Health Care

Potomac Companies, helping employers control the future cost of health care

Joseph Appelbaum, President and Founder of Potomac Companies, Inc., one of the premier full service employee benefit brokerage and consulting firms in the Washington, D.C. region joins eHealth Radio and the Health Care and Health News Channels.

Listen to interview with host Eric Michaels & guest Joseph Appelbaum discuss the following:How has the Affordable Care Act changed the way companies and organizations do business and the way people access benefits?How is Potomac Companies able to help employers control the future cost of health care? “Wellness programs” seem to be a very popular buzz word nowadays. How do wellness programs help employers? What type of wellness programs work?You stated the health of an individual employee equates to the success of a company or organization. Can you explain?
Duration: 12:04
Joseph Appelbaum has spent more than 25 years in the insurance industry. He founded Potomac Companies in 1990 with the mission of helping employers manage the future cost of healthcare and has grown the company to become one of the premier full service employee benefit brokerage and consulting firms in the Washington, D.C. region.
Joseph is a lifelong entrepreneur and started his first business at the age of 13 in Manalapan, New Jersey. He is an active member of Vistage International and cadre, a D.C.-based professional networking organization and is a founding sponsor of Executive Leaders Radio. Joseph enjoys spending his time helping other CEOs and local business owners connect and collaborate with fellow leaders and is a longtime philanthropist for the Brain Tumor Society and Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Joseph graduated from Rutgers University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics. He resides in Rockville, MD with his wife and children.

Links: www.potomacco.com

Finding love at Jewish Home Community Clinical Services in Los Angeles, CA

Dr. Rafael Gonzalez-Amezcua, Medical Director at Jewish Home Community Clinical Services in Los Angeles, CA joins eHealth Radio and the Health Care Channel. Dr. Amezcua has more than 15 years experience as a physician, educator and leader in caring for seniors.

Listen to interview with host Eric Michaels & guest Dr. Rafael Gonzalez-Amezcua discuss the following:First tell us a little about Los Angeles Jewish Home and your role there.Today is Sweetheart’s Day at the Jewish Home. I suspect there are some residents who found each other there. Despite the fact many think those over 70 or 80 are too old to fall in love and marry, you have probably seen enough happy seniors who met to dispute that.Do seniors tend to shy away from new romances because of a spouse’s death or divorce?Is it true that single people tend to die earlier than those who are married or have a significant other?Is sex over 70 or 80 safe?Tell us some advice for children who have a single parent who may be 80 or 90 years old and has found love at a retirement home or residence such as yours.Do you think older people are better at finding love than the young?
Duration: 10:43
Dr. Rafael Gonzalez-Amezcua is a Board Certified Internist who is currently the Medical Director for Community Clinical Services for the Los Angles Jewish Home. Among other duties Dr. Amezcua oversees the medical services at the Brandman Centers for Senior Care, a new Program of All-Inclusive  Care for the Elderly(PACE) at the Jewish Home, Skirball Hospice, Palliative Care, Care Transitions, Home Health Agency and assists in the management of the Medical Group and its geriatric  community clinic. Additionally, Dr. Amezcua has a panel of patients for which he is the primary care provider.
Dr. Amezcua attended the University of California at Davis for his undergraduate education and the Rosalind Franklin School of Medicine  in Chicago, Ill. for his medical degree. He completed his residency training in Internal Medicine at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco CA. Post graduate training includes a fellowship on Health Policy and Leadership at the NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service and a Policy Fellowship at the Central Valley Health Policy Institute at Cal State Fresno.
Dr Amezcua has spent his professional career focusing on care for the poor frail elderly. He first worked at On Lok Senior Health in San Francisco, CA where he helped open and supervised the first PACE clinic in a predominantly Latino community.  While there he joined the Clinical Faculty at UCSF and developed an out patient geriatric rotation for the Internal Medicine program at the San Francisco General Hospital. In 2007 Dr. Amezcua relocated to Fresno CA where he opened and directed a geriatric focused clinic in a poor area through Sequoia Community Clinics, a local FQHC. He soon after was recruited to UCSF Fresno Medical Education Program and became the Medical Director for the General Internal Medicine Clinics. Due to family health issues Dr Amezcua accepted an offer to relocate to the Los Angeles area as Regional Director for Senior Services for AltaMed Health Services Corporation. He later accepted an offer as Interim CEO and CMO for Bienvenidos Community Health Center, a small non for profit clinic in East Los Angeles, where he guided the clinic toward  attaining FQHC status and worked there until joining the Los Angeles Jewish Home.
Dr. Amezcua has been extensively involved in community educational and volunteer activities. While in San Francisco he was a founding member of the Alzheimer’s Association Medical-Scientific Advisory Committee and served as the Chair of the Multi-Cultural committee as well as serving on the Board of Directors. He was a member of the San Francisco Network of Adult Day Centers quality of care initiative and spoke extensively to multiple community and professional groups. Dr. Amezcua was also a Medical Commentator for Univision’s Channel 14 ,KTVU where he had a weekly live TV medical segment for several years.
Dr. Amezcua also has served at the national level, as an advisor to the Director of the NIH as co chair of the Council of Public Representatives, as National Policy Committee of the National Hispanic Medical Association and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, State Solutions grant reviewer.
Dr. Amezcua is married to a pediatrician and have three children. He currently resides in South Pasadena CA.

