Gut Health?

We are hearing Dr Oz and others talk about "gut health" yet if you are like the average person you scratch your head and wonder what do they mean?

Both good and bad bacteria reside in our gut.  The idea is to maintain more healthy bacteria and help it flourish.  What causes our gut to get out of balance?  Simple put: poor nutritional choices.  Sugar, processed food, food with little or no nutritional value.  When the balance gets out of whack it shows up in various ways such as sluggishness, lack of energy, wild cravings for carbs and sugar,  weight gain in the middle....You get the point!

So what are some things we can do to bring it back into balance?  Eat better, whole food; plant based and green and organic is a great start but it's so stinkin hard to switch so if you want to take the path of good nutrition and need some help; you aren't alone.  Contact me and you can view a web presentation with tips and techniques that yup even the weakest link can follow and succeed.  It takes about an hour to view the presentation but it's well worth it. 

Why is this important?  Well that gut that's out of balance will eventually affect the organs in your body and if it gets much much worse you may develop disease and then frankly it's pretty hard to reverse the damage done.

You are the strongest person you know so take the plunge, learn and make small changes that over time can product major results.  To your health!!

Hormonal Health

Are you worried about your libido? 

I am astounded as to the ads for men and women who are apparently suffering from hormonal imbalance. 

What used to be a "female" disorder is now an even bigger business for RX companies to promote even more solutions to women and men.

In the US we like to address the issue but not necessarily solve the problem.  Did you ever wonder why the imbalance occurs and are there any steps you can take to being balance back into your life or is having hormonal imbalance a process of aging? 

If you wonder about this and do some research you will find out there are some preventative steps you can take and should take.  It's not too late.  Always seek the advice of your doc but your health is your responsibility and an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

I am hosting a webinar on this topic Saturday 2/22 at 9am EST.  Simple message me for an invite. 

Let's call Wellness Programs thru Employers What They Truly Are- Control

The latest greatest salvation for employer health care costs is supposed to be wellness. What is it really?

Control- by providing incentives or disincentives to complete health risk assessments; it allows the employee to be segmented into a "category" for additional "wellness management".

Wellness management is better know as diabetes programs, asthma programs, obesity programs and such.  They are designed to monitor, manage a Disease.

Why not call these programs what they are: Disease Management Programs?

What is true wellness is a total review of the policy and procedures in which a company operates.  What are the work hours, quality of work  environment, access to nutritional food, access to fitness, access to high quality non toxic products and programs around wellness topics.  If you treat the workforce and promote a "wellness" philosophy from the top down; you'll have better adoption of "disease programs" since employees won't feel like it's simply another invasive control program.  Check out this recent article on this topic and see a poor example of control by Aetna in handling obesity; quite disgusting!

http://www.healthcarepayernews.com/content/wellness-skeptics-cite-employee-coercion-over-empowerment

What's an Out of Pocket?

What the heck is an "out of pocket"?

Had a client call just yesterday and wondering if a recent hospital stay for her husband was going to result in them paying their "out of pocket" amount in their Medicare plan.  This plan had a per day co pay and her husband was hospitalized for 2 days so in this case the co pay amount they are responsible to pay does go towards the out of pocket but nope they don't "pay the out of pocket".

Think of it like a maximum liability; it's the most you'd have to pay in a cal year before the plan picks up the full tab for covered expenses.  Kind of like a safety net- always great to have.

 Did you know traditional Medicare part B has no such out of pocket max?  Yikes you can get into a world of financial trouble with this option!  

It never fails; I always receive the doctors bill and when I check the bill against the insurance explanation of benefits statement; there is an error!  Frustrating for sure.  Either the doctor overbills or the insurance carrier doesn't pay the claim correctly.  Case in point- had a annual physician w/ob-gyn.  The insurance coverage allows for one such exam in a year so no problem.  Get the bill; DENIED???  Call the carrier; oh the doctor didn't use the right code to bill.  Call the doctor; nope the right code was used the carrier is wrong.  Call the carrier again; yup- Doc is right the carrier has a "system glitch" with the code and it is being sent for adjustment.  4 weeks later; another denial from carrier, another balance due statement from Doc. 

Frankly, this would exhaust the average consumer right? 

The point is you have to check all your bills and EOBs before you pay; don't assume they are correct! 

OH YEAH...after 4 months the bill got paid in full to the doc.  Just took 4 months and loads of my time; wish I could balance bill them for that!