Hi, thank you for coming back for the latest edition of the Beyond Primary Cares blog; treating menopausal symptoms. In my blogs I highlight healthy and fun recipes, healthcare news, advice for medical conditions, as well as how membership for care works! Dr. Jeff O’Boyle is the owner of Beyond Primary Care, which is an insurance free, membership based family medicine and addiction medicine clinic. Beyond Primary Care is the only Direct Care clinic serving patients in Ann Arbor and throughout Washtenaw, Livingston, and Wayne County giving families and employers peace of mind with healthcare costs by providing affordable, accessible, and authentic primary care services.

The primary purpose of the blog is to introduce healthy lifestyle concepts and answer common questions I receive from patients that I believe are important. I want to start discussions that will help educate, benefit, and improve your well-being. 

In this blog post, I’m glad to welcome a guest blogger, my friend Liza Baker. Liza is the owner of Simply: Health Coaching and is a full-time health coach and nonprofit consultant, author, blogger, and podcaster with a soft spot for supporting women in their 40s and above. This is a collaboration blog-piece, where we wanted to educate our patients and the community on treating menopausal symptoms, specifically how role lifestyle and nutrition can positively influence those changes, and what medications can positively influence those changes.

Menopausal, peri-, and post-

First, a little bit of clarity to the menopause timeline:

• Menopause is defined as the complete cessation of the menstrual cycle for 12 months, after which time it is extremely rare for it to resume. The average age at which menopause occurs in the United States is 52.
• Peri-menopause is the period of our lives when our bodies (if not our conscious thoughts) begin to move toward the end of our child-bearing years, and it can begin as long as 10 years before the final menstrual cycle—that’s right: you can enter menopause as early as your late 30s to early 40s. And yes, you can still get pregnant during these years! (As we know from the British comedy Sex Education!)
• Women are considered post-menopausal once they have been cycle-free for 12 months.

Importance of Identifying Menopausal Symptoms

Every woman experiences menopause differently. Some of us reach the end of our cycles almost without noticing; others don’t have a period for some months and then get surprised to find that it was just loitering in there—and then we need to start the countdown over again. Your “regular” periods may have stopped years ago—regular in the sense of timing and in their length and heaviness. 

Like most women, you may have an idea what to expect:

• Physical symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness, dizziness, nausea, breast tenderness, insomnia, skin changes, abnormal uterine bleeding, urine incontinence, and headaches. 
• Changes in mood such as increased anxiety, reduced sex drive, memory issues, and fluctuations in mood. 

These symptoms can last months to years, and even post menopause, you can still sometimes “feel menopausal.” These symptoms can be severe, disruptive, and even feel embarrassing at times. 

In a previous blog post, Liza reminds us that it doesn’t help to approach this shift in hormones as a problem, like we are entering this stage of life from the perspective of “we’re broken.” Instead, it’s important to approach this as a woman’s health experience within the context of identifying your own symptoms and getting clarity about possible therapies for treating menopausal symptoms.

Treating Menopausal Symptoms —and causes

You may have mined the women’s health section of your local bookstore looking for informed (dare we say evidence-based) resources to guide you. What you likely found is a broad spectrum of seemingly science-based approaches from “here is why you should be on hormone replacement therapy (HRT)” to “here is why you absolutely should NOT be on HRT!”

Liza is a firm believer that when advice falls on a spectrum (HRT: YES! NO!), the truth likely lies somewhere in the middle. And having learned that many of the top health problems in our country are so-called “lifestyle diseases”—meaning that they can be reversed and/or prevented through our food and lifestyle choices.

Putting Experience Into Practice

Liza’s personal experience with peri-menopause involved a large number of the most commonly recognized symptoms listed above—including raging migraines after decades of their absence and an appearance by anxiety and panic attacks, neither of which she’d ever experienced before.

And perhaps because Liza had been raised with fairly good food and lifestyle choices and began to make even better ones once she had her own family, many of my/her symptoms were quite mild.

That said, as a health coach, her work with clients is based on the principle of bio-individuality: your perimenopause is not my perimenopause; what works for you may not work for me; your kale may be my kryptonite. Dr. O’Boyle explains it this way: “Discussing the scope of treatment … is extensive and always carries asterisks for certain populations…. Treatment is multi-dimensional and must be individualized, your classic N of 1 trial.”

What matters most is that we—as patients/clients and as practitioners—take a holistic approach: yes, it’s about reducing the severity of symptoms—and about taking a longer view of what caused them and how we can shift that in a more positive direction. It’s as much (more?) about prevention as it is about a cure.

And it’s about giving you—the patient—permission to have some agency over your health care. As Dr. O’Boyle says, “Mainstream medicine has a challenge: continue to ignore your story and lose you to a subjective fantasy built on the mistakes of our brain, or join you in your life story ensuring you are taking responsibility for your wellbeing while making you central to the care and cure.”