Web Site: www.jha.orgFacebook: facebook.com/LosAngelesJewishHomeTwitter: @LAJewishHome

ITelagen, assisting clients with meeting the Meaningful Use incentives

John O’Keefe, CEO of ITelagen, the “One-Stop Shop” for IT and EHR infrastructure, all for a flat monthly subscription fee once again joins eHealth Radio and the HealthCare and Technology Channels.
Listen to interview with host Eric Michaels & guest John O’Keefe discuss the following:With Meaningful Use being a hot topic with EHR Technology, how is ITelagen assisting clients with meeting the MU incentives?How do your legacy IT Support services and your Hosting services fit in with your healthcare clients? Maybe some of our listeners can plan ahead to meet and speak with you. What tradeshows will you be attending this year?What is on the horizon for ITelagen in 2014?
Duration: 9:11
As ITelagen’s founder and lead visionary, Mr. O'Keefe brings over 13 years of technology and help desk automation experience to the company. Mr. O’Keefe began his career as a technical analyst for one of New York’s leading technology groups. It was here that he provided strategic marketing advice to companies such as Novell, Intel and IBM, assisting them with new product offerings and positioning. In 1996, responding to his vision of help desk support automation, Mr. O'Keefe founded Fine Point Technologies where he served as CEO/CTO for 9 years and designed help desk automation systems for the world’s leading service providers including Verizon, Earthlink and Telmex. Mr. O’Keefe defied the dot-com odds and grew the company past the post dot-com era to a profitable organization with offices and customer’s worldwide.
Again in 2005, leveraging his expertise in help desk support automation technologies, Mr. O’Keefe exited Fine Point Technologies and founded ITelagen, a flat-rate IT service that leverages support automation to prevent problems before they can occur.
Having three patents-pending in various support automation technologies, Mr. O’Keefe has been featured on CNN, CNET and in numerous magazines and is recognized as an industry leader in help desk automation. Mr. O'Keefe holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil and Structural Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo and is a New York State licensed EIT. He serves as the Chairman on ITelagen’s Board of Directors and an advisor to the Board of Fine Point Technologies, Inc.

Links: www.itelagen.com

Alere Accountable Care Solutions is helping improve healthcare delivery

Sumit Nagpal, CEO of Alere Accountable Care Solutions (ACS) a provider of  healthcare information technology and services to help healthcare organizations share patient information accurately and securely to improve healthcare outcomes joins eHealth Radio and the Healthcare and Technology Channels.

