Once the Women’s Health Initiative halted their study on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in 2002, HRT use fell out of favor. This important study revealed such serious health risks associated with HRT use that the study was actually stopped prematurely; this study revealed that HRT use increased the risk of breast cancer, heart disease and blood clots. The good news is that women were finally alerted to potential health risks of HRT; the bad news is that now women were left with no effective treatments for dealing with menopause signs. Since HRT was used for so long and was so effective at treating menopause related symptoms, drug manufacturers and scientists never developed alternatives to this treatment.
One relatively new menopause treatment that has become increasingly publicized recently is bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT). Suzanne Somers has been touting the benefits of BHRT for years and recently Oprah has been talking about it, so it’s no wonder that more and more women are asking about this possible substitute for HRT. BHRT is a plant based product that has the exact same chemical composition as the hormones that are produced naturally in a woman’s body. A lot of people make the false assumption that a plant based product is somehow safer than synthetic product or animal based products, but this is a potentially dangerous assumption.
Most BHRT medications are made through a process called compounding. A woman is given a blood or saliva test by her doctor and the doctor writes a prescription based on her potential hormonal imbalance needs. This prescription is then taken to a compounding pharmacy where the medicine is then “compounded” according to her specific hormonal needs.
There are some potential problems with compounded BHRT. For one thing compounded medicines are not FDA tested, the process of compounding doesn’t allow for standardized testing. Recently the FDA has begun cracking down of people making unsubstantiated claims about BHRT, people and businesses were claiming that BHRT was safer than HRT, which is simply not true. What is true is that the risks of compounded BHRT are not fully known at this time. It may be safer than HRT or it may not be; only time and testing will tell.
We usually go on swimming for recreation and leisure. It could be with friends or family members or you just simply want to cool off from the irritating summer heat. However, to some people, swimming is not just for fun, it is also for fitness training and exercise. Swimming is a good exercise. It is a healthy activity that benefits the entire body. It is good for the heart and lungs and it is also a healthy way to loss weight. Swimming as we all know is also a sport. Aside from swimmers, runners and other athletes also use swimming in training. A fitness conscious individual who doesn’t like the exhausting workouts in gyms, would swim regularly to be physically fit at all times.
If the purpose of swimming is fitness and training exercise, in ground lap pools are commonly used. It is not pool that we usually see on some homes and hotels. Lap pools are designed only for water workouts. It is not as large as the traditional swimming pool. It is usually a small, rectangular shape pool created for the sole purpose of swimming laps instead of recreation.
One good feature of an indoor lap pool is its current which allows you to swim against it thus providing you an invigorating water exercise. Aside from lap swimming, you can also do water aerobics and resistance training in a lap pool. If you consider swimming as your daily exercise routine, a lap pool is a best buy. Its cost depends on its size and its features so you can make it fit your budget. However, once you have the lap pool in your home, I am sure you will forget about how much was lost from your pocket because of the cost of installation. The benefits you will gain from your lap pool will be yours to keep for a lifetime.
Medical centers have felt the recent slowdown in the economy as well. Despite popular belief on Capitol Hill, medical clinics need money to operate. When the economy is bad, it takes patients and insurance companies longer to pay off their bills. This has led many health care centers to consider selling these receivables to garner instant cash flows: a process known as medical receivable factoring.
Critics of factoring have been quick to point out that it is more expensive than traditional financing options (bank loans or issuing bonds). A bank loan for a medical center is usually somewhere in the ballpark of 10 percent per year. Whereas medical receivables financing is usually somewhere around 2 percent per month which is the equivalent of 24 percent per year. It’s not hard to see why critics have been lambasting factoring as a viable option for financing medical centers.
However, it should be noted that factoring is a different animal than borrowing. When a medical center works with a factoring company it is performing a sales transaction. When a center works with a bank, it is performing a loan. The two are quite different and make direct comparisons hard to understand.
If a medical center were to borrow 1.2 million dollars for a year at 10% at the end of the year the center would have to pay back the 1.2 million plus 120k in interest charges. However, if a medical center were to factor or sell 1.2 million dollars worth of insurance claims or receivables then at the end of the year the medical clinic doesn’t have to pay a dime, in fact it should be receiving money from the medical factoring company.
Assuming you understand the math behind a traditional loan, let’s look at how the medical receivables factoring arrangement would work out. The medical clinic sells 100k of receivables a month to the factor. The factor charges two percent per month and at the end of every month the factor is paid for the receivable by the patient or the insurance company. This means that the monthly factoring charge for the medical center is 100k X 2 percent or two thousand dollars a month. Because the receivables are paid for every month this amount resets every month instead of building on itself. So every month the medical center pays 2k for its advances. After 12 months the rate is only 24k, much lower than the 120k charged by a bank, and the same amount of money was borrowed. The difference is the amount of time the money was borrowed. In the above medical factoring example, the money was only borrowed for 30 day increments. Whereas with the loan it was borrowed for a whole year before payment was made.
As is usually the case, both the opponents and proponents of medical invoice factoring have good points. Factoring is probably not the best idea for the long haul because you’re selling your assets at less than their market value. However, it’s also not the complete scam that some critics claim it is.