"Health News - Medicine, Diet and Fitness"

By Bob Curley

 A bid to end federal student-aid penalties for those with drug convictions was launched with high hopes earlier this year, but now appears to be in deep trouble in Congress.

A broad coalition of drug-reform, educational, and addiction-related organizations  threw its weight behind a plan to amend the federal Higher Education Act (HEA) and overturn a policy of denying federal financial aid to students convicted of drug offenses. The policy, devised by Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) and passed by Congress in 1999, requires students to divulge information about convictions for drug offenses — but not any other crimes — on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

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Buprenorphine (Suboxone) was developed as an alternative to methadone that would be equally effective in treating opiate addiction but less likely to be abused. But Baltimore officials say that a black market for the drug has developed, leading to “bupe” abuse and some deaths, the Baltimore Sun reported Dec. 16.

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Revolution Health is a trusted source Doctors & hospitals for autism, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) may help you manage your child’s health.

holistic therapies, natural therapies, physicians, therapist
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Physicians suspect that Santa Claus is able to make his annual around-the-world gift-giving journey because he is vigilant about getting yearly influenza vaccinations, having regular checkups and staying physically active, according to a statement issued by the Pennsylvania Medical Society last month.

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Washington — With congressional debate on an upcoming 10.1% Medicare cut to physicians stretching into the final weeks of the year, physicians’ decisions on whether to participate in the program in 2008 took on added degrees of importance and complexity.

The year-end deadline for physicians to change their participation status is important because it likely will determine how doctors will be able to bill the program and receive payment for all of 2008. If physicians do not inform their Medicare carriers in writing of their intent to change their status before Jan. 1, they will be locked into their current choices for the next 12 months — possibly under a newly reduced fee schedule.

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What are the symptoms of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis? Symptoms of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis may appear during episodes (flare-ups) or may be chronic and continuous.

Juvenile Arthritis
What are the symptoms? Children with juvenile arthritis (JA) have periods of time when they have no symptoms, called remission

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When we shop at the market or go to a restaurant our first thought is to get food we like to eat and know. There are several foods out there that do not often make it into the shopping cart.

We always think that we don’t want that or don’t have time to fix that, but the reality is it doesn’t take any more time to prepare a well balanced and nutritious meal than going to the drive thru and getting something unhealthy when you calculate the time it takes to get through a line of ten cars or ten people in the restaurant.

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A group practice’s proposal to allow referring health professionals to invest in an ambulatory surgery center would run afoul of the federal anti-kickback statute, states a recent advisory opinion by the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services’ Office of Inspector General.

Legal experts said the Oct. 19 opinion affirms the government’s stance that the arrangements can be susceptible to fraud and abuse and are permissible only under specific conditions.

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Washington — The American College of Physicians has endorsed the concept of a single-payer health care system for the first time.

In a new position paper, the organization, which represents 124,000 physicians in internal medicine and related subspecialties, identified a system in which the federal government is the sole third-party payer as one of two reform vehicles to achieve universal coverage. The other is a public-private system that includes a legal guarantee that everyone has access to coverage and that offers health care subsidies to low-income residents.

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Washington — Diabetes by itself is hard enough to manage effectively, but try adding another one, two or three chronic diseases, and the complexities escalate.

Plus, ineffective management of some of these other diseases may be standing in the way of good diabetes control. Researchers in a recent study recommended physicians consider the “whole patient” when devising treatments and advise patients that their chronic conditions may, in fact, be related.

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