Listen to interview with host Eric Michaels & guest Sumit Nagpal discuss the following:Could you describe the services provided by Alere and Alere Connected Health and how these services help improve healthcare delivery?How is Alere Connected Health  affected by Obama Care?Tell us about some of your clients (like Virtua, Whittier, and Leeds in the UK) What kind of problems are you helping them to solve?What do you see as some of the major Healthcare and Healthcare IT challenges for 2014?Where do you think healthcare IT will be in a year from now?
Duration: 11:54
Sumit K. Nagpal is the President & CEO of Alere Accountable Care Solutions, previously Wellogic, a market leader in providing clinical software solutions that connect healthcare information and workflows across the continuum of care. Under his direction, Wellogic delivered high-profile successes to clients and partners ranging from world-renowned hospitals to the industry’s largest healthcare IT companies.
Mr. Nagpal’s professional background includes more than 20 years of experience in software design, engineering, management, and executive leadership in healthcare information systems. He is a passionate advocate for the centrality of the provider-patient relationship and improved communication for enhanced healthcare outcomes.
Sumit Nagpal is a frequent speaker on health information technology, patient-centered community-based infrastructures, user experience, design, security, and privacy at conferences around the world.

Links: www.alereacs.com

Improving your healthcare experience with Vocera Communications, Inc.

Dr. M. Bridget Duffy, the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Vocera Communications, Inc., which provides integrated, intelligent communication that address critical communication challenges within healthcare and other mission-critical industries joins eHealth Radio and the Health Care and Technology Channels.

Listen to interview with host Eric Michaels & guest Dr. M. Bridget Duffy discuss the following:Can you tell us a little bit about your background and what led you on this mission to disrupt the status quo to humanize the healthcare experience?How do communication technologies like Vocera contribute to your mission to improve the healthcare experience?What do patients and family members need to know to improve their healthcare experience?As the founder of the Patient Experience Movement, what are some experience innovations or strategies that you have seen or developed that are humanizing healthcare?
You have described humanizing healthcare as an industry movement. Who should be leading this movement in hospitals and health systems, and what is the role of the patient and family voice in this movement? 
I understand that in addition to being the CMO at Vocera, you play a prominent role in the company’s collaborative research subsidiary the Experience Innovation Network. Can you tell me more about this group and what they are doing to improve medicine for the better?
Duration: 15:04
M. Bridget Duffy, MD, is the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Vocera Communications, Inc., which provides integrated, intelligent communication that address critical communication challenges within healthcare and other mission-critical industries.
Prior to her appointment as CMO at Vocera, Dr. Duffy co-founded and served as Chief Executive Officer of ExperiaHealth, a company whose mission was to assist organizations in rapidly improving staff and patient loyalty through innovative technologies and solutions that restore the human connection to healthcare. ExperiaHealth was acquired by Vocera Communications and now drives the company’s thought leadership and research as the Experience Innovation Network.

Dr. Duffy was an early pioneer in the creation of Hospitalist medicine and launched programs to accelerate clinical discovery in the field of Integrative and Heart-Brain medicine, helping establish the Earl and Doris Bakken Heart Brain Institute. She previously served as Chief Experience Officer (CXO) of the Cleveland Clinic – the first senior position of its kind in the nation – leading the institution in improving patient experience as its top strategic priority. She is a frequent speaker on the subject of why patient experience matters and how it impacts clinical outcomes.
Her work has earned her the Quantum Leap Award for taking the risk to spur internal change in her field and has led her to be featured in HealthLeaders magazine as one of “20 People Who Make Healthcare Better.” Dr. Duffy attended medical school at the University of Minnesota, and completed her residency in internal medicine at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Links: www.vocera.com

