Chiropractic OnLine Today's
HealthBeat

    Welcome to COT's HealthBeat Podcast
        Chiropractic OnLine Today is pleased to present a
    Chiropractic "Radio" Segment to the Health Community.
               Return to HealthBeat main page

Please Vote for HealthBeat!
 

HEALTHBEAT SHOW NOTES .... Episode #44 - Recorded May 12, 2006

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of HealthBeat, Chiropractic OnLine Today’s Health, News and informational Podcast.

In this week’s news:  We’ll Look At –

• Loss of Competition in the Health Insurance Industry

• Replacement for Senate Bill 1955

• Workplace Absenteeism

• National Chiropractic TV Campaign

• Sugar Free Foods

• Call For Papers

• Clinical Moment

• And finally, Health Corner continues to look at the American Healthcare System

For HealthBeat, This is Dr. Todd Eglow.

Welcome to HealthBeat Podcast #44, recorded May 12, 2006.  HealthBeat is Chiropractic OnLine Today’s radio program, providing current news and commentary about Chiropractic and Health.

This week’s Episode is sponsored by DaVinci Laboratories.  Please surf to our web site at ChiropracticRadio.com and click on the DaVinci link for your Health and Nutritional needs.

If you are interested in creating personalized Healthbeat podcasts for your office or website, to help attract new patients, please surf to our web site and send us an Email ….

…. or Skype us by typing in “healthbeat”, all in small letters.

Finally, Chiropractic OnLine Today has always provided our news and education content for free and plan on continuing this policy.  However, we do request that if you are enjoying these podcasts, that you surf to ChiropracticRadio.com and consider clicking on our PayPal link to make a donation to keep these Podcasts airing.  We thank everyone for their continued support.

And Now for some news ….

Loss of Competition in the Health insurance Industry

An April 29, 2006 article from the NY Times discussed the upcoming fight over Senate Bill 1955.  Federal investigators have found that a handful of companies account for a growing share of the health insurance policies sold to small businesses in most states, leaving consumers with fewer options and higher costs.

The Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, said that the largest insurer had 43 percent of the market for small group coverage in a typical state, up from 33 percent in 2002. In nine states, the largest carrier — a Blue Cross and Blue Shield company — has more than 50 percent.

Small businesses and doctors also report a steep decline in competition in health insurance markets, a problem Congress is trying  to address.

Within two weeks, the Senate plans to take up legislation that would make it easier for small businesses to band together and buy health insurance through trade associations and chambers of commerce. The main purpose of the bill, strongly supported by President Bush, is to make coverage more affordable.

For more information, surf to www.nytimes.com

Replacement for Senate Bill 1955

And even more news about the Small Business community’s efforts to modify existing State Insurance laws includes news of another potentially harmful bill to the Chiropractic Profession.

A replacement for Senator Enzi’s bill S. 1955 could be Senate Bill S. 2510.  Also known as the Lincoln-Durbin bill, while no conclusive opinion has been rendered as of the recording of this podcast, there is evidence that this bill would have to offer nationwide plans that meets all state benefit mandates. This means that individuals covered by these plans in your state would have, at the minimum, the benefit of your “chiropractic mandate”.

More about this bill, as needed, in future podcasts.  Remember to continue checking the ACA’s Web Site, at www.acatoday.org for current information about this situation.

Workplace Absenteeism

The April 2006 issue of The Journal of Head and Face Pain published a study to examine the relationship between access to care and the number of missed workdays, and (2) to determine how this relationship is confounded by the presence of having health insurance and health care use among migraineurs.

This retrospective, pooled, cross-sectional study used 1996 to 1999 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data.

The study concluded that contrary to expectations, a higher level of access to care is significantly associated with an increased likelihood to miss work and with missing a greater number of workdays. Depression, migraine severity, and health care use are important explanatory variables. Having health insurance may be a confounder between access to care and workplace absenteeism.

Surf to our Show Notes for a link to this study’s Abstract - http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1526-4610.2006.00404.x

National TV Campaign

Chiropractic Economics recently began to send out emails for a National Chiropractic TV Advertisement campaign.

Mpower Media has produced 3 television spots with the goal of reaching the specific audience of the Chiropractic market.

