Insurers To Patients Heal Thyself Or Pay

Sticking the critically ill with a hefty tab for expensive medications is enough to turn my stomach. But the practice may become widespread among health-insurance companies.

Insurers are embracing new pricing plans for drugs that typically require patients to pay between 20% and 33% of certain high-price medications, according to a report by The New York Times. The plans often require that patients suffering from serious afflictions such as hepatitis C and cancer shell out thousands of dollars, instead of predetermined co-pay amounts.

One such drug, Copaxone, developed by Teva Pharmaceutical(TEVA - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) in Israel, Mental Health is a treatment option for multiple sclerosis patients.

Why shortchange the seriously ill? Apparently, insurers want to keep premiums down. Requiring patients to fork over significant cash to treat a life-threatening illness, however, defeats the purpose of health insurance.

Health insurance premiums for employers increased by 6.1% in 2007 -- two times the rate of inflation, according to the National Coalition on Healthcare, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit health-care advocacy group. The increase parallels the rise in national health expenditures, which were expected to rise 6.9% last year.

It seems that many Americans -- and their employers -- pay more every year to reap less. Sure, there may be coverage for the more predictable medical expenses such as preventive care, childbirth and perhaps an appendectomy. The emerging trend in drug coverage, however, is disturbing evidence of diminishing coverage for Americans who need it most -- and who are, perhaps, the least capable of fighting back.

Medical expenses seem to consume more of my family's bottom line every year. That's scary, because my family enjoys the best situation possible. We're a healthy bunch with good coverage under a free employer-sponsored plan. But our coverage has changed over the years, due to rising, employer-funded premiums.

We once enjoyed the former gold standard -- Mental Health a fee-for-service service plan under which we could freely choose our medical providers, visit specialists without referrals and reap 80% coverage for allowable expenses. A "point of service" plan ultimately replaced that coverage. We choose from a network of physicians, whom we can see for nominal co-pays, or we can visit out-of-network doctors, which are typically covered at 70%.

I've never allowed the lure of inexpensive co-pays to dictate the selection of my family's medical professionals. That's especially true when it comes to my children. They see an out-of-network pediatric group that doesn't accept insurance. Some people have gasped when I've mentioned this -- Mental Health and erroneously assumed that the doctors were unreasonable ogres.

But their insistence on steering clear of insurance companies has meant superior care for my children. It's an office where people remember my name, take their time while speaking with me, and make recommendations based on medical protocol -- not whether we've exceeded a limit for strep tests. As for payment, I write a check and submit the bill to my insurance, just like my mother did upon visiting my old-fashioned childhood pediatrician.

Mental Health It's always a bonus when my favorite physicians are in-network providers. But I'm also resigned to pay the 30% in some circumstances. The latter option, however, requires me to weigh risks and benefits. For example, if my "out of network" physician discovers a problem that may someday be the onset of a major illness, my family could be stuck with less generous "out of network" insurance reimbursements throughout the process.

In a perfect world, none of us would have to contemplate how to get the most for our health care bucks, or contemplate financial devastation due to illness. Choosing medical services requires far more serious considerations than buying bulk cereal at Costco.

Sex Workers Smell Corruption In Fee

Some commercial sex workers in this city have suspected corruption as official receipts issued by the city government for payments of smear test fee recorded only P50, not the P100 that they have actually been paying weekly since February.

“Even as some call us prostitutes, what we do is still work. Who made money from our labor?” a woman who wanted to be identified only as Jenny told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net).

The interview happened two hours before she went up the stage to dance, almost bare, before an audience of foreigners on Saturday night in one of the clubs at Fields Avenue here.

Jenny and the 10 or so women, as dancers, make P130 nightly. The dance routines last 30 minutes hourly in the eight-hour shift.

Doing bar fine, or offering sex through night clubs, get to earn them half of the rates that range from P1,000 to P3,000 for every customer. Jenny makes two to three bar fines a night to raise money for a cancer-stricken mother.

