I Don’t Understand Health Insurance
I mean, I love it, but I hate thinking about it. I just sent in a mess of claim forms to Aetna hoping to get back some semblance of money with which to pay my shrink. They were all, “Talk to the hand” about half the charges because I hadn’t met my deductibles at that time. My plan isn’t quite what you call a “high-deductible” plan, though, I don’t think. I’m not sure. But:
The investment firm Fidelity recently surveyed employees at various companies who had opted for a high-deductible health plan linked to a health savings account. About half of those workers said they or a family member had chosen not to seek medical care for minor ailments as many as four times in the last year to avoid paying the out-of-pocket expenses.
As any doctor will tell you, small health problems left untreated can become big problems, warns Kathleen Stoll, director of health policy at the health care advocacy group Families USA. “This is just one of the many high-deductible pitfalls consumers need to watch out for,” Ms. Stoll said.
Patient Money: The Many Hidden Costs of High-Deductible Health Insurance
liz | 1:42 PM | hospitals / hospitalization, meds
Susan S. Knows All About Walking
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’ve dedicated this space this week to promoting the NAMI Walk, which is tomorrow. There are, of course, many walks other than the one in the Philly area, including the Greater New Jersey walk at the ETS campus near Princteon, NJ. (If you haven’t been to that campus, it’s lovely. I know it well, and would like to live there.) So a shout-out to Susan for not only talking the talk, but walking the walk.
liz | 12:48 PM | Uncategorized
You Don’t Have to Walk Alone
Come on, peeps. Don’t forget about the NAMI Walk. If you’re in Philly this weekend, the info is below. To register go to the website here.
Location: Memorial Hall
Date: May 30, 2009
Distance: 5 K
Check-in: 7:30 am
Start Time: 9:00 am
For more information about this event, please contact:
Neen Davis
neendave@aol.com
Phone: 215.886-0350
You may also contact:
Greater Philadelphia NAMIWalk | CCaruso@NAMI.org
Phone: 215.886-0350 | Fax: 215.886-6974
Family Team Chair: Neen Davis
610.584-8464 | neendave@aol.com
Honorary Chair: Joseph A. Rogers, Chief Advocacy Officer, Mental Health Assn of SEPA
215.751-1800 | jrogers@mhasp.org
Business Team Chair: Bob Waters
liz | 12:42 PM | Song of the Day, philadelphia, stigma
Song of the Day: Jesus Walks
Don’t forget about the NAMI Walk this Saturday!!!!
liz | 2:46 PM | Song of the Day
Philadelphia: Where Newspapers Go to Die?
My poor profession. My poor town. The combination of the two comes together in spectacular fashion in “Will Philadelphia be the place where the American newspaper dies?” from the guardian online.
Philadelphia has all modern America can offer, for better or worse: wealth, crime, politics, sports, art and culture. But what it might not have soon is a newspaper.
It is running in a race no one wants to win: which major US city will be the first to lose all its daily papers? Los Angeles, Boston, Detroit, San Francisco, Miami, Denver and Newark are just a few of the other reluctant participants. The impact of losing all newspapers in these cities is potentially profound; many fear it would be a blow to American democracy. They worry that the watchdog role the press has played will be removed. The bedrock on which much of civic society has been built since colonial times will start to crumble. Yet one of these cities could lose all print news within a year.
Emphasis mine because I’m just pointing out: Philadelphia Weekly, City Paper, Al Dia, Impacto, Metro, South Philly Review, Northeast News Gleaner, Philadelphia Business Journal, Philadelphia Gay News, Philadelphia Tribune, Jewish Exponent, Public Record, Mt. Airy News, El Sol, Legal Intelligencer, Weekly Press, Defenestrator, Germantown Courier, Chestnut Hill Local, Northeast Times, Roxborough Review, Fishtown Star, The Spirit … I’m forgetting stuff, but that’s a start. I’m not saying every one of these papers is excellent. But they are in print and they’re still employing writers and editors, etc., and they continue to supply the community with information and news.
These smaller papers matter to some people. Some are niche publications, sure. Justin Rigali isn’t going to be reading the Exponent anytime soon. But come on. You can still get those hands dirty with newsprint a little bit.
liz | 1:40 PM | media
Voulez Vous Texté Avec Moi, Ce Soir?
One time I found a guy’s cell phone on the pavement and I wanted to return it to him. So I looked to see who he’d last called and easily found someone to contact. But then … my curiosity got the better of me. Here in my hand I had someone’s life in miniature, and yes, I looked at his photos.
I guess I thought maybe he had a cat and there’d be photos of his cat. If someone found my phone they’d see photos of my hamster (R.I.P., Popcorn), my sugar gliders and my dog. So why not have a quick Cute Fix? What I found on the phone was all porn. Raunchy porn of men doing things to other men, with closeups. Still photos, mind you. Which made me feel so guilty. I mean, what kind of monster was I? Violating someone’s privacy that way? It was terrible. It vitiated the Good Samaritan vibe I felt when I went to the guy’s house to return his phone. I shamefully handed it over. I wanted to apologize, as well as say, “Your life looks a hell of a lot more fun than mine is.”
Random story, I know. But the world of cell phones is so interesting. The first cell phone my family had was huge. Not quite this bad, but close.
Nowadays, they’re slim and chic and people have porn on them. But there are perils, especially for the mental health of the American adolescent. Take this excerpt from a recent New York Times article:
American teenagers sent and received an average of 2,272 text messages per month in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the Nielsen Company — almost 80 messages a day, more than double the average of a year earlier.
