Zane Safrit

Highlights from My Conversation with Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum

Dr. Teitelbaum is a board certified internist and Medical Director of the national Fibromyalgia and Fatigue Centers, Inc. He is the author of the perennial best-seller From Fatigued to Fantastic! which has sold over 500,000 copies. The 3rd revised edition from Avery/Penguin Group USA publishes on October 4, 2007. In Pain Free 1-2-3 (McGraw-Hill, April 2006), Dr. Teitelbaum outlines a step-by-step program that can help anyone identify the source of pain and understand how to alleviate it. Three Steps to Happiness: Healing Through Joy (Deva Press 2003), provides a blueprint for creating and maintaining a natural state of happiness and vitality at any time.

He is the lead author of groundbreaking “gold standard” research on effective treatment for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia, which was published in the Journal of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, volume 8, number 2 in 2001. Up to 24 million Americans are chronically fatigued. And as many as 12 - 13 million are diagnosed with either Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and/or Fibromyalgia. Dr. Teitelbaum shared his tips and resources to address our nation's personal energy crisis and allow us to leave the vibrant lives we deserve.

You can listen in streaming on-demand at this link. Warning: a heckler joins for about 10 seconds, screaming obscenities for the last 2-3. Dr. Teitelbaum handled this very well. And BlogTalk Radio’s host controls allowed me to remove the caller immediately.

What projects are you working on right now?

Our general goal is to make effective treatment available to everyone using natural and prescription therapies, which is not part of the big pharmaceutical money game. We have an iPhone application called Natural Cures which is currently available to the public free of charge, but will increase to $1.00, so download it now. Once downloaded to the phone, you are able to search any illness and find any natural or Rx remedy. Health Fact has a nutritional primer and soon an herbal primer. My book, “I am Beating Sugar Addiction Now” is coming to press shortly and my next book will teach people how to recover from the difficult economy and how to get their life back, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Congratulations on being recommend in Oprah magazine and that issue has been out for a few weeks now. What has been the impact on your business?

After the mention, I received a call from Dr. Oz to be on his show in 3-4 weeks. The impact has been interesting. I think the general economy has been picking up and I can see that our product sales have increased. Things are healing and this is a good thing. Most businesses have taken such a hit, but I think things are turning around for the better. It is like spring time for the economy. It is time for small businesses to heal on all levels. This takes the lead for healing our whole country.

Why does your program work so well for so many, when seemingly all others especially Western drug treatment has failed?

It is important for our listeners to understand what drives Western medicine. I appreciate it, but there are many weaknesses. Basically in medicine today, for anything to be promoted for use, it has to be very expensive and patentable. The way the system is set up, it must go through the FDA process, which costs $800 mil. If it something is not patentable, that money is lost, no matter how well proven that treatment is. On the flip side, no matter how deadly or dangerous or infective to other treatments that are out there, if it can show statistical benefit, not clinical over a placebo, without being too dangerous, that is all it takes for FDA approval, even if it kills just a few people. Medicine is no longer based on what is safe and effective; it is based on patent and dollars. This is so dangerous. We are moving towards change, but it takes a great deal of time and energy.

You suffered from Chronic Fatigue in medical school. Was it identified with that term then and what was your experience in dealing with it?

Back in 1975 I had a nasty viral infection that I called the drop dead flu. We could not tell what it was. I was bedridden and had to drop out of school. I became homeless at this point as I was paying my own way. My medical professors knew there was a virus but could not identify it after six weeks. They figured I was depressed. In medical mentality there was a rule of thumb, that if the docs didn’t know what was wrong, they think the patient is crazy. I had the disease and they had no idea what it was. I learned how to treat the virus much better while I was homeless. I met naturopaths and herbalists who taught me how to get well and I soon recovered. I did go back to medical school and got my honors. Through my studies, I learned that 91% of patients improve when treated on an energetic level.

Tell us about your journey with alternative medicine.

