BirthPlace plans breastfeeding class
By The Hawk Eye, Burlington, Iowa
May 15–FORT MADISON — The BirthPlace at Fort Madison Community Hospital is sponsoring a breastfeeding class from 6 to 8 p.m. May 21 in the FMCH conference rooms.
The class is open to expectant mothers in their last trimester. It will help prepare mothers for breastfeeding and offer support for when they begin to breastfeed.
To register, log on to www.fmchosp.com and click on the Community & Wellness Tab, Prenatal Education.
For more information, call the BirthPlace at (319) 376-2229.
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Blood drive honors troops
Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center is hosting a month-long blood drive honoring veterans at the center’s new location, 3407 Agency St. in Burlington.
The Remembering Our Troops on Memorial Day drive is sponsored by Optimist Club of Burlington-West Burlington, IowaWorks, Des Moines County VFW and AmVet Post 29.
Donors 17 or older, weighing more than 110 pounds and having a donor card or photo ID can participate in the blood drive during regular hours in May.
To schedule an appointment, call (800) 591-8049.
Church hosts Life Line screening
Residents living in and around Burlington can be screened to reduce their risk of having a stroke or bone fracture. First Church of the Nazarene, 1015 S. Roosevelt Ave., will host Life Line screening June 22.
Packages start at $149. All five screenings take 60 to 90 minutes.
To learn more or to schedule an appointment, call (877) 237-1287 or visit www.lifelinescreening.com. Registration is required.
Diabetic foot screenings set
WEST BURLINGTON — Great River Center for Rehab and Clinics staff will provide free diabetic foot screenings from 1 to 4 p.m. today at the Center for Rehab and Clinics, 1401 W. Agency Road, West Burlington.
The screening is for people with diabetes or loss of sensation in their feet. Appointments are required. Those interested in scheduling an appointment should call the Center for Rehab and Clinics at (319) 768-4100.
HCHC diabetes team plans classes
MOUNT PLEASANT — Henry County Health Center’s Diabetes Team is offering a diabetes education series May 22 and May 29. The two-day program is open to anyone with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes.
Read More»Breast cancer survivors’ beauty on display at The Day of Caring
By Andrea Torres, The Miami Herald
May 15–David Labrie radiated self-confidence in his bubble-gum pink bow tie and black tuxedo, flashing a great grin as he strode down the runway at the Models of Hope fashion show.
Seeing a male model surprised some in the audience of about 700 at the 11th annual Day of Caring for Breast Cancer Awareness on Saturday at the InterContinental hotel in downtown Miami. It had been about two years since the 55-year-old father of three was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma.
Labrie is grateful “that it was him that was diagnosed with cancer and not his wife or daughter,” master of ceremonies Mark Schumacher told the crowd.
Christine Zahralban looked like a professional bathing suit model in a two-piece that accentuated her voluptuous figure. Two years ago, soon after her 39th birthday, she was diagnosed with stage 1 colloid breast cancer. No one who saw her on Saturday would have guessed that the stunning Miami-Dade County prosecutor had undergone weekly chemotherapy treatments for six months.
“She enjoys spinning, boxing, dancing, weightlifting,” Schumacher said as she gracefully walked in six-inch platform heels. “She is grateful she chose to have both breasts removed as it was discovered that she also had cancer in her other breast.”
The models exuding joie de vivre on the catwalk also included an accountant, an actress, an art teacher, an advertising executive, a loan processor and a University of Miami law professor.
Rhonda McKnight-Smith, a grandmother, said having cancer had “really opened her eyes to what is important.” Debra Cabrera said she “discovered her inner strength and calmness through it all.”
There were many stories of survival. And no one appeared to be feeling any self-pity.
Losing my breasts has made me feel less feminine and attractive, but the women on that runway made me think that cancer patients should view themselves as ugly ducklings on their way to becoming swans. The promise is that as time passes, the image in the mirror will improve along with your health.
