The pressure on many hospitals is continual auditing and high penalties, and this situation is forcing many hospitals to reclassify Medicare patients as less-costly “observation” cases.  The unaware patients who have received short term care are suddenly liable for medical bills that they thought government would cover.

This is a problem that is putting hospitals in opposition against the admitting doctors, and forcing the hospitals to scrutinize admitting doctors’ decisions.  The hospitals, as an entity that seems to be in the middle and in jeopardy themselves, may actually review medical records and many times even use specific software to analyze the patients’ medical histories and documents to determine if the patient can be reclassified to an observational status.  Observational status leaves the patient ineligible to receive Medicare coverage.

 According a senior vice president and counsel for the American Hospital Association, “No hospital wants a patient to be denied payment for services they really should have when they need them. But hospitals, like patients, are the ones who face a penalty when they guess wrong in the eyes of the authorities about whether something should be an admission or an observation.”

Fourteen seniors are suing the federal government in a class-action case in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, Conn., saying the policy that allows healthcare providers to reclassify hospital care from inpatient to observation after being admitted is illegal and ought to be overturned.

The DRS Protocol treats neck and back pain!

According to a recent study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the best medicine for neck pain is no medicine at all.

 The National Institutes of Health funded the study which followed 272 patients with recent-onset neck pain and were using three different methods of treatment:

• Medication
• Exercise
• Chiropractic care

Patients who were treated by a chiropractor or exercised were more than two times as likely to be pain free as those who were treated with medication.

 The patients treated by a chiropractor experienced the highest rate of success with 32 percent saying they were pain free, compared to 30 percent of those who exercised. Only 13 percent of patients treated with medication said they no longer experienced pain.

 “Doesn’t surprise me a bit,” Dr. Lee Green, professor of family medicine at the University of Michigan told ABC News. “Neck pain is a mechanical problem, and it makes sense that mechanical treatment works better than a chemical one.”

 Treat your condition – back pain and neck pain, with chiropractic care and the DRS Protocol™, because drugs are generally for treating your symptoms. 

Busch Chiropractic Pain Center treats neck pain from herniated or degenerative discs with the nonsurgical DRS Protocol™

The goal of the study was to objectively measure mental acuity in aging and to monitor rates of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.
The study wanted to see if any physical or cognitive recreational activities influenced mental acuity.
It was found some activities had significant benefits when it comes to staving off dementia and other activities had none.
Certain cognitive activities such as reading books, writing for pleasure, working crossword puzzles, playing cards and playing musical instruments were assessed. They also studied physical activities such as tennis, golf, swimming, bicycling, dancing, walking, and housework.
It was surprising, but from doing most physical activity there didn’t seem to be any protection from dementia. Of course, there were cardiovascular benefits – but this study was focusing on the mind. The only physical activity that did prove to help against dementia was regular dancing. The following shows some of the outcomes in percentages of reducing the risk of dementia:
Reading – 35%
Bicycling and swimming – 0%
Doing crossword puzzles at least four days a week – 47%
Playing golf – 0%
Dancing frequently – 76%
Dancing provided the greatest risk reduction of any activity studied, cognitive or physical. For years, dance manuals and other studies have talked about the health benefits of dancing: physical exercise, stress reduction, increased serotonin levels, and an increase in our sense of well-being. Now we learn that frequent dancing makes us smarter.

Merck plead guilty to having illegally promoted Vioxx for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis before it was approved for that use in 2002. In 2004, Vioxx was withdrawn from the market after it was found to cause heart attacks, strokes and death. Additionally, Merck agreed to pay more than $600 million to the federal government, 43 states and the District of Columbia for other improprieties.

Merck & Co. has been fined about $1 billion dollars for criminal activity. Vioxx generated nearly $2.5 billion dollars in sales each year it was able to be sold. Merck may think of this as the cost of doing business. But there were many thousands of patients that died.

The FDA estimates that between 1999 and 2003 Vioxx may have contributed to 27,785 deaths. Other studies estimate the number of deaths from Vioxx at 55,000. It is believed that over 100,000 patients suffered strokes or heart attacks after taking Vioxx.

So why couldn’t the FDA look at this information, and why did it take so long for the FDA to order the removal Vioxx from the marketplace? There is a funding relationship between the FDA and companies such as Merck, and there is a pattern of some who had worked for the FDA to then work for pharmaceutical companies. There appears there could be a back door relationship between pharmaceutical companies and the FDA.

If you have to take a prescription medication, it is important to research how the drug works and the potential adverse effects. Do your research and have your questions ready for a good conversation with your doctor. There are often options other than drugs.

Really look into your diet – try to keep your foods as healthful as possible, stay hydrated and drink a lot more water, and of course, exercise. It is a great time to plant a garden.

Busch Chiropractic Pain Center offers the drug-free DRS Protocol ™treatment for back and neck conditions and offers nutritional evaluation and anti-inflammation diets for our patients.

 However, spending the most money did not translate to better healthcare in the U.S.  In 2009, the U.S. had some of the highest rates of mortality due to asthma and some of the highest rates for lower-extremity amputations because of diabetes.  The conclusion on these matters of the study is, “On both measures, the U.S. had among the highest rates, suggesting a failure to effectively manage these chronic conditions that make up an increasing share of the disease burden”.

