April 2nd, 2009 admin
For most people, simple self-care remedies are all you’ll need to treat the bulging eyes caused by Graves’ disease, in addition to taking medication that will bring your Graves’ disease under control. Try sleeping with your head on an extra pillow, which will help reduce the swelling of your eyes. Bulging eyes may become irritated because more of their surface area is exposed, and eyedrops can sometimes help soothe the discomfort.
However, if the condition has been untreated for a long period of time, these treatments may not be effective. In this case, surgery will help. The surgeon will open up a space in a sinus cavity behind the eyes in order to allow the expanded tissues more room. This will reduce some of the pressure the swollen tissue is placing on the eyeballs. At the same time, since the pressure of the tissues can hamper your vision by pressing on the optic nerve, your doctor may repair any damage to the nerve. In addition, your doctor may perform minor cosmetic surgery to return the lower and upper eyelids, which frequently become pulled back in Graves’ disease, to their normal appearance.
After surgery, it’s important that you follow your doctor’s instructions to treat your Graves’ disease with hormonal therapy so that your bulging eyes will not recur.
*80\167\8*
Posted in General health | No Comments »
April 2nd, 2009 admin
Description and Possible Medical Problems
It seems as though every TV sitcom that has at least one little kid in the cast runs at least one episode each year where the child wakes up the entire household when he has a nightmare.
Everyone—child and adult—has experienced nightmares. Some people dream about being chased, others about falling. As a rule, however, if you have an occasional nightmare, it’s a sign that your imagination is alive and kicking, even during sleep.
If nightmares occur on a regular basis, however, they can be a sign of pulmonary disease or may be due to a lack of oxygen during sleep, which often happens in a person with a severe case of emphysema. Nightmares can also be a side effect of certain medications such as beta-blockers.
Treatment
If you have nightmares only once in awhile, you have nothing to worry about. If, however, they seem to be occurring regularly—at least a couple of times a week—you should see your doctor, who will check you for pulmonary disease or emphysema. If she determines that medication is causing your nightmares, she will change your prescription to another medication that will provide the same benefits without the side effects.
*61\167\8*
Posted in General health | No Comments »
April 2nd, 2009 admin
Description and Possible Medical Problems
If you always feel tired, no matter how much sleep you get, and find it hard to become interested in doing anything new, chances are you may be suffering from a condition that’s more psychological than physiological.
The go-go lifestyle that is typical for many Americans today has caused a lot of people to burn out. We simply put too much on our plate and don’t know how to say no to more. Considering the long hours we
spend at work, family and social obligations, and leisure time that frequently resembles a competition, anyone would feel burned out after a while.
Treatment
The best way to treat burnout is by taking time out. An occasional day off or a day with nothing scheduled, a brief vacation, or indulging in hobbies and exercise will give you some perspective on your jam-packed life. It will also refresh you and possibly make you feel so good that you make it a point to take some time off at least once a week.
For some people, however, it’s not enough to take a vacation or start a new hobby. When burnout is particularly severe, a person may need to quit his job and move to another part of the country, where he won’t be tempted to resume his previous lifestyle. Though this is rare, I’ve seen it happen.
*43\167\8*
Posted in General health | No Comments »
April 2nd, 2009 admin
Another way in which the services of health care providers will change is that a routine visit for a simple complaint may be handled not by a physician but by a nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant, who will report back to the physician about the patient’s complaint as well as the type of care that was given. Again, to cut costs and maintain efficiency in the HMO, a routine physical, advice about lifestyle concerns, and screening tests of all types will probably be made available by a provider who works with the physician. Assigning these basic responsibilities to other skilled health care providers will free the physician to care for patients who have a more complicated problem and need more care and time.
Though this arrangement may not make everyone happy, I see it as a way of creating a fair system that will allow all health care providers to give the best possible care to their patients in a timely fashion.
Now, for the third and most important group: the consumers of health care. Even though I’ve described how health care providers and health care purchasers will function differently under health care reform, the whole of health care actually concerns this group the most.
Under the increase in managed care systems, the availability of medical care will be more tightly controlled by the first two groups, yet each patient will be able to receive the amount and type of medical care that he or she needs. Just as a company will need to choose an effective, adequate health care plan for its employees, an employee will also usually be able to pick from several options within that plan. Plan A, for example, might offer excellent pediatric care, but Plan B might have a provision to offer care for children who are in college. If some of these options are more expensive than others, the employer may decide to pass the cost along to the employee or else absorb the cost into the company budget. Either way, the choice of options will be up to the consumer.
*24\167\8*
Posted in General health | No Comments »
April 2nd, 2009 admin
Accept assignment: This is an agreement between the health care provider, i.e., the physician, and the insurance company in which the provider agrees to accept the agreed-upon fee for each service as it’s set by the insurance company. Patients are often required to pay a small copayment or deductible per their contract with their insurance company. Sometimes an accept assignment means that the physician participates with the given insurance plan.
Capitation payment: This is an arrangement in which the health care provider is paid a specific amount that is set in advance by the insurance company and the health care provider as a fair payment for a particular service. This payment, which is made in a lump sum once a month, is paid to the health care provider for services; the figure is based on a specific number of patients treated each month. The insurance company pays this fee to the health care provider whether or not an actual service has been performed. Usually only primary care physicians (PCPs) are “capitated,” since they are the gatekeepers of the first line of care; they are responsible for large numbers of patients, and it’s more cost-effective for the insurance company to have primary care physicians on a capitation program. The advantage of capitation payments is that the health care provider receives a guaranteed income each month, with almost no billing hassles; the insurance carrier benefits because it can retain better control over its costs by monitoring its panel of providers. The patient chooses a primary care-physician from a selected group of physicians that is established by the insurance carrier.
Copayment: When an insurance company pays only a certain percentage of a medical bill, the copayment is the amount of the difference that the patient is responsible for paying. For example, if the insurance company pays for 80% of the fee for a surgical procedure, the patient will pay 20%, which doesn’t include the deductible. A copayment can be a fixed amount for each visit, such as $10, regardless of the service that is delivered.
Deductible: This is an amount of money that must be paid by the patient before the insurance company will start paying for the total fee or a portion of it. Many deductibles range from $100 to $500, though some can be up to $10,000 or more.
EOMB: This is the acronym for “Explanation of Medicare Benefits.” An EOMB is the statement that’s sent by Medicare to the patient to inform him or her of the amount that has been paid by Medicare, as well as any balance the Medicare recipient is legally obligated to pay the health care provider.
*6\176\8*
Posted in General health | No Comments »