“Money is hard to earn so every centavo counts,” she said, ruing that male, female and gay sex workers have not been spared from what could be corruption.

It is the latest issue that has hounded the city’s flesh trade industry perennially suspected of engaging in sexual trafficking, illegal drugs trade and money laundering.

It is seldom that sex workers, estimated last year to be 25,000, have spoken against physical violence, health risks and labor concerns.

The P100 is either paid entirely by the sex workers or half by the bar owners. It is rare that bar owners shoulder half of the cost, Health Food it was learned.

“That’s how many kilograms of rice?” said Thelma, a waitress who earns P80 a night.

The P400 monthly cost of smear test or half of that amount is deducted from the salaries of the workers.

In the alleged collection scam, a maximum of P600,000 may have been ripped from the hard work of sex workers at Fields, at the adjacent red light district of Friendship Road, and at Area, where the so-called poor man’s prostitution dens operate.

The Inquirer arrived at the estimate based on the official figures of the Reproductive Health and Wellness Center (RHWC), which is at 480 to 600 clients daily.

The five women interviewed by the Inquirer all referred to the RHWC as “hygiene.” The former name of RHWC is Social Hygiene Clinic.

A recently retired bar manager, who heard the so-called irregularity from her wards, estimated the RHWC’s clients to be at 5,000 weekly, increasing the amount supposedly lost to corruption at P1 million monthly.

An “original” receipt issued to one of the sources bore no watermarks that local governments usually have for their sets of receipts. The absence of watermarks indicated that the receipts could be fake.

Dr. Lucielle Ayuyao, RHWC chief, said an employee of the city treasurer’s office is assigned at the RHWC and issues receipts to the clients. The Inquirer had tried but failed to reach that employee for comments.

Ayuyao confirmed that P100 is collected. The P50 goes to the city government while the other P50 goes to the League of Angeles City Entertainers and Managers (LACEM) as “organization fee.”

LACEM, she said, issues it own receipts. Inquirer sources said they could not recall being told that LACEM gets P50 as a share in the payments.

“It used to be that the (RHWC) collects P60. Only P50 is reflected in the receipt. Our girls didn’t get receipts for the P10,” the retired bar manager said.

Ayuyao said she or the RHWC did “not collect or handle” money from the smear test fee.

An Inquirer source at Fields said LACEM only gets P10 from out of the “missing” P50. The P40 reportedly goes to a group identified as the “Jojo Group.”

The Secret Link Sexual Victimization Came First

She was 13. He was 16. She believed their sexual relationship to be "normal." She was pregnant by 15, a mother by 16.

Sandra's story is not unlike that of many teen mothers. But it is similar in yet another crucial aspect. Before she was sexually active at 13, she was sexually victimized, she says, at age 7 or 8.

She is not fully identified here because she was, essentially, Travel Health Insurance a sexual assault victim and because, even at 32, this is still difficult for her to talk about.

The link between sexual victimization and teen pregnancy is well-established. It points to one way forward as Milwaukee works to stem a tide that gives it the seventh-highest rate of births to teen mothers in the nation.

But, first, why the link works as it does. This is tied up with that word, "normal," what 13-year-old Sandra felt about her sexual relationship with her 16-year-old boyfriend.

Carmen M. Pitre, executive director of the Task Force on Family Violence of Milwaukee, explains it this way: "Early exposure to sex abuse is not only traumatic; it normalizes the behavior."

Children 5 or 6 years old who are sexually abused learn that other people have control of their bodies and that sex is how they can garner approval and, in their minds, "love." So, at 13, 14 or 15, they are predisposed, Pitre says, to succumb.

A cousin who was seven or eight years older abused Sandra. It was inappropriate touching, full body, fully clothed. It had, Sandra says, a damaging effect.

She kept the secret, confronting the cousin only recently. There was no outing at the time and no prosecution. But there was guilt and, when her body matured, there was also this notion that having sex at 13 with her boyfriend was "normal."

This sounds contradictory only until she tells what she has discovered about herself through failed relationships, in which she seemed to choose the same kind of men, and through therapy. "I always had this great need for affection by a male," she says.