Treating Menopausal Symptoms with Medications

The stress involved with menopause can be disruptive on many levels. Some women feel awful, and don’t want to be subjected to a physical exam, let alone interact with a physician when they can’t interact with their families, co-workers, and friends in a way that has meaning. At Beyond Primary Care, you can be assured there will be no judgement, no unnecessary physical exams, just compassion and an opportunity to share your story.

At Beyond Primary Care, I use an eclectic and personalized approach—not a “canned” conversation- towards accessing and resolving life changes and stressors. In a thorough health history, I am going to ask about your family, where your quality of life is being most affected, and—most importantly—what you want to do. I find validation of your concerns and education are often powerful methods in support when you are not feeling well. As you read above, some women prefer enhancing their diet and exercise along with support in allowing their symptoms to play out more naturally.

If more holistic approaches of treatment don’t work, I [Dr. Jeff O’Boyle] can get innovative with estrogen and progesterone hormone replacement therapy (HRT), depending on your needs. Getting the dosage right using hormone patches, pills, and creams is always individualized, and I [Dr. Jeff O’Boyle] works with my [his] patients to customize how much or how little may be needed. While HRT is sometimes a last resort for a woman, the relief it gives can be life-changing. Additionally, just like a great chef (shamless cook book plug) with their ingredients, I am constantly measuring and remeasuring your for safety and goal achievement.

Decisions, decisions

Consider this your permission to make a decision about treating perimenopausal symptoms based on what’s right for you—because you do have options!

If you suspect some of what you are experiencing may be due to perimenopause, or if you notice any coworkers, friends, or family members silently struggling, send them a link to this post so that they can join the conversation!

Please share comments and questions below. You can also contact Dr. O’Boyle or Liza Baker directly. We look forward to hearing from you!

Hi, thank you for coming back for the latest edition of Beyond Primary Cares blog; where I highlight healthy and fun recipes, healthcare news, advice for medical conditions, as well as how membership for care works! Dr. Jeff O’Boyle is the owner of Beyond Primary Care, which is a new approach to family medicine and addiction medicine that creates the time and space your healthcare deserves. Beyond Primary Care is the only Direct Care clinic serving patients in Ann Arbor and throughout Washtenaw, Livingston, and Wayne County giving families and employers peace of mind with healthcare costs by providing affordable, accessible, and authentic primary care services.

The primary purpose of the blog is to introduce healthy lifestyle concepts and answer common questions I receive from patients that I believe are important. I want to start discussions that will help educate, benefit, and improve your well-being. 

In this blog post, I wanted to talk about severe allergic reactions, namely anaphylaxis and epinephrine.

Anaphylaxis

Anaphylaxis is a severe, sometimes life-threatening, allergic reaction that occurs within minutes to several hours of exposure an allergy-causing substance (allergen).

In any body allergic reaction, your immune system will respond to the presence of an allergen (whether food or environmental) by releasing histamine and other body chemicals. These chemicals cause the symptoms of allergies, in their mild form are annoying, such as the runny nose of hay fever (allergic rhinitis) or the itchy rash of poison ivy. 

Unfortunately though, the symptoms can progress and be much worse and involve the entire body. Anaphylaxis is the most severe allergic reaction. In anaphylaxis, body chemicals cause serious skin symptoms, such as hives and swelling, as well as severe breathing problems, such as swelling in the throat, narrowing of the lower airways and wheezing. Anaphylaxis is a life-threatening medical emergency.

The Physical Reaction

There are different shapes and forms of a severe reaction. Symptoms of anaphylaxis usually occur within seconds to minutes of exposure to the allergen, but symptoms can be delayed for several hours.

• Feeling light headed, faint, difficulty breathing, couching, wheezing, weakness
• Confusion, anxiety, panic, or a feeling of impending doom
• Measurable symptoms such as rapid pulse or profuse sweating.
• Itchy hives, which may blend together to form larger areas of skin swelling
• Swelling of the lips, tongue or eyes
• Nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, diarrhea
• Paleness, bluish skin color
• Throat swelling -like a golf ball stuck in your throat, hoarseness 

Treatment

Symptoms of anaphylaxis usually require treatment with epinephrine, by injection. People who have had anaphylaxis can carry a pre-loaded syringe containing epinephrine.

Epinephrine

You have probably heard about this drug before, but some of what you think you know may not be correct.

Epinephrine is safe, and you already have epinephrine in your body

Epinephrine is a naturally occurring hormone. At-rest plasma epinephrine levels are 0.035 ng/mL. It is the hormone that is part of our fight-or-flight response. When you are scared or excited, and also when you are exercising, your epinephrine levels surge, but even when you sleep, there is a little epinephrine circulating in your body. Levels over 10 times that amount have been measured in persons exercising, and even higher than that in people under mental stress. 

The standard adult dose of self-injecting epinephrine (0.3 mg of 1:1000 epinephrine) raises the level of epinephrine in the body from an average of 0.035 ng/mL to about 10 times that amount.  It would require more about 20 such injections to reach a toxic level.

