Health
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CLEARLAKE – To honor the memory of Youth League Coach Michael Hoefer, Redbud Community Hospital and St. Helena Hospital recently presented a portable defibrillator and a training program to Middletown High School.
Hoefer recently suffered a fatal heart attack during a game at the high school.
Principal Chris Heller and Carrie Hoefer, widow of Michael Hoefer, accepted the defibrillator in Hoefer’s honor.
“We feel deep sympathy for the Hoefer family, and understand the critical need for everyone to have access to this life-saving device,” said Tricia Williams, regional vice president, Business Development for St. Helena Hospital and Redbud Community Hospital. “The importance of having a defibrillator available for the school and our community can’t be stressed enough.”
Both Williams and Terry Hansen, senior vice president of Operations at Redbud, feel that the donation of a defibrillator expresses their support to both the Hoefer family and community members.
Hansen added: “I feel this is my way of helping make this critical service available to more people in Lake County.”
Hansen has first-hand experience with defibrillation — it saved his life during his heart attack. “Every day is a gift. My challenge is to never forget the miracle that returned me to life.”
Hoefer’s mission was to affect children’s lives in a positive way. He accomplished this with his a zest for life and boundless energy, sharing both unselfishly with all the children he coached. People whose lives he had touched rallied to support his family, raising money for them through a community barbecue, and finishing construction on the Hoefer’s home.
Portable defibrillators are one of the most important tools carried by ambulances. They are the only proven way to resuscitate a person who has had a cardiac arrest.
Defibrillation consists of delivering a therapeutic dose of electrical energy to the affected heart with the device. Automated External Defibrillators can analyse the heart rhythm by themselves, diagnosing the shockable rhythms, and then charging to treat. This means that no clinical skill is required in their use, allowing lay people to respond to emergencies effectively.
Early defibrillation does save lives. According to the American Heart Association, CPR is just one of the links in what's known as the “chain of survival.” Along with recognizing an emergency situation and calling 911 to get advanced life support personnel on the scene, defibrillation plays a leading role in preserving life.
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SACRAMENTO – The CalPERS Board of Administration on Wednesday approved the lowest health benefit rate increase in a decade. The 2008 rate package will increase overall premiums by 6.3 percent. Basic HMO premiums will increase 7.4 percent.
Rob Feckner, chair of CalPERS Board of Administration, said the benefit package was the result of months of hard work and a great deal of effort in striking the right balance for the entire risk pool of members.
“This 2008 benefits program is substantially lower than what consultants are anticipating for U.S. employers next year,” he said. “More importantly, it is strategically aligned to deliver high standards of efficient health care and disease prevention, and achieve rate increases well below the average in today’s marketplace.”
For the large majority of CalPERS members, the 2008 program will bring new health plan choice, ensure a standardized disease management program, and save the State money in the last half of the current fiscal year.
The 2008 health care program will include:
• A $5 increase in HMO co-pays for office visits, standardized urgent care co-pays to $15 for HMOs and an annual out-of-pocket maximum ($1500 single, $3000 family) for Blue Shield. (Kaiser already had this maximum in place.)
• Free (no co-pay) office visits for many preventive care services.
• The addition of two new high performance health plans (Blue Shield NetValue and PERS Select) that will be less expensive in premium than the standard plans from Blue Shield and PERS Choice. (Current Blue Shield members who move to Blue Shield NetValue will pay a lower premium than they did in 2007. For example, a family moving from Blue Shield’s standard HMO plan into NetValue next year will save over $180 in premiums.)
• An HMO Medicare rate that is 1.6 percent less than last year.
• Withdrawal of Blue Shield’s HMO from the four costliest rural counties – Lake, Napa, Plumas and parts of El Dorado – and elimination of Sacramento-region based Western Health Advantage (WHA) because of WHA’s expressed inability to meet CalPERS requirement for data and disease management, and expressed reluctance to modify its business model to expand into more regions of the State.
All efforts to develop the 2008 health care program shaved $144 million off of initial plan proposals. The overall increase of 6.3 percent is less than one-half the average of increases in the previous five years.
Overall, CalPERS plans to spend $5.3 billion to purchase benefits for more than 1.2 million state and local government employees, retirees, and their families next year, up from $4.9 billion this year.
“We recognize that in this tough health care marketplace, a combination of approaches is necessary to keep rate hikes low and quality high. We have strategic health plan partners who share our vision, and are committed to helping us make that vision a reality,” said George Diehr, Chair of the Health Benefits Committee. “We will continue to pursue innovative, aggressive approaches with our health plans to get better value for our dollars, and provide our members with opportunities and incentives to obtain the highest quality of care at the most affordable price.”
The package benefits employers, who will have new high performance network offerings for many of their employees. The State of California, which had projected a 9.5-percent increase for health care costs, would also see some relief in its budget forecast for 2007-08. Based on a 6.3 percent hike, the State’s projection would be about $65 million less than anticipated.
This year’s rate package will also have an effect on the state’s retiree health benefits projection. In April, actuaries for the State Controller used a 10- percent increase assumption in the rise of health care costs. Staff estimated that the 6.3 percent rate increase would reduce the state’s long-term liability by roughly $1 billion to $1.6 billion, depending on how the state funds the liability in the future.
For additional information, visit www.calpers.ca.gov.
CalPERS is the nation’s third largest purchaser of employee health benefits and the largest in California, with 1.2 million state and public agency employees, retirees, and their dependents.