Marriage at 16 and two children later, she was divorced at 21. At 32, she seemingly has put her life on a good track.

Her story is illustrative of this truism: When what is abnormal becomes normal, harm soon follows. But Sandra's story, while fitting a statistical profile for teen moms and their experience with sexual victimization, also differs.

The relationship that led to the pregnancy, was, in her 13-year-old mind, "consensual." That, of course, has limited utility when it comes to teens - as a practical matter and as a matter of law.

Consensual? Consider these statistics:

Juveniles accounted for 73% of Wisconsin's sexual assault victims in 2001, according to the Wisconsin Office of Justice Assistance. Anecdotally, the experts say teens as a significant portion of assault victims has not likely changed in 2008. Slightly more than 20% of sexual assault victims became pregnant as a result of the rape.

Nationally, 42% of sexually active girls younger than 15 say their first intercourse was nonconsensual, says a 1998 study. Girls who were sexually molested before they became pregnant? Estimates range from one-half to two-thirds.

Travel Health Insurance In Wisconsin, teen fathers account for 29% of babies born to teen mothers. Seventy-one percent of the fathers are older than 20 - in 20% of the cases, the males are at least six years older than the girl. So said a Wisconsin subcommittee on Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention for the Department of Health and Family Services in 1998. Again, the experts say this hasn't changed much, if at all, 10 years later.

Had authorities, in Sandra's case, known that an 18-year-old man had impregnated a 15-year-old girl, it's extremely likely they would have pursued charges against the father. In fact, says Christopher A. Liegel, an assistant district attorney in Milwaukee County with the office's Sensitive Crimes Unit, a significant portion of their caseload is about adult males and teen girls. And in cases where pregnancy occurs, there is little difficulty successfully prosecuting these cases.

Liegel, who has been with the unit since 1999, sees a pattern. A "significant" number of the cases involve males 22 or older and girls 15 and younger. They come to the unit's attention often because a "mandatory reporter" - a teacher or nurse, for instance - found out about the relationship.

Sexual abuse previously among the pregnant teens he encounters is common, he says. And the girls perceive that they are in love with the older man who has impregnated them. The men, who often prey serially on teen girls, usually do not share the sentiment.

These girls fit the profile that Pitre of the Task Force on Family Violence offers. The previous abuse "makes them more vulnerable, and they don't have the structure to help them with their decision and the consequences," she says.

Sandra had a stable, nuclear family, and even then the abuse started the dominoes falling toward teen pregnancy. Now imagine, pregnant girls from low-income, single-parent families with stresses that middle- and high-income families cannot begin to imagine. The dominoes fall with heavier thuds.

But whether the family is low or upper income, not reporting the initial abuse is common, Pitre says.

Liegel bristles at the commonly stated notion that these teen moms are promiscuous tramps. In his experience, the victims of previous abuse are meek girls who have deluded themselves into thinking they are in love. It's love and attention that they crave likely because of that previous abuse, Pitre says.

Law enforcement has a role in battling teen pregnancy - as deterrence in the case of older males and young girls. But Liegel is first to admit that it also has its limits.

"By the time we get the case, Travel Health Insurance it (pregnancy) has happened. In a very real sense, it's too late," he says.

Pitre agrees. The question Milwaukee must answer, she says, is: "What can we do with our children and families on the front end?"

That is indeed the right question.Travel Health Insurance It means, in the schools, arming teens with the information that can prevent the risky behaviors that accompany and cause teen pregnancy. It means reproductive health education far more pervasively taught than it is now, particularly in Milwaukee Public Schools. And it means more programs like the Milwaukee Health Department's Plain Talk Initiative reaching more families. This involves teaching families how to talk to their youngsters about sex and consequences.

In other words, frank talk to kids and adults; law enforcement involvement where appropriate in the cases of older males and young girls; and whatever else can help build strong families - and strong girls and boys - in Milwaukee.