The fashion show was preceded by sessions on topics ranging from “Advances in Medical Oncology” and “Options in Reconstructive Surgery” to a tai chi workshop called “Learn Meditation in Motion.”
Read More»EDITORIAL: Stop, drop, roll
By Chattanooga Times Free Press, Tenn.
May 13–Tennessee’s former governor, Democrat Phil Bredesen, wrote in an October 2010 editorial for the Wall Street Journal assessing his party’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that “… our recent health reform has created a situation where there are strong economic incentives for employers to drop coverage altogether. The consequence will be to drive many more people than projected — and with them, much greater cost — into the reform’s federally subsidized system.”
What does that mean? Like your health care coverage you now have through your employer? You’d better hope the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare is repealed.
The sentiments of the opinion piece written a year and a half ago are echoed in a May 1 report prepared for the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee: “Broken Promise: Why ObamaCare Will Force Americans to Lose the Health Care Coverage They Have and Like.”
The mandate included in Obama’s signature legislation forces all businesses with 50 or more full-time employees to offer a government-approved health care plan or pay a $2,000 penalty per employee.
Seventy-one Fortune 100 companies responded to a survey demonstrating that, in 2011, they employed 5.9 million full- and part-time workers spending $30.8 billion on health insurance that covered 10.2 million lives. Of these 71 companies, 89 percent offered insurance to part-time employees.
These same 71 companies could enjoy a projected savings of $28.6 billion in 2014 alone by eliminating health insurance offered to their employees and dependents and simply paying the $2,000 fine per full-time employee as mandated by the law.
Other surveys support the likely move of businesses to end employee-sponsored health coverage.
In May of last year, Price Waterhouse published a report foreseeing an 8.5 percent increase in medical costs and stating “84 percent of firms surveyed are likely to re-evaluate their overall benefits strategy.”
Market Strategies International released a publication in January 2011 that estimated a 10 percent net decline in access to employer-sponsored health benefits as of January 2014, the year the health care legislation would be fully implemented.
Read More»New Haven program helps people at risk for diabetes
By Joe Amarante, New Haven Register, Conn.
May 13–NEW HAVEN — Yes, it’s a classroom-style program at the YMCA, but it’s also a lifesaver and potential money-saver, results suggest. And last week, this growing program garnered national attention.
The Wall Street Journal featured the somewhat new Diabetes Prevention Program as an example of “a community-based organization (delivering) a nationwide health-care intervention.”
The program — guiding at-risk people to eat healthier and exercise regularly — is only for those who are pre-diabetic or at risk of type 2 diabetes, not those who already have the disease.
“I say ‘only’ but that’s a huge number,” said area coordinator Kelly Vaughan. “Seventy-nine million people in the country are pre-diabetic, and only about 7 percent know that they are. So that’s part of our mission, to let people know that there is such a condition as pre-diabetes, that type 2 diabetes is preventable, and that the Y has a program to help people prevent or delay the onset.”
Vaughan works in New Haven as program coordinator for the Y Diabetes Program at Central Connecticut Coast YMCA, one of many across the country that could see a huge bump in activity, partly because of the economics of avoiding costly diabetes and its serious effects.
The YMCA is reimbursed by insurance companies and employers when folks enroll in the course, according to the Journal. If goals are reached, such as weight loss, the Y gets more reimbursement. (Weight loss reportedly has averaged more than 5 percent nationally for those attending nine-plus sessions.)
“The complications of type 2 diabetes can be severe: limb amputation … renal failure and those sorts of things,” said Vaughan, who runs the area program under the supervision of Project Manager Barbara Moore. “The complications can be very expensive.”
The goals sound simple: Reduce body weight by 7 percent (for a 200-pound person, that’s a “manageable” 14 pounds, said Vaughan) and increase physical activity to 150 minutes per week. But that really means a lifestyle change, and a big payoff in terms of what doesn’t happen.
