Health Care Online Magazine

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Here are answers to your questions about home health care:

What is home health care?

These services offer a wide range of elder care solutions, from helping Mom change her post-surgery dressing to cooking a light lunch for Grandpa. Sometimes called custodial care, this option is ideal for seniors who require occasional help. Home health caregivers will ensure your loved one maintains as much independence as possible.

In addition to help with day-to-day tasks, some health care companies offer skilled nursing services. These medical professionals, often registered nurses, will, among other things, change surgical dressings, administer IVs, insert and replace catheters, and administer prescription drugs. These programs also may also offer physical therapists to do at-home rehabilitation.

If Mom or Dad is nearing the end of life, consider hiring a company that is experienced in caring for aging parents who need hospice services.

Is home health care expensive?

For custodial care services needed for caring for aging parents, the cost can be quite reasonable-especially if your loved one only needs help occasionally. However, the services can be costlier for those who need more skilled care.

While the cost of health care will play an important role in your elder care solution decision, remember that nursing homes cost about $70,000 a year and assisted living facilities cost about $36,000 yearly. That makes home health care a smart investment for many families caring for aging parents.

Be sure to find out if the company you’re using for your elder care solution offers prepackaged services for one price or if the rates are charged hourly or per day. Always understand the terms before you or your loved one sign any contract, and make sure you understand how you’ll be billed.

If you’re caring for aging parents, it’s always a smart idea to check with their health care provider to find out if home care services are covered.

Are they safe?

When interviewing a company who may help you in caring for aging parents, make sure they perform employee background checks. Also, look for a company with a low employee turnover rate, which suggests happier employees.

I’m worried about a stranger caring for mom….

Health care companies often assign the same caregiver to provide services for a client. When one or two professionals are regularly caring for aging parents, they can build a trusting relationship with your loved one-and that translates into better care. However, if your parent’s regular caregiver is ill or on vacation, a home health care service will be able to offer a qualified substitute.

There’s no easy answer when it comes to elder care solutions. However, if you’re looking for a wide range of professional services for a reasonable cost, consider investing in home health professionals to care for your loved one.