Yes, there is a link between sexual victimization and teen pregnancy, whose effects keep our cycle of poverty ever spinning. But, with the right approach and the proper funding, victimization need not be destiny.

How To Get Your Sexual Groove Back

I've received many e-mails from women asking about the LibiGel study. These are exciting times, but no medication (hormone or other drug) is without some risk. The question is how much risk. Before you "commit" to taking any medication,Womens Health it's important to discuss the risk/benefit ratio with your health care provider. Use your doctor as your primary wellness support network, not just someone you call when you have a sniffle or pain.

The short answer to your question about testosterone is that we really don't know the long-term safety effects for post-menopausal women. If you have cardiovascular risk factors (have a family history of heart disease, smoke, have elevated serum cholesterol, obesity, high stress and don't exercise), you should consult with your doctor. You might also discuss whether your current medications are suppressing your sexual desire.

Clinical investigatory studies for cardiovascular safety are underway in multiple centers.Womens Health It is very exciting that we will finally have long-term data about how testosterone impacts post-menopausal women with cardiac risk factors. These are randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies. Women will be exposed to either LibiGel or placebo for 12 months, and one of the study centers is in New Britain. After getting the green light from your doctor, you can contact Drs. Anthony or Danielle Luciano. .

Until then, there are a number of other things you can do to lift your libido. Eat healthfully. Get your weight under control. I know it's easier said than done, but feeling better about your body often translates into more energy and sexual enthusiasm. Exercise regularly, even if it's taking the stairs and not the elevator at work. Take a few moments to close your eyes, take a breath and feel grateful for this moment in time. If you can find an extra half-hour,Womens Health take a pilates or yoga class to get connected to your body in positive ways. I tell couples to "treat yourselves like company" (don't save the good china and towels for the guest). Indulge whenever you can. Get a massage or a facial. Have some fun. Laugh with your partner. Improving your overall well-being will do wonders for your sexual well-being.

Girl Scouts Of San Gorgonio Council Present Women Of Distinction Awards

Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio Council (GSSGC) named Ofelia Valdez-Yeager, chief administrative liaison to the Superintendent in the Riverside County Office of Education, as the top female leader in San Bernardino and Riverside in the health and fitness industry.

With a long history of work and advocacy in education, Ofelia Valdez-Yeager of Riverside represents a commitment to the impact of increased knowledge and cultural sensitivity on issues of health and health education. Ofelia currently serves as Chair of the Latina Women's Health Forum,amily Health Insurance a grassroots organization founded in 1998 to educate women in the Riverside area on various diseases affecting the Latina community. The Forum holds frequent educational conferences throughout Riverside County for lower income, Spanish-speaking girls and women on a variety of issues such as menopause, obesity and sexually transmitted diseases.

Ofelia was in the first group of EOP students to enter UC Riverside where she completed her BA and teaching credential. She went on to act as instructor and counselor in schools and programs throughout the region focusing on bilingual education. Her committee and volunteer work includes organizations such as Little League, Head Start, YWCA, Junior League and United Way to name only a few. She was elected to the Riverside Unified District Board of Trustees in 1992, making her the first Latina elected to the local school board.amily Health Insurance Ofelia currently works as the Chief Administrative Liaison for the Riverside County Superintendent of Schools.

"Ofelia is recognized for making outstanding achievements in her professional and personal lives that embody the Girl Scout ideal of courage, confidence and character," said Jessica Lawrence, the Girl Scouts chief executive officer. "Girl Scouts is the world's preeminent organization for girls and women. With nearly 100 years of experience, Girl Scouting has a long established history of leading the industry in terms of leadership development. With that kind of record behind us, we are confident in our selection of Ofelia as the top female leader in achievements in the health and fitness industry in the two-county area."

The Women of Distinction Awards Luncheon is scheduled for April 16, 2008 at the Riverside Marriott, 3400 Market Street in Riverside, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Event hostesses are Patti Cotton Pettis, executive director for Loma Linda University Children's Hospital Foundation and a member of the GSSGC board of directors, and Gail Guge, CBA, APR, managing director for Wilkin Guge Marketing and recently named Business Woman of the Year. For more information, please contact the GSSGC at (800) 400-4475 or online at www.gssgc.org.