If you were given the injection right now, all that would likely happen is that your heart rate and blood pressure would increase to a moderate degree and that you might feel slightly shaky. Epinephrine is metabolized very quickly, and you would not feel this effect for long.

You Should Not Wait to Use Your Epinephrine

You might hope the allergic reaction won’t be “that bad,” and you might be right, but it’s important to know that a delay in use of epinephrine is linked to poorer outcomes and prolonged hospitalizations.

You Should Not Be Afraid of the Epinephrine Device

The device itself might look big, but the injection needle is not. It’s just like getting a flu shot. As mentioned above, the main side effect you might experience is feeling a bit shaky after using the device.

You Should Go to the Emergency Room (ER) After Using the Epinephrine for Anaphlaxis

You may have been told that you have to go to the ER after using your epinephrine device. That’s not because of the epinephrine; it’s because the allergic reaction probably requires further monitoring. In the past, I have talked about why NOT to go to the emergency rooms. Anaphylaxis is not one of those scenarios. Many patients also need more than one dose of epinephrine for anaphylaxis or other emergency treatments; that may be due to the severity of the allergic reaction or simply because the device was not used correctly (the most common mistake is not holding the device against your thigh for the time required for the full dose of medication to be delivered). So a trip to the ER is the safest thing to do after using epinephrine.

Epinephrine Cost

You may of heard EpiPen’s manufacturer, Mylan Pharmaceuticals, had increased the price of a two-pack over several years to $600 or more—even for people with insurance. For some families—especially those who needed more than one EpiPen pack to protect their kids during severe allergy attacks—that price was still way too high. As a Direct Primary Care doctor, I have worked towards making epinephrine affordable to my patients, with a 2 pack of injectors costing less than $100. 

Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Hi, thank you for coming back for the latest edition of Beyond Primary Cares blog; where I highlight healthy and fun recipes, healthcare news, advice for medical conditions, as well as how membership for care works! Dr. Jeff O’Boyle is the owner of Beyond Primary Care, which is a new approach to family medicine and addiction medicine that creates the time and space your healthcare deserves. Beyond Primary Care is the only Direct Care clinic serving patients in Ann Arbor and throughout Washtenaw, Livingston, and Wayne County giving families and employers peace of mind with healthcare costs by providing affordable, accessible, and authentic primary care services.

The primary purpose of the blog is to introduce healthy lifestyle concepts and answer common questions I receive from patients that I believe are important. I want to start discussions that will help educate, benefit, and improve your well-being. 

In this blog post, I wanted to talk about Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA).

Your Spouse Says You Snore, a LOT

Everybody snores, right? How bad can it be though? You never hear it.

The changes are gradual, so gradual you may not see the pattern. You finally get tired of the criticism so you make your way to an ear, nose, and throat specialist to tell you have a deviated septum. Maybe they tell you you have a uvula (that dangling skin in your throat) that needs trimming. You consider surgery, but that is a big step. 

Eventually you may start getting depressed. Maybe your personal or work relationships start deteriorating. You start to see a therapist who recommends you back to a psychiatrist, who dutifully puts you on a cocktail of anti-depressant medications. 

At some point you make it back to your primary care physician, where you relay some of this information during a yearly physical. The spouse says they are worried because you seem to stop breathing at night (Apnea), then suddenly gasp for air followed by resuming your slumber as if nothing had happened.

Your physician says your sleep may be a key to your problems.

Other symptoms of Obstructive Sleep Apnea include:

• Excessive and inappropriate daytime sleepiness
• Insomnia
• Problems with memory and/or concentration
• Impotence
• Headaches
• Fatigue

What Causes Obstructive Sleep Apnea

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, Obstructive Sleep Apnea is a sleep-related medical condition that results in an almost complete blockage of airflow despite your body’s effort to breath. This is caused when the muscles in the pharynx (throat) relax during sleep, allowing all the supporting tissues of the throat to collapse and block the upper airway. These apnea episodes, or pauses, can last between 10 and 30 seconds, but some may progress longer. 

This lack of breathing drops your blood oxygen saturation that ultimately sounds an alarm in your brain to cause a temporary arousal from sleep that typically restores normal breathing. This can occur hundreds of time in a single night resulting in poor and episodic sleep quality resulting in the above symptoms.

Diagnosis

You will be advised to undergo a sleep study. This sounds absurd on the face, what doctor would routinely want to observe anyone while they sleep? In fact, you may never see the ‘sleep doctor.’ There are many ‘sleep laboratories’ around the nation, often staffed with sleep technicians where you can have up to 36 separate electrodes placed on you while you are asleep. The laborites sleep technician will likely be helping you with all of this. 

I personally encourage my patients to complete home based sleep studies, as example using Somno Services. With Somno Services, they ship all the necessary equipment to you at your home. This allows my patients to complete the assessment in the comfort of their own homes at a fraction of the cost a sleep laboratory would charge, around $175 versus $1,000+ at a sleep clinic. Following completion, you simply repackage the materials and send it back.

