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Pediatric and Adult Allergy, Asthma, Immunology & Related Diseases
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FOR SCHEDULE CHANGES PLEASE SEE BELOW Dr. Magdea retired June 30, 2009. He had been in the practice of allergy in Dearborn
since 1975! Dr. Magdea thanks all of the patients and families whom he has been able to treat and care for.
The care of Dr. Magdea's patients will be taken over by Dr. Baranowski and Dr. Fordyce, so there will be no
interruption in their care. Dr. Magdea will continue to live in Dearborn, and plans on continuing his world travels
as well as continuing to play his favorite game-golf. Our best wishes to him on his retirement! Summer is here. Continue the dust avoidance measures and service the furnace during
the cooling season. Be sure to service furnace filters, and replace any worn or torn dust proof pillow and mattress
covers. We cannot fill prescriptions or fill out any forms if you have not been seen within the last 12 months.
If you have not been seen in the last 12 months, make an appointment for a check-up, review and
new prescriptions.
In order to comply
with current government mandates, our office is transitioning to Electronic Medical Records. The use of this technology is
meant to give more accurate records, streamline prescription writing with electronic prescribing, and help prevent medical
errors, among other things. The period of transition to electronic medical records will be a learning period, both for the
patients and for the staff, especially the medical staff. We appreciate the patience and consideration of our patients during
this transition period. When coming to the office, please notify the reception staff of your current pharmacy--the
address and fax numbers are important to have for electonic prescribing.
Be sure your medications are up to date-if
not, set up an appointment now. Prescriptions cannot be given if the patient has not been seen within the last 12 months.
The new 2007 Asthma Treatment parameters dictate that patients with asthma should be seen at least once every six months,
or more frequently as directed if necessary.
IF CALLING FOR A PRESCRIPTION REFILL, PLEASE PROVIDE THE FAX PHONE
NUMBER FOR YOUR PHARMACY TO EXPEDITE THE PROCESS!! If you change pharmacies or prescriptions, we must be notified
to facilitate prescription forwarding. MEDICARE WANTS ALL PRESCRIPTIONS TO BE ELECTRONICALLY PRESCRIBED.
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New 2007 Guidelines
for treatment of bronchial asthma from the National Institutes of Health Expert Panel on Bronchial Asthma state that all persons
with bronchial asthma, no matter how stable, should be seen at least once every 1 to 6 months by their asthma care physician.
Spirometry (pulmonary function test) is an important procedure to follow the progress of bronchial asthma. Our physicians
will ask you to return for recheck visits depending on your asthma activity, but if a patient feels their asthma is getting
more troublesome, they should be seen in our office as soon as possible. Remember-if a person needs to use their rescue inhaler
more than twice a week, or if asthma disrupts sleep twice a month or more, that person needs to be seen for evaluation and
possible adjustment in medicatiion. It is much safer to be seen early when asthma activity starts to increase than to wait
until a full blown attack requires emergency treatment.
Patients on maintainance immunotherapy must be seen at
least yearly by a physician-those on ascending immunotherapy need to be seen more often. Review of dose and symptom
control is necessary so that any adjustments in dose of immunotherapy can be made, as well as any adjustment in medications.
Immunotherapy practice guidelines emphasize the need for yearly reviews and documentation of monitoring and need for ongoing
immunotherapy. Medicare and some insurance programs require yearly documentation of review and need in order to continue
covering these services. Please be sure to schedule a doctor visit at least yearly while on maintainance immunotherapy.
Please remember that physicians are not able to write prescription medications or fill out medical forms if a patient
has not been seen within the last 12 months or more frequently-if you need a refill but have not been seen, please call for
an appointment-this office cannot call in refill prescriptions if a patient has not been seen within the previous 365 days.
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SCHEDULE
CHANGES The office will open at 9:30 on Friday, July 9th. The office will be closing early, Tuesday,
July 20th, last injection is at 4:00 PM. The office will open at 9:30 Friday, August 6th. The office will
be closed Monday, September 6th for Labor Day. The office will open at 9:30 Friday, October 1st.
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In order to meet recent practice parameters
for immunotherapy, we will be discontinuuing "off the board" allergy injections. Each patient will have his or her
own vial(s). These vials will be billed to the patient or insurance when made, and the patient charged the administration
fee when each injection is given. When new vials are made, the first injection is lower, with the maintainence injection being
given in one week, then back to the regular maintainence interval. Patients on immunotherapy need to be seen at least once
every 12 months.
According to a 2003 Harvard study, of the over 1.2 trillion dollars spent yearly on health care
in the U.S., over 400 billion dollars is paperwork, and of that amount, about 286 billion dollars is pure waste! A great deal
of that useless paperwork is actually MANDATED by our Congress-it is estimated 40 pages of new regulations is written daily
by government agencies to carry out regulations passed by our government. Our govenment worries about health care costs
and access, but continues to add to the cost with new mandates.
Prescription formularies for various insurance
plans change frequently-please ask the pharmacist what the preferred drug is for your insurance plan-often a substitution
can be made by our office-the PHARMACIES have up-to-date formularies for the various prescription programs-NOT the doctors'
offices!
A recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association has raised some interesting questions.
The U.S. spends twice what England spends on health care, but U.S. citizens suffer higher rates of diabetes, hypertension,
stroke, and other diseases! We all need to eat less, eat healthier, stop smoking, relax more, and exercise more! A good
deal of the cost of health care and medications is attributed to "defensive" medicine-the number of lawsuits
in the U.S. far outnumber those in the U.K.--all of this is folded in to the "cost" of health care. According to the Asthma & Allergy Foundation of America, EACH DAY--40,000 adults miss work due
to asthma, 30,000 individuals have asthma attacks, 5000 persons visit emergency rooms for asthma, 1000 persons are admitted
to hospital for acute asthma, and 11 persons die from an asthma attack. This translates to 14.5 million work days missed,
14 million school days missed-the leading cause of school absenteeism-100 million days of restricted activity, 1.8 million
emergency room visits, $14 Billion in direct and indirect medical costs, and 4000 lives lost PER YEAR. If your health
insurance program does not cover allergy services, ask them WHY NOT??? According
to Forbes Magazine, Health Executive Compensation-those CEOs that run Cigna, Omnicare, Caremark, Aetna, etc, are doing quite
well for themselves-with annual compensations running from $1,000,000 to $36,000,000, and stock holdings as high as
$282,700,000.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ALLERGY, ASTHMA, AND RELATED DISEASES, CLICK ON ONE OF THE SITES BELOW:
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