Photo: CaroWallis1
Most of us have at some point awakened to a common but uncomfortable ailment such as strep throat, poison ivy or pink eye. These conditions are ones we can’t treat on our own at home. So you haul yourself to a lengthy wait in your doctor’s office as the staff attempts to work you in. Or you might end up in an emergency room for that long wait in much less comfortable and more expensive circumstances. Take heart: a solution exists in the “mini clinic.”

Drug stores such as CVS and Walgreens and large outlets that sell drugs, like Walmart and Target have founded express clinics, designed specifically to help you with those pesky but serious ailments.* Right now 300 “mini-clinics” exist in several states. More than 4,000 will likely exist in the next few years. A quick and relatively inexpensive alternative to the doctor’s office, these clinics offer nurse practitioners to manage your care. The growing shortage of family doctors has helped spawn this popular alternative. The nurse practitioners are supervised by a physician and are quick to send people with ailments requiring sophisticated treatment on to the hospital or their physician. All prices are posted, no appointment is required and most mini-clinics are open 7 days per week.

One of the largest of these chain treatment centers, MinuteClinic, has 162 clinics in 19 states and will expand to 300 this year. Walgreens’ Take Care clinic offers exam rooms just like the doctor’s office. While physicians are concerned that the care be high quality, they support the basic concept according to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Mini-clinics can perform some routine tests and screenings, give shots, and write prescriptions. They can treat strep throat, colds, coughs, fever, flu, vomiting, bronchitis, allergies, ear and eye infections, urinary tract infections, minor injuries such as sprains, and skin conditions like cold sores, sunburn, athlete’s foot and poison ivy. They can not treat chest pains, major burns, deep lacerations, chronic conditions, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma or high cholesterol, nor can they set broken bones.

As an example, in the mini-clinic strep throat treatment will cost on average $59. Compare this to an emergency room charge of $328; urgent care charge of $130 or primary care charge of $100-$132.00. Many health insurance plans will cover the cost.

*Healthbolt.net is not affiliated with any of the companies mentioned in this post.

How many of us would save the natural resource drain imported foods cause, if only it were really easy? Well, now it is, you self-serving slob (said with love):

Check out LocalHarvest.org to find vegetable and fruit growers, their markets and the restaurants that buy from them, close to your home. Enter your zip code, and you’ll see a handy list of local farmers, gardeners and places to pay for a meal.

Photo: Dave Q
I found this picture the other day on Flickr and was compelled to share. I am clueless as to what the back story on this photo is, but I know you can’t purchase Propan Syrup in the U.S. And I know that kid did not want to get any closer to that fat, ephoric, drug-shilling purple monster, than she had to, for the photo op.

From Drugs.com:

Phenylpropanolamine has been associated with an increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding into the brain or into tissue surrounding the brain) in women. Men may also be at risk. Although the risk of hemorrhagic stroke is low, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends that consumers not use any products that contain phenylpropanolamine.

But that whale(?) sure thinks it tastes good, so it most be awesome! Right? That kid sure is creeped out, and rightly so. Beware of drug peddlers without MD’s, kiddos. Be they wearing trench coats or plush costumes…

photo: Retinafunk
The price of your (and everyone else’s) inhaler is about to triple…

Wisebread is doing a little analysis on human cost versus environmental impact when it comes to inhalers. You see, inhalers still use CFC’s (bad for the environment; hole in the ozone layer and all that) to give their medicine its motivation, and that’s all about to change to the tune of a $1.35 billion dollar annual cost to inhaler users.

The cost of an Albuterol inhaler is going to nearly triple, due to the re-patenting of the propellant used in the most common drugs used to reduce the inflammation associated with an asthma attack.

Traditionally, the propellant used in most inhalers (and many other day-to-day items and appliances) were CFCs, which were found to be detrimental to the ozone. Although CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) were phased out of other products, they remain in prescription inhalers. That’s all about to change, however, and the new propellant, HFA-134a, has been used in part to re-patent the inhaler design, which went generic (and became affordable) back in 1989.

For people with decent health insurance, this doesn’t mean much, but for people who pay out-of-pocket for medicine, this is going to be a big hit in the wallet. The difference between $13.50 and $39.50 is striking, especially for people who use more than one inhaler per month.

Being asthmatic just got more expensive - Wisebread

Photo: lovemetwee

Hospitals (in most cases) are not unreasonable. They’d much rather bargain with you than the alternative.

Think about it from their point of view: Hospitals are between a rock and a hard place when it comes to collections. The gov’t pays peanuts and the insurance companies are no more interested in giving hospitals their due than they’re interested in lowering your rates. Bankruptcy is at an all time high in this country, one of the driving forces of which is medical bills. Also keep in mind that collection agencies usually take 25% or more for their services.

Realizing all of this, keep your hospital in the loop if you owe them a wad of cash but are coming up short. Let them know what’s going on and what you can realistically pay; you may find them more accommodating than you think.

The quitmeter will track the amount of time from the moment you quit smoking, down to the second. It will also tell you how much money you have saved and how many cigarettes you have not smoked.

In my example above, I just set it for 1 year ago. It shows me I’ve saved $1,456 and not smoked 7,280 cigarettes. They even have a way to include your own personal Quitmeter on your lame My Space profile web page.

