Health Care Happenings

Here’s a question to consider — How much confidence do you have in Congress?

There’s been a lot happening on Capitol Hill these last couple of years. The down turn in the economy, industry bailouts, passing of national health care reform, and rise in unemployment, always looming Medicare/TRICARE doctor payment cuts and the list just goes on.

Gallup just released its 2010 Confidence in Institutions poll and finds Congress comes in last place — yes, you heard right, that’s last place out of 16 institutions.

The poll (Congress Ranks Last in Confidence in Institutions) showed:

11% of Americans say they have a ‘great deal or quite a lot’ of confidence in Congress. (Last year’s rating was 17%)”

…Underscoring Congress’ image problem, half of Americans now say they have ‘very little’ or ‘no’ confidence in Congress, up from 38% in 2009.”

The Military continues to rank highest of all institutions, a trend that goes back to 1998. The institution has been #1 or #2 since the poll began in 1975.

Americans ranked Small Business #2 and the Police as #3.

The Medical System came in at #5, four points higher than last year.

Just slightly behind Congress were Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), coming in next-to-last place at a 19% confidence rating, one percent higher than the year before.

So, what do you think about Congress?

This past Friday, I had the opportunity to attend the official dedication and opening of the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE) on the campus of the current National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda MD.
And what a truly fantastic facility this is!

This new facility is now the nation’s foremost facility for research, diagnosis and treatment of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post traumatic stress (PTS), conditions which afflict thousands of our nation’s military personnel and veterans. This center joins the existing Center for the Intrepid, which is also a world class state-of-the-art center located at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio Texas.

The NICoE is a model of public-private partnership and was completed on time (actually a bit early..) and on-budget. It cost nearly $60 million to design, build and equip and every cent came from gifts from the general public. It’s progress and development was overseen by the Board of Trustee’s of the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund.

This center is architecturally unique and promotes a wellness and healing environment due to its use of windows which incorporates an indoor-outdoor atmosphere. Most importantly, NICoE has been specifically designed to meet the needs of our injured heroes. Its rooms, labs and open spaces are warm and inviting. The diagnosis and treatment equipment represents the latest advances in care, and the progress made in this Center will lead to further improvements in diagnosis and treatment. In addition, NICoE will incorporate families into the treatment process, which is key to the care that will be provided.

The location of the Center plays an important role. The proximity of it will foster partnerships with the National Institues of Health, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Employing a “center of centers” concept, NICoE will further leverage the distinguished expertise of four established centers within the Department of Defense: the Defense Veterans Brain Injury Center; the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress; the Deployment Health Clinical Center; and the Center for Deployment Psychology.

We at MOAA look forward to the progress and the outcomes research which will be generated by this outstanding Center ~ The National Intrepid Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, which will address the needs of the men and women who have recieved these injuries serving our nation.

Older veterans who suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are almost twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease and other age-related dementias as veterans without PTSD…”

…So says a study funded by the Department of Defense and the National Institute on Aging—the first ever to link combat related PTSD to dementia in older veterans.

It’s not clear from the study findings if having PTSD increases the risk of dementia later in life or whether recurring PTSD is an early symptom of the condition in older veterans.

The study can’t say specifically that PTSD causes dementia as one of the researchers points out…

                …….       But if it does, one theory is that stress is to blame, states the  WebMD Health News article entitled,

Study Shows Veterans With PTSD More Likely to Develop Alzheimer’s Later In Life.”

There is evidence however that chronic stress can cause damage to the brain where critical memory and learning takes place.

Here are the basic facts from the study:

• Followed 180,000 older veterans, mostly male, over a 7-year period
  53,000 were diagnosed with PTSD
• None had dementia in late 2000, but by 2007, 17% had been diagnosed with degenerative memory and thinking disorder
• Veterans with PTSD had about an 11% risk of developing dementia during the 7-year period, unlike those without the stress disorder

The findings seem pretty interesting and a lot scary to me.

Would love to hear your reactions to the article.

…………………What’s your take? ……………………..

May is the one year anniversary for the Department of Defense’s Real Warriors Campaign. 

