Q: How will the new health care bill effect my prescription drugs cost?
A: While there are many changes associated with healthcare reform, there are a few things you should know about how this will impact your medications:
* The health reform bill identifies an “essential benefits package” where all plans are required to provide coverage for prescription medications. This will help to reduce some of the cost barriers for patients taking their medications. As the plans are developed, they are encouraged to be as comprehensive as possible; however, with the expenses associated with medications and the expansion of other covered services, many plans may just offer very basic coverage.
* For Medicare beneficiaries who have selected a Medicare Part D (prescription drug plan), the gap in coverage of prescription drugs, known as the “doughnut hole,” will be gradually filled by 2020. For 2010, consumers who hit the doughnut hole will receive a $250 rebate to help offset the expense of their medications.
-Dr. Amy Rodenko,
Pharm.D.
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Attending a local health fair can save your life.
While setting up for the Woodville Elementary School Community Health Fair on Saturday, June 5th, a woman approached me. Several weeks prior, we had taken her blood pressure at another health fair. Her blood pressure was elevated. We advised her to continue to monitor her pressure and call her doctor if it remained high. We also discussed potential effects of high blood pressure and explained some positive lifestyle changes she could do to help reduce her blood pressure. She told us that later that same evening her blood pressure was much higher. She immediately called her doctor who told her to go to the Emergency Department (ED). By the time she was checked-in at the ED, her blood pressure was 210/100. The doctors told her that if she had not been seen, she would have had a stroke. She is now on medication and doing better. She wanted to thank us for coming out into the community and helping to save her life.
In the midst of collecting gadgets, water bottles, and other freebies, there are some invaluable services offered at your local health fair. In the past 3 months alone, the Center for High Blood Pressure’s outreach staff has taken 429 blood pressures at various health fairs. We have counseled over 200 individuals on topics such as nutrition, exercise and smoking cessation and made countless referrals to other area free clinics. The Center for High Blood Pressure, and other clinics like it, perform these services to raise awareness and promote health in the community. Think of how many other lives we have saved.
Do you know what your blood pressure is or should be? What about healthy lifestyle behaviors that can help control your blood pressure? Do you know the potential effects of high blood pressure? No? Then visit your local health fair and find out. You never know, it may just save your life.
Melanie Barthlow, C.H.E.S.
Education Coordinator
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