The Health Co-Op, a Christian alternative to health insurance

Tony Dale, Founder of The Health Co-Op a Christian alternative to health insurance, providing members with support and an array of discount health benefits joins eHealth Radio and the Health Care and Health News Channels.
Listen to interview with host Eric Michaels & guest Tony Dale discuss the following:With your background as a physician and your understanding of the healthcare system tell us what prompted you to see the need for this alternative solution to Health Insurance?What’s the main benefit of people using Health Co Op vs alternative regular health insurance?How can businesses offer this as a plan to their employees?Where do you see the Affordable Health Care act heading this year?What are the top concerns you have about healthcare and its direction in America?With all those changes, how is Health Co-Op a good solution – what other solutions are there and how can people sign up for health co-op?
Duration: 13:19
Dr. Tone Dale, Founder of The Health Co-Op spent many years as a family physician and as a missionary, and understands the challenges that are encountered by Christians in an insurance-led health care world.
In 1996, he founded The Karis Group, Inc., to negotiate costs incurred to members of Christian Sharing Organizations. That company has now expanded and works with thousands of members of many various organizations, employer groups and insurance companies.
The Health Co-Op was the natural outgrowth of his concern to provide the best for the Christian public and provides a comprehensive, yet easily affordable, approach to dealing with health care costs, one of the greatest challenges facing our nation.
Links: www.thehealthcoop.com

MedjetAssist, Take Trips - Not Chances! Be covered!

John Gobbels, the Chief Operating Officer/Vice President and transport expert for MedjetAssist, the premier global air-medical transport membership program for travelers including college students once again joins eHealth Radio and the Health Care Information Channel.


Listen to interview with host Eric Michaels & guest John Gobbels discuss the following:Explain how Medjet works as a membership program and why the service serves as a good supplement to travel insurance? Is a Medjet membership mutually beneficially for both business and leisure travelers?Can you tell us a little bit about the different types of membership options that Medjet offers? And what is the cost of an annual individual membership and an annual family membership?What are some of the different types of transports that Medjet deals with? Do you see all types of health emergencies?How much do travelers (ones who do not have a Medjet membership) face, on average, in transfer costs to get from wherever they become sick or injured to their home?As 2014 kicks off and consumers start to head out of town for their New Year’s plans, how can a Medjet membership provide peace of mind for their health?Duration: 8:04John Gobbels brings over 23 years of pre-hospital and hospital service and management experience to his role as vice president and COO of MedjetAssist. Since joining the premier medical evacuation membership program in 2006 as director of transport operations, Mr. Gobbels has been responsible for complete oversight of all transport and repatriation operations.


Before moving from his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Medjet’s headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama, Mr. Gobbels spent 13 years with STAT MedEvac, the air ambulance arm of the renowned University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). During his tenure, he played integral roles in almost all aspects of the program, from base operations to communications and clinical operations. For six years Mr. Gobbels served as clinical director of STAT MedEvac, overseeing compliance with the Commission on Air-Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS), as well as the continuing education requirements for all clinical staff. Previously, he was a flight nurse and paramedic. Mr. Gobbels began his career with UPMC in 1991 as a critical care nurse. Mr. Gobbels holds a Masters degree in Management and Information Technology from Carlow University in Pittsburgh, PA., as well as multiple degrees in health care.
Related Web Site: medjetassist.com

Monitor your health simple, fast and reliable with the MyBloodWorks App

Glen Ogle, President of GOGLE LLC, the creators of the MyBloodWorks App to monitor your health simple, fast and reliable joins eHealth Radio and the Technology and Health Care Channels.

Listen to interview with host Eric Michaels & guest Glen Ogle discuss the following:You have created MyBloodWorks App to monitor your health, what background do you have to create such an App?What was your motive to create MyBloodWorks App?How is this your medical secretary?What are the benefits of the App?Do you have any plans to expand MyBloodWorks App?How can someone download your App?
Duration: 6:01
My name is Glen Ogle, and I have had nine years of dialysis, and three kidney transplants. My family has a random history of kidney problems and I was the lucky one. My first two transplants were a perfect match for their time, but did not last very long. By the third transplant, technology had caught up enough to match me up better than the first two. I an out 12 years on my transplant. My wife Sandra also has a transplant, that was caused by lupus, which she has had for 39 years. She has had her kidney for 10 years. We both depend on MyBloodWorks App.
We were both able to work  through our dialysis. We both have active lifestyles that include exercise; zumba dancing for her, and for me it’s walking, running, jump roping and I played softball from the age of 49-53 with the young guys, I’m 54 now.
I have been at my job for 36 years and Sandra has been at her job for 33 years.

