How to get cialis without prescriptionOver the past 20 years, a large body of research has documented a relationship between higher nurse-to-patient staffing ratios and better patient outcomes, including shorter hospital stays, lower rates of failure to prevent mortality after an in-hospital complication, inpatient mortality for multiple can i take two 5mg cialis at once types of patients, hospital-acquired pneumonia, unplanned extubation, respiratory failure and cardiac arrest.1âÂÂ5 how to get cialis without prescription In addition, patients report higher satisfaction when they are cared for in hospitals with higher staffing levels.6 7To date, most studies have not identified an âÂÂoptimalâ nurse staffing ratio,8 which creates a challenge for determining appropriate staffing levels. If increasing nurse staffing always produces at least some improvement in the quality of care, how does one determine what staffing level is best?. This decision is ultimately an economic one, balancing the benefits of nurse staffing with the other how to get cialis without prescription options for which those resources could be used. It is in this context that hospitals develop staffing plans, generally based on historical patterns of patient acuity.Practical challenges of nurse staffingHospital staffing plans provide the structure necessary for determining hiring and scheduling, but fall short for a number of reasons. First, there are multiple ways how to get cialis without prescription in which patient acuity can be measured, which can have measurable effects on the staffing levels resulting from acuity models.9 Second, patient volume and acuity can shift rapidly with changes in the volume of admissions, discharges and transfers between units. Third, staffing plans provide little guidance regarding the optimal mix of permanent staff, variable staff and externally contracted staff.The paper by Saville and colleagues10 in this issue of BMJ Quality &. Safety addresses the latter two issues by applying a simulation model to identify the optimal target for baseline nurse staffing in order to minimise how to get cialis without prescription periods of understaffing. Included in this model is consideration of the extent to which hospitals should leverage temporary personnel (typically obtained through an external agency) to fill gaps. The model acknowledges the likelihood that a hospital cannot realistically prevent all shifts from having a shortfall of nurses at all times, as well as the reality that hospital managers lack information about the best balance between permanent and temporary staff how to get cialis without prescription. In addition, the analysis includes a calculation of the costs of each staffing approach, drawing from the records of 81 inpatient wards in four hospital organisations.The application of sophisticated simulation models and other advanced analyticl approaches to analysis of nurse staffing has been limited to date, and this paper is an exemplar of the value of such research. Recent studies have used machine learning methods to forecast hospital discharge volume,11 a discrete event simulation model to determine nursing staff needs in a neonatal intensive care unit,12 and a prediction model using machine learning and hierarchical linear regression to link variation in nurse staffing with patient outcomes.13 This new study applied a unique Monte Carlo simulation model to estimate demand for nursing care and test different strategies to meet demand.The results of the how to get cialis without prescription analysis are not surprising in that hospitals are much less likely to experience understaffed patient shifts if they aim to have higher baseline staffing. The data demonstrate a notable leftward skew, indicating that hospitals are more likely to have large unanticipated increases in patient volume and acuity than to have unanticipated decreases. This results in hospitals being more likely to have how to get cialis without prescription shifts that are understaffed than shifts that are overstaffed, which inevitably places pressure on hospitals to staff at a higher level and/or have access to a larger pool of temporary nurses. It also is not surprising that hospitals will need to spend more money per patient day if they aim to reduce the percent of shifts that are understaffed. What is surprising about the results is that hospitals do not necessarily achieve cost savings by relying on temporary personnel versus setting regular staffing at a higher level.Trade-offs between permanent and temporary staffThe temporary nursing workforce enables healthcare facilities to maintain flexible yet full care teams based on patient care needs. Hospitals can use temporary nurses to address staffing gaps during leaves of how to get cialis without prescription absence, turnover or gaps between recruitment of permanent nurses, as well as during high-census periods. Temporary personnel are typically more expensive on an hourly basis than permanent staff. In addition, over-reliance on temporary staff can have detrimental effects on permanent nursesâ morale and how to get cialis without prescription motivation. Orientations prior to shifts are often limited, which leads to a twofold concern as temporary nurses feel ill-prepared for shifts and permanent staff feel flustered when required to bring the temporary nurse up to speed while being expected to continue normal operations.14 Agency nurses may be assigned to patients and units that are incongruent with their experience and skillsâÂÂeither to unfamiliar units, which affects their ability to confidently deliver care, or to less complex patients where they feel as if their skills are not used adequately.14 15 These issues can create tension between temporary and permanent nursing staff, which can be compounded by the wage disparity. Permanent staff how to get cialis without prescription might feel demoralised and expendable when working alongside temporary staff who are not integrated into the social fabric of the staff.16Hospital managers also must be cognisant of the potential quality impact of relying heavily on temporary nursing staff. Research on the impact of contingent nursing employment on costs and quality have often found negative effects on quality, including mortality, and higher costs.17 18 However, other studies have found that the association between temporary nursing staff and low quality result from general shortages of nursing staff, which make a hospital more likely to employ temporary staff, and not directly from the contingent staff.19âÂÂ21 Thus, temporary nurses play an important role in alleviating staffing shortages that would otherwise lead to lower quality of care.22Charting a path forward in hospital management and healthcare researchThe maturation of electronic health records and expansion of computerised healthcare management systems provide opportunities both for improved decision making about workforce deployment and for advanced workforce research. In the area of workforce management, nursing and other how to get cialis without prescription leaders have a growing array of workforce planning tools available to them. Such tools are most effective when they display clear information about predicted patient needs and staff availability, but managers still must rely on their on-the-ground understanding of their staff and their context of patient care.23 Integration of human resources data with patient outcomes data has revealed that individual nurses and their characteristics have important discrete effects on the quality of care.24 25 Future development of workforce planning tools should translate this evidence to practice. In addition, new technology platforms are emerging to how to get cialis without prescription facilitate direct matching between temporary healthcare personnel and healthcare organisations. One recent study tested a smartphone-based application that allowed for direct matching of locum tenens physicians with a hospital in the English National Health Service, finding that the platform generated benefits including greater transparency and lower cost.26 Similar technologies for registered nurses could facilitate better matching between hospital needs and temporary nursesâ preparedness to meet those needs.Analytical methods that fully leverage the large datasets compiled through electronic health records, human resources systems and other sources can be applied to advance research on the composition of nursing teams to improve quality of care. As noted above, prior research has applied machine learning and discrete how to get cialis without prescription event simulation to