health

By Sen. Debbie Stabenow

For nearly 100 years, Amer-

ican presidents, from Teddy Roosevelt, to Richard Nixon, to Bill Clinton, have tried to pass comprehensive health insurance reform. That’s why it’s so significant that, Con- gress passed, and President Obama signed, the historic Patient Protection and Afford- able Care Act.

Our current health system

is bankrupting too many fami- lies and costing Michigan jobs. Given the economic hardships facing Michigan businesses and families, this legislation comes at a critical time for our state.

This year, a number of

changes will go into effect to protect families from insur- ance company abuses and help people get the health care they need.

Starting right now, many

small businesses with 25 or fewer employees will qualify for a tax cut of up to 35 per- cent for the money they spend on premiums.

Senior citizens are also

going to receive much-needed help with the high cost of pre- scription drugs. The Medicare drug plan has a coverage gap, called the “doughnut hole,” which means that seniors have to pay the full cost of their drugs when they hit a certain level. The gap is closed completely over time, but this year, any senior who hits that cap will get a $250 rebate to help them pay for their medi- cine. There are also important savings for early retirees (age 55-64) through a new federal partnership that will share medical costs.

Around October, there’s

good news for young people who will now be able to stay on their parents’ insurance until they turn 26. Also, new

has announced their “Earth Day Challenge,” which aims to keep harmful toxins out of landfills by collecting 75 tons of e-waste until April 25. A non-profit charity, Recycling for Charities (RFC) defends the environment and sup- ports other worthy non-profits through recycling, donating

THE MICHIGAN CHRONICLE

Health reform helps families, seniors, small businesses

you to get free preventive care with no co-pays or deductibles starting in six months.

There are also important

new requirements on insur- ance companies that they must spend the vast majority of every dollar you pay them (80-85 percent) on your medi- cal care or give you a refund.

It important to note that

Debbie Stabenow

measures will go into effect protecting patients from in- surance company abuses. The Affordable Care Act includes a “health care bill of rights” to make sure that your insurance company cannot cancel your coverage just because you get sick, or hit a lifetime cap on coverage. It also ensures that children cannot be excluded from health insurance cover- age because of a “pre-existing condition.”

The federal government will

immediately begin investing in community health centers. In Michigan, 184 communities have health centers that pro- vide high-quality health care to over 400,000 people who currently don’t have insur- ance. Also, adults with “pre- existing conditions” will have a new option for purchasing insurance through a special fund.

There is also a new focus

on preventing health prob- lems and keeping us healthy We know that many chronic illnesses, which are very ex- pensive to treat, can be pre- vented with checkups and screenings. That’s why the Affordable Care Act will allow

the money raised to over 800 charities nationwide.

the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office and 43 lead- ing health economists have agreed that this new law will reduce the deficit by over $140 billion in the next ten years. In the ten years after that, they estimate it will cut the deficit by $1.2 trillion.

Between now and 2014, a

health care exchange will be put in place to give families af- fordable health care options. If you are one of the 60 percent of Americans who gets their health insurance through their employer, you will be able to keep the insurance you have. Families and small business- es will be given significant tax cuts to provide health insur- ance for their employees, and Medicaid will guarantee that if you lose your job, your family won’t be without health care. And, while everyone will be required to have health insur- ance in 2014, it’s also impor- tant to know that you will not be required to purchase insur- ance if you can’t afford it.

While passage of the Afford-

able Care Act may have made history in our country, the real historic change will be the mil- lions of people and small busi- nesses who will now be able to provide health insurance for their families and employees.

I invite you to visit my web-

site at stabenow.senate.gov to learn about the details of health insurance reform and how it affects you and your family.

Recycling for Charities seeks 75 tons of e-waste for Earth Day

Recycling for Charities

Getting involved is easy.

Simply bring your used elec- tronic items to one of the drop points and RFC will do the rest. RFC will be accepting cell phones, iPods, iPhones, pagers, PDAs, MP3 players, and digital cameras. Going

green is that easy, and your donation is also a tax write-off. The Earth Day Challenge will culminate with the Recycle Royal Oak event on April 25.