The Women of Distinction program is a strong symbol of Girl Scouts' commitment to the leadership development of girls in the community. amily Health Insurance All the honorees have made a significant impact to their community by demonstrating the ideals of Girl Scouting. They serve as important role models in helping girls develop into successful and confident young women.

The Women of Distinction Awards Luncheon is sponsored by America's Best Cookies (ABC), Security Bank, Marketwire and Burgess Moving & Storage and is open to the public. Tickets are $50 per person. Proceeds support programs for local girls to help them develop to their fullest potential and become competent, resourceful women. For more information, call (800) 400-4475 or visit www.gssgc.org.

Online Registration Begins Noon Eastern On April 30

The Marine Corps Marathon today announced registration procedures for the 2008 event, to be held on October 26 in Arlington, VA. Runners from across the country and around the world can register on a first come, first served basis by clicking the link to registration on the MCM website, www.marinemarathon.com, beginning at noon eastern on April 30. The race field is limited to 30,000 participants and is expected to fill up quickly.

"Runners are excited about the Marine Corps Marathon," said Rick Nealis, Race Director. "They mark their calendars months in advance for the opening of online registration and its not unusual for us to register thousands of runners in the first hour after opening."

The short registration process includes accepting a waiver, completing the form, clicking through payment and receiving a confirmation email. Confirmation emails will include a runner's registration number, imperative to access e-confirmation cards online beginning in September. E-confirmation cards are required at Packet Pick-up, part of the Health and Fitness Expo prior to the MCM, to retrieve race materials.

An $88 registration fee includes all race materials, bib Health And Beauty, mock neck participant shirt, goodie bag, a three month subscription to Runners World, courtesy of Saturn and single use souvenir commemorative chip. Runners will also receive a free subscription to the online virtual trainer, designed by Olympian Jeff Galloway. Participants will opt-in for daily or weekly emails featuring training tips to achieve a variety of finish time goals, plus health, fitness and nutrition messages. Additionally, they may access an online training log and community message board.

Active Duty- Early registration for active duty military members (including reservists), and a discounted entry fee, are available on the MCM website through April 29. Runners will need to present their military ID at event check-in.

Registration Rally- Runners in Health And Beauty the national capital region can avoid the anticipated online frenzy and register early at the MCM Registration Rally at Pentagon Row on April 29 from 11:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. 1,000 guaranteed entry codes will be available to would-be marathoners. The fourth annual Registration Rally will feature food sampling, health and fitness products, giveaways from Pentagon Row merchants, live music and more!

Making Health And Fitness Fun

Live It Up Keeping Kids Fit is teaming up with Energetic Exercise and Colorful Eating Does It to hold this month's Healthfest as part of an ongoing campaign against health problems associated with child obesity.

Scheduled for April 27 at George Washington High School, the event will pit students of participating middle and high schools -- and their families -- Health Fitness in competitions focused on health-related activities in a variety of categories.

Winners will receive equipment for their respective school's physical education programs.

According to Renee Veksler, Energetic Exercise and Colorful Eating Does It president, Healthfest, which is possible through collaboration between the Get Healthy Guam Coalition and Guam Community College, is designed with kids in mind.

"This event is showing off all the different kinds of recreational activities because we need to get our kids more active and we want to do it in a fun way," Veksler said.

About 32 schools currently are registered for the event, Health Fitness but Veksler is hoping to see every school on the island participate.

Making Health And Fitness Fun

Live It Up Keeping Kids Fit is teaming up with Energetic Exercise and Colorful Eating Does It to hold this month's Healthfest as part of an ongoing campaign against health problems associated with child obesity.

Scheduled for April 27 at George Washington High School, the event will pit students of participating middle and high schools -- and their families -- Health Fitness in competitions focused on health-related activities in a variety of categories.

Winners will receive equipment for their respective school's physical education programs.

