The CEO and Healthcare By Dr. Evelyn Higgins

We've heard Obama say, "I am going to give health insurance to 47 million Americans who are now without coverage." The question is: are these 47 million people Americans citizens? We need to take a hard, realistic look at this question, not in theory but in reality - the reality of running a business we call The United States of America. The 47 million includes, yes, illegal immigrants. Most all of illegal immigrants do not have health insurance. The numbers game tells us that every one in four needing insurance is an illegal. Three quarters of the illegal immigrant population is concentrated in California, Florida, Texas, New York and Illinois. Go to any emergency room in the country and you will be amazed at the number of illegals receiving care for life-threatening conditions. So, before you jump on what is and what isn't, I suggest a field trip to your local ER and see how the United States provides for those who have nothing. Another fact is that this population needs health care more than any other group. How do you fund that? [more...]

Back To Basics By Dr. Evelyn Higgins

Call me "old fashioned," but there are some things in life, which just stand the test of time and consistently prove to be habits of winners. As a country, we are looking at some very tough economic times. Our leaders are calling us to get back to basics. That is because basics work. Habits are developed at a very early age, and some habits are very good for us and prove beneficial in our life and some habits are negative, extremely negative. A habit as simple as a family dinner can have major lifelong effects. The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University has consistently found that children who have frequent family dinners are less likely to use marijuana, tobacco and drink alcohol. Personally, and professionally, I have found that to be true as well. At a time when our nation is in need of some serious back to basics in every aspect of our culture, nothing could resonate more clearly to the family unit that the need, that's right, the need for children to have dinner with their family. [more...]

A Nation of Overly Medicated Consumers By Dr. Evelyn Higgins

Consumer Reports has some new information in their October issue advising people who suffer from frequent headaches to talk to their doctors before reaching into their medicine cabinets. Overuse of prescription and over-the-counter pain medications can in fact make headaches worse. They go on to say that consumers inadvertently create their own headaches. CR tells us that people tend not to think of headaches remedies, especially those they can buy without a prescription, as "serious" drugs. It even says that the headache can even be made worse and result in "medication overuse headaches," which affect up to two thirds of patients who seek help in headache treatment centers. Why is it that we are willing to spend unlimited amounts of money and lives on drugs but prevention is a foreign thought process? We truly are a nation of consumers, but at what cost? [more...]

Is Anyone in Washington Listening? By Dr. Evelyn Higgins

According to a study published in the journal Obesity, by the year 2030, 86 percent of American adults will be overweight. By 2048 the study suggests that all U.S. adults will be at least mildly overweight. Frightening? I do hope so! This affects each and every citizen both directly as well as indirectly. It is time to take this epidemic seriously and make some timely changes before it's too late. It seems during our present presidential campaign season the word "change" is often heard, yet in the reality of our nation, we pay for very few health care services that have to do with prevention and wellness, no less education. Such a link to lack of preventative services is going to skyrocket our healthcare costs; and many of the lifestyle diseases - cardiovascular disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis and certain cancers - have already been linked to obesity or weight related problems, yet we simply prescribe a pill and hope for the best. Wouldn't it make more sense to allocate educational funds for media campaigns to explain the benefits of living a healthy lifestyle and maintaining a healthy weight, and how that can help each and every American? [more...]

The Medicare Debacle By Dr. Evelyn Higgins

On July 1 the government slashed Medicare physician payments by 10.6 percent. Has the cost of overhead gone down? The answer is no. So how can this be? What will this do to an already burdened, dysfunctional system? Let's start with the fact that the Medicare system is not doing business with other parts of healthcare in the same manner. Only the physicians - those who actually treat the patients - are being unjustly harmed. Medicare, in fact, gives payment increases to the insurance industry, nursing homes and hospitals. The reality of this disastrous decision is that approximately 60 percent of Medicare doctors would be forced to limit the number of new Medicare patients they would accept and treat. More than half of the doctors said they would need to cut staff as a result, and 14 percent say they would quit practice all together due to the inability to profit. A bill that would buy time for a realistic long-term solution to the problem between Washington and the medical community has been passed by Congress. Now it's time for the Senate to act swiftly to consider the same legislation. [more...]