HAPPY 1-YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

On May 21, the Defense Center of Excellence (DCoE) for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) established a national media campaign targeted at eliminating stigma associated with warriors and families seeking psychological health care and TBI treatment. The campaign aims to build resilience, facilitate recovery and support troops, veterans, and their families when they reintegrate back into their communities.

MOAA is honored to partner with DCoE and the DoD. Join me in congratulating DCoE on its accomplishments and thank them for their dedicated support to our military community by joining the campaign—learn more by visiting the Real Warriors Campaign Website.
 

Today I had the awesome opportunity to participate as a panelist in a DCoE Bloggers Roundtable, called, “Signs, Symptoms & Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and TBI” to talk about the Real Warriors Campaign and how MOAA and others are fighting stigma on various fronts.

• Other panelist included:
  •Lt.Col. Christopher Robinson, the Senior Executive Director for Psychological Health at DCoE who talked about some of the programs and new technologies being developed out of the Center’s Telehealth and Technology office as well as his recent deployment experiences.
  • Staff Sgt. Meg Krause, Army Reservist who shared her experiences seeking care and why she volunteered to tell her story through the Real Warriors Campaign, talking about the importance of combating stigma.

Join in on the conversation at DoDLive.

As I continue to digest, read, and talk to people regarding the new healthcare reform law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) it is evident that there exists several intended over-arching themes.

The first is that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will play a very large role in both the administration and the oversight of the law. A couple of things are starting to crystallize on this front. The Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight just became operational. The office is responsible for ensuring compliance with the new insurance market rules, such as the prohibitions on recissions and on pre-existing condition exclusions for children that will take effect this year. Also HHS will be key in the management of pilot programs, insurance premiums, insurance exchanges, Medicare premiums, etc. It will also play a very large role in coordinating work across key federal agencies critical to the reform eg. the CDC, NIH, FDA, and CMS to name a few.

Payment for performance will take a front seat. Throughout the new law an emphasis on “transparancy” is present. PPACA sets new standards regarding reporting about quality, patient and consumer safety, efficiency, and ties to profitability in almost every sector. Also, in implementing PPACA, there will be an increased focus and scruitiny of business practices and compliance with the new regulations.

Another central theme is that of connectivity and coordination of care and services. Some have called this the “new normal” for the healthcare delivery system. This new normal will require the connection of doctors, hospitals and ancillaries with community health centers, mental health programs, school clinics etc. to bridge gaps. Information-technologies will be the glue; and new structures and newly integrated systems of care will probably result. The linking of primary care with specialty care has long been a desired goal of our system.

Changes in insurance and access. The bill’s most immediate impact is insurance reforms intended to expand coverage while standardizing benefits to assure quality is not compromised. Regulations around risk-ratings, premiums, pre-existing conditions, and health exchanges will create this new landscape. Also the fact that the individual mandate included in the bill, will increase the ranks of the newly insured by 32 million will surely result in change and challenges.

One of the largest changes that will occur will be in the collaboration between the state and federal governments. The PPACA creates numerous responsibilities with respect to implementation and administration for the individual states. This comes at a tough time for most state governments in that many of them are coping with high unemployment, over run state budgets and declining revenues, and growing obligations. As the state and federal governments share responsibility and accountability this will be a recurrent theme in coming years.

By this coming September, many of the initial mandates will be clear and implementation underway. We here at MOAA will continue to closely watch and monitor any amended changes, the effects of implementation and other initiatives associated with this new law.

Let me give a quick shout out to all those mothers and soon to be mothers—Happy Mother’s Day!

You deserve a break today—Do something special for yourself this weekend.

The rest of us can celebrate a wonderful and exciting week too. Why?

Well, because of 2 great events that took place on Wednesday, May 5:

1. The President signed the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010.  MOAA President, Vice Adm. Norb Ryan, Jr., USN-Ret. was present at the White House signing ceremony. The new law will provide a living stipend, health coverage, support and counseling to caregivers of veterans, as well better service and care for women veterans and veterans in rural areas.
2. TRICARE Contract for the North region was re-awarded to the  current contractor, HealthNet, reversing an earlier decision last year to award the contract to Aetna.
   The award came after HealthNet appealed the decision and its protest was upheld by the Government Accountability Office.

Lots to celebrate this week.

Mothers, Enjoy Your Special Day!