I read a great deal of medical literature, beyond funded medical studies. I did an extensive amount of research based on some of the questions that patients had regarding natural treatments. Most physicians do not read any of this information nor are they interested. They only read the materials put out by the pharmaceutical companies.

When did Western Medicine begin to accept Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia as valid distinct disorders?

About 15 years ago. An important thing happened about one year ago. For the first time ever, three new medications were approved by the FDA for Fibromyalgia pain and because of that, companies are spending millions of advertising dollars to inform the public. They realized there is money to be made; however, it has also brought to light that it is a real disease.

I want to be able to help people effective treat their disease as well as to recognize if they have it. Basically the symptoms are: exhaustion and lack of sleep. It is a paradox and doesn’t go away with vacation. If you ache all over and have brain fog you have CFS until proven otherwise. Most doctors will not acknowledge some of the symptoms exist. They represent the energy crisis in your body. The fuse that is blown in the body is sleep.

You have a SHINE protocol based on these symptoms. What is that?

It is an acronym: how to restore energy production which turns on the circuit breaker.

The "SHINE Treatment Protocol" is an itemized list of all the common treatments for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia, both natural and prescription, that can be used by a patient or practitioner. A personalized treatment plan can be created from this list by identifying the underlying causes of these two, based on an analysis of the patient's particular symptoms. SHINE stands for:

S: SLEEP - You need 8 hours per night and there are many natural remedies to help.

H: HORMONAL SUPPORT- in the medical field, we confuse the normal rage with healthy, which has nothing to do with health. It is based upon computing the standard deviation. You need to treat the hormones and compare to the symptoms using bio-identical hormones. These are cheap and most docs will not even look at them.

I: INFECTIONS– because our immune systems are not working properly when people have these illnesses. People tend to get yeast infections or an overgrowth of Candida. Basically it is really odd in medicine because there are no tests for normal as compared to overgrowth of yeast. Doctors say there is no such thing as an overgrowth.

N: NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS- Optimal nutritional supplementation is essential. Many nutrients can be depleted as a result of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Fybro Myalgia. B-12, magnesium,... as well as your basic A, B, C and D vitamins need to be supplemented at a level that your average over the counter multivitamin cannot provide.

E: EXERCISE- Exercise as able. After 10 weeks on the 4 steps above, you will be able to slowly increase your exercise-without being wiped out the next day!

35:50

I do recommend that people go to the Fibromyalgia and fatigue clinics as these physicians are experts in these diseases. The doctors know what they are doing.

What is your reasonable aspiration or hoped for goal* with all that you are doing?

Short term: heal our healthcare system. Basically right now I am looking to be involved that people have access to natural remedies and teaching people they can be empowered in their own health. A big part of this is bypassing the pharmaceutical companies. I had the great opportunity to speak with President Obama and Michelle on these issues and there are some processes/laws in creation to work on this task.

You mentioned that some of these changes and reforms are already happening in our healthcare system. Why are you so optimistic?

The system will reform or collapse. There is a certain evolution and growth that occurs with what is common sense and necessary. The public is able to go online and get the information they need and get their own tool kits. People have a certain common sense about them.

On a recent appearance on Good Morning America, you said we suffer from a personal energy crisis that is far greater than an oil crisis. Why and is this worse now with the economy?

This is absolutely what is going on. How many listeners don’t need more energy? People go into the doctor’s office saying “I have fatigue and I have pain.” Pain is an energy crisis. Doctors are not trained in this area. A lot of this is occurring due to our nutrition. One third of our nutrition comes from white sugar and white flour, which are devoid of vitamins and minerals. The government forced companies to enrich the flour with a few nutrients. This is like one third of a loss of your paycheck. This detriment leaves us nutrient deficient and adds on lack of sleep and things are speeding up exponentially. The good news is that all this is treatable. We can help the body handle what is in the environment. Our vitamin powder and energy powder or some from the health food store can help combat this health crisis. Also, go out in the sun – your body needs sunshine!! Vitamin D is a critical hormone/nutrient. Just avoid sunburn, not sunshine. The lack of sun causes overwhelming amounts of cancer.

