| Sweat More, Pay Less
Sweat More, Pay Less
Companies have long married their health-care policies to wellness programs that encourage employees to lead a healthy lifestyle--to quit smoking, eat right, and exercise more often. Increasingly, these programs give workers' wallets a workout, too. On Oct. 11, Des Moines-based Principal Financial Group (PFG ) launched a product that asks participants with health risks to try to shape up or pay more. All employees start with Principal's "enhanced coverage," which has lower deductibles and co-pays than the "standard coverage." But then employees are asked to submit to a screening. Those who reach a score based on a set of criteria keep the lower-cost coverage. Those who don't will be urged to work with a plan-provided health coach to improve their scores.
Asthma Foundation Offers National Flu Shot Finder
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced the week after Thanksgiving, November 27 to December 2, as National Influenza Vaccination Week. Despite annual CDC recommendations, influenza vaccination (flu shot) rates in young children remain disturbingly low. Only 20 percent of children age 6 to 23 months were fully immunized for the flu during the 2005-2006 season. So the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) is making it easier for asthma patients to find flu shot clinics with a free "Flu Shot Finder" at http://www.aafa.org.
The flu is a serious and potentially deadly viral infection that causes respiratory problems, spreads easily, and is a major concern for 20 million Americans with asthma. Each year, it causes approximately 20,000 hospitalizations and nearly 100 deaths in American children under age 5.
The culture of cross country
This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press on Thursday, November 22, 2007. By DAN GOLDBERG
Valley Press Staff Writer
The chute at the end of the course at Mount San Antonio College is made up of ropes that stretch for about 30 yards from the finish line to a large tent where runners turn in their numbers to be scored. As the athletes finish, a dozen handlers wearing latex gloves and standing on both sides of the ropes push them along so as to prevent a backlog. After running three miles, conquering hills, twists and turns - all at near top-speed - some runners can barely stand, but they musn't stop. Herded along, the agonizing screams and moans that escape the lips of these tired and pained athletes is frightful. It is not unusual to see kids bent over, dry-heaving or vomiting, often with the reassuring hand of a parent firmly on their backs.
Allergists Highlight New National Asthma Guidelines: Emphasis on Prevention, Avoiding "Attacks"
Highlights of the 2007 asthma guidelines from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP) were presented during the ACAAI Annual Meeting in an effort not only to increase awareness of the new recommendations, but to help make sure they get put into practice. .
Biz Buzz: Another shop on SLO block to close doors
Dawn Curnes is closing The Waggin' Tail Cafe & Barkery, a boutique for pets, in San Luis Obispo next Friday. Her two-year-old business will be the third to close within the month on Marsh Street between Broad and Garden streets. Curnes said earlier this month that she intended to stay in business at least long enough to get a boost from Christmas sales. But after getting advice from a business expert, she said, "it just was not in the books to continue." "I've been losing money from March on," said Curnes, who never accrued any pay for herself in the two years she's been open. "National predictions say retail will be very soft this Christmas, and there's just no end in sight. Now I have to buy myself out of retail contracts and sell my equipment below market, just to get rid of it, so I anticipate losses around $35,000 to $50,000." Curnes said she believed her business closure may be one of many to come in the near future.
Thermography offers an exam option
When accepted medical procedures seem to be lacking, some people search for another way. That is the case with nurse practitioner Carolyn Walker and pharmacist Sue Horton, who own Thermography of Iowa in Urbandale.
Thermography is a computerized infrared imaging they say is a tool for screening breast health. It can be used as a supplement to mammography and it can detect abnormalities in the breast even earlier than mammograms, Walker and Horton say.
The procedure measures heat from the surface of the breast and reveals areas where quickly dividing cells, typical of those that become cancer, might be at work. The rapidly multiplying cells need additional blood flow, and the increased blood vessel activity shows up as a hot spot on the digital infrared image.
Thermography works by measuring body heat, shown by various colors on the digital image.
|