ER Docs as Primary Care Physicians By Dr. Evelyn Higgins

Picture this scene with me if you will for one minute because it just might affect you. You are rushed to the hospital due to chest pain, an obvious emergency situation where you are literally facing life or death due to a heart attack. You get to the ER and cannot be treated in time due to the lack of beds available because a bed was actually taken by a "fake patient" - a patient who is there to see how the doctor and staff do their job. Sounds like an overcrowded urban facility, and sounds like it is an impossible scenario. Well at this point, it is all fictional but may soon become a reality for us all, not just due to the situation of patients using the ER doctor as a primary care physician, but there is actually an ethics committee for the American Medical Association that is pressing for "undercover patients" to evaluate doctors and their staff. Such a situation could have disastrous consequences as doctors and hospitals are currently overburdened to begin with. We are faced with a system that wants to spy on the physicians and judge their performance at a time when physicians are working harder with more hoops to jump through due to a healthcare system that has more middlemen than actual doctors. Just try to have a procedure approved and you will see exactly what I am writing about. [more..]

The Virtues of Age and its Wisdom By Dr. Evelyn Higgins

Now that we are left with our two candidates for this seemingly unprecedented presidential election, we have already heard the Obama camp trying to use age as a derogatory characteristic about McCain. While that really shouldn't surprise me that in 2008 we look at 71 as old, it does. It is no secret that as a society we do not respect the aged. If we look at what I would suggest to be the model society when it comes to age, wellness, and wisdom, all eyes would be on the Japanese Island of Okinawa where the elder citizens of the community are sought after because of the wisdom they can impart on the rest of their society. They are the cornerstones of the community. They also have more centenarians than any other culture in the world. Let's take a hard look at our country, the good ol' USA, which is so caught up in materialistic beauty that we may just cast a ballot based on how attractive someone looks, based on their age, and "hip-ness." Scary as that is, many voters put no more effort into their decision than just that.

The latest research coming out of Harvard, Duke, UCLA and many other gold standard institutions of data tells us that wisdom, while being a difficult word to define, has been biologically uncovered. The research has shown that the prefrontal cortex of the brain has decreased activity in the older brain. This decreased activity allows for a broader attention span and the brain has the ability to assimilate data and put it in its proper place. The elder brain takes longer to absorb the information, but the trade-off is that it is better at understanding the data with all the qualities which define wisdom such as knowledge, understanding, experience, discretion and the capacity to use all. The largest age discrepancy in all of history for U.S. presidential candidates exists today. Think about what the 25-year difference means to the qualities that define the virtue of wisdom. The questions become: is Obama mature and ready and is McCain sharp and vigorous? It is in America that we get to decide!

The Wisdom of the Ages By Dr. Evelyn Higgins

While you might be concerned that you may have the beginnings of the dreaded Alzheimer's Disease when you couldn't remember a name or address, for example, a new work published by Harvard research psychologist Shelley Carson tells us that for most of the adults 65 years of age and older, the thought that our brain power is declining is not always the case. While 13 percent of Americans 65 and older have Alzheimer's Disease, the healthy 87 percent of the brains are actually taking more time to sift through the mounting data and then combine that with the vast storage of knowledge. The research has shown that the prefrontal cortex of the brain has decreased activity. This also allows for a broader attention span and the brain has the ability to assimilate data and put it in its proper place. That certainly is a great deal of work... no wonder it takes a moment! The elder brain takes longer to absorb the information but then is better adept at understanding the data with all the qualities I spoke of such as experience, discretion, and then the capacity to utilize the newfound information with understanding. That I believe is a key link, combining the data and understanding it collectively. Research has also shown that people with an injury or disease to the prefrontal cortex of the brain had the ability to pursue new creative interests. Very interesting as that may be why we can see our parents or our aging friends and neighbors become new people with new hobbies and interests that we never knew they had an interest in before. So while the elusive term wisdom has been so sought after and revered by all of mankind from the beginning of time we may finally have put together the pieces of how and why it all works. Now that really is wisdom! [more on Dr. Higgins...]

Healthcare: Political Wind and House of Cards

By Mark Tumblin, CEO ASCENT Integrated Medical Solutions

The winds of change are blowing through healthcare and in the last few years many states have taken the initiative to build a foundation for reform. Presidential hopefuls have jumped on board thrusting healthcare into one of the hot issues for political debate. The state of healthcare has been in the dark ages and reform seems to be passing through a slow burn into the 20th century much less the 21st. Will politicians create a healthcare house of cards only to blow it over with the winds of change?

How Sick is our Healthcare System?