“If you meet those two program goals, you can reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes by 58 percent,” Vaughan said. Continued…
Read More»Motorcycle group reaches out to help breast cancer program
By Janet Conner-Knox, The Wilson Daily Times, N.C.
May 14–Five years ago Wanda Hinnant said she felt like the bottom dropped out when a mother in her church died of breast cancer.
“Her name was Belinda Monk-Barnes and she was a wonderful person,” Hinnant said. “It seemed like it was all of a sudden. Her death made me go out and find out more about breast cancer.”
Hinnant said she read all she could and then took the time to call Robin Williams of Wilson Medical Center to get even more information.
“I believe we talked six months before I actually talked to her face to face,” Hinnant said. “That’s how I learned about the Mother’s Day mammogram program at the hospital.”
Hinnant is a part of motorcycle group called “Hardest Hittas” and they get on their bikes every Saturday before Mother’s Day to raise money for Mother’s Day mammograms.
That program at the hospital helps women who don’t have medical insurance get a mammogram and help them if there is cancer present.
Hinnant said each of the 15 members of the bike club got on board with the fundraiser as soon as they heard about it.
“They just loved the idea,” Hinnant said. “There would have been no way just one person could have done this fundraiser alone.”
Hardest Hittas began their ride Saturday morning from Wilson Medical Center, all around Wilson County to the Nash County line ending at Toisnot Park.
“We have been doing this now for four years and 100 percent of the money we raise goes to Mother’s Day mammograms,” Hinnant said.
So far, the women have raised $5,000 in the four years they have been raising the money.
Hinnant is now one of the Pink Ladies, the volunteer group of women who assist women who get breast cancer, from diagnosis through the treatment.
“It can be devastating when a women gets breast cancer,” Hinnant said. “I want to do all I can to help the women who have to fight it.”
If you would like to donate to the Hardest Hittas fund raiser for mammograms for women who can’t afford it, call Hinnant at 252-544-1200.
janet@wilsontimes.com — 265-7847
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(c)2012 The Wilson Daily Times (Wilson, N.C.)
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Read More»Medical group offers free care to Santa Clara’s uninsured
By Beth Marie Mole, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.
May 14–When Shelly Hagen’s 6-year-old son caught a cold that crept into a persistent cough, she made a trip to Santa Clara Urgent Care. It turned out to be a routine respiratory infection, but the visit was nothing less than extraordinary — it was free.
Like 250,000 other Santa Clara County residents, Hagen is uninsured. As a self-employed, single mother with a pre-existing condition, she said she can’t afford the $850 per month it would cost to have private insurance. And, like other parents, she’s apprehensive about her son’s health.
“You hear all these horror stories about pneumonia settling in, and I just got worried,” Hagen said of her son’s cold.
She was both relieved and amazed when a relative told her about the “SafetyNet” program at Santa Clara Urgent Care and the 10 other facilities operated by the Bay Area Surgical Management. The program gives 1,000 uninsured residents free health care, which includes urgent care, imaging services (X-ray, MRI and CT scans), gynecological services and outpatient surgeries.
It couldn’t come at a better time. Since 2000, the percentage of uninsured residents in Santa Clara County has jumped from 8 percent to 18 percent, according to the Santa Clara County Health Department.
Hagan, who hasn’t had health insurance since 2005, is now a regular patient at Santa Clara Urgent Care and will apply for their “un-insurance” card when the BASM program expands this year.
The uninsured patients
range from former CEOs to single parents, to people just between jobs, said Dr. William Trolan, the Urgent Care’s medical director. The center already provides about 1,000 free doctor visits a year.
SafetyNet had an unofficial start in 2006, when the company opened the doors to its Urgent Care Center. Some of the 300 BASM employees asked if uninsured friends and family could come by for this or that, and the idea caught on.
Then came the case of a grandmother needing cataract surgery. After her daughter and son-in-law were killed in a car accident, the woman was left to care for her two young grandchildren on her meager wages as a piano teacher.
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