Health & Personal Care-discovery health channel article...

After reviewing the school plan brochure under the policy tab, you may find yourself ineligible for the school-sponsored health insurance plan*. Some reasons you may be unable to enroll in that plan include:

* Graduating
* Taking online courses
* In- between semesters or leaving school
* Not enough credits

If any of these apply to you, you may wish to consider purchasing an alternate health insurance plan to prevent you from an unexpected illness or injury, as well as to help you maintain your general health. Two of the options obtainable to you are described below:

Individual Medical Insurance: This option is offered by Aetna Life Insurance Company and provides access to value added programs that are similar to those available through the school's student health insurance plan. Various individual programs are available, dependent on your location. Please look the links below for more information.

Click there for Individual Medical Insurance

Short-Term Medical Insurance: This short term coverage option is offered by Fairmont Specialty Group (Fairmont)** Whether your coverage needs are for 1 month or multiple years, a short term policy may be a solution during professional and academic transitions. Short-term health insurance plans are designed to protect against unforeseen accidents or illnesses, rather than to provide comprehensive coverage that includes preventive concern (such as routine doctor visits). Please see the links below for more information.

Click here for Short-term Medical Insurance


*Please thoroughly review the eligibility requirements for your school insurance plan to affirm that you do not visit them before enrolling in either a short-term or individual product. The school sponsored plan is a comprehensive and customized plan for the students of your school and, therefore, the plan recommended by your school. The Fairmont plan may not be considered comparable coverage for schools with mandated insurance requirements.

**Aetna Life Insurance Company and/or its affiliates (Aetna) and Fairmont are independent contractors. Aetna does not insure, underwrite or administer any health insurance plans offered by Fairmont and is not responsible for any products or services provided under those plans. The availability of the Fairmont plans does not constitute an endorsement by your school or Aetna and is only one of the options available to you in the marketplace.

Running generates heat as it torches away the calories. Still that is no excuse to halt running in summer. Just run early in the morning or late in the evening to escape the blazing sun.

In the sweltering heat, remember to drink plenty of water to stay hydrated. If you are going to run for an hour or longer, bring along a bottle of water and drink as you run to rehydrate yourself. Drink a glass of water before and after your run.

As you run, your body sweats to cool you down. In warm weather, you lose even more water through sweat than on cooler days. The thing to watch out for is dehydration. If you lose much water and don't drink enough to stay hydrated, you could experience headaches, dizzyness, disorientation and vomiting. If you experience any of these symptoms, stop running and seek medical help at once!

When you run during the day, protect your skin from the sun. Slather on a sunscreen with SPF15 or higher 30 minutes before you go for your run. The sun's rays harm your skin. Sure, that tan looks good, but the damage your skin sustains will surface later in life, if you don't get sunburnt first. Sun damage can show up as premature wrinkles, age spots or even skin cancer. The free radicals you get from exposure to the sun's rays damage your skin at cellular level. Antioxidants neutralize free radicals, hence, on top of sunscreen, it might be a good idea to include plenty of antioxidant-rich fruit and veggies in your diet when you run. The strongly colored fruits and vegetables are the riches in antioxidants.

Wear sunglasses to protect your eyes as excessive sun exposure can increase your risk of cataracts later on in life.

Protect your head from the blazing sun's rays with a baseball cap. The last thing you want is a massive headache from an overheated, unprotected head when you run.

What are you wearing for your run, besides a good pair of running shoes?
You could run in any old t-shirt and shorts, but your run would be more enjoyable if you dress appropriately for it.

When the weather gets hot, cotton is the favourite natural fabric to wear as it is breathable. While cotton may be the perfect summer fabric, but not when you run or jog or work out. Wear cotton and you will stay drenched in sweat with your apparel stuck to your skin. The cotton won't wick away the sweat as well, nor would it dry as fast as synthetics that were developed for active wear. The best fabrics for running clothes or sportswear are supplex, dri-fit, coolmax and ultrasensor. You will feel cooler in clothes made of these new-fangled fabrics as sweat evaporates more quickly, taking the heat with it.