Visit the RFC website www.

recyclingforcharities.com for more information about RFC’s Earth Day Challenge and other upcoming initiatives.

April 7-13, 2010

Page C-8

Know your emergency room wait time on DMC.org

Consumers can now check

Detroit Medical Center’s (DMC) website to find current wait times at all of the health sys- tem’s five emergency rooms.

“You go to the ER because

you have an emergency. Wait- ing and waiting is the opposite of what you need,” Michael Duggan, CEO and president, Detroit Medical Center, said in announcing the new web- site service. “DMC will tell you what other hospitals won’t – just how long you can expect to wait when you arrive at our ER doors.”

Current wait times will be

posted at www.dmc.org for DMC’s Children’s Hospital of Michigan and Detroit Receiv- ing Hospital located on DMC’s main campus in Detroit, Sinai- Grace Hospital in Northwest Detroit, DMC Surgery Hospital located in Madison Heights, Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital located in Commerce Town- ship in Oakland County.

Ninety percent of the

time, your wait will be less than 29 minutes, but know- ing before you go can be a big

factor in deciding where you go. DMC hospitals are the only ones in the region offering this level of transparency and knowledge.

Nearly six years ago, DMC

launched a new service initia- tive that guaranteed patients entering the emergency de- partments would be seen by a physician in less than 29 minutes. Last year, DMC saw 370,000 patients through its ER departments.

DMC emergency rooms are

staffed with the some of the nation’s best physicians who deliver the highest standards of care as quickly as possible.

“Our service in the ER is

getting faster while still main- taining a high level of excel- lence, said Michelle Schreiber, M.D., DMC vice president for Quality and Safety. Several key initiatives we’ve under- taken recently are helping to ensure that DMC patient care remains as good as any you’ll find in America today.”

As an example, Dr. Sch- reiber noted that since the

DMC switched to EMR, a com- pletely electronic system of patient recordkeeping, medi- cation errors have been re- duced by more than 70 percent throughout the eight hospitals in the system.

DMC is the first and only

Michigan hospital system with 100 percent doctors’ comput- erized orders, 100 percent medication scanning and a fully implemented Electronic Medical Records program.

For the third consecutive

year, Detroit Medical Center hospitals have met the strin- gent standards of the Leap- frog Group and have received honors as top hospitals in the nation for patient qual- ity and safety. DMC was the only healthcare system in Michigan and was among only 45 hospitals nationally to re- ceive the recognition for 2009. The Leapfrog Group is the nation’s premier quality rank- ing agency, acting on behalf of many of the nation’s Fortune 500 companies with the goal of coming together to improve overall hospital quality.

New report finds workplace communication improves food safety

A study in Communication

Currents, a publication of the National Communication As- sociation, finds that food com- panies that promote discus- sions among employees about work goals and activities are more able to prevent food-re- lated crises than those that don’t.

Research sponsored by the

U.S. Department of Agricul- ture and the National Center for Food Protection and De- fense examines the best com- munication practices in the food industry. These practices provide government leaders, industry officials and risk managers with recommenda- tions for shaping workplace communication in organiza- tions that deal with food safety risks.

“Participatory communi-

cation is most needed during tough times, when organi- zations confront risks and crises,” said Dr. Julie M. Novak, assistant professor of communication at Wayne State University and co-author of the study.

“Employees engaged in

participatory communication not only create organizational mindfulness, but they also im- prove an organization’s ability to detect and manage risks that threaten personal, orga- nizational and national health and well-being.”

As fears of food related

crises have escalated in the U.S., the way employees com- municate is a critical function of risk assessment and man- agement.

observed practices at a Mid- western turkey slaughtering and processing facility and identified five forms of em- ployee communication that create organizational mindful- ness may help explain why this particular plant did not have a history of food contamination. To read the full article, visit

http://www.communication- currents.com/index.asp?bid=1 5&issue=50&issuepage=202.

Novak’s research focuses

broadly on applied communi- cation within health contexts. Ongoing research focuses on the nature and role of demo- cratic communication prac- tices in organizations in high- risk conditions.

Researchers

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