We continue to lead the world in lifesaving technology. We see 15,000 new drugs hit the market each year. Lifesaving protocols and procedures are created daily yet we continue to operate the business of healthcare in the dark ages. Visit your physician and you will trigger a chain of events that will take up to 90 days to complete. This is the same process that Wal-Mart can complete in seconds. We pay out billions of dollars yearly in false claims and support every illegal alien with free healthcare. This happens because our current healthcare system cannot track a patient from one doctor to the next, one pharmacy to the next or bill it properly in a 90-day period of time. Your bank will record an ATM transaction before you get back to your car, yet our healthcare system lies comatose to 21st century technology.

Sensing that our healthcare system might remain forever on life support, President Bush passed legislation for reform. In the last 7 years hundreds of millions of dollars have been granted to states to begin the process of building an IT network for exchange of data. States have constructed regional health information organizations as a conduit for transporting information from physician to pharmacy to diagnostic and insurance provider. This foundation is important in constructing layers of technology supporting exchange at every level of healthcare.

House of Cards

The immediate danger that lies within healthcare is to completely ignore the symptoms. Senator Clinton would have you believe that 47 million Americans are without healthcare because of the irresponsibility of the current administration. Analysis of this number will show only about 10 million do not have insurance and an issue easily remedied by the proper addition of technology. Senator Clinton would reform our healthcare system by mandating healthcare to every citizen. This solution would require a minimum of $500 billion in new funds just to finance the 47 million, not to mention billions of dollars to correct the failing IT system currently lacking in Medicare and Medicaid.

Senator Obama would also require mandates for those Americans under the age of 19 or roughly 35% of the aforementioned noninsured. This solution does not address any of the actual problems in healthcare, not to mention address reform needed to change our technology systems, tort reform or government aid programs. While claiming there has been no leadership from President Bush, Obama promotes sending money to the states so that they can continue to experiment with technology reform.

The democratic wannabes would have you believe they have the solution to healthcare reform when as a matter of fact neither addresses the current issues, which have gotten us into a terminal state. The failure to recognize that we lose $75 billion per year on false claims to Medicare because we have not implemented the technology to track insurance is at best irresponsible. To suggest the solution to healthcare is a single payer system this week and next week suggest a multi-tiered single payer system is the solution is nothing short of democratic. In other words, if what I say this week doesn't work, wait until next week and it will change with the wind.

Reform that is Concrete

An analysis of the waste within our current healthcare system reveals hundreds of billions of dollars in misfiled claims, illegal payments, and an open system of delivery without controls. Information technology built at the state, local, then physician and patient level will create enough efficiency within healthcare to reform it as well as support it. The cost is less than one year of illegal aliens receiving healthcare in the U.S. Shall we choose the construction of a house of cards that will quickly add to the waste or continue on a path of reform by building on the stable foundation currently under construction?

Health Information Technology Reforms Healthcare

By Mark Tumblin, CEO ASCENT Integrated Medical Solutions

The business of healthcare at the physician/patient level is 10-20 years behind in technology. All patient records are recorded on paper. Comparing lab results and the diagnosis of the physician is a manual operation and takes several days to process. The insurance company charging premiums gets a claim that has been handled by not less than four pairs of hands who each stake a claim to the financial outcome of the office visit. Combine all this inefficiency and it is no wonder physicians collect $0.63 on the dollar and are satisfied. This is unacceptable to every other business in the U.S., so why do we accept it in healthcare? [more...]

Knowledge is Power By Dr. Evelyn Higgins

Knowledge is power, but only if we use it! That certainly is the case when it comes to genome mapping. Within five years we will all have access to this incredible test, that potentially can change your fate tremendously, at about the cost of an MRI or CT scan. In discovering the genetic sequence, we have learned that the number of genes was actually far less than we originally believed. So now, armed with your personal roadmap of genes, you and your doctors will be able to predict and prevent a multitude of diseases. The genome is comprised of chemical units strung together in a type of biological code. While no two individuals are alike, no two genomes are identical. With this test, you can learn where your ancestors are from, what genetic diseases you may carry, your risk for developing a new specific disease, what diseases you should be screened for more frequently, which treatments would be most effective for you, and which medicines you should avoid. [more...]

Facts on Cardiovascular Disease By Dr. Evelyn Higgins

Did you know that cardiovascular disease is the number one killer in the United States? Did you also know that it is the most chronic preventable disease? Does that make any sense at all - that is, to be chronic and preventable but still be the number one killer? If you are a thinking person the answer would be a resounding No!