analyses of healthcare staffing. Other recent studies have leveraged natural language processing of nursing notes to identify fall risk factors27 and applied data mining of human resources records to understand the job titles held by nurses.28 Linking these rapidly advancing analytical approaches that assess the outcomes and costs of nurse staffing strategies, such as the work by Saville and colleagues published in this issue, to data on the impact of nurse staffing on the long-term costs of patient care will further advance the capacity of hospital leaders to design cost-effective policies for workforce deployment.Guidelines aim to align clinical care with best practice. However, simply publishing a guideline rarely triggers behavioural changes to match guideline recommendations.1âÂÂ3 We thus transform guideline recommendations into actionable tasks by introducing interventions that promote behavioural changes meant to produce guideline-concordant care. Unfortunately, not much has changed in the 25 years since Oxman and colleagues concluded that we have no âÂÂmagic bulletsâ when it comes to changing clinician behaviour.4 In fact, far from magic bullets, interventions aimed at increasing the degree to which patients receive care recommended in guidelines (eg, educational interventions, reminders, audit and feedback, financial incentives, how to get cialis without prescription computerised decision support) typically produce disappointingly small improvements in care.5âÂÂ10Much improvement work aims to âÂÂmake the right thing to do the easy thing to do.â Yet, design solutions which hardwire the desired actions remain few and far between. Further, improvement interventions which âÂÂsoftwireâ such actionsâÂÂnot guaranteeing that they occur, but at least increasing the likelihood that clinicians will deliver the care recommended in guidelinesâÂÂmostly produce small improvements.5âÂÂ9 Until this situation changes, we need to acknowledge the persistent reality that guidelines themselves represent a main strategy for promoting care consistent with current evidence, which means their design should promote the desired actions.11 12In this respect, guidelines constitute a type of clinical decision support. And, like all decision support how to get cialis without prescription interventions, guidelines require. (1) user testing to assess if the content is understood as intended and (2) empirical testing to assess if the decision support provided by the guideline does in fact promote the desired behaviours. While the processes for developing guidelines have received substantial how to get cialis without prescription attention over the years,13âÂÂ18 surprisingly little attention has been paid to empirically answering basic questions about the finished product. Do users understand guidelines as intended?. And, what version of a given guideline engenders the desired behaviours by clinicians? how to get cialis without prescription. In this issue of BMJ Quality and Safety, Jones et al19 address this gap by using simulation to compare the frequency of medication errors when clinicians administer an intravenous medication using an existing guideline in the UKâÂÂs National Health Service (NHS) versus a revised and user-tested version of the guideline that more clearly promotes the desired actions. Their findings demonstrate that changes to how to get cialis without prescription guideline design (through addition of actionable decision supports) based on user feedback does in fact trigger changes in behaviour that can improve safety. This is an exciting use of simulation, which we believe should encourage further studies in this vein.Ensuring end users understand and use guidelines as intendedJones and colleaguesâ approach affords an opportunity to reflect on the benefits of user testing and simulation of guidelines. The design and evaluation of their revised how to get cialis without prescription guidelines provides an excellent example of a careful stepwise progression in the development and evaluation of a guideline as a type of decision support for clinicians. First, in a prior study,20 they user tested the original NHS guidelines to improve retrieval and comprehension of information. The authors produced a revised guideline, which included reformatted sections as well as increased support for key calculations, such as for infusion rates. The authors again user tested the revised guideline, successfully showing higher how to get cialis without prescription rates of comprehension. Note that user testing refers to a specific approach focused on comprehension rather than behaviour21 and is distinct from usability testing. Second, in the current study, Jones et al evaluated whether nurse and midwife end users exhibited the desired behavioural changes when given the revised guidelines (with addition of actionable decision supports), compared with a control group working with the how to get cialis without prescription current version of the guidelines used in practice. As a result, Jones and colleagues verify that end users (1) understand the content in the guideline and (2) actually change their behaviour in response to using it.Simulation can play a particularly useful role in this context, as it can help identify problems with usersâ comprehension of the guideline and also empirically assess what behavioural changes occur in response to design changes in the guidelines. The level how to get cialis without prescription of methodological control and qualitative detail that simulation provides is difficult to feasibly replicate with real-world pilot studies, and therefore simulation fills a critical gap.Jones et al report successful changes in behaviour due to the revised guidelines in which they added actionable decision supports. For example, their earlier user testing found that participants using the initial guidelines did not account for displacement volume when reconstituting the powdered drug, leading to dosing errors. A second error with the initial guidelines involved participants using the shortest infusion rate provided (eg, guidelines state âÂÂ1 to 3âÂÂhoursâÂÂ), without realising that the shortest rate is not appropriate for certain doses (eg, 1âÂÂhour is appropriate for smaller doses, but larger doses should not be infused over 1âÂÂhour because the drug would then be administered faster than how to get cialis without prescription the maximum allowable infusion rate of 3âÂÂmg/kg/hour). These two issues were addressed in the revised guidelines by providing key determinants for âÂÂactionâ such as calculation formulas that account for displacement volume and infusion duration, thereby more carefully guiding end users to avoid these dose and rate errors. These changes to the guideline triggered specific behaviours (eg, calculations that account for all variables) that did not occur with the initial how to get cialis without prescription guidelines. Therefore, the simulation testing demonstrated the value of providing determinants for action, such as specific calculation formulas to support end users, by showing a clear reduction in dose and rate errors when using the revised guidelines compared with the initial guidelines.The authors also report that other types of medication-specific errors remained unaffected by the revised guidelines (eg, incorrect technique and flush errors)âÂÂthe changes made did not facilitate the desired actions. The initial how to get cialis without prescription guidelines indicate âÂÂDO NOT SHAKEâ in capital letters, and there is a section specific to âÂÂFlushingâÂÂ. In contrast, the revised guidelines do not capitalise the warning about shaking the vial, but embed the warning with a numbered sequence in the medication preparation section, aiming to increase the likelihood of reading it at the appropriate time. The revised guidelines do not have a section specific to flushing, but embed the flushing instructions as an unnumbered step in the administration section. Thus, the value of embedding technique and flushing information within the context of use was not validated in the simulation testing (ie, no significant differences in the rates of these errors), highlighting precisely the pivotal role that simulation can play in assessing whether attempts to improve usability result in actual behavioural changes.Finally, simulation can identify potential how to get cialis without prescription unintended consequences of a guideline. For instance, Jones and colleagues observed an increase in errors (although not statistically significant) that were not medication specific (eg, non-aseptic technique such as hand washing, swabbing vials with an