Updated Influenza Vaccine Recommendations Issued

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 Medscape Medical News

Updated Influenza Vaccine Recommendations Issued

August 18, 2011 — Updated guidance for influenza vaccination in the United States for the upcoming 2011-2012 influenza season has been released by federal health officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“There are relatively few changes from 2010-2011 recommendations,” Carolyn Bridges, MD, associate director for adult immunization, Immunization Services Division, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease, said during a telebriefing today.

As a result, the 2011-2012 recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices have been issued in a shortened format, Dr. Bridges noted.

The report was published online August 18 in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The 2010 recommendation for routine annual influenza vaccination for all persons aged 6 months or older in the United States has not changed.

“We continue to recommend that people age 6 months and older be vaccinated,” Dr. Bridges emphasized.

To allow time for production of protective antibody levels, “vaccination should optimally occur before onset of influenza activity in the community, and providers should offer vaccination as soon as vaccine is available,” the report reads. “Vaccination also should continue to be offered throughout the influenza season.” Continue reading →

Quality of care need time spend with patients

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Quality of care need time spend with patients, only works well in the pay for value not pay for volumn healthcare deliverry system.

Article From Medscape Business of Medicine

Rebuttal: Concierge Practice Is a Doctor’s Right

Leslie Kane, MA; Bernard Kaminetsky, MD

Editor’s Note:

Medscape’s recent video commentary by ethicist Arthur Caplan, PhD, “Concierge Practice: Unjust for Patients and Doctors Alike,” provoked a flood of heated responses. To present the contrasting point of view, Medscape interviewed Bernard Kaminetsky, MD, board certified in internal medicine and nephrology.

Dr. Kaminetsky is the Medical Director of MDVIP, a company with a national network of primary care physicians who provide personalized care, focusing on wellness and prevention, and use a concierge-type model. Dr. Kaminetsky was a founding partner in a primary care practice based in Boca Raton, Florida. In 2001, he transitioned his practice to the MDVIP model. He recently left his primary care practice to serve as the national representative for MDVIP. Dr. Kaminetsky has testified before the Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress on the importance of wellness and prevention. He is a graduate of Albert Einstein College of Medicine and a former assistant professor at New York University School of Medicine.

 

Medscape: In a concierge medical practice, doctors generally charge an annual access fee, have a smaller number of patients, and spend more time with each patient. Some have said that this is unjust or unfair, particularly given the shortage of primary care doctors. How would you respond to that?

Dr. Kaminetsky: Let’s look at it from the patient’s perspective: Is it fair for patients to have an experience — as is common in conventional practice — where visits are very short and doctors are essentially reactive to acute problems because they have very little time for prevention and wellness? And the doctor knowingly is neglecting his or her ability to spend the time necessary with the patient to actually prevent the heart disease or diabetes from forming because there simply isn’t time. Is that fair to patients? Continue reading →

What Is The Value of Representation?

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MEDICAL SOCIETY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

What Is The Value of Representation?

Every physician has a stake in the representational activities of the medical societies.
Some issues will affect you more directly than others. It may not be your specialty that needs support this year, but you’ll want MSSNY and your county medical society to be strong
when you need them.

Salaried physicians are not immune: Terms and conditions offered by employers reflect the conditions experienced by private practitioners. We are ALL in this together.
Continue reading →

ACAP President’s Letter 2011

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President’s Letter

This last year has been a busy one. Following in David Zhang’s footsteps has not been easy.   He and all the other presidents before him have laid the foundation for this wonderful community based non-profit organization dedicated to its members and to the patients we serve.  The health of a community relies upon the knowledge of the healthcare providers and hospital systems to understand their patients to make them safe, healthy and whole.

The prior presidents started the dialogue that I have continued with the hospitals that care for our patients.  We have met with the Executive Boards of NY Hospital Queens, Flushing Hospital, Lutheran Medical Center, The Brooklyn Hospital Center, Beth Israel Medical Center and Beth Israel Medical Center Kings Highway Division, Long Island College Hospital When Sichuan Province had an earthquake, we partnered in fundraising with the Asian American Bar Association o f NY (AABANY), North Shore/LIJ, ECAP, and our patients to raise money that eventually was donated to help 50 displaced college students from the province to continue their studies in the SUNY system.

NYHQ , under the leadership of Steve Mills, John Sciortino, MD and George Heinrich, MD (past Professional Achievement Award recipient), has been a shining star in Queens for us. NYHQ has hosted meetings for ACAP and the Chinese Medical Graduates (CMG’s), provided observerships, engaged in research projects, and sponsored the annual Health Fair at the Sheraton. They are always ready to help and engage in discussions on how they can do better; how NYHQ can help the community.

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Gov and Health Bigs Forge Medicaid Deal

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By Brendan Scott and Fredric U. Dicker Post Correspondents
Last Updated: 11:31 AM, February 25, 2011

ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo last night announced a dramatic agreement with the powerful health-care lobby to end perennialfights over ballooning Medicaid costs and permanently cap spending for the massive health insurance program.

The first-of-its-kind plan handed up by Cuomo’s Medicaid Redesign Team would limit total spending on the program to$52.8 billion this year — capping the state’s share at $15.1 billion — and allow no more than 4 percent growth each yeargoing forward.

The proposal, which was OK’d by groups such as the state’s hospital association and the health-care union 1199 SEIU,recommended a series of rate cuts, incentives and program overhauls to cut projected Medicaid spending by $2.3 billionfor the next fiscal year — as Cuomo laid out in his first budget proposal.

Proposed reforms include:

  • Capping non-economic medical malpractice awards, like pain and suffering, at $250,000.
  • Assigning specific providers to oversee complex cases.
  • Beginning to transfer nearly all of the state’s 4.5 million Medicaid enrollees to managed care from the dominant fee-forservicemodel.

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City aids entrepreneurial immigrants

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By Benjamin J. Spencer – Published: March 7, 2011 – 12:05 pm
Article can be found at http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20110307/SMALLBIZ/110309891 

Click Here to read as pdf

New York City to start offering its free small business courses in Chinese, Korean and Russian; Latino and Asian immigrants startups grew the fastest, one study shows.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the plan as part of three new programs aimed at aiding New York’s immigrant entrepreneurs. The Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation, in conjunction with the city’s Economic Development Corp. and Department of Small Business Services, are funding the programs.

The language component will begin “immediately” with the creation of a pilot program to translate the city’s free small business courses into Chinese, Korean, and Russian, according to EDC spokesman Kyle Sklerov. Existing Spanish language courses will also be expanded.

The initiative represents a step forward for immigrant businesses, according to Yanki Tshering, executive director of the Business Center for New Americans, a New York City-based nonprofit that aids immigrant entrepreneurs.

“It’s definitely been a long time in coming,” said Ms. Tshering. Historically, she said, there has been “a lack of awareness of the need for support for immigrant business, especially considering how progressive New York City is and the high number of immigrants that are here.”

The mayor’s actions come at a time when the percentage of new immigrant entrepreneurs soared nationwide. The Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, which tracks monthly business creation, found that for 2010, an average of 620 out of 100,000 immigrants, or 0.6%, started a new business monthly, compared to only 280 out of 100,000,
or 0.3%, for native-born citizens.

Continue reading →