Defying Medical Convention - Dr. Charschan's New Book arriving soon

Many of our patients know that a few years ago, I decided to write a book on chronic pain for consumers.  Like Syms, the clothing chain, they always say " An Educated Consumer is our Best Customer."

In the current american health care system, an educated consumer is their worst customer.  This is because the system for many years thrived on people who just took orders from their doctors, took their cholesterol meds because their numbers were not favorable and went for unproven and often ineffective therapies and treatments at great cost that were unreliable, and often dangerous.  In many other countries during the healthcare debate that had universal healthcare, where the systems were about the patients and their needs, rather than the systems themselves, they looked at us like we were nuts to not consider universal healthcare.  We heard about the horror stories of waits to see specialists, with little mention of the fact that in the end, people who live in these countries will still defend their often imperfect but affordable and cost effective healthcare delivery systems.

One of my biggest frustrations is the way the insurance companies have perverted health care delivery in our country.  The American Medical Association has maintained their monopoly on medical practice, owning the coding systems doctors use, making sure care stayed expensive.  Doctors were specialized and taught to believe that organs just went bad and that we must find the disease and treat it with the appropriate drug.  Tests took the place over the years of good manual (by hand) diagnostic skills and many of these tests come back negative, at a great cost to the system.

In my world or rehabilitation, insurance companies raised the co payments everyone pays, so they essentially pay less and we pay more.  In rehab, where people need multiple visits, this makes sense, setting up a financial barrier for the truly needy.  With a periodic office visit, a $50 co pay makes sense.  With rehabilitation 2-3 times weekly, this quickly creates an economic burden, something insurance was designed to take care of and has now been perverted by the insurance industry so they can make more money for their shareholders.  Just recently, Aetna had a great quarter, while they reduced our reimbursements for the umpteenth time and raised your insurance rates.

The healthcare paradigm in the United States is very broken indeed, and more than ever, cost effective solutions are essential. This is why I wrote this book.  I often see inappropriate rehab on a wing and a prayer without consistent results.  This is largely because the public does not understand chronic pain or why they experience it.  This groundbreaking book explains body mechanics in simple terms, why most people suffer from chronic pain and what you as the public can do to get better and more consistent results.  It makes you a smarter patient which the health care abhors and helps you find the practitioners who are about the patient, rather than the system. It also offers some self help advice, and some exercises and helps people understand the health care system better.

I plan to get the book in Amazon.com as an e book within the following month,

Global Health Fellowships at Yale: Apply Now

In order to train the next generation of global health leaders, the Global Health Initiative at Yale is putting their money where their mouth is. On Wednesday evening, Kaveh Khoshnood, Director of Global Health Fellowships, led an informational session on the three major funding opportunities for global health internships and research under the Initiative. The Yale College Health Studies Award targets students interested in field research while the Global Health Initiative Field Experience Award and Yale - Collaborative Action Project (Y-CAP) Award are more flexible in nature, supporting research, practice, advocacy, or policy and management. You’ll find a full listing of fellowships here.

The most unique of the three fellowships is the Y-CAP Award, which supports a team of three to four undergraduate and graduate students from multiple disciplines with up to $15,000. The grant actually originates from past demonstrated student interest in collaborative projects. Given that "no one works alone in the field," Professor Khoshnood lauded the prize as "finally a mechanism to fund what we preach." As a donor driven fellowship, the fund will most likely support one team, with a preference for projects in Africa. It is surprising to think that there is not more support for synergistic studies not only in health, but other fields as well.

One of the key features of the GHI seems to be its ability to bring together a multidisciplinary force, evident in the thirty plus undergraduate and graduate students circulating at last night’s funding session, pitching proposals and creating Y-CAP teams. Hopefully, the Y-CAP is only the beginning of encouraging collaborative scholarship in global health at Yale.

Connie Cho, GHLI Intern

"I'm self-employed. How can I get `Group of 1" health coverage?"



We get this question all the time. And we've got an answer for you.

First, a little background: Last year, a new state law law took effect that allows sole proprietors to be considered "groups of 1." This way, they can qualify for small-group health coverage, instead of having to find coverage on the individual market. Small-group tends to have better benefits, lower costs, and no health screening.

To find out who's selling these policies in your area, type in your zip code here and scroll down the page to see a list of insurers, contact information and tips on picking plans. For more information, you can also contact an insurance agent or broker. Here's an online tool to help you find an agent in your city.

Health carrier cutting your commission? Thinking of charging fees?

We've gotten a lot of calls over the past few weeks from agents and brokers deeply unhappy that their commissions are being reduced -- or eliminated completely -- by some insurers.

We've also been asked whether fees can be charged directly to the consumer instead.

For more on this, click here.