The fact of the matter is that cardiovascular disease strikes more women than men. Shocking for many people to hear. It was once stated that our health is a gift- a largely controllable gift. We can control this gift through lifestyle choices that we have the power to make. These choices include the foods we eat, or don't eat and the exercise we do, or don't do. Are you starting to see the picture? [more...]

A Nation on Drugs By Dr. Evelyn Higgins

According to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), nearly 7 million Americans are abusing prescription drugs - more than the number who are abusing cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, ecstasy and inhalants combined. Today's 7 million was just 3.8 million in 2000 - an 80 percent increase in just six years. Prescription pain relievers are the new users' drug of choice versus marijuana or cocaine. Opiod painkillers now cause more overdose deaths than cocaine and heroin combined. Shockingly, 40 percent of teens and almost an equal number of their parents think abusing prescription painkillers is safer than abusing 'street' drugs. 25 percent of drug-related emergency room visits are associated with the abuse of prescription drugs. So, armed with those stats, where are these kids getting their drugs? From your medicine cabinet, from illicitly acquiring prescriptions drugs on the Internet, theft from pharmacies or homes and friends and relatives? YES is the answer according to the DEA. As a nation, we take more prescription drugs than any other country. If the theory is that drugs make us well, why aren't we number one in health and longevity in the world? We aren't even close. Of course, drugs have benefits - they can save lives - but what we are learning is that many people use drugs for purposes other than saving lives. [more...]

Cuban Fiascos By Dr. Evelyn Higgins

The Bay of Pigs, The Cuban Missile Crisis and following Cuba's healthcare model are all American bad ideas! The Cuban system of healthcare has been touted by many critics of our current healthcare delivery system as a master plan for us to follow. These critics of the U.S. system have tried to copy and tell us how wonderful the system works in Cuba, and use it as a guide for 'universal healthcare' in the United States. Currently, Cuba is undergoing a major overhauling due basically to a system that worked in theory but not in reality - in the long run.

I as an American look to the log run; short term is also short sighted. We are neophytes in the history of the world and need to remember that as we take on major overhauling of systems, which impact our citizens greatly. Cuba has changed hands and now with Raul Castro taking over as President after his brother Fidel, we see a healthcare system, which in reality is in very poor condition and greatly understaffed with physicians. The system started with great theoretical plans, which in reality failed miserably. [more...]

Power to the Patient By Mark Tumblin

The current Democratic presidential candidates would have you believe a National Healthcare Program is the solution for dramatic increases in healthcare and in health insurance premiums. One-third of Americans - even those with health insurance - say high costs force them to skip needed medical care. It is a fact we are spending more on healthcare but let's take a closer look at the reason behind the increase. Maybe it is time we focused on wellness and prevention. When it comes to reforming American Healthcare, do the costs outweigh the benefits or is the cost as prohibitive as some would have you think. A healthy lifestyle of diet, exercise and prevention will increase quality of life and longevity and decrease the need for costly healthcare expenditures. We can remove the threat of chronic disease by having the discipline to control our own lives. I would propose the answer to healthcare reform is not in electing officials who will take our most precious of resources but rather taking control of our own lives and returning the power to the patient. [more...]

Which Tail is Wagging the Healthcare Dog? By Mark Tumblin

The single most important part of health and therefore healthcare is the patient. As a patient, when was the last time you felt you had the most influence over your healthcare delivery? We spend more household income on healthcare than on cars and gasoline combined. Healthcare spending is 4.3 times higher than what we spend on the national defense. Health insurance expenses are the fastest growing cost component for employers. Unless something changes dramatically, health insurance costs will overtake profits by 2008. We spend 80% of every healthcare dollar on chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity and emphysema. We must reform healthcare beginning with the patient or have the "chronic disease tail" wag the healthcare dog. Many commercial insurers use Medicare's fee schedule in developing their own fees. The centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposed a 5% decrease in payments to physicians in 2007 with more to follow in the following nine years. In fact, projected cuts would equal 37% in that period while the increase in the cost to treat a patient will increase 22%. Pay scales established by private insurance companies will then be expected to follow suit and the patient will feel the "physician influenced tail" wag the dog. [more...]

