The end of cancer treatment does not necessarily signal a return to good health. Cancer survivors report poorer health and well-being than people who have not had cancer; many suffer chronic consequences of cancer and its treatments. Some may also develop new symptoms many years after treatment has ended.
Did any of you ever get the feeling in school that it simply was not OK to speak about wanting to be successful? To get into the nitty gritty details of how to make money in practice? Maybe you were even someone like me who was directly told by someone in a position of power that I needed to take what I could get because in private practice, I wouldn’t make money.
This summer, a somewhat new clinical presentation was commonplace in my clinic and I received many questions from patients concerning this “new” disorder: summer SAD. Summer seasonal affective disorder was in the daily news this past summer, as numerous areas of the country experienced oppressive heatwaves.
Oral contraceptive pills (OCP) are the first-line therapy for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) patients. However, these medications can cause adverse effects such as nausea, headaches, and hypertension. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has demonstrated efficacy in managing these side effects and improving the quality of life of affected patients.
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Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, occurs when the pressure in a person’s blood vessels is too high. At rest, a pressure cuff reading higher than 140 mmHg systolic or 90 mmHg diastolic two days in a row qualifies as hypertension. The consequences of leaving this condition untreated can be serious: heart attack (myocardial infarction), heart failure (an exhausted heart), stroke (brain bleeding) or kidney failure.
Practitioners who are intentional about the way their patients interact with their clinic, even before they are treated, is an important first step in creating trust in a health care setting. Practice management and electronic medical records (EMR) systems can help to facilitate the above and essentially guide the patient journey, staring with the initial appointment booking through to the long-standing patient.
A new study adds to the evidence suggesting acupuncture can positively influence PTSD psychobiology and symptomatology. The two-arm, parallel-group, prospective, blinded, randomized clinical trial compared traditional (verum) acupuncture to sham acupuncture, with veterans ages 18-55 assigned to receive acupuncture or sham (the control) for 15 weeks (one-hour sessions, twice weekly, up to 24 total sessions).
Chronic pain afflicts over 20% of the adult population. Sadly, most MDs have essentially no education in treating pain, beyond offering a few toxic medications. Then they tend to steer people with pain away from those health practitioners who are trained. This puts the acupuncture community on the front lines for addressing this epidemic.
The Acupuncture National Discipline Database (ANDD) offers a free, one-stop search engine that captures and publishes state and national public information on all discipline matters pertaining specifically to licensed and certified acupuncturists in the U.S.
Structured water (H3O2) can be considered a fourth state of water between liquid and solid. It has the hexagonal structure of ice; however, missing a critical bond, it behaves more like a gel than a solid, but retains some of its crystalline structure.
I was motivated to write this article after hearing yet another story of a male practitioner in our field making inappropriate comments about sexual behavior in his treatment room. Over the years, I’ve gathered stories about various men practicing in our field who have exhibited inappropriate behavior toward female patients. As health care practitioners who hold a unique role of body touch and emotional processing, we owe it to our profession to bring this to light.
Consequences for HIPAA violations can often be quite harsh. If someone has breached the HIPAA privacy regulations – even without any malicious intent, civil penalties are applicable: $100 per violation for unawareness, a minimum of $1,000 for reasonable cause, a minimum of $10,000 if willful neglect is present and then rectified, and finally, a minimum of $50,000 for individuals who act with willful neglect and ignore the issue.
Ready to bill insurance - but don't know how to get started? Learn the basic requirements, which insurances to accept (and which to avoid, and other factors to consider. Billing insurance may seem like a hassle, but it will open doors to allow more patients to experience your medicine - plus it's a great way to grow your practice at the same time.
