Differences in culture, religion and language pose daily challenges at the West
health center, where the waiting room might find Iraqis standing next to refugees from Myanmar, or Burundis sitting alongside Somalis and Bhutanese.
On a recent snowy, bitterly cold day, 77 refugees from various countries were treated at the clinic. Among the patients seen by Dr. Gary Kaufman, the clinic’s medical director, were two young sisters from Myanmar who Read the rest of this entry »

Nearly two decades ago, when Abraham Verghese put his career as a physician on hold to try his hand at fiction, he knew he wanted to write an “epic medical novel.”
Beyond that, things were a little vague.
Verghese, an internist specializing in infectious disease who’s now on the faculty at Stanford’s medical school, spent the late 1980s in Johnson City, Tenn., ministering to the first wave of AIDS patients to surface there. Needing a break from Read the rest of this entry »

For Jeff Palumbo of Grant, Minn., the epiphany came this year when he took his son in for ringworm. Palumbo had just switched to his employer’s high-deductible plan. Despite multiple phone calls to his clinic and his insurer to ask the price of a doctor visit, he kept getting the same maddening answer: It depends. Finally, someone told him it would cost at least $85. When Palumbo ended up getting billed $125 for the visit — “For seven minutes!” — Read the rest of this entry »

NFL defensive lineman Antwan Lake is co-owner of youth-focused gym opening January 2009 in Atlanta. International kids' fitness club franchise combines video games and other interactive technology with exercise to offer a fun, positive solution to the health challenges today's kids face, including the growing problem of childhood obesity.
Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) December 11, 2008 — NexGym (
), the innovative new fitness club for kids aged Read the rest of this entry »

For Jeff Palumbo of Grant, Minn., the epiphany came this year when he took his son in for ringworm. Palumbo had just switched to his employer’s high-deductible plan. Despite multiple phone calls to his clinic and his insurer to ask the price of a doctor visit, he kept getting the same maddening answer: It depends. Finally, someone told him it would cost at least $85. When Palumbo ended up getting billed $125 for the visit — “For seven minutes!” — Read the rest of this entry »

Kaiser, together with the Health Research & Educational Trust, recently released a 2008 snapshot and 2009 outlook for employee health benefits.
Cost increases for 2009 actually continue a modest cost-containment trend of the past three years, an improvement over double-digit cost increases before 2005.
But the real long-term effect on employers and employees is that premium costs have more than doubled since 1999.
In 1999, total family premiums Read the rest of this entry »

The recall stemming from salmonella contamination at the Peanut Corp. of America (PCA) plant in Blakely, Ga., resulted from a “total systemic breakdown,” said Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., chairman of a congressional subcommittee that held a hearing on the recall Wednesday.
PCA’s president refused to testify amid a federal criminal investigation and regulators’ allegations that the plant knowingly shipped contaminated products.
The salmonella outbreak Read the rest of this entry »

GOSHEN, Ind. – The Retreat Women’s Health Center will welcome Sherry Lebed Davis on Sept. 11 when she comes to Goshen to discuss the Lebed Method, a therapeutic exercise and movement program known world wide.
Created by Lebed Davis and brothers, Dr. Marc and Joel Lebed, for their mother Rita who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1979, the Lebed Method
uses movement for the healing and prevention of complications from Breast Cancer and related Read the rest of this entry »

of Hudson, Wis., is becoming a full member of
— a move that HealthPartners says will increase the availability of physicians and services to western Wisconsin.
The Bloomington, Minn.-based health provider and insurer said Friday that Hudson Hospital will remain a separate entity and will retain its own governing and foundation boards.
The agreement with HealthPartners, effective Jan. 1, will give the hospital even greater local access Read the rest of this entry »

For Jeff Palumbo of Grant, Minn., the epiphany came this year when he took his son in for ringworm. Palumbo had just switched to his employer’s high-deductible plan. Despite multiple phone calls to his clinic and his insurer to ask the price of a doctor visit, he kept getting the same maddening answer: It depends. Finally, someone told him it would cost at least $85. When Palumbo ended up getting billed $125 for the visit — “For seven minutes!” — Read the rest of this entry »