alcohol wipe). Given that the revised guidelines were specific to the medication tested, it is unusual that we see a tendency toward a worsening effect how to get cialis without prescription on generic medication preparation skills. Again, this finding was not significant, but we highlight this to remind ourselves of the very real possibility that some interventions might introduce new and unexpected errors in response to changing workflow and practice6. Simulations offer an opportunity to spot these risks in advance.Now how to get cialis without prescription that Jones et al have seen how the revised guidelines change behaviour, they are optimally positioned to move forward. On one hand, they have the option of revising the guidelines further in attempts to address these resistant errors, and on the other, they can consider designing other interventions to be implemented in parallel with their user-tested guidance. At first glance, the errors that were resistant to change appear to be mechanical tasks that end users might think of as applying uniformly to multiple how to get cialis without prescription medications (eg, flush errors, non-aseptic technique). Therefore, a second intervention that has a more general scope (rather than drug specific) might be pursued. Regardless of what they decide to pursue, we applaud their measured approach and highlight that the key takeaway is that their next steps are supported with clearer evidence of what to expect when the guidelines are releasedâÂÂcertainly a helpful piece of information to guide decisions as to whether broad implementation of guidelines is justified.Caveats and conclusionSimulation is not a panaceaâÂÂit is not able to assess longitudinal adherence, and there are how to get cialis without prescription limitations to how realistically clinicians behave when observed for a few sample procedures when under the scrutiny of observers. Further, studies where interventions are implemented to assess whether they move the needle on the outcomes we care about (eg, adverse events, length of stay, patient mortality) are needed and should continue. However, having end how to get cialis without prescription users physically perform clinical tasks with the intervention in representative environments represents an important strategy to assess the degree to which guidelines and other decision support interventions in fact promote the desired behaviours and to spot problems in advance of implementation. Such simulation testing is not currently a routine step in intervention design. We hope it becomes a more common phenomenon, with more improvement work following the example of the approach so effectively demonstrated by Jones and colleagues.. Buy cheap generic cialis
Companies that express remorse in the wake of a product failure are more likely to encourage customers to repurchase from them, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.The study, which examines how emotional reactions affect how consumers interact with a company, also found that buy cheap generic cialis remorseful statements can help stave off retaliatory actions such as lawsuits."Human beings are emotional. When something bad occurs, the first buy cheap generic cialis thing that happens is an emotional reaction -- usually anger. We wanted to find out how the buyer's anger translates into action when a product failure is caused by the seller's negligence," said Subimal Chatterjee, SUNY distinguished teaching professor of marketing at Binghamton University's School of Management.Chatterjee and his fellow researchers conducted two experiments to determine how consumers react to product failures, and looked specifically at two groups of consumers -- a "promotion-focused" group, who were naturally inclined to gain something positive from the buyer-seller relationship, and a "prevention-focused" group, who sought to avoid failure in the buyer-seller relationship.In one experiment, participants were shown an apology from a CEO, while participants in the other experiment were shown a message from a lawyer looking to seek damages from the company.The researchers found that consumers were more likely to repurchase from the company when there was a match between the framing of the CEO apology and their natural inclinations, meaning a promotion-framed message worked best with promotion-focused consumers, and a prevention-framed message worked best with prevention-focused consumers.Researchers also found that when consumers had an option to join a class action suit, the framing of the lawyer's message had more of an impact on the prevention-focused consumers than the promotion-focused consumers."There is a lesson here," said Chatterjee. "Framing a message can only go so far in persuading consumers, and it appears to work less when they are angry."According to Chatterjee, the most effective apologies encourage forgiveness and stress that consumers have more to gain from reengagement with the company rather than retaliation."By framing your apology with a promotion message, you're acknowledging the failure, but telling the consumer that there is more to gain from trying again," he said.While Chatterjee's study focuses on the buy cheap generic cialis framing of messages to consumers, he stressed that other factors, such as consumer perceptions of authenticity, are important."Consumers are smart. They can figure out if messages are authentic or inauthentic," he said. "One good way to show that you are authentic is to highlight your buy cheap generic cialis corporate social responsibility footprint. That goes a long way in strengthening your apology, or conversely, buy cheap generic cialis blunting calls to punish you," he said. Story Source. Materials provided by Binghamton University buy cheap generic cialis. Original written by Allen Wengert. Note. Content may be edited for style and length.. Companies that express remorse in the wake of a product failure are more likely cialis online to encourage customers to repurchase from how to get cialis without prescription them, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.The study, which examines how emotional reactions affect how consumers interact with a company, also found that remorseful statements can help stave off retaliatory actions such as lawsuits."Human beings are emotional. When something bad occurs, how to get cialis without prescription the first thing that happens is an emotional reaction -- usually anger. We wanted to find out how the buyer's anger translates into action when a product failure is caused by the seller's negligence," said Subimal Chatterjee, SUNY distinguished teaching professor of marketing at Binghamton University's School of Management.Chatterjee and his fellow researchers conducted two experiments to determine how consumers react to product failures, and looked specifically at two groups of consumers -- a "promotion-focused" group, who were naturally inclined to gain something positive from the buyer-seller relationship, and a "prevention-focused" group, who sought to avoid failure in the buyer-seller relationship.In one experiment, participants were shown an apology from a CEO, while participants in the other experiment were shown a message from a lawyer looking to seek damages from the company.The researchers found that consumers were more likely to repurchase from the company when there was a match between the framing of the CEO apology and their natural inclinations, meaning a promotion-framed message worked best with promotion-focused consumers, and a prevention-framed message worked best with prevention-focused consumers.Researchers also found that when consumers had an option to join a class action suit, the framing of the lawyer's message had more of an impact on the prevention-focused consumers than the promotion-focused consumers."There is a lesson here," said Chatterjee. "Framing a message can only go so far in persuading consumers, and it appears to work less when they are angry."According to Chatterjee, the most effective apologies encourage forgiveness and stress that consumers have more to gain from reengagement with the company rather than retaliation."By framing your apology with a promotion message, you're acknowledging the failure, but telling the consumer that there is more to gain from trying again," he said.While Chatterjee's study focuses on the framing of messages to how to get cialis without prescription consumers, he stressed that other factors, such as consumer perceptions of authenticity, are important."Consumers are smart. They can figure out if messages are authentic or inauthentic," he said. "One good way to show that you are authentic is to highlight your how to get cialis without prescription corporate social responsibility footprint. That goes a how to get cialis without prescription long way in strengthening your apology, cheap cialis or conversely, blunting calls to punish you," he said. Story Source. Materials provided how to get cialis without prescription by Binghamton University. Original written by Allen Wengert. Note. Content may be edited for style and length.. How should I use Cialis?Take Cialis by mouth with a glass of water. You may take Cialis with or without meals. The dose is usually taken 30 to 60 minutes before sexual activity. You should not take this dose more than once per day. Do not take your medicine more often than directed. Overdosage: If you think you have taken too much of Cialis contact a poison control center or emergency room at once. NOTE: Cialis is only for you. Do not share Cialis with others. Cialis delivery dubaiNo Asset Limit cialis delivery dubai 1A. Summary Chart of MSP Programs 2. Income Limits &. Rules and Household Size 3 cialis delivery dubai. The Three MSP Programs - What are they and how are they Different?. 