50:26

You offer wonderful advice with a simple phrase: Follow Your Bliss. What do you mean?

I have always said, if you get people healthy and they go back to a life they hate, I guarantee that they will get sick again. You can’t just treat only the physical component – the disease will pop up somewhere else. You need to treat the whole person. Check in with your feelings - Your gut reaction. Cut out the things that feel bad. Follow your bliss!! You will be filling your life with wonderful positive things and as you continue this thought, more positive will surround you.

Looking at the rise in chronic diseases, it looks like we are working at jobs we hate. Would you connect the two?

I am not sure we are doing more of jobs we hate, but I do presume our entire nutrition and environmental atmosphere is more damaging. I think more people are starting to wise up and do what they love and people are shifting their focus and their lives.

Where can people find your FREE weekly newsletter?

The website is Vitality 101. There is a lot of fun and useful information and even a joke of the day.

If we speak next year, and I hope we do, what will you celebrate with us?

Celebrating my new book, “I am Beating Sugar Addiction Now” as well as my next book. Maybe I will even be on Oprah.

Caller: Do you see a shift in the healthcare field to where we will start to see more people come in looking at naturopathy and alternative medicine?

I believe so. I think health insurance should be catastrophic coverage only and natural treatments are out of pocket. We already know there are more visits to naturopathic doctors than traditional medicine. Natural remedies are a growing area and this scares the pharmaceutical industry.

Disclaimer: I was introduced to Dr. Teitelbaum by our mutual friend Dean Draznin. Dr. Teitelbaum, Dean and I spoke earlier this summer about what Twitter could do for him. Dean is founder of Dean Draznin Communications which serves as Dr. Teitelbaum's PR firm. I scheduled this show working with Dean. Recently, my wife joined Dean Draznin Communications. I received no remuneration for this interview, nor asked for any. But I did convince my wife to bring home a sample box of Dr. Teitelbaum's Energy Revitalization from her office. And it's great! I feel clear, focused, with energy but not jittery. I slept well. I worked out at the gym yesterday and still felt like working in the yard for a couple of hours the next day. That's a first.

Free PDF: Healthcare Reform: It's our debate, too

Download Healthcare_ebook_FA5

Have you noticed, we the consumers, are not invited to the healthcare reform debate? Those debating changes to our healthcare system and the same ones who created it. They also are the same ones with vested interests in the current system.

We can reform our healthcare system. We have to participate in its debate. We have to offer our ideas. Our ideas to reform our healthcare system. Otherwise, it remains...their healthcare system.

This is a first-step. It's only a first-step.  It's not the only one. Take this step here. Or find a place to take a step, your step. And make this healthcare reform debate, our debate, too.

How to fix our healthcare: Give Congress our healthcare options

"If every member of Congress put their heads on their pillow every night like I do ... knowing this could be the night I lose my house, we'd fix healthcare in a week," said Rep. Steve Kagen. Kagen is a Wisconsin Democrat who worked as a Green Bay-area physician for decades. - Washington Monthly.

He is the only member of Congress who refuses federal healthcare benefits, on the principle it is unfair to have better have healthcare options as an elected official than those who elect him. So, he goes without.

Take Congress' generous healthcare options away. Give them the same healthcare options as we, their electors, enjoy. Then let them wonder, as many of us do, is this the night our healthcare costs take our houses away.

Many Americans, myself included, say we should have the same healthcare as Congress. No, they should have the same healthcare options as we are allowed.

We'd fix healthcare in a week. Maybe, even today. Definitely before the Congressional recess this month.

Walgreens Clinics Giving Free Care to Uninsured and Jobless

NEW YORK – Drugstore operator Walgreens will offer free clinic visits to the unemployed and uninsured for the rest of the year, providing tests and routine treatment for minor ailments through its walk-in clinics — though patients will still pay for prescriptions. - Yahoo News.