After a few days, the sleep doctor will review the data collected and be able to confirm a diagnosis.

Realistic Treatment Options

CPAP therapy (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) as pictured below is a standard of therapy. Once you have a diagnosis, you will have to get the proper equipment from a medical supply store. Finding a proper fitting mask is key to this. 

Wearing an oral or dental appliance can be an alternative to CPAP. Oral devices work by holding the tongue in place or by sliding the jaw forward while you sleep. Again, this is a device that may need some fine-tuning by a trained sleep specialist or supply store.

Surgery. Some surgeons may say that corruption of nasal structures or throat structures can reduce or eliminate extra tissues in your throat preventing the collapse that leads to Obstructive Sleep Apnea. While surgery may indeed help in some cases, I encourage all my patients to review the harms and benefits of the surgery vs non surgical options, ask about success rates, and ultimately factor in costs.

Weight loss. I absolutely hate the old doctor’s adage of ‘eat less and move more.’ Weight shaming is not a motivating strategy. Know though, reductions is weight and ultimately body mass can significantly reduce or even eliminate the weight of the tissue pressing onto the airway. Losing weight, like any other medical condition, requires a multi-dimensional approach including potentially mental imagery and therapy, nutritional support counseling, a safe exercise program, and regular biometric feedback.

Hi, thank you for coming back for the latest edition of Beyond Primary Cares blog; where I highlight healthy and fun recipes, healthcare news, advice for medical conditions, as well as how membership for care works! Dr. Jeff O’Boyle is the owner of Beyond Primary Care, which is a new approach to family medicine and addiction medicine that creates the time and space your healthcare deserves. Beyond Primary Care is the only Direct Care clinic serving patients in Ann Arbor and throughout Washtenaw, Livingston, and Wayne County giving families and employers peace of mind with healthcare costs by providing affordable, accessible, and authentic primary care services.

The primary purpose of the blog is to introduce healthy lifestyle concepts and answer common questions I receive from patients that I believe are important. I want to start discussions that will help educate, benefit, and improve your well-being. 

In this blog post, I wanted to talk about Sedera Health, which is a cost-sharing model that can help with that ‘Back End’ healthcare coverage.

To be 100% upfront, myself nor my clinic- Beyond Primary Care, have any special relationship or financial interest in Sedera to disclose. I am simply educating the public and my patients on affordable coverages for those ‘what if’ scenarios.

The American Health Insurance Experience

In 2018, the average monthly cost for health insurance for an individual was $440.00 and for a family of 4 the average cost rose to $1,168.00, per month. That’s $14,016.00 per year. But wait, there’s more. The average deductible for that same family was $8,232.00 with many plans being over $10,000.00. What does all this mean?

Well, if you need any major medical coverage for your family, be prepared to pay about $22,000 in out-of-pocket costs before your insurance kicks in. We can’t afford to get sick anymore. For a large number of Americans and businesses, this is the new reality. Monthly health insurance costs increase every year while at the same time out-of-pocket deductibles have sky-rocketed.

Front End, Back End

You may of heard the terms ‘back end’ and ‘front end’ healthcare coverage before, but what does that mean? 

Front end is basically any, and the vast majority of healthcare services that you would routinely use. Such as a regular doctor visit, needing medications, blood laboratory work, routine imaging, scheduled procedures. 

The back end of healthcare are any surgeries, hospitalizations, or emergent care situations that may arise. Surgeries, hospitalizations, and emergency room care can be inherently expensive. People can go bankrupt from these events. That is why we recommend some ‘back end’ coverage.

However, treating a rash, urinary tract infection, common cold, or doing a well visit is vastly different than brain surgery.

Why are we paying for them in the same manner?

Have you heard of Sedera Health?

So, what is medical cost sharing? There are better options out there for you. Sedera Health is one of those options. 

Sedera Health uses a medical cost-sharing model to challenge the status quo of health insurance that many of us have become so frustrated with. Instead of making payments to an insurance company that do not have your best interests at heart, medical cost-share members make payments to a community fund and those funds are only drawn upon when they are needed. Typically, members can save between 30-50% of what they were paying in insurance premiums and can chose a set amount that they are willing to pay as an initial unsharable amount. This can amount to $1,000s of dollars a year. So, you get lower costs and predictable expenses for those times when you do have major medical events.

Sedera + Small Businesses + Direct Primary Care

Sedera Health offers employer groups of 5 or more a group discount on their cost-sharing for a Direct Primary Care membership. At Beyond Primary Care we believe that great healthcare should be affordable, accessible, and authentic for our members and that is why we have decided to discuss Sedera Health as an option. With your Beyond Primary Care membership you can add Sedera Health medical cost sharing to help cover the back end of your individual health risk with those larger major medical expenses. Then, let your Beyond Primary Care take care of all your primary and preventative care issues and rely on Sedera Health for the other wraparound medical needs for a total healthcare solution.

