Sometimes you just need to get seen by a doctor, stat. Maybe you aren’t having an emergency like having a baby or cradling your severed limb in your hands, but things like a sprained ankle or a rapidly rising temperature require some fairly prompt attention. According to Health Net’s website, urgent care services are “medically necessary services which are required for an illness or injury that would not result in further disability or death if not treated immediately, but require professional attention and have the potential to develop such a threat if treatment is delayed longer than 24 hours.” What is the difference between emergency and urgent care? How can you get seen quickly without spending a ton of your hard earned dollars? How can you make sure that your urgent care visit will be covered by your health insurance? Read on to learn the best way to approach urgent care.

Assess Your Symptoms

If you are feeling like you are having a heart attack, get thee to an emergency room, stat. Urgent care centers are not for people who feel like their lives are in danger. But, if you’re uncomfortable from a minor sports injury or your flu feels like it’s just getting worse, an urgent center will be the way to go. Before you hop into a car to head for the emergency room or an urgent care center, ask yourself the following questions: Could I tolerate the way I’m feeling for another 48 hours? Do I want to spend less than $600 on a visit? Do I have the time to wait to be seen? If you answered “yes” to all of these questions, point your car in the direction of the nearest urgent care center.

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You may be asking yourself “Just what in the heck are alternative therapies?” According to Northwestern Health Sciences University, alternative therapies are “Interventions for improving, maintaining and promoting health and well being, preventing disease, or treating illness. Encompassing over 200 modalities and more than 10,000 uses, alternative and complementary therapies are not part of the standard North American biomedical regimen of health care or disease prevention. Standard refers to practices commonly taught in U. S. medical schools, covered by major insurers, or referred to as allopathic or Western medicine.” This article will seek to explain some forms of alternative therapies and help you look into whether they might be the right choice for you.

Acupuncture

Do you often find yourself feeling like you’re on pins and needles? With acupuncture, you literally are. Acupuncture is a technique in which incredibly thin needles of varying lengths are inserted into your skin to help treat a variety of conditions. Although acupuncture isn’t touted as an actual treatment for cancer, studies have shown it can help in battling the nausea that comes along with chemotherapy and radiation. It aids in relieving pain after dental surgery, treating headaches, rehabilitation after strokes and helping to treat a number of different muskuloskeletal conditions. The points in which needles are inserted into your skin are called acupoints, and to keep a healthy energy flowing through the body, the needles are only inserted deep enough into the skin to keep them from falling out. If you are cringing and imagining feeling like a walking (or, laying down) pincushion: never fear. The most skilled acupuncturists do not cause any pain.

Chiropractic Care

If thinking of a visit to the chiropractor has you your head filled with visions of cracking bones and anguished faces, think again. It is a very safe and effective practice when performed by a professional. According to the American Chiropractic Association, “chiropractic is a health care profession that focuses on disorders of the musculoskeletal system and the nervous system, and the effects of these disorders on general health. Chiropractic care is used most often to treat neuromusculoskeletal complaints, including but not limited to back pain, neck pain, pain in the joints of the arms or legs, and headaches.” Although chiropractic care itself does not hurt the patient, it is common for there to be a little bit of soreness and discomfort following any procedure. One benefit to an alternative therapy like the two listed is that they do not involve any type of drugs at all, simply trying to treat any illness or ailments through addressing it as directly as possible in the body.

Reflexology

Therapy through the hands and feet? This may sound like utter voodoo (or just plain gross to some) but reflexology is a calming and effective form of an alternative therapy. Reflexology is a form of therapy that uses pressure on specific areas of the feet (or the hands) with the goal of relieving a variety of problems and balancing the flow of vital energy throughout the body. While evidence does not support reflexology for a treatment for something serious like cancer, it has been shown to help with relaxation and relieve certain types of pain and anxiety. The theory behind reflexology is that there are certain points on the hands and feet that are associated with other body parts and organs. When these points on the hands and feet are stimulated, it is though t promote health and well being in the related body parts.

While alternative therapies tend not to be covered under standard health insurance packages, some companies will offer them at a slightly higher co-pay. If you are interested in learning more about these therapies and if they are available through your insurance provider, contact them today to find out more.

photo credit: Thunderchild tm

Politicians and decision makers seem to be worried that if we make cannabis legal for medicinal use, then it will become in higher demand and people would abuse the drug more than is happening now. The Institute of Medicine (someone I’d be highly included to trust based on name alone) released a report in 1999 on medical marijuana examining whether the medical use of marijuana would lead to an increase of marijuana use in the general population and concluded that, “At this point there is no convincing data to support this concern. The existing data is consistent with the idea that this would not be a problem if the medical use of marijuana were as closely regulated as other medications with abuse potential.” The report also noted that, “this question is beyond the issues normally considered for medical uses of drugs, and should not be a factor in evaluating the therapeutic potential of marijuana or cannabinoids.”