The U.S. was found to use more expensive medical technology, and this would account for part of the higher spending of the U.S. Other factors compared were population age and obesity.  The U.S. had on average a younger population compared to the other countries in the study, and the U.S. has one-third of its population that are considered obese.  So lifestyle plays an important role.
The study also showed spending in the U.S. was not because of higher utilization of healthcare services.  The U.S. had fewer physicians per population than all the other countries except Japan, but prices for healthcare in the U.S. in 2009 were higher than the other countries.

The narrowing puts pressure on your nerves and spinal cord and can cause pain. Spinal stenosis occurs mostly in people older than 50. Younger people with a spine injury or a narrow spinal canal are also at risk. Diseases such as arthritis and scoliosis can cause spinal stenosis too.

Symptoms might appear gradually or not at all. They include pain in your neck or back, numbness, weakness or pain in your arms or legs, and foot problems. The wear-and-tear effects of aging can lead to narrowing of the spinal canal, a condition known as spinal stenosis. 

Narrowing of the lumbar spinal canal pinches the nerves that go to the skin and muscles of the legs. Sometimes, the pinched nerves become inflamed, causing pain in the buttocks and/or legs. Most often as a result of degeneration, there can be inflammation and swelling pushed into the soft tissue structures on the front and the back of the inter-vertebral canal causing inflammation of the ligament on the back side of the spine, which can be referred to medically as “hypertrophy of the ligamentum flavum”. This in conjunction with degeneration and minor disc bulges can cause a narrowing of the intervertebral canal also known as stenosis.

 Most patients with spinal stenosis can be treated with the nonsurgical, pain-free DRS Protocol™ offered at the Busch Chiropractic Pain Center.

Scientists involved with the development of the vaccine plan larger trials in patients to prove it can be effective against a range of different cancers.  They believe it could be used to combat small tumors if they are detected early enough or to help prevent the return and spread of disease in patients who have undergone other forms of treatment such as surgery.

Cancer cells usually evade patient’s immune systems because they are not recognized as being a threat. While the immune system usually attacks foreign cells such as bacteria, tumors are formed of the patient’s own cells that have malfunctioned.

Scientists have, however, found that a molecule called MUC1, which is found in high amounts on the surface of cancer cells, can be used to help the immune system detect tumors.

A statement from Vaxil Biotheraputics said: “ImMucin generated a robust and specific immune response in all patients which was observed after only 2-4 doses of the vaccine out of a maximum of 12 doses. “In some of the patients, preliminary signs of clinical efficacy were observed.”

The results are still to be formally published but if further trials prove to be successful the vaccine could be available within six years.

As a therapeutic vaccine it is designed to be given to patients who are already suffering from cancer to help their bodies fight off the disease rather than to prevent disease in the first place.

In a safety trial at the Hadassah Medical Centre in Jerusalem, ten patients suffering from multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, have now received the vaccine.

Seven of the patients have now finished the treatment and Vaxil reported that all of them had greater immunity against cancer cells compared to before they were given the vaccine.

Vaxil added that three patients are now free of detectable cancer following the treatment.

Cancer charities have given the vaccine a cautious welcome, but warned further testing was needed before it could be approved for widespread use.

There are currently a number of other therapeutic vaccines against cancer being tested, but they have met with limited success.

Dr Kat Arney, science information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: “”These are very early results that are yet to be fully published, so there’s a lot more work to be done to prove that this particular vaccine is safe and effective in cancer patients”.

The Federal Government contends that everyone must purchase health insurance, because if someone doesn’t buy insurance and they get sick or injured, the cost of their care must be divided among all of those that have purchased insurance already. The only exceptions are those granted by politicians to certain companies for reasons unspecified, and perhaps Congress itself.

In theory, the Federal Government is controlled by the Constitution. At issue is whether or not the Individual Mandate is in line with the Constitution. The Government is assuming it has the right to force you to buy health insurance based on the Commerce Clause, a few sentences in the Constitution that give the Government the right to act in cases that affect trade “between the several states.” This is a powerful club. The Commerce Clause is what gives ERISA laws their teeth. The states had better state their cause pretty effectively, because the Federal Government has ridden the Commerce Clause horse pretty hard in the past.

Back in 1942 there was an Iowa farmer who wanted to plant some extra wheat. But as Ohio farmer named Roscoe C. Filburn would find out when he sued to overturn a 1938 law regarding what he could and could not grow on his own land, the Government can have strong opinions. In 1942 the SCOTUS ruled that if Filburn grew as much wheat as he wanted, even if he did not sell it, but used it for his family, and if others did the same, that it could affect the market for wheat. Activities that affect markets in one state could conceivably affect markets in other states, thereby influencing interstate commerce. The Court ruled, therefore, that the Government could tell Roscoe exactly how much wheat he could plant, and fine him if he exceeded the quota, and do so in the name of the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Back in the day, the New York Times had this to say about the decision: “If the farmer who grows feed for consumption on his own farm competes with commerce, would not the housewife who makes herself a dress do so equally? …The net of the ruling, in short, seems to be that Congress can regulate every form of economic activity if it so decides.”

Roscoe Filburn argued that a decision against him would move the nation toward a centralized Government and “nullifications of all constitutional limitations.” The Supreme Court’s ruling against him was unanimous.

So this case, known as Wickard v. Filburn, commonly called “Wickard,” may be the defining law regarding how much power the Federal Government has over the individual, including whether or not it can offer us insurance we can’t refuse.  Reprinted from March 28, 2012,  online ChiroCode Insittute

What are your thoughts on our Constitution and ObamaCare?