4. FOUR Special cialis delivery dubai Benefits of MSP Programs. Back Door to Extra Help with Part D MSPs Automatically Waive Late Enrollment Penalties for Part B - and allow enrollment in Part B year-round outside of the short Annual Enrollment Period No Medicaid Lien on Estate to Recover Payment of Expenses Paid by MSP Food Stamps/SNAP not reduced by Decreased Medical Expenses when Enroll in MSP - at least temporarily 5. Enrolling in an MSP - Automatic Enrollment &. Applications for People who Have Medicare What is Application cialis delivery dubai Process?. 6. Enrolling in an MSP for People age 65+ who Do Not Qualify for Free Medicare Part A - the "Part A Buy-In Program" 7. What Happens After MSP Approved - How Part cialis delivery dubai B Premium is Paid 8 Special Rules for QMBs - How Medicare Cost-Sharing Works 1. NO ASSET LIMIT!. Since April 1, 2008, none of the three MSP programs have resource limits in New York -- which means many Medicare beneficiaries who might not qualify for Medicaid because of excess resources can qualify for an MSP. 1.A cialis delivery dubai. SUMMARY CHART OF MSP BENEFITS QMB SLIMB QI-1 Eligibility ASSET LIMIT NO LIMIT IN NEW YORK STATE INCOME LIMIT (2021) Single Couple Single Couple Single Couple $1,094 $1,472 $1,308 $1,762 $1,469 $1,980 Federal Poverty Level 100% FPL 100 â 120% FPL 120 â 135% FPL Benefits Pays Monthly Part B premium?. YES, and also Part A premium if did not have enough work quarters and meets citizenship requirement. See âÂÂPart A Buy-Inâ YES cialis delivery dubai YES Pays Part A &. B deductibles &. Co-insurance YES - with limitations NO NO Retroactive to Filing of Application?. Yes - Benefits begin the month after the month of the MSP cialis delivery dubai application. 18 NYCRR ç360-7.8(b)(5) Yes â Retroactive to 3rd month before month of application, if eligible in prior months Yes â may be retroactive to 3rd month before month of applica-tion, but only within the current calendar year. (No retro for January application). See GIS 07 MA 027 cialis delivery dubai. Can Enroll in MSP and Medicaid at Same Time?. YES YES NO!. Must choose between QI-1 cialis delivery dubai and Medicaid. Cannot have both, not even Medicaid with a spend-down. 2. INCOME LIMITS and RULES Each of cialis delivery dubai the three MSP programs has different income eligibility requirements and provides different benefits. The income limits are tied to the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). 2021 FPL levels were released by NYS DOH in GIS 21 MA/06 - 2021 Federal Poverty Levels Attachment II NOTE. There is usually a lag in time of several weeks, or even months, from January 1st of each year until the new FPLs are release, and then before the new MSP income limits are cialis delivery dubai officially implemented. During this lag period, local Medicaid offices should continue to use the previous year's FPLs AND count the person's Social Security benefit amount from the previous year - do NOT factor in the Social Security COLA (cost of living adjustment). Once the updated guidelines are released, districts will use the new FPLs and go ahead and factor in any COLA. See 2021 Fact Sheet on MSP in NYS by Medicare Rights Center ENGLISH SPANISH Income is determined by the same methodology as is used for determining in eligibility for SSI The rules for counting income for SSI-related (Aged 65+, Blind, or Disabled) Medicaid recipients, borrowed from the SSI program, apply to the cialis delivery dubai MSP program, except for the new rules about counting household size for married couples. N.Y. Soc. Serv. L. 367-a(3)(c)(2), NYS DOH 2000-ADM-7, 89-ADM-7 p.7. Gross income is counted, although there are certain types of income that are disregarded. The most common income disregards, also known as deductions, include. (a) The first $20 of your &. Your spouse's monthly income, earned or unearned ($20 per couple max). (b) SSI EARNED INCOME DISREGARDS. * The first $65 of monthly wages of you and your spouse, * One-half of the remaining monthly wages (after the $65 is deducted). * Other work incentives including PASS plans, impairment related work expenses (IRWEs), blind work expenses, etc. For information on these deductions, see The Medicaid Buy-In for Working People with Disabilities (MBI-WPD) and other guides in this article -- though written for the MBI-WPD, the work incentives apply to all Medicaid programs, including MSP, for people age 65+, disabled or blind. (c) monthly cost of any health insurance premiums but NOT the Part B premium, since Medicaid will now pay this premium (may deduct Medigap supplemental policies, vision, dental, or long term care insurance premiums, and the Part D premium but only to the extent the premium exceeds the Extra Help benchmark amount) (d) Food stamps not counted. You can get a more comprehensive listing of the SSI-related income disregards on the Medicaid income disregards chart. As for all benefit programs based on financial need, it is usually advantageous to be considered a larger household, because the income limit is higher. The above chart shows that Households of TWO have a higher income limit than households of ONE. The MSP programs use the same rules as Medicaid does for the Disabled, Aged and Blind (DAB) which are borrowed from the SSI program for Medicaid recipients in the âÂÂSSI-related category.â Under these rules, a household can be only ONE or TWO. 18 NYCRR 360-4.2. See DAB Household Size Chart. Married persons can sometimes be ONE or TWO depending on arcane rules, which can force a Medicare beneficiary to be limited to the income limit for ONE person even though his spouse who is under 65 and not disabled has no income, and is supported by the client applying for an MSP. EXAMPLE. Bob's Social Security is $1300/month. He is age 67 and has Medicare. His wife, Nancy, is age 62 and is not disabled and does not work. Under the old rule, Bob was not eligible for an MSP because his income was above the Income limit for One, even though it was well under the Couple limit. In 2010, NYS DOH modified its rules so that all married individuals will be considered a household size of TWO. DOH GIS 10 MA 10 Medicare Savings Program Household Size, June 4, 2010. This rule for household size is an exception to the rule applying SSI budgeting rules to the MSP program. Under these rules, Bob is now eligible for an MSP. When is One Better than Two?. Of course, there may be couples where the non-applying spouse's income is too high, and disqualifies the applying spouse from an MSP. In such cases, "spousal refusal" may be used SSL 366.3(a). (Link is to NYC HRA form, can be adapted for other counties). In NYC, if you have a Medicaid case with HRA, instead of submitting an MSP application, you only need to complete and submit MAP-751W (check off "Medicare Savings Program Evaluation") and fax to (917) 639-0837. (The MAP-751W is also posted in languages other than English in this link. (Updated 4/14/2021.)) 3. The Three Medicare Savings Programs - what are they and how are they different?. 1. Qualified Medicare Beneficiary (QMB). The QMB program provides the most comprehensive benefits. Available to those with incomes at or below 100% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), the QMB program covers virtually all Medicare cost-sharing obligations. Part B premiums, Part A premiums, if there are any, and any and all deductibles and co-insurance. QMB coverage is not retroactive. The programâÂÂs benefits will begin the month after the month in which your client is found eligible. ** See special rules about cost-sharing for QMBs below - updated with new CMS directive issued January 2012 ** See NYC HRA QMB Recertification form ** Even if you do not have Part A automatically, because you did not have enough wages, you may be able to enroll in the Part A Buy-In Program, in which people eligible for QMB who do not otherwise have Medicare Part A may enroll, with Medicaid paying the Part A premium (Materials by the Medicare Rights Center). 