Archive for February, 2009
Samuel D. Benjamin, M.D. received his Medical Degree from the Universidad De Guadalajara Facultad De Medicina in Mexico and was awarded another M.D. from the State University of New York. He trained in a Fifth Pathway program at New York University Medical Center and then did his residency in Pediatrics and Social Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center Hospital, the University Hospital and Academic Medical Center of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and served as a Chief Resident during his last year.
Later, Benjamin served as a Medical Director of a model primary care program for urban inner cities that was funded jointly by the federal government and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He later became the Medical Director for the Western Hemisphere Region of the International Planned Parenthood Federation where he focused on maternal/child health.
In 1982 Dr. Benjamin moved to Phoenix and helped establish a pediatric and family practice medical group. He served as Medical Director of the then nation’s largest PPO and joined the advisory board of Humana’s local HMO. He trained in Medical Acupuncture at the UCLA Medical School of Medicine and then formed the Arizona Center for Health and Medicine for Catholic Healthcare West which was the nation’s first mainstream, hospital system affiliated large scale integrative medical facility. The center and his activities were featured in Life magazine.
He returned to New York for several years as a professor and Director of the Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the State University of New York at Stony Brook School of Medicine.Leaving academics, he served as Corporate Medical Director of Integrative Health Strategies for Humana Inc. and as radio talk show host of the Dr. Sam Show for six years.
Dr. Benjamin is a licensed allopathic (Western) physician, a licensed homeopathic physician or MD (H) and a certified acupuncturist. He hosts ‘Primary Care‘ on News/Talk KTAR 92.3 FM Saturdays at 2 PM MST.
Compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs according to the industry and U.S. government’s Energy Star program, which promotes CFL bulbs and other substitutes for energy-hogging incandescent, a CFL uses 75 percent less energy than its incandescent counterpart, lasts up to 10 times longer and prevents more than 450 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions from entering the atmosphere. Over its lifetime, a single CFL can save the consumer $80 or more, depending on local electric rates and the climate according to the Environmental Working Group ( a not for profit organization that I used as the source for this entry and a group that I trust for their accuracy). If most of your home uses CFL’s the cost of air conditioning (a BIG issue in Arizona) would also decrease because incandescent bulbs HEAT your home and CFL’s do not!
But all CFL bulbs aren’t equal. Some have lower mercury content than others, and some last much longer. Unfortunately, you can’t tell the best of the best by their labels - or the U.S. government Energy Star logo. Some Energy Star labeled bulbs could not be legally sold in Europe due to excessive mercury content.
An Environmental Working Group investigation has identified 7 bulb lines made by Earthmate, Litetronics, Sylvania, Feit, MaxLite and Philips that trump the rest. These bulbs, listed in our Green Lighting Guide contain a fraction of the toxic mercury allowed by Energy Star, reducing the mercury contamination from a broken bulb. All last 8-15,000 hours, dramatically longer than the Energy Star standard of 6,000 hours, and also offer high efficiency.
The Department of Energy (DOE) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)– have not adequately addressed the risks of mercury in CFL bulbs.
PLEASE read the two texts I have hyperlinked BEFORE you buy CFL’s! :
http://www.ewg.org/reports/compact-fluorescent-light-bulbs (A good general discussion about CFL’s which I have used as my primary source of information about these products.)
http://www.ewg.org/greenlightbulbs (The EWG Green Lighting Guide)
http://www.ewg.org/node/27222 (What to do when a CFL breaks. It COULD be a BIG health problem for you and your family if you do not handle this correctly!!!!!)
Adult primary care providers (PCP’s-Family Doctors and Internists) are paid 55% of what reimbursement is typically for specialists Yet, specialists (cardiologists, radiologists, surgeons, etc.) increase the cost of care, increase the number of hospitalizations, and utilize pharmaceuticals in greater numbers, DECREASE lifespan and quality of life. PCP’s, on the other hand, INCREASE length of life, DECREASE mortality and decrease all the other parameters I just mentioned like hospitalizations, unnecessary X-ray studies, etc. PCP’s are by consequence not as profitable for pharmaceutical companies, radiology testing facilities, laboratories, medical device manufacturers, etc. because they use less of these modalities. In the Bush administration, there was no encouragement professionally and/or financially for the lowly PCP to do his/her work. As a result, fewer and fewer PCP’s remain as medical students shy away from the underpaid and poorly respected primary care roles in training institutions. Existing PCP’s are retiring early, changing professions and leaving a vacuum that is endangering communities- urban and rural alike. PCP’s that remain and struggling to survive financially are seeing fewer poor, seniors and middle class patients by dropping participation in Medicaid, Medicare and commercial insurances to become “concierge” or cash doctors- catering to the rich only.
Sadly, the Bush administration and the Republican Party were deaf to the changes needed to protect PCP’s and halt their extinction. Now, great news! It looks like Medicare will be raising reimbursement for PCP’s while it begins to trim reimbursement for overpaid radiology, surgery and other specialties starting in 2009. In addition, funds will be increasing the training and retention of PCP’s. This will have a dramatic ripple effect within all insurance programs nationally that use Medicare as their guidepost for establishing their rates. Starting this year and looking forward the Obama administration has set in motion a striking and much needed shift in health care- bringing the status and the pay of the PCP in line with what should be. Congratulations!
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