Links: www.mybloodworksapp.com

healthPERX, an innovative health savings program that features telemedicine

Jeff Marks, CEO at healthPERX, an innovative health savings program that features telemedicine as its core benefit and many other discounts on dental, vision, health advocacy, telephonic counseling, travel assistance, fitness and others joins eHealth Radio and the Telemedicine and Healthcare Channels. The program is available in all 50 states.

Listen to interview with host Eric Michaels & guest Jeff Marks discuss the following:What is healthPERX?What is telemedicine?How can it benefit businesses and employees? Where do you see telemedicine in the next five years? How will it factor into our health routine?Why healthPERX & what makes it different than others?
Duration: 13:39
Jeff Marks is the founder and CEO of healthPERX, an innovative health savings program that features telemedicine as its core benefit and many other discounts on dental, vision, health advocacy, telephonic counseling, travel assistance, fitness and others. The program is available in all 50 states.
Marks has extensive knowledge in the health and wellness industries with 30 years of experience developing new healthcare strategies to reduce medical costs. After completing his undergraduate work at Emory University and graduate school at Tulane in the School of Public Health and Hospital Administration, he spent 30 years working with fitness centers, corporations, insurance companies and Governors’ Councils developing new strategies to promote wellness and manage health care costs through a variety of approaches.

Links: www.Hperx.com

DigitalOne Reports, delivering a single point of access to all healthcare documents

Steve Howard, the Director of Sales and Marketing for DigitalOne Reports providing a unique set of low cost and easy to implement tools to connect radiology with the referring physician for delivering results and images, receiving orders and minimizing internal IT cost joins eHealth Radio and the Health Care and Technology Channels.

Listen to interview with host Eric Michaels & guest Steve Howard discuss the following:I understand DigitalOne has been in radiology for a long time.  Can you tell the audience a little about DigitalOne?You mentioned connectivity and your company tag line is “Connectivity is Opportunity”, what does that mean for your prospective clients?What are the challenges your clients face that DigitalOne addresses?You had mentioned to me your company engages in significant conversations with imaging centers every day. Is there one thing that is common in all of your discussions?What does a typical client look like for DigitalOne?
Tip: Imaging centers need to realize that healthcare reform is here to stay and the impact of electronic medical records on their business will continue.  In addition, RIS/PACS systems will not be the “holy grail” of an IT solution that meets all of their needs.  However, the opportunity is now.  Take advantage of the ways in which they can secure existing referrals as well as grow new referral sources with low cost incremental steps that generate long-term ROI.  Reimbursements are not the only element of their business under siege; a combination of cost cutting defensive measures combined with protecting as well as increasing referrals only makes sense.
Duration: 10:13
DigitalOne was started by a group of talented individuals experienced in the development of radiology information systems and healthcare workflow process affecting radiology, maternal fetal medicine, general medicine and community hospitals.
Formed in 2001 as a medical document solutions company, DigitalOne quickly became known as a multi-faceted solution provider delivering a single point of access to all documents.  Hospitals, clinics, physicians and municipalities counted on DigitalOne to manage faxes, scanned paper documents, emails and other critical documents made available via print capture and electronic files.
By 2004 DigitalOne was delivering critical document management solutions to radiologist and imaging centers. This came as a direct result of the DigitalOne’s management teams experience developing radiology information systems. DigitalOne’s reputation grew quickly as a reliable source for seamless integration between disparate information systems and that experience led to its position today as a leading solution provider for the integration between RIS and EMR systems.
Today DigitalOne offers a suite of tools used for EMR integration, Results delivery with PACS integration, Orders receipt and management from referring physicians, Critical alert and document management, Patient Portal and Mobile access.

Links: www.digitalonereports.com