The phenomenon is beginning to worry physicians and psychologists, who say it is leading to anxiety, distraction in school, falling grades, repetitive stress injury and sleep deprivation. …
“Among the jobs of adolescence are to separate from your parents, and to find the peace and quiet to become the person you decide you want to be,” she said. “Texting hits directly at both those jobs.”
Psychologists expect to see teenagers break free from their parents as they grow into autonomous adults, Professor Turkle went on, “but if technology makes something like staying in touch very, very easy, that’s harder to do; now you have adolescents who are texting their mothers 15 times a day, asking things like, ‘Should I get the red shoes or the blue shoes?’ ”
As for peace and quiet, she said, “if something next to you is vibrating every couple of minutes, it makes it very difficult to be in that state of mind.
“If you’re being deluged by constant communication, the pressure to answer immediately is quite high,” she added. “So if you’re in the middle of a thought, forget it.”
Michael Hausauer, a psychotherapist in Oakland, Calif., said teenagers had a “terrific interest in knowing what’s going on in the lives of their peers, coupled with a terrific anxiety about being out of the loop.” For that reason, he said, the rapid rise in texting has potential for great benefit and great harm.
“Texting can be an enormous tool,” he said. “It offers companionship and the promise of connectedness. At the same time, texting can make a youngster feel frightened and overly exposed.”
liz | 10:25 AM | anxiety, children, media, random, side effects
The Naked Party: Not Naked
A few years ago I wrote for PW on the experience of going to a nudist camp. At first, I thought I wouldn’t take off my clothes. But being there made me realize that clothing is actually quite artificial. I turned into Brooke Shields in The Blue Lagoon in about five minutes, and visited other nudist retreats thereafter. In fact, I would go again—I think it’s especially freeing for women, who aren’t even afforded the possibility of throwing off our tops in the puritanical U.S.
So though I’m not a nudist, or naturist, I sympathize with the cause. That’s why I was intrigued to see a “Naked Party” invitation in my mailbox at work. There were, however, problems that quicklys surfaced. First of all, the event was being held in Old City. If you’re from Philly, you’ll understand why that’s problematic: Nothing creative or culturally unconventional happens in an Old City club. Second, the advertisements for it featured women who looked like Victoria’s Secret models in exquisite lingerie. What, now? That’s not naked. That’s just a level of hotness most Philadelphians could never hope to achieve. And what about men? Do men not get naked?
The photos of the event taken by Irina Zhorov are here. They have confirmed my suspicions. You’ll see that people are not naked, though the women are dressed scantily. The guys? Clearly just there to ogle. Depressing.
liz | 10:39 AM | philadelphia, random
Meet Joe Pepe and Brenda McFadden
Community health care is so important. These two people help us understand why.
liz | 2:47 PM | DISABILITY
Codey Will Transform System?
The headline at NJPoliticker.com reads: “CODEY BILLS WOULD TRANSFORM PATIENT CARE AT STATE PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITALS”
Explanation:
A package of bills sponsored by Senate President Richard J. Codey that are designed to protect patient safety and improve employee training and oversight at state psychiatric hospitals was approved yesterday by the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee. … Sen. Codey worked closely with the Public Advocate’s office in drafting these bills, in part, to address a number of injuries and deaths that had arisen recently at state facilities such as Ancora Psychiatric Hospital.
Bill S2492, would require the Department of Human Services (DHS) to establish a training program for staff members who work directly with patients at state psychiatric hospitals in order to ensure the delivery of safe, secure, and therapeutic care. Utilizing best practices in patient treatment, the curriculum would include topics such as state and federal reporting requirements, patient safety, disease prevention, health wellness activities, anger management, skilled decision-making and how to deal effectively with life-threatening emergencies. … The bill would require DHS to establish an on-site educational assessment and remedial instruction program at each state psychiatric hospital in order to evaluate the proficiency of all staff members who work directly with patients.The bill would also require the commissioner of DHS to establish minimum educational standards for staff members at a hospital who work or will work directly with patients. … Employees already working directly with patients at the time of the bill’s enactment would be required to undergo an evaluation to determine if they meet the educational standards or require remedial instruction through the on-site education program.Any employee that refuses to participate in the training program or fails to meet the educational standards and refuses to participate in remedial instruction, would be terminated from employment at the hospital. …
The second bill, S2493, would require current and future employees of state psychiatric hospitals, developmental centers and veterans’ memorial homes to undergo drug testing for controlled dangerous substances as a condition of employment.
The last bill in the package, S2494, would require DHS to report the number of physical assaults and deaths that occur at state psychiatric hospitals. The report would be a public record, posted on the official DHS website, and updated quarterly, but would not contain any identifying information about patients or staff members.
As a longtime fan of Sen. Codey’s commitment to mental health matters, I do think it’s a good move. But is it transformative? As an astute TTWS reader notes:
It’s hard to see how these three bills alone will transform patient care at New Jersey’s state psychiatric hospitals which includes Ancora, let alone insure the care long required by law, New Jersey Statutes Annotated 30:4-27.1(c), It is the policy of this State that persons in the public mental health system receive inpatient treatment and rehabilitation services in accordance with the highest professional standards and which will enable those hospitalized persons to return to their community as soon as it is clinically appropriate.
Too often words and deeds fail to intersect at our nation’s psychiatric hospitals. Transform and its variants are now used so frequently that any change is considered transformative. More recently at another New Jersey state psychiatric hospital where a new building was going to lead to transformation (click here, paragraph 5), the reality belied the representations, ex. Developing therapeutic alliances between patients and staff remains a challenge, with differences in race, ethnicity, social class and education creating a ‘them versus us’ scenario.
“When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.” Humpty Dumpty
liz | 1:05 PM | DISABILITY, SCHIZOPHRENIA, bipolar disorder, depression, hospitals / hospitalization, media, meds, politics