I don't even know what to say about this act of corporate philanthropy, corporate step-up, stand-up, help-a-neighbor-out...

Very inspiring.

Link is from Bob Garrett on Twitter.

Social media + smart doctors + early-adoptor patients =

Hello Healthcare.

What do they do?

They mix office and online visits to give you personal attention when and how you want it.

Cool. That's what innovation can do. Solve big problems. Do it locally. Be able to scale it nationally.

Surgery Checklists Lower Death Rates by 47%

In a pilot study, researchers found that using the checklist cut the death rate following surgery by 47 percent, while the complication rate decreased by 36 percent. - Discover Magazine blog

It's that simple?

What are the follow-on savings from these results? Like total costs from personal bankruptcies driven by healthcare crisis, the data is difficult to find. But accoding to a recent study by insurance firm Aon Corp., hospital-acquired conditions accounted for 12.2 percent of total legal liability costs insured by healthcare facilities in 2007. That study was comprised of almost 78,000 claims, relating to a total of $9.3 billion in incurred losses. The data included information from more than 1,200 facilities from 1998 to 2007.

How much would it save?

• 10-year total legal liability: $9.3 Billion
• Annual Legal Liability: $930 million per year in total legal liability costs
• Hospital-acquired conditions, as percentage of hospital's total legal liability = $113.5 million per year or (12.2%)

What's missing is the percentage of total legal liability costs of hospitals acquired from...surgeries. It would be easy to assume a lower percentage of 'never-events' that generate an inverse proportion of the total costs.

And we don't have an estimate for the loss in income from deaths to the families, the companies where they work, the resulting increase in medical liability costs, insurance costs, passed on to consumers.

But, such a simple thing, following a 19-step checklist can deliver these results in hospitals regardless of developing or developed country of location...it's one more step towards lowering costs. Oh. And raising levels of care and saving lives.

New Model: Paying for Results, not Services Delivered

UnitedHealth will try giving doctors more authority and money than usual in return for closely monitoring their patients’ progress, even when patients go to specialists or require hospitalization. The insurer will also move away from paying doctors solely on the basis of how many services they provide, and will start rewarding them more for the overall quality of care patients receive. - UnitedHealth and IBM Test Health Care Plan

Here's a step in the right direction.

Or maybe, a push. Note the presence of the large corporate employer. IBM is prodding UnitedHealth to try this program again in Arizona after it initially failed in Florida.

“What we buy is garbage,” said Dr. Paul Grundy, I.B.M.’s director of health care transformation, who has become a major proponent of the medical home concept.

$21 million worth of garbage, for their 11,000 employees, for those quants in the audience.

IBM pushed UnitedHealth to work with doctors this time to find a way to deliver better care and reward the doctors for delivering better care. Doctors could receive an additional 30% in revenue from UnitedHealth in this program, as they move towards the goals of:

double-digit declines in hospital admissions and emergency room visits — in part because doctors are better able to care for patients at night, for example, or to help them avoid the kinds of complications that require more costly interventions.

It's a step in the right direction...or a push...or a pull. Either way, it's progress on this 1000 mile journey to fix our healthcare system.

Healthcare Victory: QLiance

Doctor's Orders profiles one company's use of Qliance...

a 15-month-old company based in a downtown Seattle clinic, saves money by cutting out the middlemen: bloated health- insurance companies that require doctors and insurance administrators to manage collections and payments on every service.

Instead, Qliance charges a flat monthly fee of about $60 for basic health care. Employers then take out a separate—and less expensive—catastrophic health-insurance policy, which covers things like car accidents and strokes. Employers also pay into a fund that employees can access for at-cost prescriptions from the Qliance pharmacy.

