4afd761-eda1-4e6f-80b1-b2e51c436a40" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Retail+clinics" rel="tag">Retail clinics</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthcare" rel="tag">healthcare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Osco" rel="tag">Osco</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Illinois" rel="tag">Illinois</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/physician" rel="tag">physician</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/drug+stores" rel="tag">drug stores</a></div>

Osco Partners in the Midwest with Physician’s group for First Retail Clinic

Osco Drug stores has it’s first retail clinic coming soon in the Midwest.  This is partnership with a Physician’s Group and will accept mos...

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A Model For Health Reform – Massachusetts

<p>We have seen several stories on how Massachusetts has been the first state to have success with insuring more individuals and this is a wrap up with a few opinions and numbers on how it is working.  Mentioned here is the fact that is has not been a cure to control cost and that is the next step, but it has done what the main focus was, insured more people and the state has the lowest rate of uninsured in the US.  </p> <p>It shows an example of one woman who paid over $700 a month and now is closer to $200 a month, and the no brainer portion here is affordability for the consumer, sure $500 a month makes it affordable for the consumer and can mean the difference of whether or not one is insured or not insured.</p> <p>As mentioned though, there is more than just consumer affordability; there’s the administration and affordability of the state to keep it going from the provider side compensation and the ability to find a primary care MD.  The wait has been one issue that has been a downside quoted in the news, patients waiting for long periods of time to get an appointment with the doctor and in some instances finding a doctor who will take new patients.  BD </p> <p><embed src="http://cnettv.cnet.com/av/video/cbsnews/atlantis2/player-dest.swf" FlashVars="linkUrl=http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5204308n&releaseURL=http://cnettv.cnet.com/av/video/cbsnews/atlantis2/player-dest.swf&videoId=50075124,50075123,50075122,50075121,50075125,50075126&partner=news&vert=News&autoPlayVid=false&name=cbsPlayer&allowScriptAccess=always&wmode=transparent&embedded=y&scale=noscale&rv=n&salign=tl" allowFullScreen="true" width="425" height="324" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed> <br />With the debate over health care reform raging in Washington, many who study the issue are looking closely at one state that has already tackled reform on a comprehensive. Priya David reports.</p> <p><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5204308n">A Model For Health Reform - CBS News Video</a></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:c567f951-d1e8-4837-a01b-7779ef79b2f1" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/health+insurance" rel="tag">health insurance</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Massachusetts" rel="tag">Massachusetts</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthcare+reform" rel="tag">healthcare reform</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/primary+care" rel="tag">primary care</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthcare" rel="tag">healthcare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/affordable+heatlhcare" rel="tag">affordable heatlhcare</a></div>

A Model For Health Reform – Massachusetts

We have seen several stories on how Massachusetts has been the first state to have success with insuring more individuals and this is a wrap...

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NHS Sees Value in Genomics and Starts Pilot Program to Educate Physicians

<p> It sounds like a small group, but if the study works well, it is slated to be expanded.  The House of Lords sees a real need for genetics technologies to be further advanced in healthcare with the NHS and view the the project as a step forward with increasing the quality of healthcare.  BD</p> <blockquote> <p>NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The UK's National Health Service wants to prepare its physicians for the changes that personalized and genomic medicine will bring to the healthcare field and has invested £4.5 million ($7.4 million) in a new pilot program to begin that process. <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnW98E1xqjI/AAAAAAAAZNU/1e8s90cf7M8/s1600-h/image%5B3%5D.png"><img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="129" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SnW99MKkP7I/AAAAAAAAZNY/hRCjr2pQ0YA/image_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" width="164" /></a> </p> <p>The goal of the new program is to provide enhanced training in genetic technologies and clinical applications for healthcare scientists working in laboratory genetics. </p> <p>Set to begin in October, the program will fund 24 pilot training posts for 12 trainee Healthcare Science Practitioners and 12 Healthcare Scientists in Genetics. These trainees will be based in a number of NHS genetics departments throughout England, and they will meet for national training events.</p> <p>The UK's House of Lords earlier this month released a report stating that the mainstream NHS is "poorly equipped" to meet the "increasing demands" that genetic testing is placing on doctors and nurses, and said that more training in genomic medicine will be vital.</p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.genomeweb.com//node/921347?emc=el&m=454233&l=1&v=821d957008">NHS Starts Pilot Program to Increase Doctors' Genetics Knowledge | GenomeWeb Daily News | GenomeWeb</a></p> <p></p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:ac94c004-8247-4bd1-a608-0cf56a7b2c96" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/genomics" rel="tag">genomics</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/NHS" rel="tag">NHS</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/healthcare" rel="tag">healthcare</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/UK" rel="tag">UK</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/House+of+Lords" rel="tag">House of Lords</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/England" rel="tag">England</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/physicians" rel="tag">physicians</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/nurses" rel="tag">nurses</a></div>

NHS Sees Value in Genomics and Starts Pilot Program to Educate Physicians

It sounds like a small group, but if the study works well, it is slated to be expanded.  The House of Lords sees a real need for genetics t...

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