2. Specifiedl Low-Income Medicare Beneficiary (SLMB). For those with incomes between 100% and 120% FPL, the SLMB program will cover Part B premiums only. SLMB is retroactive, however, providing coverage for three months prior to the month of application, as long as your client was eligible during those months. 3. Qualified Individual (QI-1). For those with incomes between 120% and 135% FPL, and not receiving Medicaid, the QI-1 program will cover Medicare Part B premiums only. QI-1 is also retroactive, providing coverage for three months prior to the month of application, as long as your client was eligible during those months. However, QI-1 retroactive coverage can only be provided within the current calendar year. (GIS 07 MA 027) So if you apply in January, you get no retroactive coverage. Q-I-1 recipients would be eligible for Medicaid with a spend-down, but if they want the Part B premium paid, they must choose between enrolling in QI-1 or Medicaid. They cannot be in both. It is their choice. DOH MRG p. 19. In contrast, one may receive Medicaid and either QMB or SLIMB. 4. Four Special Benefits of MSPs (in addition to NO ASSET TEST). Benefit 1. Back Door to Medicare Part D "Extra Help" or Low Income Subsidy -- All MSP recipients are automatically enrolled in Extra Help, the subsidy that makes Part D affordable. They have no Part D deductible or doughnut hole, the premium is subsidized, and they pay very low copayments. Once they are enrolled in Extra Help by virtue of enrollment in an MSP, they retain Extra Help for the entire calendar year, even if they lose MSP eligibility during that year. The "Full" Extra Help subsidy has the same income limit as QI-1 - 135% FPL. However, many people may be eligible for QI-1 but not Extra Help because QI-1 and the other MSPs have no asset limit. People applying to the Social Security Administration for Extra Help might be rejected for this reason. Recent (2009-10) changes to federal law called "MIPPA" requires the Social Security Administration (SSA) to share eligibility data with NYSDOH on all persons who apply for Extra Help/ the Low Income Subsidy. Data sent to NYSDOH from SSA will enable NYSDOH to open MSP cases on many clients. The effective date of the MSP application must be the same date as the Extra Help application. Signatures will not be required from clients. In cases where the SSA data is incomplete, NYSDOH will forward what is collected to the local district for completion of an MSP application. The State implementing procedures are in DOH 2010 ADM-03. Also see CMS "Dear State Medicaid Director" letter dated Feb. 18, 2010 Benefit 2. MSPs Automatically Waive Late Enrollment Penalties for Part B Generally one must enroll in Part B within the strict enrollment periods after turning age 65 or after 24 months of Social Security Disability. An exception is if you or your spouse are still working and insured under an employer sponsored group health plan, or if you have End Stage Renal Disease, and other factors, see this from Medicare Rights Center. If you fail to enroll within those short periods, you might have to pay higher Part B premiums for life as a Late Enrollment Penalty (LEP). Also, you may only enroll in Part B during the Annual Enrollment Period from January 1 - March 31st each year, with Part B not effective until the following July. Enrollment in an MSP automatically eliminates such penalties... For life.. Even if one later ceases to be eligible for the MSP. AND enrolling in an MSP will automatically result in becoming enrolled in Part B if you didn't already have it and only had Part A. See Medicare Rights Center flyer. Benefit 3. No Medicaid Lien on Estate to Recover MSP Benefits Paid Generally speaking, states may place liens on the Estates of deceased Medicaid recipients to recover the cost of Medicaid services that were provided after the recipient reached the age of 55. Since 2002, states have not been allowed to recover the cost of Medicare premiums paid under MSPs. In 2010, Congress expanded protection for MSP benefits. Beginning on January 1, 2010, states may not place liens on the Estates of Medicaid recipients who died after January 1, 2010 to recover costs for co-insurance paid under the QMB MSP program for services rendered after January 1, 2010. The federal government made this change in order to eliminate barriers to enrollment in MSPs. See NYS DOH GIS 10-MA-008 - Medicare Savings Program Changes in Estate Recovery The GIS clarifies that a client who receives both QMB and full Medicaid is exempt from estate recovery for these Medicare cost-sharing expenses. Benefit 4. SNAP (Food Stamp) benefits not reduced despite increased income from MSP - at least temporarily Many people receive both SNAP (Food Stamp) benefits and MSP. Income for purposes of SNAP/Food Stamps is reduced by a deduction for medical expenses, which includes payment of the Part B premium. Since approval for an MSP means that the client no longer pays for the Part B premium, his/her SNAP/Food Stamps income goes up, so their SNAP/Food Stamps go down. Here are some protections. Do these individuals have to report to their SNAP worker that their out of pocket medical costs have decreased?. And will the household see a reduction in their SNAP benefits, since the decrease in medical expenses will increase their countable income?. The good news is that MSP households do NOT have to report the decrease in their medical expenses to the SNAP/Food Stamp office until their next SNAP/Food Stamp recertification. Even if they do report the change, or the local district finds out because the same worker is handling both the MSP and SNAP case, there should be no reduction in the householdâÂÂs benefit until the next recertification. New YorkâÂÂs SNAP policy per administrative directive 02 ADM-07 is to âÂÂfreezeâ the deduction for medical expenses between certification periods. Increases in medical expenses can be budgeted at the householdâÂÂs request, but NYS never decreases a householdâÂÂs medical expense deduction until the next recertification. Most elderly and disabled households have 24-month SNAP certification periods. Eventually, though, the decrease in medical expenses will need to be reported when the household recertifies for SNAP, and the household should expect to see a decrease in their monthly SNAP benefit. It is really important to stress that the loss in SNAP benefits is NOT dollar for dollar. A $100 decrease in out of pocket medical expenses would translate roughly into a $30 drop in SNAP benefits. See more info on SNAP/Food Stamp benefits by the Empire Justice Center, and on the State OTDA website. Some clients will be automatically enrolled in an MSP by the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) shortly after attaining eligibility for Medicare. Others need to apply. The 2010 "MIPPA" law introduced some improvements to increase MSP enrollment. See 3rd bullet below. Also, some people who had Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act before they became eligible for Medicare have special procedures to have their Part B premium paid before they enroll in an MSP. See below. WHO IS AUTOMATICALLY ENROLLED IN AN MSP. Clients receiving even $1.00 of Supplemental Security Income should be automatically enrolled into a Medicare Savings Program (most often QMB) under New York StateâÂÂs Medicare Savings Program Buy-in Agreement with the federal government once they become eligible for Medicare. They should receive Medicare Parts A and B. Clients who are already eligible for Medicare when they apply for Medicaid should be automatically assessed for MSP eligibility when they apply for Medicaid. (NYS DOH 2000-ADM-7 and GIS 05 MA 033). Clients who apply to the Social Security Administration for Extra Help, but are rejected, should be contacted &. Enrolled into an MSP by the Medicaid program directly under new MIPPA procedures that require data sharing. Strategy TIP. Since the Extra Help filing date will be assigned to the MSP application, it may help the client to apply online for Extra Help with the SSA, even knowing that this application will be rejected because of excess assets or other reason. SSA processes these requests