As of January 1, instead of being restricted to 15-minute appointments, employees can see a doctor for a half hour to an hour; instead of going to a doctor no more than a few times a year, employees can visit their doctor as often as they need; instead of paying co-pays, employees' costs are built into the monthly charge; and instead of paying $620 a month, Long Live the Kings pays just $360 [per employee]. 

So, let's see. Small businesses can:

• lower their employee health insurance costs by...42%
• raise the quality of primary care they provide their employees.
  

What's not to like about that?

I'd consider it a victory if the level of care remained unchanged but you lowered the costs by 40%. But with the approach of Qliance, you do both:

• lower their employee health insurance costs by...42%
• raise the quality of primary care they provide their employees.

More profiles of businesses using Qliance:

Seattle News

Yelp testimonials.  The most recent one wrote:

Bravo, this place is amazing!

At long last...a primary healthcare provider that actually *wants* to keep you healthy. They take longer-term view of the patient's health, focus on preventative care, and cut out perverse incentives.

Seattle BizJournals

Qliance blog

Qliance Facebook Group.

Qliance on Judy's Book

Free-market, University of Chicago acolytes, should love this free-market, private business, innovative approach. Let's hope they support it as it changes our current business model for providing affordable healthcare. 

Qliance. You give me hope. And I'm not even a customer.

BIDMC: True to its mission

Each week, on Monday, I blog about issues related to our healthcare system. The need for discussion on this issue should be apparent, even to members of Congress now. (I couldn't restrain myself.) And each day of each week, I search for possible solutions. I even have a category for health care victories and health care solutions. You can see in the category cloud there aren't many entries tagged with this category.

Maybe, it's my feeds. Maybe, it's the egregious nature of some of the abuses in our healthcare system, the suffering they create, the productivity they impeded that distracts me from seeing solutions. I don't find many solutions.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston may be an exception. It seems like it could be a hospital that remains true to its mission regardless of medicare/medicaid payment amounts or percentages or the ever-changing vicissitudes of co-pay, no-pay, denied-pay health insurance system.

I live in Iowa. I've never visited the hospital. Honestly, I hope I never need to, as well.  But, they would deliver stellar care in that event.

How do I know this hospital could be unique, true to its mission and my care would be stellar?

It's their leader, their CEO. He blogs at Running a Hospital.  I've read his blog for a few years, now. He blogs well, too, mixing in personal anecdotes and stories, as well as stories of successes and mistakes at their hospital, their challenges and he uses social media to share that story. He sometimes writes on the industry as a whole. He shares stories of how his hospital helps, not only with medical/health challenges, but also with life's challenges. He's a patient man it seems with weak people/competitors/organizations who need the crutch of hidden agendas. (Patience comes from strength, wisdom, discretion, perspective.)

That's the great thing about a blog. You get to know the author over time, your time, their time. Should I ever meet Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston, I don't think I'll be surprised by much. Maybe how delightful it was to meet in person.

A leader leads. But an organization, a community, a nation...a hospital staff, we all get the leaders we deserve. Clearly, the staff there deserve a great leader.

His staff is very loyal to their shared mission of care, treatment and education for their patients, their staff and their community.  Very few hospitals and their patient care inspire letters and blog posts like this and this.

Too often we read of hospitals with a different culture, a different attitude, a different mission. So many it seems that the road less-traveled now is the road that leads a hospital to sustain its mission of care, treatment, education for its patients, its staff and its community.

I don't know how to solve every probem with our healthcare system. I know if we keep talking about it together we'll find a solution to all the problems. But one solution would be to clone/duplicate BIDMC, its staff, its leaders, its volunteers...

I know this isn't the only hospital like this. So, share your stories here of your hospital and community it supports and that supports it. And encourage them to blog and share their stories. We can create a community of solutions and role models, help each other find solutions.

Have a great week.

PS: Thanks, Mr. Levy for the time you spend blogging.

Daschle's in the HOUSE!!!