According to Renee Veksler, Energetic Exercise and Colorful Eating Does It president, Healthfest, which is possible through collaboration between the Get Healthy Guam Coalition and Guam Community College, is designed with kids in mind.

"This event is showing off all the different kinds of recreational activities because we need to get our kids more active and we want to do it in a fun way," Veksler said.

About 32 schools currently are registered for the event, Health Fitness but Veksler is hoping to see every school on the island participate.

Health Tourism Booms In Tunisia

The waiting room at cosmetic surgeon Taher Djemal's Tunis clinic is a busy place these days. It is filled with Tunisians, Moroccans and Europeans of all shapes and sizes. But despite a wide assortment of languages and nationalities, the prospective patients have one thing in common; they have all come to change their faces, reshape their bodies or fix a defect that has spoiled their self image. Many of the visitors are nervous, but three decorative paintings of Venus, the goddess of beauty, give them strength and hope.

Beginning with the patient's very first appointment, Dr. Djemal's assistants work hard to create a comfortable atmosphere. "We have to put the client at ease, psychologically," says anesthesiologist Noureddine Azri. "The stress he or she feels is perfectly normal and natural and our role is to answer all questions, even if they are boring," he adds.

The majority of Tunisia's cosmetic surgery clients are European women whose visits are co-ordinated by Tunisian travel agencies focused specifically on what has quickly become known as "health tourism". Three years ago, the number of health tourists visiting Tunisia was no more than 2,000. In line with Tunisia's overall growth in the tourism sector, travel agencies saw the surgery market's potential and opened specialised offices throughout the capitol and in cities such as Nabeul and Djerba. By 2007, 150,000 of Tunisia's 6.4 million visitors were health tourists, according to a January report from the National Syndicate Chamber of Private Clinics.

The concept of health tourism is nothing new; the British have long headed to Pakistan or the Philippines for cosmetic surgery. With Tunisia's debut on the market, however, many foreigners are now choosing clinics like Dr. Djemal's for their proximity and affordable prices.

Indeed, only a short flight from Europe, Tunisia appeals to those short on time and who want to save money. For instance, the cost of a face lift in Tunisia is 3,200 euros. The same operation in France would cost 5,000 euros or more. Breast enlargement surgery costs 6,000 euros in France, but if done in Tunisia, the procedure price is 2,600 euros.

Word that Tunisia provided moderately-priced cosmetic surgery soon spread to other European countries and beyond. Now, clients looking for an affordable makeover and vacation wrapped into one jaunt come from as far away as Sweden, Russia and the United States. Rym El Balti, a marketing employee at Estetica Tour, a leading travel agency in the field of cosmetic surgery tourism, tells Magharebia that the majority of prospective patients come from France, Belgium and Switzerland.

Approved and regulated by Tunisia's ministries of tourism and health, cosmetic tourism specialists can organise every aspect of a visitor's stay, from booking air tickets and scheduling appointments to arranging comfortable accommodations, usually at beach hotels, to allow patients to comfortably convalesce.

Former patients often advertise for Tunisian cosmetic clinics through word of mouth. "Many of the people who contact my clinic are people who have seen changes in the lives of a neighbour, friend or a colleague at work," says Dr. Taher Djemal.

A few years ago, Dr. Djemal says he could count the number of patients per week on one hand. Most of them were either from the Maghreb, he adds, or else they were "low-income Europeans" unable to afford cosmetic procedures in their own countries. It is a different story today.

Now, he says, "[W]e perform cosmetic surgeries on a daily basis after we have proven our worth in the field and after winning the trust of our clients, who [then] advertise our work through the word of mouth. Many of the people who contact my clinic are people who have seen changes in the lives of a neighbour, friend or a colleague at work." He acknowledges that "the western media, and especially the French media, plays an important role in marketing cosmetic surgeries in Tunisia, which put an end to the logic of 'North medicine' health club as compared to the 'South medicine.'"