quickly, and it will be routed to the State for MSP processing. Since MSP applications take a while, at least the filing date will be retroactive. Note. The above strategy does not work as well for QMB, because the effective date of QMB is the month after the month of application. As a result, the retroactive effective date of Extra Help will be the month after the failed Extra Help application for those with QMB rather than SLMB/QI-1. Applying for MSP Directly with Local Medicaid Program. Those who do not have Medicaid already must apply for an MSP through their local social services district. (See more in Section D. Below re those who already have Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act before they became eligible for Medicare. If you are applying for MSP only (not also Medicaid), you can use the simplified MSP application form (theDOH-4328(Rev. 8/2017-- English) (2017 Spanish version not yet available). Either application form can be mailed in -- there is no interview requirement anymore for MSP or Medicaid. See 10 ADM-04. Applicants will need to submit proof of income, a copy of their Medicare card (front &. Back), and proof of residency/address. See the application form for other instructions. One who is only eligible for QI-1 because of higher income may ONLY apply for an MSP, not for Medicaid too. One may not receive Medicaid and QI-1 at the same time. If someone only eligible for QI-1 wants Medicaid, s/he may enroll in and deposit excess income into a pooled Supplemental Needs Trust, to bring her countable income down to the Medicaid level, which also qualifies him or her for SLIMB or QMB instead of QI-1. Advocates in NYC can sign up for a half-day "Deputization Training" conducted by the Medicare Rights Center, at which you'll be trained and authorized to complete an MSP application and to submit it via the Medicare Rights Center, which submits it to HRA without the client having to apply in person. Enrolling in an MSP if you already have Medicaid, but just become eligible for Medicare Those who, prior to becoming enrolled in Medicare, had Medicaid through Affordable Care Act are eligible to have their Part B premiums paid by Medicaid (or the cost reimbursed) during the time it takes for them to transition to a Medicare Savings Program. In 2018, DOH clarified that reimbursement of the Part B premium will be made regardless of whether the individual is still in a Medicaid managed care (MMC) plan. GIS 18 MA/001 Medicaid Managed Care Transition for Enrollees Gaining Medicare ( PDF) provides, "Due to efforts to transition individuals who gain Medicare eligibility and who require LTSS, individuals may not be disenrolled from MMC upon receipt of Medicare. To facilitate the transition and not disadvantage the recipient, the Medicaid program is approving reimbursement of Part B premiums for enrollees in MMC." The procedure for getting the Part B premium paid is different for those whose Medicaid was administered by the NYS of Health Exchange (Marketplace), as opposed to their local social services district. The procedure is also different for those who obtain Medicare because they turn 65, as opposed to obtaining Medicare based on disability. Either way, Medicaid recipients who transition onto Medicare should be automatically evaluated for MSP eligibility at their next Medicaid recertification. NYS DOH 2000-ADM-7 Individuals can also affirmatively ask to be enrolled in MSP in between recertification periods. IF CLIENT HAD MEDICAID ON THE MARKETPLACE (NYS of Health Exchange) before obtaining Medicare. IF they obtain Medicare because they turn age 65, they will receive a letter from their local district asking them to "renew" Medicaid through their local district. See 2014 LCM-02. Now, their Medicaid income limit will be lower than the MAGI limits ($842/ mo reduced from $1387/month) and they now will have an asset test. For this reason, some individuals may lose full Medicaid eligibility when they begin receiving Medicare. People over age 65 who obtain Medicare do NOT keep "Marketplace Medicaid" for 12 months (continuous eligibility) See GIS 15 MA/022 - Continuous Coverage for MAGI Individuals. Since MSP has NO ASSET limit. Some individuals may be enrolled in the MSP even if they lose Medicaid, or if they now have a Medicaid spend-down. If a Medicare/Medicaid recipient reports income that exceeds the Medicaid level, districts must evaluate the personâÂÂs eligibility for MSP. 08 OHIP/ADM-4 âÂÂIf you became eligible for Medicare based on disability and you are UNDER AGE 65, you are entitled to keep MAGI Medicaid for 12 months from the month it was last authorized, even if you now have income normally above the MAGI limit, and even though you now have Medicare. This is called Continuous Eligibility. EXAMPLE. Sam, age 60, was last authorized for Medicaid on the Marketplace in June 2016. He became enrolled in Medicare based on disability in August 2016, and started receiving Social Security in the same month (he won a hearing approving Social Security disability benefits retroactively, after first being denied disability). Even though his Social Security is too high, he can keep Medicaid for 12 months beginning June 2016. Sam has to pay for his Part B premium - it is deducted from his Social Security check. He may call the Marketplace and request a refund. This will continue until the end of his 12 months of continues MAGI Medicaid eligibility. He will be reimbursed regardless of whether he is in a Medicaid managed care plan. See GIS 18 MA/001 Medicaid Managed Care Transition for Enrollees Gaining Medicare (PDF) When that ends, he will renew Medicaid and apply for MSP with his local district. Individuals who are eligible for Medicaid with a spenddown can opt whether or not to receive MSP. (Medicaid Reference Guide (MRG) p. 19). Obtaining MSP may increase their spenddown. MIPPA - Outreach by Social Security Administration -- Under MIPPA, the SSA sends a form letter to people who may be eligible for a Medicare Savings Program or Extra Help (Low Income Subsidy - LIS) that they may apply. The letters are. ÷ Beneficiary has Extra Help (LIS), but not MSP ÷ Beneficiary has no Extra Help (LIS) or MSP 6. Enrolling in MSP for People Age 65+ who do Not have Free Medicare Part A - the "Part A Buy-In Program" Seniors WITHOUT MEDICARE PART A or B -- They may be able to enroll in the Part A Buy-In program, in which people eligible for QMB who are age 65+ who do not otherwise have Medicare Part A may enroll in Part A, with Medicaid paying the Part A premium. See Step-by-Step Guide by the Medicare Rights Center). This guide explains the various steps in "conditionally enrolling" in Part A at the SSA office, which must be done before applying for QMB at the Medicaid office, which will then pay the Part A premium. See also GIS 04 MA/013. In June, 2018, the SSA revised the POMS manual procedures for the Part A Buy-In to to address inconsistencies and confusion in SSA field offices and help smooth the path for QMB enrollment. The procedures are in the POMS Section HI 00801.140 "Premium-Free Part A Enrollments for Qualified Medicare BenefiIaries." It includes important clarifications, such as. SSA Field Offices should explain the QMB program and conditional enrollment process if an individual lacks premium-free Part A and appears to meet QMB requirements. SSA field offices can add notes to the âÂÂRemarksâ section of the application and provide a screen shot to the individual so the individual can provide proof of conditional Part A enrollment when applying for QMB through the state Medicaid program. Beneficiaries are allowed to complete the conditional application even if they owe Medicare premiums. In Part A Buy-in states like NYS, SSA should process conditional applications on a rolling basis (without regard to enrollment periods), even if the application coincides with the General Enrollment Period. (The General Enrollment Period is from Jan 1 to March 31st every year, in which anyone eligible may enroll in Medicare Part A or Part B to be effective on July 1st). 7. What happens after the MSP approval - How is Part B premium paid For all three MSP programs, the Medicaid program is now responsible for paying the Part B premiums, even though the MSP enrollee is not necessarily a recipient of Medicaid. The local Medicaid office (DSS/HRA) transmits the MSP approval to the NYS Department of Health â that information gets shared w/ SSA and CMS SSA stops deducting the Part B premiums out of the beneficiaryâÂÂs Social Security check. SSA also refunds any amounts owed to the recipient. (Note. This process can take awhile!. !. !. ) CMS âÂÂdeemsâ the MSP recipient eligible for Part D Extra Help/ Low Income Subsidy (LIS). âÂÂCan the MSP be retroactive like Medicaid, back to 3 months before the application?. âÂÂThe answer is different for the 3 MSP programs. QMB -No Retroactive Eligibility â Benefits begin the month after the month of the MSP application. 