The commercials will be aired nationally with NBC, one of the major TV stations in the US .   Mpower will air a minimum of 31 spots a month. The start date of the National Chiropractic Campaign has been set for March 2006, to continue for a whole year until March 2007. One year of getting the chiropractic message across to the American public can get you direct business in your practice.

If you are interested in participating in this ad program, surf to http://www.chiroontv.com/

Sugar Free Foods

According to the Dr. Kenneth Cooper eNewsletter, many individuals who have diabetes purchase sugar-free foods assuming that consuming these products will not raise their blood sugar.

Before you pick up a sugar-free product and add it to your shopping cart, take a minute to look closely at the food label. You might be surprised to know that sugar-free foods are not a "free" food or free of calories and they may contain carbohydrates.

Sugar-free foods may have replaced sugar (sucrose) with artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, sucralose, saccharin, or acesulfame potassium.

Sugar may also be replaced with sugar alcohols, such as mannitol, xylitol, sorbitol, or isomalt. These are a source of calories and carbohydrates and will raise your blood glucose about half as much as sugar does for the same amount.

Therefore, sugar alcohols should be accounted for as part of the total carbohydrates. Also keep in mind that consuming products containing sugar alcohols in large amounts may cause stomach cramping and diarrhea.

Please make sure that you contact your Qualified Healthcare Professional to inquire about safe foods to eat, especially for conditions such as Diabetes mellitus.

Call For Papers

Doctors of chiropractic and others are invited to submit original research for presentation at the World Federation of Chiropractic International Conference on Chiropractic Research, part of the WFC’s 9th Biennial Congress to be held May 17-19, 2007 in Portugal.

Award-winning papers will be published in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics (JMPT).

Categories of Research include the following:

• Basic Sciences

• Diagnostic Sciences

• Clinical Management

• Special Interest

Surf to our Web Site for more information: http://www.wfc.org/website/WFC/Website.nsf/WebPage/Events?OpenDocument&ppos=4&spos=0&rsn=y&Language=EN

Clinical Moment

In a new HealthBeat Podcast feature, Clinical Moment, we will periodically introduce Healthcare terms or conditions of interest, that are not typically seen in the everyday practice.  Today’s Health Term of the week for Practitioners is Scrofula (tuberculous lymphadenitis in the cervical region) presents as chronic, nontender lymphadenopathy, which may fistulize and drain cutaneously.

Surf to our Show Notes for a link to more aobut this condition - http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/354/18/e18?query=TOC

As always, please surf to our Podcast Show Notes at ChiropractiRadio.com for a full listing of web references mentioned in today’s show.

And remember - COT’s Healthbeat always recommends discussing any nutritional or exercise lifestyle modifications with a qualified healthcare professional.

Health Corner

COT’s HealthBeat’s Health Corner continues to look at the current state of Healthcare in the United States .  In this episode, we listen to the NY Times Paul Krugman discuss the current problems with Health Insurance.

Thank you for listening…. As always, We Want to hear from you.  Please send us emails…. Simply surf to our Web Site at ChiropracticRadio.com and click on the Email link.

You can also leave us Voice Mail…. Simply open up your Skype and type in “healthbeat”, all in small letters.

If you have an idea for a future Health Segment, please feel free to contact me directly via email …. The address is: healthbeat@chiropracticradio.com

We also would appreciate your vote at Podcastalley.com.  If you are enjoying these podcasts, please surf to our HealthBeat homepage and click on the Podcast Alley link.

If you have a Web Site for your practice and you would like to add content to help attract more patients, please consider adding a personalized HealthBeat segments to your site. Many listeners are finding this a useful content addition to an Office’s Web Site.  For more information, please send me an Email at healthbeat@chiropracticradio.com

While at our Web Site, please also consider making a donation to keep these Podcast running, via our Pay Pal link.  We thank everyone for your continued support.

Finally, I leave you with the following quote:

"Find a job you like and you add five days to every week." 
- Jackson Brown, Jr.

For Chiropractic OnLine Today’s HealthBeat, This is Dr. Todd Eglow.

Please Vote for HealthBeat on Podcast Alley!