One of the great things about running in summer, late spring or early fall is the sheer convenience of the sport. All you need is your running shoes, a t-shirt and a pair of running shorts and your sports bra. When it gets colder, you can switch to sweat pants and sweat shirts or even layer your clothes when it gets really chilly.

No matter what you wear, just watch the fabric. It must be breathable. In other words, it must wick the sweat away.

On May 11, 2009, Colorado Senator Michael Bennett introduced a new health care bill aimed to improve patient care as well as save money on health care costs. This new bill, the Medicare Transitions Act of 2009, is designed to improve patient care by ensuring that Medicare patients receive timely and effective follow-up care after they check-out of the hospital.

The Medicare Transitions Act of 2009 bill aims to provide a nationwide network of local transitional care coaches that would help Medicare patients recover and self-manage their condition. Personal follow-up care would be offered in order to ensure that elderly patients were effectively self-managing their condition and properly administering medications.

The bill would reduce costs by dramatically lowering patient readmission rates. Too many seniors are being readmitted into hospitals everyday even though it could have been prevented. For every five Medicare patients who are released from the hospital, one is readmitted inside 1 month. This statistic could be prevented with proper follow-up treatment. Personal follow-up care would assess every patient's condition and provide necessary treatment or further instructions for self-care.

The cost of Medicare and Medicaid are two of the biggest deficits facing the nation today. Cutting costs on Medicare and Medicaid and improving senior care are exceedingly important in times of economic recession. Health care reform is important to prevent your elderly and secure our future.

President Obama lately announced the introduced of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), http://www.globalaging.org/health/us/2009/improve.htm a stimulus package designed to make health care affordable to all Americans. The ARRA allows $2 billion to be invested into community care centers, increase the quality of care provided to our elderly, and jumpstart our economy, among different things. These health centers will provide quality care for those who are in need, even for people who don't have insurance.

Unfortunately, many seniors cannot afford quality health care, and because of that our nation is suffering. Taking care of the elderly by offering quality, affordable health care coverage can positively impact society in many ways. Not only can it help promote longevity, but it can help lower America's large deficit.

Home Health Agency

Probably the oldest and most familiar provider of home care services is known as the home health agency. The home health agency is licensed and usually Medicare certified and accepts different 3rd party billing of health insurances. Medicare certification means that the agency has met specific federal guidelines and criteria regarding patient care.

The main and distinctive mean of this type of agency is to provide skilled care for treatment or rehabilitation services to homebound patients. Home care professionals must strictly adhere to a physician approved plan of care that is deemed medically necessary and updated every 60 days in order for Medicare benefits to continue.

Home health agency services include skilled nursing, physical and occupational therapy, social work, and home health aide while under professional supervision. Home health care agencies focus more on the skilled medical aspects of care and the home health care aide serves exclusively as a supplement to this care. Regardless of reimbursement eligibility, Medicare'll only pay for skilled care in the home for a limited period of time to treat an illness or injury. The HHAs able to provide a pre-authorized amount of personal care while under professional supervision however must discontinue care when skilled care needs are no longer justified.

Individuals often may still have ongoing personal care needs even though skilled services are no longer required. As a because of this common need, many home health agencies offer a private pay, non-certified component inside their agency for nursing assistants to continue providing personal and custodial care. Hiring a non-medical home care agency directly or a privately hiring a caregiver is another option when continued care through a home health agency is not feasible.

Home Care Agency or Non-Medical Home Care Agency

A non-medical home care agency is generally an agency that provides home care services which are not considered to be skilled care. These agencies provide what is termed non-skilled supportive custodial care that is supplied by home health aides, certified nursing assistants (CNAs) and non-certified nurse aides, homemakers, and companions.