Final Thoughts

Beyond Primary Care + Sedera are working together to help you on your journey to great health. It’s premium quality healthcare with peace of mind for those ‘what ifs,’ without the high cost of insurance premiums and out-of-reach, out-of-pocket expenses.

Hi, thank you for coming back for the latest edition of Beyond Primary Cares blog; where I highlight healthy and fun recipes, healthcare news, advice for medical conditions, as well as how membership for care works! Dr. Jeff O’Boyle is the owner of Beyond Primary Care, which is a new approach to family medicine and addiction medicine that creates the time and space your healthcare deserves.

Beyond Primary Care is the only Direct Care clinic serving patients in Ann Arbor and throughout Washtenaw, Livingston, and Wayne County giving families and employers peace of mind with healthcare costs by providing affordable, accessible, and authentic primary care services. 

The primary purpose of the blog is to introduce healthy lifestyle concepts and answer common questions I receive from patients that I believe are important. I want to start discussions that will help educate, benefit, and improve your well-being. 

In this blog post, I wanted to talk about family medicine and what exactly can your family doctor (such as myself) do for you. 

Family Doctors

Family doctors are trained to practice a spectrum of comprehensive primary care medicine ranging in ages from newborns, toddlers, teenagers, and through adults including end-of-life care. I like to say we take care of people at all ages and stages, guiding males and females through the complexity of human health and helping coordinate care of their health.

Why such a broad age range? That allows your family doctor to better know you and your family over what is hopefully an extended period of time- years to decades. Not just days to weeks. Family doctors don’t just see you when you are ill and at your worst. This continuity allows us to give you that longitudinal care which can help aid diagnosis, understanding, and treatment of any medical condition far more than someone just seeking that ‘one-off’ or ‘one-time’ visit.

Imagine you love your car. You depend on it. In return for continued performance you have to put periodic maintenance into it such as oil changes, new tires, new brakes, etc. You could go to a different auto shop every time.

The mechanic who doesn’t know your car may lift the hood and start tinkering with the engine even if it’s the radio that’s making the noise because he doesn’t do radios, he does engines. 

But, like any other process, you want trust. Trust that the mechanic is going to recognize you (and your car) every time you go in and can be counted on to tell you when there may be a forthcoming issue. You also want that person to be approachable and genuine in their assessments and responses. 

In much the same way, you want trust, sincereness, and consistency with a family doctor. These are attributes of a family medicine physician, not urgent care or other ‘one-time visit’ clinics. 

Family doctors specialize in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of acute and chronic conditions. 

Acute issues such as:

• Rashes
• Urinary tract infections
• Colds / congestion
• Skin wounds that needs stitches
• Chest pain
• Shortness of breath and so much more.

It is our goal to try to keep you out of the emergency rooms, and instead in the familiarity of your home and family. 

Chronic issues Family Doctors treat include:

• Thyroid in-balances
• Skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis, and diagnosis and treatment of suspicious skin spots
• Diabetes
• Asthma
• COPD
• Anxiety and other mental health concerns
• high blood pressure
• Heart disease
• Chronic pain and so on. 

Not Just Sick Visits

Don’t let all those illnesses distract you though! Family doctors are not just there for the ‘what if’ scenarios, giving you only that ’reactive’ healthcare that is part of America’s cost control problem. Family doctors are ‘PROactive ‘ physicians.

This is why we encourage ALL of our patients to have at minimum yearly physicals were we can have a conversation about what we can do together to keep you healthier, longer. Infants and children often times have to be brought in multiple times a year for wellness checks to make sure they are growing properly and meeting milestones to keep up with their peers. There are few other physician specialties that actively work to keep you continuously healthy than family doctors. 

Keeping It Simple

Family doctors are not referral specialists. Referral rates to specialists in the United States are estimated to be at least twice as high as in Great Britain. Family doctors can help you control your healthcare costs through the elimination of unnecessary referrals to medical specialists.

As you can see, a good family doctor can cover 95% of all medical conditions. Family physicians knowledge is expansive. Because of this eclectic knowledge base, there is less likely a chance of the proverbial ‘hammer and nail’ approach than you may find with more specialized, narrowly focused physicians. 

Life Expectancy Increases

You will also live longer with a primary care physician! If you take a population of 10,000 and add a family doctor, there is a statistically significant drop in the death rates.

With family doctors your care will be individualized and engaged with a guided decision making approach. 

I believe knowing the person is way more important than knowing the disease. 

Hi, thank you for coming back for the latest edition of Beyond Primary Cares blog; where I highlight healthy and fun recipes, healthcare news, advice for medical conditions, as well as how membership for care works! Dr. Jeff O’Boyle is the owner of Beyond Primary Care, which is a new approach to family medicine and addiction medicine that creates the time and space your healthcare deserves. Beyond Primary Care serves patients in Ann Arbor and throughout Washtenaw, Livingston, and Wayne County.