Former Sen. Tom Daschle, President-elect Barack Obama’s choice for Health and Human Services Secretary, ... wants Americans to host “holiday-season house parties to brainstorm over how best to overhaul the U.S. health-care system,” the WSJ reports.

Daschle's in the HOUSE!!!

Personally, I like the idea. We've researched this problem, with our own experiences, lives and health for the better part of a decade. Now, let's move to the idea-generating, brainstormin' house party.

Why not? Why not us?

If not us, then who? If not the ones whose lives and income depend on fixing this healthcare system...then who? Everyone else has tried: insurance industry, big pharma, AMA, Congress, Hillary, big tobacco, big business...

Whose left without a turn at fixing our healthcare system is...us.  We can only do better than those other guys, so far. I guarantee it.

The question will be do we, the citizens and the consumers, have the power. Can we sit at this dinner table now? Until now, we've been the proverbial roast pig with a ripe apple in our mouth served on the table while those others sit and salivate.

I may like this guy as head of HHS. I wasn't keen on the idea. But maybe his skills at listening, at accepting different viewpoints, seen as weakness in a different time is the perfect approach.

Daschle's in the HOUSE!!!

Link from WSJ's health blog.

Note: I categorized this as a health care victory. It's always a victory when the consumer is invited to join the discussion.

Sen. Max Baucus' Healthcare Blueprint

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus' (D-Mont.) has a healthcare blueprint.  From the NY Times article:

"Every American has a right to affordable, high-quality health care," Mr. Baucus said. "Americans cannot wait any longer." Far from being a distraction from efforts to revive the economy, he said, "health reform is an essential part of restoring America's economy and maintaining our competitiveness."

Mr. Baucus would create a nationwide marketplace, a "health insurance exchange," where people could compare and buy insurance policies. The options would include private insurance policies and a new public plan similar to Medicare. Insurers could no longer deny coverage to people who had been sick. Congress would also limit insurers' ability to charge higher premiums because of a person's age or prior illness.

God is in the details. But these terms are a great start. I liked how he starts with the a reminder of the obvious:

health reform is an essential part of restoring America's economy and maintaining our competitiveness.

Seems obvious, doesn't it? Do you know how we compete with an unhealthy workforce? Ok, let's say the employed get healthcare through affordable health insurance and a reformed healthcare system. Ok, great. What about their families, their sons and daughters and parents/grandparents and sisters and brothers who don't? Think their needs might be a distraction? What about a drain on their discretionary income? Hard to drive an economic recovery when a growing percent of our GDP is devoted to our healthcare or at least for those who can afford it.

The Washington Monthly shares more including links to others' thoughts on Sen. Baucus' healthcare blueprint.

Transparency in Hospitals: Paul Levy Gets It

From Hospital Impact, Most Transparent Hospital CEO...

"What we were trying to do is demonstrate to the public that we are willing to be held accountable for quality and safety improvements and establish metrics by which we’ll be measured, and to publish our results" - Paul Levy, CEO of  Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Running a Hospital Blogger

Mr. Levy gets it: transparency, accountability, dependable metrics, evidence-based decision-making, improvements, trust. It all goes together.

Celebrating the Every Day Failures of our Health Care System

Poked and Prodded has a post by Dena Rifkin we all should read: I see the failure of the health-care system every day.

Let's celebrate it. Seriously. Dr. Rifkin articulates just a few of the failures of our health-care system so clearly that we see just as clearly where solutions are needed and who needs them.

That's the first step of finding a solution.  Providing clarity. Answering:

• Where a solution is needed.
• Who needs it.
• When is it needed.
• What will it solve.
• How will we be able to measure its success?

And let's celebrate briefly, the failures of our health-care system.

Why?

They are so egregious now. We can't deny them anymore. We can't pretend. We can't ignore. We can't say it only effects 'those' people whoever those are. And that's because the 'those' of the past are now us or our families or our neighbors or co-workers. And now we clearly see the answers to those questions.