18 NYCRR ç 360-7.8(b)(5) SLIMB - YES - Retroactive Eligibility up to 3 months before the application, if was eligible This means applicant may be reimbursed for the 3 months of Part B benefits prior to the month of application. QI-1 - YES up to 3 months but only in the same calendar year. No retroactive eligibility to the previous year. 7. QMBs -Special Rules on Cost-Sharing. QMB is the only MSP program which pays not only the Part B premium, but also the Medicare co-insurance. However, there are limitations. First, co-insurance will only be paid if the provide accepts Medicaid. Not all Medicare provides accept Medicaid. Second, under recent changes in New York law, Medicaid will not always pay the Medicare co-insurance, even to a Medicaid provider. But even if the provider does not accept Medicaid, or if Medicaid does not pay the full co-insurance, the provider is banned from "balance billing" the QMB beneficiary for the co-insurance. Click here for an article that explains all of these rules. This article was authored by the Empire Justice Center.Some "dual eligible" beneficiaries (people who have Medicare and Medicaid) are entitled to receive reimbursement of their Medicare Part B premiums from New York State through the Medicare Insurance Premium Payment Program (MIPP). The Part B premium is $148.50 in 2021. MIPP is for some groups who are either not eligible for -- or who are not yet enrolled in-- the Medicare Savings Program (MSP), which is the main program that pays the Medicare Part B premium for low-income people. Some people are not eligible for an MSP even though they have full Medicaid with no spend down. This is because they are in a special Medicaid eligibility category -- discussed below -- with Medicaid income limits that are actually HIGHER than the MSP income limits. MIPP reimburses them for their Part B premium because they have âÂÂfull Medicaidâ (no spend down) but are ineligible for MSP because their income is above the MSP SLIMB level (120% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). Even if their income is under the QI-1 MSP level (135% FPL), someone cannot have both QI-1 and Medicaid). Instead, these consumers can have their Part B premium reimbursed through the MIPP program. Note. MSP limits are based on the federal poverty line (FPL). The new FPL is released by the federal government at the beginning of each year, but it takes some time for the state to implement them. Therefore, as of February 2021, the MSP limits are still based on the 2020 FPL. This article will be updated with the 2021 limits when they are released. In this article. The MIPP program was established because the State determined that those who have full Medicaid and Medicare Part B should be reimbursed for their Part B premium, even if they do not qualify for MSP, because Medicare is considered cost effective third party health insurance, and because consumers must enroll in Medicare as a condition of eligibility for Medicaid (See 89 ADM 7). There are generally four groups of dual-eligible consumers that are eligible for MIPP. Therefore, many MBI WPD consumers have incomes higher than what MSP normally allows, but still have full Medicaid with no spend down. Those consumers can qualify for MIPP and have their Part B premiums reimbursed. Here is an example. Sam is age 50 and has Medicare and MBI-WPD. She gets $1500/mo gross from Social Security Disability and also makes $400/month through work activity. $ 167.50 -- EARNED INCOME - Because she is disabled, the DAB earned income disregard applies. $400 - $65 = $335. Her countable earned income is 1/2 of $335 = $167.50 + $1500.00 -- UNEARNED INCOME from Social Security Disability = $1,667.50 --TOTAL income. This is above the SLIMB limit of $1,276 (2020) but she can still qualify for MIPP. 2. Parent/Caretaker Relatives with MAGI-like Budgeting - Including Medicare Beneficiaries. Consumers who fall into the DAB category (Age 65+/Disabled/Blind) and would otherwise be budgeted with non-MAGI rules can opt to use Affordable Care Act MAGI rules if they are the parent/caretaker of a child under age 18 or under age 19 and in school full time. This is referred to as âÂÂMAGI-like budgeting.â Under MAGI rules income can be up to 138% of the FPLâÂÂagain, higher than the limit for DAB budgeting, which is equivalent to only 83% FPL. MAGI-like consumers can be enrolled in either MSP or MIPP, depending on if their income is higher or lower than 120% of the FPL. If their income is under 120% FPL, they are eligible for MSP as a SLIMB. If income is above 120% FPL, then they can enroll in MIPP. (See GIS 18 MA/001 - 2018 Medicaid Managed Care Transition for Enrollees Gaining Medicare, #4) 3. New Medicare Enrollees who are Not Yet in a Medicare Savings Program When a consumer has Medicaid through the New York State of Health (NYSoH) Marketplace and then enrolls in Medicare when she turns age 65 or because she received Social Security Disability for 24 months, her Medicaid case is normally** transferred to the local department of social services (LDSS)(HRA in NYC) to be rebudgeted under non-MAGI budgeting. During the transition process, she should be reimbursed for the Part B premiums via MIPP. However, the transition time can vary based on age. AGE 65+ For those who enroll in Medicare at age 65+, the Medicaid case takes about four months to be rebudgeted and approved by the LDSS. The consumer is entitled to MIPP payments for at least three months during the transition. Once the case is with the LDSS she should automatically be re-evaluated for MSP. Consumers UNDER 65 who receive Medicare due to disability status are entitled to keep MAGI Medicaid through NYSoH for up to 12 months (also known as continuous coverage, See NY Social Services Law 366, subd. 4(c). These consumers should receive MIPP payments for as long as their cases remain with NYSoH and throughout the transition to the LDSS. NOTE during erectile dysfunction treatment emergency their case may remain with NYSoH for more than 12 months. See here. See GIS 18 MA/001 - 2018 Medicaid Managed Care Transition for Enrollees Gaining Medicare, #4 for an explanation of this process. Note. During the erectile dysfunction treatment emergency, those who have Medicaid through the NYSOH marketplace and enroll in Medicare should NOT have their cases transitioned to the LDSS. They should keep the same MAGI budgeting and automatically receive MIPP payments. See GIS 20 MA/04 or this article on erectile dysfunction treatment eligibility changes 4. Those with Special Budgeting after Losing SSI (DAC, Pickle, 1619b) Disabled Adult Child (DAC). Special budgeting is available to those who are 18+ and lose SSI because they begin receiving Disabled Adult Child (DAC) benefits (or receive an increase in the amount of their benefit). Consumer must have become disabled or blind before age 22 to receive the benefit. If the new DAC benefit amount was disregarded and the consumer would otherwise be eligible for SSI, they can keep Medicaid eligibility with NO SPEND DOWN. See this article. Consumers may have income higher than MSP limits, but keep full Medicaid with no spend down. Therefore, they are eligible for payment of their Part B premiums. See page 96 of the Medicaid Reference Guide (Categorical Factors). If their income is lower than the MSP SLIMB threshold, they can be added to MSP. If higher than the threshold, they can be reimbursed via MIPP. See also 95-ADM-11. Medical Assistance Eligibility for Disabled Adult Children, Section C (pg 8). Pickle &. 1619B. MIPP and MSP are similar in that they both pay for the Medicare Part B premium, but there are some key differences. MIPP structures the payments as reimbursement -- beneficiaries must continue to pay their premium (via a monthly deduction from their Social Security check or quarterly billing, if they do not receive Social Security) and then are reimbursed via check. In contrast, MSP enrollees are not charged for their premium. Their Social Security check usually increases because the Part B premium is no longer withheld from their check. MIPP only provides reimbursement for Part B. It does not have any of the other benefits MSPs can provide, such as. A consumer cannot have MIPP without also having Medicaid, whereas MSP enrollees can have MSP only. Of the above benefits, Medicaid also provides Part D Extra Help automatic eligibility. There are three separate MSP programs, the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary how to get cialis without prescription (QMB) Program, the Specified cialis costo 5mg Low Income Medicare Beneficiary (SLMB) Program and the Qualified Individual (QI) Program, each of which is discussed below. Those in QMB receive additional subsidies for Medicare costs. See 2021 Fact Sheet on MSP in NYS by Medicare Rights Center ENGLISH SPANISH State law. N.Y how to get cialis without prescription. Soc. Serv. L. ç 367-a(3)(a), (b), and (d). 