The primary purpose of the blog is to introduce healthy lifestyle concepts and answer common questions I receive from patients that I believe are important. I want to start discussions that will help educate, benefit, and improve your well-being. 

This featured recipe is a Deconstructed Egg Salad Sandwich. These recipes are my attempt, in a way, to bridge that Doctor’s adage of “Eat Better & Exercise More.” In this post, I will showcase a healthy meal made on a budget, my pictures are pretty decent, and that is how I got into this food endeavor.

Deconstructed Egg Salad Sandwich

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes 
Adapted from: Spoon Fork Bacon

Ingredients (makes 4 sandwiches):

– 1 baguette with ends removed, sliced lengthwise
– 3 tablespoons olive oil
– 6 large eggs, hard boiled, shelled and sliced
– handful of greens
– 1 avocado, pitted, and mashed or sliced
– handful sweet gherkins, sliced lengthwise
– red onion, sliced
– Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1) Bring oven to 400 F. Place baguettes on tray. Drizzle with olive oil and bake until lightly toasted.
2) Once toasted, top baguettes with avocado spread, greens, onions, sliced egg, and sweet gherkins. Season with salt and pepper, serve.

Hi, thank you for coming back for the latest edition of Beyond Primary Cares blog; where I highlight healthy and fun recipes, healthcare news, advice for medical conditions, as well as how membership for care works! Dr. Jeff O’Boyle is the owner of Beyond Primary Care, which is a new approach to family medicine and addiction medicine that creates the time and space your healthcare deserves. Beyond Primary Care serves patients in Ann Arbor and throughout Washtenaw, Livingston, and Wayne County.S

The primary purpose of the blog is to introduce healthy lifestyle concepts and answer common questions I receive from patients that I believe are important. I want to start discussions that will help educate, benefit, and improve your well-being. 

Storytelling

We talked about what anxiety is in an earlier post. In this post I am discussing something that is important to me in treating any mental health condition- especially anxiety and depression- and that is storytelling.

Why We Listen

Not only is it a way of relaying information about my patients when discussing care (eg- talking to a therapist to find the best medication), but it is an an essential way I continue to learn at work. It has struck me recently that even more than these obvious examples, storytelling has a direct impact on not only how we understand anxiety and depression (or any disease) but the process of healing itself, from the perception and expectations of the patient to the diagnosis and treatment by the physician. One thing I find myself doing on a daily basis as a physician is listening to patient’s stories. I sit down with them, make myself present, and just listen.

Listen For Understanding

Think about any instruction list TELLING you how to do something: 
Step 1: take an anti depressive medication, followed by 
Step 2: get 8 hours of sleep a night, followed by
Step 3: walk 30 minutes each day, and so on. 

People may complete the task, but long term learning for long term success from this method is limited. When someone is stuck in the dark hole that is anxiety or depression, it’s hard enough just getting OUT of bed in the morning, let alone doing any number of tasks. Treating anxiety or any mental health condition is not comparable to assembling a piece of furniture from Ikea.

Now, compare this to learning something from a story, where someone has pushed their own human experience and emotion into those tasks. Hearing the struggles, failures, and successes through story are more likely to shape your ability to learn and cope. Understand there are some conditions that we treat through empathy and ability to get to know people at people at a deeper level. The conversation can lend the support you need as you navigate the ‘hard’ in your own life.

Our Stories Are Ourselves

Sharing your story will help you feel better. Why are you not sharing your story? Perhaps you feel embarrassment, fear, resignation? If you do not share your story then those thoughts and feelings are just randomly going through your mind, and you may only be inclined to be reactive towards them when they do pass through… that is randomly.

We use stories to describe to others our needs, and mental health is no exception. It doesn’t make much difference what we leave in and what we take out, what is important is that we tell the story. There is magic in that. It’s in the listener and storyteller- us. And for each and every ear, it will be different. And it will affect us in ways that we can never predict. From the mundane to the profound. You may tell or hear a tale that takes up residence in your soul, becomes your blood and your purpose. That story will move you and drive you. And who knows what you might do because of it.

The Challenge

The truth is today we are not treating everyone we need to who suffers from anxiety or depression, and can not do so if we continue to insist on one-on-one therapy with only an ‘expert.’ If listening to and sharing stories helps people, how can we withhold it? It will be there, doing its thing, whether you want it there or not. To ignore it seems to me to be the least ethical thing one could possibly do.

Mainstream medicine has a challenge: continue to ignore your story and lose you to a subjective fantasy built on the mistakes of our brain, or join you in your life story ensuring you are taking responsibility for your wellbeing while making you central to the care and cure.

Hi, thank you for coming back for the latest edition of Beyond Primary Cares blog; where I highlight healthy and fun recipes, healthcare news, advice for medical conditions, as well as how membership for care works! Dr. Jeff O’Boyle is the owner of Beyond Primary Care, which is a new approach to family medicine and addiction medicine that creates the time and space your healthcare deserves. Beyond Primary Care serves patients in Ann Arbor and throughout Washtenaw, Livingston, and Wayne County.