By Gregory Weldy @ ezinearticles.com

SOCIAL JUSTICE THROUGH HEALTH CARE

We hardly come across a person who may be fully satisfied with the health care delivery system run by either the government or the private sector. This is true not only for developing but for all the developed countries as well. Every law abiding, contributing individual has some legitimate expectations from the state. Disenchantment with present dispensation of health care compels people to seek better options across the borders. Even the present flow rate of patients from developed to developing countries has assumed the proportions of Medical tourism. Medical tourism is not a one-way traffic. Poor from India are known to visit Rashid Hospital at Lahore for kidney transplants. Medical tourism will definitely bring in world class equipment and services in our corporate hospitals. These corporate tertiary care hospitals can act as excellent referral hospitals. Lack of enough clinical material, as the patients are often referred to in medical parleyences is prompting the doctors from developed world into medical adventurism. Very recently two NGO’s headed by renowned plastic surgeons of Indian origin were in India, claiming to their credit hundreds of cleft lip and palate surgeries conducted in one week. During my brief interaction when I asked them one basic question that how do you justify single step surgery by a single specialist for a clinical entity that require 3-5 set up surgeries by 10 specialists over a period of 20 years, there was no answer. On record local doctors conduct all these surgeries. These NGO’s bring in a battery of trainee resident doctors for hands on training. Dumping of questionable services and drugs continues unabated in the absence of stringent regulations. Clear-cut up to date guidelines by health authorities have yet to be issued to safe guard the health interests of this nation. Most of the drugs banned in developed countries are still being dumped in the Indian market. Commerce alone dictates the policies of multinational companies in health sector of developing countries. State and national medical councils, the watch dogs of our national health interests are controlled by elected representatives from among the doctors. Competitive populism for being elected to these high offices takes away the very sting off these regulators. In this ‘market forces’ driven health sector, apart from other factors, size of the population, economic prosperity and literacy levels dictate the out look of key players. Subjective as well as objective assessments of the health care operations leave people confused with huge piles of data and endless interpretations. At the tail end of govt. health care delivery system is the rural dispensary or the slum revamping center, and the end user an illiterate or semi literate villager or a slum dweller. Dispensary is the humane face, the welfare state can present to its people. In yesteryears the service providers were from among the same social class they used to serve. Doctor can be a friend, philosopher and guide to the locals. Unfortunately the economic and social disparity between the service providing doctors and the service user population has grown enormously. Ad-hocism in health care delivery should be done away with immediate effect. Doctors and paramedical staff appointed on yearly contract basis are not showing any interest in the national programmes. Established private health care providers also have not shown any meaningful commitment for national programmes. Middle class itself has fragmented. Now it is fashionable to assign economic values to any issue like gender, but for social responsibility and justice. In this era of fast paced growth, the unorganized, silently suffering millions can not be wished away. Once reading on biodiversity I stumbled upon a very interesting quote, “only the species with economic importance will survive”. In our active pursuit for magnetizing economy, we assigned economic values to any thing except for morals. Commercialization of education has produced a new breed of professionals who have scant regard for professional ethics. Privatization is the buzzword with governments, because it takes away government responsibility. Private sector players are eyeing many ‘viable’ health institutions. There are no takers for commercially non-viable rural institutions. Rural health institutions dispense social medicine. Very recently one of the key players from private sector health care quoted the cost of developing one bed in corporate hospital at Rs. 30-60 lacs. These corporate health services are definitely out of each of the common man. These type of hospitals are definitely required for a nation with the present rate of growth but ‘bharat’ definitely needs different kind of hospitals. There are very strong social under currents against the exploitive private healthcare, inadequate government sector health care resources and the indifferent approach of welfare state. Health for all is a very lofty but expensive proposition. There are ways and means to reduce the pressure from government institutions. Private-public partnership, health insurance, monitoring and regulation of private sector health care can all make the things bit easy. Preventive health care education can go a long way in improving the public health. Community participation in health care has produced few but wonderful examples. Complementary community participation can make up for minor but critical deficiencies in the government run health care system. Setting up of health system corporations with World Bank assistance has already improved the working of govt. sector health care institutions considerably. Community participation through NGO’s can still improve the system, but most of the meaningful NGO’s turn their back on govt. run health care institutions because of their doubts on the integrity of government officers. Government health care institution are increasingly seen not as caring hospitals but like police stations, where medico legal reports are written and postmortems conducted. Most of the government doctors’ time is spent in courts appearing as medico legal experts witnesses. Emergency, post mortem, and then the VIP duties in addition hardly leave the doctors free for any meaningful job at government hospitals. There is an urgent need to have separate curative, preventive, legal, administrate and health intelligence wings. Government hospitals attract the poorest of the poor, mostly people from the unorganized sector. Their contribution to national GDP is by no means small. With the present growth rate, upward social mobility is seen in every strata of society. Many segments of this unorganized sector can be organised so that they also enjoy the patronage of welfare state in the form of health insurance policies. Apart from direct benefit to these segments of society, the state will benefit from the ‘off loading’ of burden from government run health care system and loading it on insurance driven private sector health care institutions. Poorest of the poor will repose faith in welfare state. Sanjivini, health insurance policy with the Punjab Milkmen Cooperative Societies is already a big success. ECHS (Ex servicemen Contributory Health Scheme) is an other success story. These success stories can be replicated with countless groups like, panwallas, dhabewallas, autorikshaw drivers etc. Simply organize the unorganized sector. There is no dearth of role models from among government doctors also. Their inclusion rather than drift after dissent from the present dispensation of health care will immensely improve the system. Stability of tenure is an excellent incentive government can give to its doctors without costing anything to exchequer. Yet tenure beyond decades should be discouraged as it leads to development of vested interests of the old incumbents and denial of chance to the youngsters. Resource mismatching is a major problem in the govt. run health care system. There are dispensaries where specialists are posted and still many more civil hospitals where non-specialist are posted. These mismatching result in defective and inefficient heal
th care. Nodal Hospitals can be created for round the clock emergency services by cannibalizing defunct and sick institutions where equipment worth crores is lying unused and salary bills are bleeding the exchequer white. Most of the medical officers retire in the same administrate rank. This undue stagnation has forced many a brilliant doctors out of service. By simply seeking options for place of posting, honestly implementing with minimum displacement on merit can also revitalize the govt. doctors’ cadres. Private sector health care delivery system is a totally market driven commercial enterprise. So called ‘market forces’ have least respect for ethical and moral value systems. Multi level marketing chains have evolved in the name of referral systems. End result is exploitation of the unsuspecting common man, who still regards his healer a holy person. This ‘incentive’ system is strengthening the hold of unqualified, unscrupulous and unregistered medical practitioners on illiterate masses. Not many qualified doctors are unscrupulous. A large section of private health care providers feel genuinely threatened by blackmailers of all sorts. Consumer protection act is a very convenient beating stick in the hands of their tormentors.