American Healthcare: Bracing for the Perfect Storm By Mark Tumblin

Our American Healthcare System has long been in disarray. As we approach yet another election, the debate on Healthcare falls, in some opinions, second behind the economy or third behind the war in Iraq. As critical as the economy and the war are, it is obvious Americans have had enough of the current state of Healthcare.It seems we are headed for the perfect storm. We as consumers have reached our limit on what we can spend on quality healthcare. Our physicians have reached their limit on a fee for service system that not only dictates how medicine will be practiced but randomly decides what will and will not be reimbursed by insurance companies. Our government has begun the monumental task of reforming the healthcare infrastructure but many of the obstacles to reform are too political for effectiveness. Last but not least, several of our choices for the upcoming presidential election would have you believe universal healthcare is the only solution. We are forced into healthcare's perfect storm as reform one way or another will happen. We must decide to influence the storm toward true reform or depend on our government to protect us from levy system straining at the pressure. [more...]

Marijuana Back in the News By Dr. Evelyn Higgins

Several weeks ago, I wrote about Oaksterdam University in Los Angeles offering a medicinal marijuana course, which prepares students to enter the lucrative multibillion-dollar industry - on the legal side, that is. Well, a new study just released this week may have an effect on enrollment due to the fact that it has been suggested that marijuana users may have a shorter life expectancy after suffering a heart attack than people who do not use the drug. When we target a specific generation - the baby boomers that have many long time marijuana users to claim - it gets very interesting. A 2002 national study found that the number of 45 to 64-year-olds who reported marijuana use was three times higher than it had been earlier! Wow, three times higher! This same age group is also increasing their risk for the number one killer in America, which is cardiovascular disease. Regular marijuana smokers are two to four times as likely to die from a heart attack within four years of having the attack compared to non-marijuana smokers. Obviously the study raises concern, which needs to be studied further, but let's see what the Valedictorian from Oaksterdam has to say.... [more...]

Death and Taxes By Dr. Evelyn Higgins

Should the government be involved in patients' end-of-life decision-making? Ask a person that question and you are assured a big gulp, then a pause, followed by a cocked head like that of a dog approach to answering the question. Tough as it is, it does need answering. After all, none of us wish a terminal illness with a painful death on ourselves. In jest, people have uttered perhaps an enemy but certainly not ourselves or a loved one. We have advanced our brains so far technologically, but have we advanced them morally or ethically? Is the real issue of euthanasia about the ultimate power of a government? Or is it that which is a decision for God and family? [more...]

The Politics of Water By Dr. Evelyn Higgins

So, one week has passed since the Associated Press report was released describing the pharmaceutical drugs found in the drinking water of at least 41 million Americans. Drugs such as sex hormones, anti-consultants, antibiotics, mood stabilizers - to name just a few - were found. Over-the-counter drugs such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen are also included in the tainted drinking water.

What we do know is that this is real. What we don't know is how these small concentrations of drugs will affect our bodies. What happens when we don't need the particular medications, or even say your body does need them, but in different doses? What are the long-term effects, given that we are all being prescribed medications -infants, children, teenagers, adults and the elderly, alike?

While the Environmental Protection Agency admits to recognizing the growing concern regarding the state of our drinking water, the agency says it is taking the situation seriously - so seriously, that nothing has appeared in the media since the story broke. [more...]

The Reverse Pyramid Scheme by Dr. Evelyn Higgins

March 10, 2008--Health care in America is in the shape of a pyramid; however, it is a reverse pyramid. Everyone who graduated from kindergarten knows what happens when your building blocks don't start at the bottom - eventually they fall down because the load becomes too heavy for the design of the system. The design of our current system has physician specialists at the bottom of the pyramid being the most utilized group within the triangle, or pyramid, being formed, with the doctors who prescribe wellness and prevention at the top creating the smallest section of the pyramid. The obvious question, then, would be - even to the kindergartner who is looking at the faulty design of the pyramid - who built this pyramid?

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Beyond High School by Dr. Evelyn Higgins

March 3, 2008--I recently learned of a new program being offered at Oaksterdam University, a curriculum offering courses in marijuana usage for medicinal purposes. The school prepares its students for careers in the very lucrative multi billion-dollar industry. So, I ask, is there any federal aid and what type of pay scale could be expected with this type of training? I am told after a weekend course costing $200 plus books, I am prepared to make a $50,000 salary dispensing marijuana. Now for the serious note! In Los Angeles, several vending machines have been made available to dispense marijuana with "proper documentation and a fingerprint." While marijuana is legal in California for medicinal purposes, the federal government does not feel the same way. But to date they have done nothing.

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