The primary purpose of the blog is to introduce healthy lifestyle concepts and answer common questions I receive from patients that I believe are important. I want to start discussions that will help educate, benefit, and improve your well-being. 

In this blog post, I will not discuss my personal political views nor will I use this as a medium for healthcare horror stories, like this sad story, this sad story, or this frustrating story… because we have heard these before. In this blog I will discuss facts of what I learned from 1) attending the EMU hosted event for ‘Medicare for All,’ and 2) reading through all the pages available online regarding H.R. 1384.

Medicare for All 

I recently attended a town hall hosted at Eastern Michigan University (EMU) on Saturday July 13th where Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (Michigan’s 12th District), Congresswoman Primila Jayapal (State of Washington 7th District), State Senator Jeff Irwin (Michigan’s 18th Senate District), State Representative Yousef Rabhi (Michigan’s 53rd District), State Representative Ronnie Peterson (Michigan’s 54th District), as well as Michigan Nurse Association Vice President Katie Scott were all discussing the ‘Medicare for All Act of 2019.’

They were having a discussion about H.R. 1384, the Medicare for All Act of 2019 which is a bill that would establish a national health insurance program to cover all U.S. residents. Currently (as of 7/15/19) the bill has 117 co-sponsors. 

Speaker Panel Talking Points

To start with the discussion at EMU, I always appreciate an elected officials time (especially on a Saturday night) to discuss what impacts our community. Yes, they did start the panel discussion late, exactly 20 minutes- much like an overfilled physicians waiting room. However, much like those doctors we want to see, we can look past that.

To briefly summarize what they discussed, I felt the panel discussion had an overall vibe of a small group rally for the ‘Medicare for All Act’ with very little substance discussed. To be fair, each speaker only had about 5 minutes. However, 5 minutes should be enough time to pitch something they want to sell. And let’s be honest, our elected officials were trying to sell this bill to the room.

Debbie Dingell

To start with Congresswoman Debbie Dingell’s talk, it was heavy on current healthcare disparity statistics in the US. She did offer some brief talking points such as “We are going to a single billing system that will eliminate a lot of costs.”

The bill claims savings of $500+ billion annually from reductions in costs of billing and administrative costs.

As you can see below of the graph of physicians and administrators from 1970 to 2009, administrative costs are having a major impact on healthcare spending. 

I am curious to see how exactly they will implement this administrative cost savings. Does this mean simply cutting back (i.e.- firing) extra staffing? Those are jobs too. Many physician offices utilize administrative staffing such as front desk receptionists, a dedicated phone staff, nurse triage staff, laboratory staff, billing staff, imaging staff, medical record staff, transcription staff, and office management. 

Primila Jayapal

Congresswoman Primila Jayapal was next. Seattle, you should be proud, you elected a great official. I would be proud to have her represent me if I were there. I was impressed because I felt she actually covered more substance in her discussion than any of the other speakers regarding the ‘Medicare for All Act.’ She states the act will have four components:

1. Cover Everyone ( Dr. O’Boyle likes this )
2. No copays or deductibles and be able to go to any doctor or hospital you want to.
3. Comprehensive coverage including primary care, vision, dental, substance abuse, mental health, maternal care, and more.
4. Control costs.

Yay! Some material I can work with. Then congresswoman Jayapal says with these ‘controlled costs’ we will pay 14% less then now. WHAT! 14% ?? So that MRI, instead of being $1,400 is now $200 less? That colonoscopy that is billed at $5,000 is now only $4,300. This cost savings is not significant nor will it move the economic needle of medical costs.

Reading through H.R. 1384, I could honestly find only one section (616): Payments for Prescription Drugs and Approved Devices and Equipment that discussed any effort to reduce healthcare expenditure.

Has she heard of Direct Primary Care (DPC)? Does she know I can get a member an MRI for $300, or a colonoscopy for $700? Direct Primary Care is moving the needle on medical cost economics by saving our patients anywhere from 50-90% off of insurance billed costs.

Jeff Irwin

Michigan State Senator Jeff Irwin spoke next. Again, a good speaker. He discussed how doctors are fighting insurance companies over billing and how much a wasteful system this results in. Senator Irwin did say something I believe is important when discussing healthcare: speaking about what people value in their health and healthcare coverage. But, nothing that added any insight on the actual bill. 

Yousef Rabhi

State Representative Yousef Rabhi discussed efforts from a Michigan effort to start universal healthcare plan called ‘MiCare.’ In an acknowledgement of supporting information to Representative Rabhi, he did discuss how he plans to fund MiCare through a vote of the people in Michigan for progressive taxation. Yet, to be fair to the audience, I felt his talk was a bit of a curve ball as all other speakers were focused on the federal bill and not the state bill. 