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LAKE COUNTY – Older adults will receive free health screenings at local senior centers during the last two weeks of June.
The Area Agency on Aging is partnering with Health Screens Gerontology Research Foundation to bring a mobile health screening service to senior centers in Lakeport, Clearlake Oaks, Clearlake, Ukiah, Willits, Fort Bragg and Point Arena.
Screenings are available to people of any age, but only those aged 60 or over who have low incomes will qualify for the free screenings.
Many diseases do not cause noticeable symptoms until a heart attack, stroke or other life-threatening event occurs. Health screenings can detect early disease processes before symptoms appear.
The screenings use ultrasound imaging, Doppler and CardioVision to check for plaque deposits, blockages, aneurysms, cysts, stones, nodules, masses, enlargements and bone density. The tests are safe and use no x-rays or radiation. The Health Screen staff of registered sonographers and technicians documents results that are recorded in a report and given to the participant that day.
Because they are considered “preventive health care,” Medicare and most insurance companies do not cover screenings, which cost between $40 and $50 each or $275 for all nine tests.
Lake and Mendocino County residents aged 60 or over who cannot afford to pay for screenings are encouraged to take advantage of a limited number of FREE screening packages (a $130 value) sponsored by the Area Agency on Aging.
The free package includes any four of the nine basic screenings: stroke, aneurysm, gall bladder, liver, kidney, thyroid, heart, circulation or osteoporosis.
Lake County screenings:
– Highlands Senior Center in Clearlake – June 21.
– Live Oak Senior Center in Clearlake Oaks – June 22.
– Lakeport Senior Center – June 30.
Mendocino County screenings:
– Ukiah Senior Center – June 18 and 19.
– Willits Senior Center – June 26.
– Redwood Coast Seniors in Fort Bragg – June 27 and 29.
– South Coast Seniors in Point Arena – June 28.
All screenings are by appointment only. Please call Health Screens at 877-854-4735 to make your reservation. Spaces are currently available.
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The idea of a fifth-grader making such a self-respecting health choice is becoming more and more common in one northern California school district, thanks to a unique education program developed by Sutter Lakeside Hospital.
The program is called Healthy Kids Are Contagious, and has just completed its first pilot in schools throughout Lake County, the primary region served by Sutter Lakeside's main facility in Lakeport, located about two hours north of San Francisco.
Health Kids are Contagious stems from Sutter Lakeside's Wellness Center program and its hallmark, The Five Keys to Wellness, which identifies and promotes five aspects of healthful living, including self-love, breathing, positive choices, balance and trust. The Five Keys are infused through all hospital wellness programs.
"To improve health and lower healthcare costs in our county, we are reaching the kids," said Kelly Mather, CEO of Sutter Lakeside. "The Healthy Kids Are Contagious program not only educates students about nutrition and exercise, but it also addresses mental and emotional issues from our Five Keys to Wellness principals, so they will be motivated to make healthier choices for a lifetime.
Mather turns hospital staff into healthy role models
The dismal health status of Lake County – ranked 56 out of 58 California counties by the state's Department of Health & Human Services – prompted Sutter Lakeside's Mather to develop a series of wellness programs for hospital staff and the adult community.
Mather had required Sutter Lakeside's staff members to improve their own health through a wellness program that included weight-loss support groups, exercise programs and stress-management classes.
More importantly, using the Five Keys to Wellness, members of Mather's wellness team guided the staff to develop healthier thoughts, feelings, beliefs and habits – the issues that drive poor life-style choices and lead to chronic illness.
Collectively, the staff saw their average blood pressure and cholesterol levels drop ten percent in one year – and the cost of their medical insurance premiums went down as well. Mather then established the Wellness Center at Sutter Lakeside to offer the community a place to get support for making lifestyle changes and used those same principles to educate children, morphing the adult program into Healthy Kids Are Contagious.
"We're offering 'wellness care' and not only illness care,'" Mather said. "Once we saw the results among staff members and patients we wanted to promote the idea of wellness beyond the hospital walls. Since children have not yet formed decades of bad habits we felt we could reach them in the classroom instead of the doctor's waiting room."
A healthy curriculum
Healthy Kids Are Contagious offers school presentations that cover a variety of subjects ranging from avoiding the flu on the playground to preventing bacterial outbreaks in the locker room.
The "Healthy Mascots," however, are by far the most popular ambassadors for the program because they feature Sutter Lakeside staff members dressed in costumes representing characters such as "Healthy Mr. Heart," "Healthy Mr. Spine" and "Mr. Tissue."
"I've seen kids sit up straight because that's what 'Mr. Spine' says to do," reports Chris Veenstra, a first-grade teacher at Upper Lake Elementary School whose class enjoyed one of Sutter Lakeside's presentations. "I've also heard them say things like 'We should go exercise because it's good for our hearts.'"
Gail Marshall who teaches sixth grade at Minnie Cannon Middle School in Middletown says, "I saw a huge transformation in the kids. They now speak the vocabulary of the five keys to wellness. One boy actually stood up in front of the entire class and said, 'I love myself!'"
Mather writing children's books
To give parents a tool to understand and support what their children are learning about good health choices, Mather has written the book, The 5 Keys to Wellness for students to take home with them.
The full-color illustrated hardback describes the five aspects of healthful living, and provides characters and illustrations to educate readers about self-love, breathing, positive choices, balance and trust.
For more information contact Shelly Gordon, 650-856-1607, e-mail
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