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In the past few years, you couldn’t turn on the television without seeing an advertisement for some new kind of drug. Erectile dysfunction, blood pressure, allergies, and restless leg syndrome (yes that is real) are all some of the drugs you may have seen splashed boldly in front of you on the screen. If you have been paying close attention, or just spend hours glued to the television, you may have noticed that drug ads have become less and less frequent throughout 2008. What’s causing this ad-less phenomenon, and is just due to the struggling economy?

Drugs Are Denied More Than Approved

Many drug companies are getting many of their fancy new drugs approved by the FDA and other regulatory bodies, so there’s no point in spending money advertising a drug that no doctor is going to buy and prescribe. If drugs are making it past the rigorous approval process, they are often drugs that target smaller population groups, like a cholesterol drug. There is no sense on spending millions on advertising on a drug that won’t be treating millions of people. According to figures from TNS Media Intelligence, U.S. drug ad spending dropped 6% in the first eight months of 2008, to $3.2 billion. That comes after a 3% dip in the full-year 2007, which had a total of $5.3 billion. Ad spending had generally been upward previously, peaking at $5.4 billion in 2006.

A Change in Media

You may not have realized this, but most of the ad spending done by drug companies is in the form of print ads. I don’t read magazines much anymore but when I did, I would see a ton of different drugs being advertised, varying heavily from magazine to magazine and their target audience. As with so many things, the trend now is headed toward the online world. People want their information in an instant, and web advertising can provide that. While you can easily flip through a magazine and read a drug’s information there, it is so much easier for a consumer to have an ad pop up on their screen, click on it and then read all the information they ever wanted to know about a particular drug. It makes complete sense to funnel money into online advertising (but then again, I encourage everyone to get online, whether it’s for fund raising, communication or shopping). Drug giant AstraZeneca told Dow Jones Newswires that some 20% of its consumer marketing budget was for digital advertising this year, up from around 15% in 2007. 1/5 of a company’s marketing budget going toward making sure online consumers get the drug message? It seems smart to me on the part of the drug companies.

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Bud, ganja, grass, herb, Mary Jane, weed…the ever-controversial marijuana has many nicknames, and just as people can’t decide what to call it, the United States can’t make up its mind on the drug’s legality, uses and whether or not insurance companies should cover it. It is a slippery slope, with many pros and cons on both sides of the argument, but just where are people coming from? Medical marijuana is legal in many other countries around the world, so why not here in the United States? Will we ever reach a point where not only is cannabis legal for medicinal purposes, but it is covered under a health insurance plan like other drugs of its ilk?

Medical Marijuana Facts and Figures

Medical marijuana, henceforth to be referred to simply as “cannabis” to save my poor fingers the typing exertion, has a different story if you are comparing state versus federal level here in the United States. At the federal level, cannabis is illegal, period due to falling under the Controlled Substances Act. As far as cannabis as a medical treatment goes, states have the right to choose whether the drug is or isn’t legal. Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington all have approved and regulate cannabis for medicinal use. One thing that it is important to be clear on: medical use does not mean that the drug is approved for a prescription as medicine.

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Bankruptcy is no picnic. Having to legally declare yourself officially broke in hopes of someday cleaning your slate and getting back on your feet isn’t easy for anyone, and there are always countless contributing, individual factors as to why someone finds themselves whispering “bankrupt.” For those who gamble away their savings, lose their homes and drink away the last of their pennies, they are left to lie in a bed of their own making. However, President Elect Obama is proposing a dramatic change in some legislature which would help those people and families who had to file bankruptcy because of medical bills. What does this mean for the average American and is it really as good as it seems?

A Bankruptcy Reprieve

If you were to take a peek at Obama’s economic agenda, you’d see this listed in a bullet point: “Obama and Biden will create an exemption in bankruptcy law for individuals who can prove they filed for bankruptcy because of medical expenses. This exemption will create a process that forgives the debt and lets the individuals get back on their feet.” Taken from the horse’s mouth, or as close to that as we can get before Obama takes office, this seems like a dream scenario. If you are someone who has had to give up everything to spend down to the last penny on medical expenses for your loved one (partially covered by your health insurance or not), this may seem like the savings grace you have been dreaming of. But are all people in this scenario: virtuous, thrifty spenders who have only gone into such horrendous debt due to medical bills?

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