Under the constant threat of being blackmailed, the private health care providers are becoming more defensive in attitude. More patients are being referred to tertiary care institutions for this reason only, thereby flooding the referral institutions. People have a common feeling that sickness is an invitation for exploitation at the hands of private health care providers. Even the charitable hospitals are charging as heavily as fully private hospitals. Medical profession is fully responsible and capable of self-correction. Medical councils and associations can jointly evolve a fail-safe mechanism to keep their black sheep under check even without government help, but the buck stops with the government. Welfare state is duty bound not only in providing health care delivery system but also proper health care administration and social justice through its health care delivery mechanism.

Name : Dr. Pardeep Kumar Sharma

Email-ID : omfspardeep@yahoo.com.

(M) : 0988456296

Date of Birth : 12.02.1962

Education Qualifications : BDS (Bachelor of Dental Surgery)

MDS (Master of Dental Surgery in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery)

Educational Institutes Attended

Govt. High School Bargari : Matriculation (1969-1977)

Distt. Faridkot, Punjab, India

DAV College Chandigarh : Pre-University (1973-79)

(Punjab University)

Barjindra College Faridkot : Pre-Medical (1980)

Dental Wing, Medical College : BDS (1981-1986)

Patiala

Dental College and Hospital : MDS (2003-2006)

Amritsar

Professional Experience

House Officer, Christian : 1987-1988

Medical College & Hospital,

Ludhiana

Research Officer, All India : Jan. 1989 to June 1989

Institute of Medical Science

AIIIMS, New Delhi

Dental Officer, Indian Armed : July 1989 to August 1994.

Forces in the Rank of Capt.

3

Medical Officer (Dental) : w.e.f. Nov. 1995 till date

in Punjab Civil Medical Service

(PCMS)

Research papers Published

“Role of Programmed cell death in dental anomalies associated with cleft lip and Palate”. “Medical Hypotheses” Churchil Living Stone Publishers London-1991

Post traumatic polatoglossal adhesion, a case report stomatologica India (1990).

Research Project Undertakes

“Malocclusion and associated Factors among Delhi Children” a study sponsored by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Areas of Interest : Environment, Health, Defence, International Affairs and Rationalism

Americans are deeply unhappy with the country’s health care programs and costs. And rightly so. As one author observed, “A recent survey showed that only 17 percent of respondents in the United States were content with their health-care system . . . Why the discontent? The superficial reasons are simple enough to describe: the system is hugely expensive, very bureaucratic, and extremely patchy. The expenses first: U.S. health care costs a third more, per person, than that of the closest rival, superrich Switzerland, and twice what many European countries spend. The United States government alone spends more per person than the combination of public and private expenditure in Britain, despite the fact that the British government provides free health care for all residents.”

The United States pays more for health care per capita than any other industrialized nation — and even then, Medicare is not a comprehensive, pay-for-everything national health program like those of many nations and United States per capita health care costs continue to escalate rapidly.

Here’s what you need to know about health care costs as you plan for retirement.

Americans age sixty-five and over spend four times more on health care on average than do Americans under the age of sixty-five. At the outset of this decade, the average per capita health-care outlay for a person under the age of sixty-file was about $2,800. For people over the age of sixty-five, it was $11,089. And for Americans ages eighty-five and older it was $20,001. Clearly, health care outlays are likely to get substantially larger as you age. You need to plan for them.

U.S. health care expenses have grown mightily. U.S. health care expenses have dramatically escalated each year as new medications, new treatments, diagnostic tools, and health care innovations have come onto the market.

For example, the median nationwide cost for a hospital stay — excluding physicians charges — was $11,280 in 1997; by 2004 it was almost double at $20,455. The average total cost for treating a heart attack climbed 40 percent in just seven years. All in, health care costs have escalated fast and the increases are gaining momentum.

