On January 29, 2010, the federal departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury released their ”guidance” on the Wellstone-Dominici Mental Health Parity Act. The National Council discussed some of the contents of the Interim Final Rule (IFR) in their February 4 Public Policy Update. The IFR goes into effect April 5, 2010 and applies to policies [...]
Note: This article is my once-in-a-while exploration of human behavior and climate change. While it is in no way related to health care, it may be directly related to health. The cold temperatures across the nation this week have had some individuals scoffing at the notion of global warming. On the other hand, most scientists explain [...]
As a psychologist trained 30 years ago in a Boulder-model scientist practitioner training program in clinical psychology, the ability to critically evaluate research and to determine its application to the treatment of my patients was an essential part of my practice and of my outlook on clinical psychology. That initial training fed my early interest in [...]
I’ve mentioned here pretty often than I am not a technology sophisticate. I use technology every day in my work life, but I am a slow-adopter. For some of you, this article may be so old-hat that you will ask “Kathy, where have you been?” But I know there are others out there like me, so [...]
I sat down Monday morning to write this week’s blog post. I was intent upon writing about American Psychological Association’s (APA) recent report on climate change and what the psychology community can do about it. I had previously glanced at the executive summary of the report and was excited to learn what the entire report recommended. Unfortunately, [...]
I have never been quite sure why, but Fall has always felt like the beginning of the year to me. Perhaps its because I was born in September. Or maybe it has to do with the start of the new school year. My Jewish family and friends would say that it is the beginning of [...]
Those of you who read this blog regularly might remember that in July I decided to take a more active role in addressing the neck and back pain that is a regular part of my life. I started taking a yoga class. In August, I added a second one. I was all set last week to [...]
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my experience of incapacitating back pain while on vacation. Today, I woke up feeling great. My visit to my chiropractor and massage therapist was unusually positive; my muscles were not in spasm and my spinal alignment was pretty good. It is clear that the things I have been [...]
On Friday of this week, I get to start an 8 day vacation. Sometimes, I am not ready for vacation. I have often said that it is harder to get everything ready to leave (both work and home) than it is just to stay and keep on plugging away. I know that it is [...]
One of the largest challenges for the small employer (like us) is providing health insurance coverage for our employees. While wages are our largest single expense, we spend an additional 11% of that amount to purchase health insurance for our employees. The costs of that coverage have increased every year that we have offered it. As a basis of comparison, we have [...]