Maintaining Your Health: Knowledge is Power

[P]atients have more than ever to gain by decoding the latest health news and researching their own medical care.

“I don’t think people have a choice — it’s mandatory,” said Dr. Marisa Weiss, a breast oncologist in Pennsylvania who founded the Web site breastcancer.org. “The time you have with your doctor is getting progressively shorter, yet there’s so much more to talk about. You have to prepare for this important meeting.” - NY Times, You're Sick. Now What?

The article's worth the time to read. It's another well-written reminder that we are the decision-makers for our health and its care.  The health care industry serves us, not us them. But at this point, it's only with the power that knowledge brings us that we can insure our interests are served.

Here's some pointers from the article which I hope you read:

The goal is to find an M.D., not become one.

Keep statistics in perspective.

Don’t limit yourself to the Web.

There’s more to decoding your health than the Web. Along with your doctor, your family, other patients and support groups can be resources. So can the library. When she found out she had Type 2 diabetes in 2006, Barbara Johnson, 53, of Chanhassen, Minn., spent time on the Internet, but also took nutrition classes and read books to study up on the disease.

Tell your doctor about your research.

Healthcare Victories: Negotiate

60% of the consumers who asked their doctor or hospital for a discount on the account balances they owed did receive one in exchange for faster payment.

You have the leverage, not them. So, call up your provider and low-ball them. Go ahead. Offer them less than what you owe and offer to pay it promptly. Remember, every second that they delay accepting payment costs them money, not you.- My Health Care is Killing Me

Health care solution: Negotiate. You have the leverage, not them.

Small Business CHOICE Act of 2008

Is this the solution? Maybe. Possibly.

But at the very least, the Small Business CHOICE Act of 2008 is a few steps in the right direction.

What is the Small Business CHOICE Act of 2008?

According to the Kaiser Foundation:

The House Small Business Committee introduced a bill Wednesday that would help small businesses provide their employees health insurance by allowing the companies to form health insurance purchasing cooperatives and by offering them a refundable tax credit of 65% of the cost of the insurance, the Wichita Eagle reports.

Committee spokesperson Jaime Zapata said, "It's a bipartisan piece of legislation ... and it takes the best elements" of the plans of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) (McLoone, "Small Business," Washington Post, 7/23). Zapata said, "It has both tax elements and a pooling mechanism. Unlike other legislation, however, the CHOICE Act creates a cooperative that can work with existing state law" (Wichita Eagle, 7/24).

The few steps in the right direction are:

* Bi-partisan sponsors.

Rep. Nydia M. Velazquez (D-N.Y.), who chairs the House Small Business Committee, and Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.).

* Best parts of McCain and Obama's solutions.

* Pooling members into buying coops with stronger negotiating power...much like big businesses have now with their large group plans where costs from member claims are spread over a larger number of members and their premium payments.

* Bite-sized approach. It's not attempting to solve all problems with our current health care system.

* Doable today. Hold on. It's going to take a lot of work. There will be stumbles along the way. People will be unhappy and angry. (That's not really news, these days.) But...the tax credits, the pooling of members into existing coops, incentivizing small business, makes it doable...today.

Washington WATCH

PhoenixVille News

Small businesses are the backbone of innovation and job creation in our economy. In fact, small businesses employ a full half of all the private sector employees in the United States. They provide flexible environments that are often necessary as incubators of innovative. new ideas.

[ I liked this reminder of the importance of small business in our economy.]

DOTMed

Business and Legal Reports

US Restaurants Association  (They support it.)

The restaurant industry applauds the health-care bill introduced today by Chairwoman Nydia Velázquez and Representative Joseph Pitts and commends them for their bipartisan leadership and commitment to providing small businesses access to affordable health-care options," said John Gay, senior vice president of government affairs and public policy for the National Restaurant Association. "With 13.1 million employees, restaurants are the nation's second largest private-sector employer, and health-care costs are a tremendous weight on the future viability of the industry. If passed into law, this legislation will directly help restaurateurs and their employees afford health insurance.