You fill in the blanks, and it keeps your stats - Quitmeter.com

Bono’s ostentatious (RED) campaign has been making waves due to some figures that have recently come to light. For the uninitiated, the (RED) campaign donates a certain amount of money for every (RED) product someone buys. Like an iPod or GAP t-shirt with the (RED) logo on it.

Here’s what the row’s all about:

• Money spent promoting the (RED) campaign as calculated by Advertising Age: $100 million.
• Money raised by the (RED) campaign for AIDS prevention and education in Africa: $18 million.

Seems a little off, eh?

In one corner, the watchdog bleeding hearts are saying that Bono is a vacuous turd who’s gone too far. In the other, the (RED) camp has said the marketing dollars would’ve been spent marketing the t-shirts and other schwag anyway, but now it’s been spent marketing a product that helps someone… (Besides Bono)

I’m throwing in with the bleeding hearts on this one. I hate Bono, mainly for the whole sunglasses-all-the-time thing, but I also think it is slightly in the wrong to exploit an entire continent in the grips of an epidemic. Especially when it’s just in order to boost your own status among other rich douche-bags of the world.

If that paragraph was the bad, this is the ugly: The fact that he thinks, “I was going to drop $100 million aggrandizing myself anyway.” (paraphrased) passes as an excuse shows the man’s true hubris.

Look, Bono, The Joshua Tree changed my life in high school, but that was a long time ago, and I grow weary of the $700 rose colored glasses you see yourself through. Nice tax dodge, though. Seriously.

This is how you will die before you win Powerball, statistically speaking…

• 1 in 78: Automotive accident
• 1 in 314: Assault by firearm
• 1 in 1,313: Medical/Surgical complication
• 1 in 2,360: Fall down stairs
• 1 in 3,060: Drowning/submersion while in/falling into natural water
• 1 in 4,284: Choking on food
• 1 in 7,278: Pool drowning
• 1 in 8,988: Fall from a ladder
• 1 in 27,559: Caught between (non-automotive) objects
• 1 in 62,468: Legal execution
• 1 in 79,746: Lightning Strike
• 1 in 124,936: Explosion/rupture of pressurized device
• 1 in 340,733: Fireworks discharge
• 1 in 500,000: Struck by extra-terrestrial object
• 1 in 1,249,356: Ignition or melting of nightwear
• 1 in 1,874,034: Contact with venomous snake/lizard
• 1 in 146,107,962: Winning Powerball

Good luck!

“Death-by” odds are from the National Safety Council online at nsc.org and from LiveScience.com; The Odds of Dying.

Powerball odds are from Durango Bill’s Mathematics; How to Calculate the Probabilities for the Powerball Lottery (Updated for the 55 ball game.)

Disclosure: This is a paid post, which means this company gave me money to check out their website and tell you guys what I think about it. Here we go…

MDVIP is kind of a health country club. It’s not an HMO or PPO. Their website reminds me more of Diner’s Club or something than a health care plan. Basically, they’re trying to save health care from the terrible mess of litigation-fueled red tape and bureaucracy it’s become for patients and physicians, for an (undisclosed, at least online) price. A noble and lucrative cause, to be sure.
It seems like a good plan. You sign-up and pay your yearly dues, and in exchange you receive personalized (MDVIP physicians have only 600 patients per practice), prevention-focused health care that works with insurance and Medicare. I really like their emphasis on preventive health care.

All MDVIP services are compatible with FSA’s (Flex Spending Accounts), which is a great tax dodge. It also comes with personalized service perks like a medical history mini-CD to carry in your wallet/purse, quick access to your MDVIP doctor in emergencies, your own “personal MDVIP website” and an “executive physical”, which includes, but is not limited to:

• an extensive risk factor assessment that incorporates family history, patient history and lifestyle analysis
• screenings related to mental status
• screenings related to exercise, nutrition and sleep
• screenings related to vision and hearing
• pulmonary function testing
• comprehensive laboratory testing
• EKG

I think programs like this are great for people that can afford them. It’s also good for Doctors who’ve been systematically locked into a system that has them spending more time navigating regulations and lawyers than honing their bedside manner and diagnostic skills.

I’m all for something like this, except… What’s it cost? I can’t even get a ball-park figure of their annual fee off their site. But I’ll bet it’s not cheap for the customer, er, patient, and I’m sure it’s a boon for the doctors who can find 600 MDVIP patients within their operating area.

MDVIP is an organization that charges a premium for premium health care. Not a bad idea if you’re the kind of mercenary doctor it’s perfectly within your rights to be. Or if you’re a patient with the kind of pockets to fund this thing. (Hey if I could afford it, I would consider it, except the closest MDVIP to me is in St. Louis, which is 5 hours away from Kansas City.)

I filled out their “we’ll get back to you” style contact form to save you guys the trouble of an unwanted sales call just to get pricing. They called me a few hours later. Their yearly fee ranges from $1500-$1800 and set by the doctor in their network you sign up with. Honestly, it’s not as much as I thought it would be, but it still would have been nice had they listed that range on the site.

If anyone has any sort of experience working with or paying for one of these programs, let us know about it.

I can see how this could be construed as crass by some people (who suck and are lame), but as long as the employees get coverage, who cares? And if the company sells more t-shirts because of it, all the better for the employee and their benefits package.

via Design fckr