Health care costs are likely to continue to grow unabated. Unlike in other countries, no laws meaningfully curb the continual climb of health care and drug costs in the United States. For example, many Americans continue to import drugs from Canada because Canadian prices are significantly lower. This is true even though the new Medicare Features introduced in 2006 offset the cost of pharmaceuticals for U.S. retirees. To curb the cost of medicines, Canada prohibits drug companies from advertising on its television channels. In the United States, on the other hand, the very legislation that created the new Medicare drug benefit (Part D) expressly prohibits the federal government from attempting to negotiate lower prices with drug companies.

Count on it: medical costs are sky-high and likely to keep climbing unless there is a radical overhaul of the system.

More and more corporations are cutting back on health care benefits as medical costs soar. Recent statistics show companies cutting health care benefits and requiring employees and retirees to pay more for them. As one survey of corporate benefit trends concluded, “[Benefit] reductions have become not just common, but expected, with the only question now being of how much more of a reduction in benefits and or an increase in cost will be directly placed on individuals . . . In the end . . . individuals, either as taxpayers or consumers, will need to pay the bill.

I believe this trend will gain greater momentum over the next decades. It will be part and parcel of the continuing erosion of employment benefits — like the demise of traditional pensions — that is taking place throughout the country. Just like pensions, more and more health-care expense is going to become a do-it-yourself responsibility because heath care insurance costs are simply becoming too great for companies to shoulder competitively.

Taken all together, you can count on: (1) higher and higher health care costs, (2) more health-care-benefit cutbacks by U.S. employers, (3) the need to factor large health-care expenses into your funding plans, and (4) the need to buy supplemental health-care insurance to shield your savings from cost attack.

Of course, these views will not come as a surprise to most folks. Recent polls show that — immediately after the foremost financial concern of having enough money for retirement — the next great concern of most Americans is health care. More than half of adult Americans are “very worried” or “moderately worried” about being able to pay for serious illness or catastrophic health-care expense.

Copyright © 2008 by Jim Schlagheck

The above is an excerpt from the book Cash-Rich Retirement

by Jim Schlagheck

Published by St. Martin’s Press; March 2008;$24.95US/$31.00CAN; 978-0-312-37740-3

Copyright © 2008 by Jim Schlagheck

Author

Jim Schlagheck is an author, banker, longtime advisor to the ultrawealthy, and the coproducer of the public television series Retirement Revolution. He has written numerous articles on investing, retirement, and finance, and is also an acclaimed speaker who describes better ways for retirement readiness to audiences of wealth-management professionals and lay investors nationwide.

Health care is one of the most promising industries in the health and hospitability sector today. Health care relates to the prevention as well as to the treatment of illness. It also implies the overall mental and physical well being of individuals. A health care system refers to the organized functions which are involved in promoting the overall health of the country. The United Kingdom is the only industrialized country that does not offer health care universally. The National Health Service in the United Kingdom deals only with healthcare in the UK.

Overview of The Rising Health Care Sector

The health care industry is an industry that is considered to be one of the most budding among all other recent upcoming industries. Health care deals with delivering quality service towards improving the health of the people residing in a country. In recent years, the health care sector has been witnessing an upward surge. In a developed country, the health care industry contributes to 10% of the country’s gross national product. The professionally trained people serving the health care system ensure that all processes run smoothly.

In most of the developed countries of the world, the health care sector has undergone a lot of privatization. This ensures that the systems that are developed under it run without any bottlenecks. There are several health care models that have come up in recent times. With the growing popularity of the health care industry, some major public insurance systems have also come forward to ensure the smooth functioning of the systems. There are numerous pay systems that have been developed to guarantee the accurate administration of the health care sector.

The health care industry has witnessed a rapid growth in recent times mainly due to its contribution in maintaining the overall health and hygiene of a country. Today, the governments of different countries invest a huge amount of money in the health care sector to ensure that the sector has the proper support needed to grow. Statistical studies have shown that the profit derived from the health care sector is huge, both from the social, as well as the economic point of view. It is due to these reasons that the health care sector is considered to be one of the most emerging and promising industries today.

The technological development brought forth by science in this 21st century, has been seen in the domain of the health care sector too. Today, there are many trained professionals who work in this sector. The professional touch has been given to the health care sector which goes a long way in delivering quality care and support to those who seek its help. With the increase of demand among the people of various countries, the health care sector is also undergoing various stages of evolution to cater to the changing needs and demands of the people. As a result, health care today, stands as one of the most significant industries of recent times.

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