Ronnie Peterson

State Representative Ronnie Peterson added some personal stories about his history of fighting for racial equality and now fighting for healthcare equality. Again, his talk was touching but added no material onto why or how the ‘Medicare for All Act’ would work.

Katie Scott

The last speaker was Katie Scott, the vice-president of the Michigan Nursing Association. From her talk, I was able to pick out that she was an Intensive Care Unit  (ICU) nurse. Again with the story telling theme of the night, she gave a personal narrative of high prescription drug costs and how that impacted her. 

I absolutely love what nurses do and think their roles are critical towards healthcare. However, ICU nurses and the need they fill are vastly different than what primary care doctors see and what a vast majority of people experience when we think of and utilize healthcare. 

If the elected officials pushing for the ‘Medicare for All Act’ want to be serious, they need to get feedback and collaborate with the primary care providers out there already making changes in their communities. Instead of pushing for town halls on why we need change, Direct Primary Doctors are having town halls in communities on how we are already changing healthcare to improve patient access, improve price transparency, and reduce out of pocket costs on everything from office visits, medications, imaging, speciality care, and laboratory studies.

Hi, thank you for coming back for the latest edition of Beyond Primary Cares blog; where I highlight healthy and fun recipes, healthcare news, advice for medical conditions, as well as how membership for care works! Dr. Jeff O’Boyle is the owner of Beyond Primary Care, which is a new approach to family medicine and addiction medicine that creates the time and space your healthcare deserves. Beyond Primary Care is a Direct Care clinic serving patients in Ann Arbor and throughout Washtenaw, Livingston, and Wayne County.

The primary purpose of the blog is to introduce healthy lifestyle concepts and answer common questions I receive from patients that I believe are important. I want to start discussions that will help educate, benefit, and improve your well-being. 

In this post I am answering a common question that I receive, and that is how does Beyond Primary Care (DPC) keep laboratory costs low for it’s members? Offering low bill rates for labs is a key feature of virtually all Direct Primary Care (DPC) practices, and is something that is done to increase the value of a membership. Just how low? Many DPC practices do in-clinic phlebotomy and can provide numerous laboratory studies to their patients at a tenth of the costs that many hospitals and fee-for-service providers can provide.

How DPC Practices Keep Laboratory Costs Low

To start DPC practices typically do their own phlebotomy (that is the collection of blood from your veins) and rarely bill for these services. This starts the savings before a single drop of blood is collected. DPC practices then contract with laboratory diagnostic companies, many times the same companies that service smaller hospitals or fee-for-service clinics. My clinic, Beyond Primary Care, uses a few laboratory diagnostic companies, Quest Diagnostics, True Health, and Aurora Diagnostics. 

Prior to drawing any labs for our patients, DPC practices negotiate what we call ‘client bill rates’ with these diagnostic companies. A client bill rates is basically saying, what is the lowest cash price for a particular laboratory study you can offer to my clinic’s patients? Compare this to smaller hospitals or fee-for-service providers. They bill for phlebotomy (U of M states they charge $9 for this service alone) and then these providers bill the labs through your insurance. Often times the laboratory costs often never negotiated down on behalf of the patient because there is no incentive from the practice to do this. 

DPC gets these low laboratory fees for their members in this innovative manner because our primary business is taking care of you and NOT being just a blood-draw center. Your membership for care to a DPC practice allows for this innovation.

Savings from Laboratory Costs

I have a colleague who recently had a pap smear completed, which is a diagnostic test used in females to detect cervical cancer.  She claimed she had ‘Cadillac Health Insurance’ through her employer, meaning basically she thought she had really great insurance that would cover the costs of her healthcare. Look at her bill below and what she was left to pay out of pocket. At my clinic, Beyond Primary Care, the procedure of completing the pap smear if part of the membership. No extra charges. The fee for the pathologist (that I have negotiated) is $44. The difference in costs in this ONE laboratory study alone would pay for months of healthcare at any DPC clinic.

DPC Members can obtain Labs other Doctors Order

DPC providers understand you may need to see another specialist from time to time, and these providers may want their own labs completed. A common question I receive is if the other specialist request labs, can I get them done through your clinic? 

Yes, absolutely this is another great way to minimize your financial impact. No doctor or hospital can force any patient to have routine laboratory studies done only at their location or where they tell a patient to complete them at. That is against the law. They may use convincing language saying ‘the results integrate into our electronic system faster,’ or ‘those other providers may not know exactly what I want.’ Stay firm and request a written and signed order for your labs. Your DPC clinic will complete the exact same labs, bill you at the much lower rates (compared had you used your insurance), and will promptly fax the results over to the requesting specialists that meet their needs. As noted by this Wall Street Journal article analysis of medical services, prices tend to be higher when services are performed in hospital outpatient facilitates instead of at doctors’ offices.

Dr. Jeff O’Boyle with Beyond Primary Care teams up with Dennis LaVoy CFP® CLU® with Telos Financial to discuss ways individuals, businesses, and families can free up cash flow.