Study on the possible long term effects of using partial dentures. There are advantages of having partial dentures such as the appearance, function and cost. However according to dentists in China dental lab there are possible long term effects that one should be aware of. Partial dentures has a long-term potential to cause … Read more
Regardless of high or low overall scores on an IQ test, children with dyslexia show similar patterns of brain activity, according to researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Diabetic retinopathy is one of the most common and debilitating complications of diabetes. During National Diabetes Month, the National Eye Institute (NEI), a part of the National Institutes of Health, is encouraging people with diabetes to get annual dilated eye exams and take steps to avoid vision loss.
VA medical centers can give the veteran’s care-giver (family member or friend) a “break” by taking over the veteran’s care for a limited time
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has ten Regional Offices (ROs) reorganized in a Consortia structure based on the Agency’s key lines of business: Medicare health plans, Medicare financial management, Medicare fee for service operations, Medicaid and children’s health, survey & certification and quality improvement. The intent of this structure is to improve … Read more
Commissioner of Social Security, today announced that the agency has released its Open Government plan. The plan, available at www.socialsecurity.gov/open, reflects the agency’s commitment to increase transparency, expand opportunities for citizen participation and collaboration, and make open government sustainable at Social Security. Three flagship initiatives are highlighted in the plan — the Spanish-Language Retirement Estimator, … Read more
Commissioner of Social Security, today announced the agency is providing helpful health care information and website links to the more than three million individuals who apply each year for Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability benefits. The website links take disability applicants to two U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) websites – www.healthfinder.gov where they will find information and tools to help them better understand and cope with their conditions; and www.healthfinder.gov/rxdrug where they may be able to get help paying for prescription drugs.
Commissioner of Social Security, today announced that the agency is adding 38 more conditions to its list of Compassionate Allowances. This is the first expansion since the original list of 50 conditions – 25 rare diseases and 25 cancers – was announced in October 2008. The new conditions range from adult brain disorders to rare diseases that primarily affect children. The complete list of the new Compassionate Allowance conditions is attached.
Commissioner of Social Security, today announced that the agency’s first Extended Service Team (EST) is open for business in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Little Rock EST will make disability decisions for state Disability Determinations Services (DDSs) that are most adversely affected by the flood of new initial disability claims resulting from the economic downturn and from counterproductive furloughs of employees at the state level. Later this year, Social Security will open additional ESTs in Madison, Mississippi; Roanoke, Virginia; and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The ESTs are in states that have a history of high quality and productivity, as well as the capacity to hire and train significant numbers of additional employees.
“The strategy behind ESTs builds on our success with National Hearing Centers, where cases are handled electronically from all over the country,” Commissioner Astrue said. “These centralized units have reduced the hearings backlog and improved processing times at some of the hardest-hit hearing offices. This approach clearly works and extending it in this way can help us meet the challenge of unprecedented growth in our disability workloads.”
Social Security expects to receive more than 3.3 million applications for disability benefits this fiscal year (FY), about 700,000 more than in FY 2008. In addition, more than a dozen states are furloughing federally-funded state workers who make disability decisions for Social Security. The combination of increased workloads and state furloughs has resulted in a growing backlog of initial disability applications in state DDSs.
“More Americans than ever are turning to us for help,” said Commissioner Astrue. “I am grateful that Governor Beebe bucked the trend and recognized the value of more of our federally-funded jobs in his state. The opening of the Arkansas EST and our other planned expansions in Mississippi, Virginia, and Oklahoma will significantly benefit disabled workers and their families as well as create new job opportunities to these states during difficult economic times.”
Commissioner of Social Security, today joined award-winning actress Patty Duke and the cast of her hit 1960s sitcom, The Patty Duke Show, to unveil Social Security’s newest online service – an application for Medicare benefits. This new online application, which takes less than 10 minutes to complete, is for people reaching the Medicare eligibility age of 65 who want to delay filing for Social Security retirement benefits. Currently about a half million Americans enroll in Medicare each year without applying for monthly benefits.
Commissioner of Social Security, today announced that the agency has released its Open Government plan. The plan, available at www.socialsecurity.gov/open, reflects the agency’s commitment to increase transparency, expand opportunities for citizen participation and collaboration, and make open government sustainable at Social Security.
Thousands of Americans with disabilities will have housing assistance specifically targeted to meet their needs, according to the departments of Health & Human Services (HHS) and Housing & Urban Development (HUD).
Multiflexdental.com announced today that their dental insurance indemnity plans were now available in 45 states. Indemnity dental insurance is true insurance and not a discount dental plan that is offered by most of the dental web sites on the internet.
A new study found that models for assessing breast cancer risk perform only slightly better when they include common inherited genetic variants recently linked to the disease. For now, recommendations for breast cancer screening or treatments that are based on such models will remain unchanged for most women.
People who scored high on a test that measures impulsive and antisocial traits had exaggerated brain responses to certain “rewards,” like winning money or taking stimulant drugs. The new study provides evidence that a dysfunctional brain reward system may underlie vulnerability to a personality disorder known as psychopathy.
Patients that have similar clinical characteristics and similar costs are assigned to an MS-DRG. The MS-DRG will be associated with a fixed payment amount based on the average cost of patients in the group.
HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) is a national, standardized survey of hospital patients. HCAHPS (pronounced “H-caps”) was created to publicly report the patient’s perspective of hospital care. The survey asks a random sample of recently discharged patients about important aspects of their hospital experience.