International Franchise Association

The International Franchise Association (IFA) today applauded House Small Business Committee Chair Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) and Rep. Joseph Pitts (R-PA) for introducing the bipartisan Small Business "CHOICE" Act of 2008 to help small franchised businesses offer affordable health insurance to employees.

Health Care Solution: Be your best advocate

You're the patient (or could be); be your best advocate.

Ask questions. That's right. Arm yourself with knowledge.

Insist you be heard.

Keep your own records (offline).

And read Patient Empowerment blog byTrisha Torrey. She's got great ideas and tips and profiles and resources empower yourself as a patient or, even better, to avoid becoming a patient.

Health Care Solution: Fight the power

(Ok. A bit hyperbolic. So, sue me....SMILE.)

But for those who can afford health insurance, you do have rights and options to enforce those rights when your claim is rejected by your health insurance company.

About.com's Kelly Montgomery steps you through how to fight the power...or How to resolve your health insurance claims.

It's likely you're not alone in your need or your fight. One policy-holder's complaint resulted in 2,500 other policy-holders receiving compensation for their similar claims that had been rejected. Oh, and the insurance company was fined $1million for this and other violations. Links: Patient Empowerment Blog and Syracuse Times.

Health Care Solution: Us, the Voters

That's right. You and me, your neighbors and co-workers, their family and yours...social-media practitioners, too.

Money is power. And lobbyists wielded about half-a-billion of that in 2007 to influence Congress, according to this report from Open Secrets: Center for Responsive Politics. And they did a fine job of representing their corporate clients and their goal: revenue growth. Costs for health care have risen faster than our national GDP. (Let's be honest. The power was wielded in a vaccum of silence from us, the voters.)

My friend Eric always reminded me that... Time and tide wait for no man. And there are signs the tide is turning (as time's running out) according to Health Care Blog in his post titled: Health Reform is possible; voters hold the power.:

One piece of evidence: the vote, earlier this month, on the Medicare bill, which surprised many observers. On his blog, Bob Laszewski called the landslide House vote, which went against the insurance industry, “the most amazing turn of events I have seen in 20 years of following health care policy in Washington, DC.”

When legislators saw powerful lobbyists representing for-profit insurers lined up on one side, and seniors and the AARP on the other side, they knew who to fear: the seniors.

(You see where I found my inspiration. His post reminded me that we still hold our fate in our hands or voting booths)

And our country's demographics are that more of us will be the seniors...or their/our caretakers in the coming years. And this was but another shot across the bow to see who will receive healthcare. Those who can afford private care or all of us. This Medicare vote wasn't about your grandparents or your poor community members across town. It was about all of you, all of us, all of our futures.

So....today's health care solution is...you, us, together, the voters.

( The alternative? We've seen the alternative.  largest federal deficit in history. If we allowed the greatest deficit in history to be created, we can certainly eliminate it and create the funds to provide working solutions that provide health care for all. )

Health Care Victory: Complaining, Transparently

I scanned through 130 blog posts from blogs devoted exclusively to the health care, medical, health insurance arena.

Lots of problems were discussed. Lots of conflicts of interests between Big Pharma and doctors/researched were covered. Lots of discussion over the problems with medicare and the rising costs of health care and people needing to choose gas for their cars to get to work over preventative health care, lots of articles on the fines insurance companies in California paid for illegally cancelling policies when their members called on them...

No one talked about solutions or plans or victories.

Granted, these discussions are a first step.

Maybe that's the victory for the week: lots of discussions and complaints from lots of people...all delivered in a transparent manner through the diligent efforts of MSM and bloggers in the medical community. As long as that's ongoing, heated, impatient, outraged...we can look to finding a solution for this situation we've all allowed to flourish.

Keep talking, ranting, complaining. The threshold to spur change hasn't been reached, yet.