These greatly needed services range from housekeeping and companion care to assistance with personal care e.g. bathing, dressing, toileting, and eating. Unskilled care is not reimbursable under Medicare and therefore is paid for privately, or in a little of cases by private long-term care insurance. A physician's order is not required as the need for care is not deemed medically necessary and patient homebound status not required. A professionally authorized and monitored care plan is unnecessary.

These private pay agencies are usually still licensed under authority of each state but licensure requirements and regulations vary widely from state to state unlike federally regulated Medicare certified home health agencies. Most agencies employ their workers, do background checks and manage payroll and taxes. Most of these agencies professionally supervise and monitor their staff with regards to patient care. Non-Medical home care agencies play an undeniably big role filling gaps in home care services not covered under skilled care. Un-skilled home care services such as personal care assistance or other cooking and cleaning support is often what may be needed most and by many in order to remain in their homes.

Registry or Staffing Agency

A private duty registry or employee staffing agency simply acts primarily as an employment service for a variety of skilled and unskilled healthcare workers with nurses, nurse assistants (CNAs) and rehab therapists. Many states do not require these types of agencies to be licensed or conform to specific regulatory requirements.

The management of staff is the key difference between these private duty registries and both the home care and home healthcare agencies previously addressed. Generally homecare and home healthcare agencies actually employ their workers that are sent into client's homes while registries do not. The registry matches an independent healthcare contractor with the patient needs, refers them to the client, and then collects a finder's fee. Consequently, the caregiver in the client's home does not work for the registry but instead the client acts as the employer. He or she becomes the supervisor, usually pays the worker directly, and is responsible for completely payroll taxes including social security withholdings.

Registries and staffing agencies can be reimbursed for their services sometimes through long-term care insurance, Medicaid and private pay. These agencies refer various types of employees providing skilled care from licensed nurses to personal care and companion assistance from nursing assistants.

Requesting an employee referral through this type of service is similar to hiring an individual privately on your own. Managing your own employee offers more independence but at same time additional responsibility without the advantage of employee background screening and licensure verification that many registries undertake.

Private Hire or Independent Providers

Private hire or independent caregivers include various types of nurses, therapists, nursing aides, homemakers, and companions. They are privately employed and managed by those who require their services. All responsibility for recruiting, hiring and supervising falls upon the client or family. Clients pay the caregiver directly; manage payroll taxes, and social security withholdings.

Agency rates are usually higher then private hire employees due to recruitment and management overhead costs incurred. Less dependence on agency staffing with the possibility of saving money may or may not be offset by the time-consuming responsibility of managing a private caregiver.

MONDAY, July 27 (HealthDay News) -- Most older, long-term cancer survivors struggle with great health habits, e.g. regular exercise and a proper diet, a new study shows.

Those who did exercise and eat well after their treatment, however, tended to have more vitality and a better quality of life, the study found.

The report, from researchers from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City,'s published on-the-internet and in the Sept. 1 print issue of Cancer.

"Our findings point to the potential negative affect of obesity and the positive effect of regular exercise and a healthy diet on physical quality of life outcomes among older, long-term cancer survivors," Catherine Mosher, a postdoctoral fellow in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Sloan-Kettering, said in a news release from the American Cancer Society.

Mosher and her colleagues examined data from more than 750 people who had survived breast, prostate or colorectal cancer for five years or more. All were 65 or older.

Most people expressed interest in pursuing healthy habits, but only 7 percent actually met national guidelines for exercise and diet. The majority reported exercising an average of 10 minutes a week -- far short of the recommended 150 minutes of exercise a week, the study said. Obese survivors had worse physical quality of life.

People aged 65 and older make up more than half of the estimated 11 million cancer survivors in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society.

Numerous studies have linked healthy lifestyle choices with better outcomes after a cancer diagnosis. In one recent study, people who had head and neck cancer appeared to have better survival if they exercised, improved their diet and avoided smoking and heavy alcohol consumption.