Dr. Djemal recognises the challenge of facing doubts over his performance because he is "a surgeon in a developing country". He adds, "As a cosmetic surgeon from a South country, health club I had to succeed. I have to do this throughout my practice of this profession, in which the science of surgery is mixed with the art of drawing and psychology."

Growing recognition of both the competence of Tunisian surgeons and the country's good health sector infrastructure has contributed to the recent boom in health tourism, according to Abou Bakr Zeghama, president of National Syndicate Chamber of Private Clinics.

Helen K., who came to Tunisia from Switzerland for abdominal liposuction, spoke with Magharebia while recuperating at one of the hotels in Tunis' northern suburbs. "I feel as if I have removed tons of fat from my body. My life has changed, and I'm happy with the result," she said. She became interested in seeking her cosmetic surgery
In Tunisia after seeing the big difference in one of her friends. "She had a lifting that turned her into a young woman again," she noted.

Another European patient, Catherine M., travelled from France for a breast enlargement operation. She saw a French TV program called "Right to Knowledge" last year which featured cosmetic surgeries in Tunisia, she told Magharebia, and decided to get her procedure after hearing "reassuring and encouraging testimonies from many women" on the episode. After the program aired in France, she added, TF1 received more than 10,000 telephone calls from people looking for the addresses of cosmetic surgery clinics in Tunisia.

However, a Tunisian surgeon who worked and studied in the United States expects that cosmetic procedure costs in Tunisia will soon approach those found in Europe. "We no longer need to prove our worth," Dr. Amir Chaibi said. "Personal work is the thing that distinguishes a good surgeon from a bad one," he explained, adding, "The competition in the future will not be among those who offer the lowest prices, but among those who are the best."

Mds Launch Online Tool For Patients

Doctors may soon be tracking patients with high blood pressure or asthma over the Internet using online tools launched yesterday by the Canadian Medical Association.

The web portal, called mydoctor.ca, is geared to help doctors and patients work more closely together, especially to manage chronic diseases, including diabetes and heart disease. The secure portal also allows patients to input health information and lets them track their blood pressure, asthma and weight loss.

Billed as the first physician-driven Canadian electronic patient health record platform, experts say the portal will likely encourage patients to be more involved in their health care, Travel Health Insurance but caution that Canada is still a long way from having a complete electronic health record in the country.

"This is a small intervention. This is not going to radically change medical care or patients' health," said Walter Wodchis, professor of health-care finance in the department of health policy, management and evaluation at the University of Toronto.

Created by Practice Solutions, a CMA company, the portal will be marketed to member physicians and will cost $240 a year for them to buy the entire suite of tools for their practice. Right now, there are about 200 Canadian doctors using the portal.

It's not yet clear if – and how – physicians will bill patients since most online services are not yet covered by provincial health plans, said Larry Mohr, president and CEO of Practice Solutions Ltd., Travel Health Insurance at the news conference yesterday.

CMA president Dr. Brian Day said the web portal might help reduce health-care costs in the long term since it will allow doctors to better manage patients with chronic diseases.

"Over 70 per cent of health costs stem from chronic care," he said, adding he predicts compensation for online consultation will come as the technology advances.

"This could be an investment for them," Day said.

As the portal develops, other tracking tools will likely come online, including tools specifically for diabetes, smoking cessation and mental health, said Mohr, who points out the portal was designed to be as secure as online banking.

Scheduling patients online, prescription renewals and linking a patient's personal health record to hospitals and regional health systems might also be options, he said.

U of T's Wodchis said patients who use the portal must be vigilant about security and careful in how they input health data to ensure the tool is accurate and reliable. He also wondered how doctors will bill to use the portal.

Dr. Timothy Foggin, a Vancouver-based family physician with some 2,000 patients, started using the portal three months ago and said it has since become an invaluable tool for patient care and has helped his patients participate more actively in their health care.

And, he added, the portal helps save time in his practice because it allows him to efficiently monitor some patients without having to have office visits Travel Health Insurance.

For example, an elderly homebound couple does not have to come into the office as often because he can monitor them online with the help of their children, Foggin said.