2020 Medicare 101 Basics for New York State - 1.5 hour webinar by Eric Hausman, sponsored by NYS Office of the Aging Note. Some consumers may be eligible for the Medicare Insurance Premium Payment (MIPP) Program, instead of MSP. See this article for more info. TOPICS COVERED IN THIS ARTICLE 1. No Asset Limit 1A. Summary Chart of MSP Programs 2. Income Limits &. Rules and Household Size 3. The Three MSP Programs - What are they and how are they Different?. 4. FOUR Special Benefits of MSP Programs. Back Door to Extra Help with Part D MSPs Automatically Waive Late Enrollment Penalties for Part B - and allow enrollment in Part B year-round outside of the short Annual Enrollment Period No Medicaid Lien on Estate to Recover Payment of Expenses Paid by MSP Food Stamps/SNAP not reduced by Decreased Medical Expenses when Enroll in MSP - at least temporarily 5. Enrolling in an MSP - Automatic Enrollment &. Applications for People who Have Medicare What is Application Process?. 6. Enrolling in an MSP for People age 65+ who Do Not Qualify for Free Medicare Part A - the "Part A Buy-In Program" 7. What Happens After MSP Approved - How Part B Premium is Paid 8 Special Rules for QMBs - How Medicare Cost-Sharing Works 1. NO ASSET LIMIT!. Since April 1, 2008, none of the three MSP programs have resource limits in New York -- which means many Medicare beneficiaries who might not qualify for Medicaid because of excess resources can qualify for an MSP. 1.A. SUMMARY CHART OF MSP BENEFITS QMB SLIMB QI-1 Eligibility ASSET LIMIT NO LIMIT IN NEW YORK STATE INCOME LIMIT (2021) Single Couple Single Couple Single Couple $1,094 $1,472 $1,308 $1,762 $1,469 $1,980 Federal Poverty Level 100% FPL 100 â 120% FPL 120 â 135% FPL Benefits Pays Monthly Part B premium?. YES, and also Part A premium if did not have enough work quarters and meets citizenship requirement. See âÂÂPart A Buy-Inâ YES YES Pays Part A &. B deductibles &. Co-insurance YES - with limitations NO NO Retroactive to Filing of Application?. Yes - Benefits begin the month after the month of the MSP application. 18 NYCRR ç360-7.8(b)(5) Yes â Retroactive to 3rd month before month of application, if eligible in prior months Yes â may be retroactive to 3rd month before month of applica-tion, but only within the current calendar year. (No retro for January application). See GIS 07 MA 027. Can Enroll in MSP and Medicaid at Same Time?. YES YES NO!. Must choose between QI-1 and Medicaid. Cannot have both, not even Medicaid with a spend-down. 2. INCOME LIMITS and RULES Each of the three MSP programs has different income eligibility requirements and provides different benefits. The income limits are tied to the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). 2021 FPL levels were released by NYS DOH in GIS 21 MA/06 - 2021 Federal Poverty Levels Attachment II NOTE. There is usually a lag in time of several weeks, or even months, from January 1st of each year until the new FPLs are release, and then before the new MSP income limits are officially implemented. During this lag period, local Medicaid offices should continue to use the previous year's FPLs AND count the person's Social Security benefit amount from the previous year - do NOT factor in the Social Security COLA (cost of living adjustment). Once the updated guidelines are released, districts will use the new FPLs and go ahead and factor in any COLA. See 2021 Fact Sheet on MSP in NYS by Medicare Rights Center ENGLISH SPANISH Income is determined by the same methodology as is used for determining in eligibility for SSI The rules for counting income for SSI-related (Aged 65+, Blind, or Disabled) Medicaid recipients, borrowed from the SSI program, apply to the MSP program, except for the new rules about counting household size for married couples. N.Y. Soc. Serv. L. 367-a(3)(c)(2), NYS DOH 2000-ADM-7, 89-ADM-7 p.7. Gross income is counted, although there are certain types of income that are disregarded. The most common income disregards, also known as deductions, include. (a) The first $20 of your &. Your spouse's monthly income, earned or unearned ($20 per couple max). (b) SSI EARNED INCOME DISREGARDS. * The first $65 of monthly wages of you and your spouse, * One-half of the remaining monthly wages (after the $65 is deducted). * Other work incentives including PASS plans, impairment related work expenses (IRWEs), blind work expenses, etc. For information on these deductions, see The Medicaid Buy-In for Working People with Disabilities (MBI-WPD) and other guides in this article -- though written for the MBI-WPD, the work incentives apply to all Medicaid programs, including MSP, for people age 65+, disabled or blind. (c) monthly cost of any health insurance premiums but NOT the Part B premium, since Medicaid will now pay this premium (may deduct Medigap supplemental policies, vision, dental, or long term care insurance premiums, and the Part D premium but only to the extent the premium exceeds the Extra Help benchmark amount) (d) Food stamps not counted. You can get a more comprehensive listing of the SSI-related income disregards on the Medicaid income disregards chart. As for all benefit programs based on financial need, it is usually advantageous to be considered a larger household, because the income limit is higher. The above chart shows that Households of TWO have a higher income limit than households of ONE. The MSP programs use the same rules as Medicaid does for the Disabled, Aged and Blind (DAB) which are borrowed from the SSI program for Medicaid recipients in the âÂÂSSI-related category.â Under these rules, a household can be only ONE or TWO. 18 NYCRR 360-4.2. See DAB Household Size Chart. Married persons can sometimes be ONE or TWO depending on arcane rules, which can force a Medicare beneficiary to be limited to the income limit for ONE person even though his spouse who is under 65 and not disabled has no income, and is supported by the client applying for an MSP. EXAMPLE. Bob's Social Security is $1300/month. He is age 67 and has Medicare. His wife, Nancy, is age 62 and is not disabled and does not work. Under the old rule, Bob was not eligible for an MSP because his income was above the Income limit for One, even though it was well under the Couple limit. In 2010, NYS DOH modified its rules so that all married individuals will be considered a household size of TWO. DOH GIS 10 MA 10 Medicare Savings Program Household Size, June 4, 2010. This rule for household size is an exception to the rule applying SSI budgeting rules to the MSP program. Under these rules, Bob is now eligible for an MSP. When is One Better than Two?. Of course, there may be couples where the non-applying spouse's income is too high, and disqualifies the applying spouse from an MSP. In such cases, "spousal refusal" may be used SSL 366.3(a). (Link is to NYC HRA form, can be adapted for other counties). In NYC, if you have a Medicaid case with HRA, instead of submitting an MSP application, you only need to complete and submit MAP-751W (check off "Medicare Savings Program Evaluation") and fax to (917) 639-0837. (The MAP-751W is also posted in languages other than English in this link. (Updated 4/14/2021.)) 3. The Three Medicare Savings Programs - what are they and how are they different?. 1. Qualified Medicare Beneficiary (QMB). The QMB program provides the most comprehensive benefits. Available to those with incomes at or below 100% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), the QMB program covers virtually all Medicare cost-sharing obligations. Part B premiums, Part A premiums, if there are any, and any and all deductibles and co-insurance. QMB coverage is not retroactive. The programâÂÂs benefits will begin the month after the month in which your client is found eligible. ** See special rules about cost-sharing for QMBs below - updated with new CMS directive issued January 2012 ** See NYC HRA QMB Recertification form ** Even if you do not have Part A automatically, because you did not have enough wages, you may be able to enroll in the Part A Buy-In Program, in which people eligible for QMB who do not otherwise have Medicare Part A may enroll, with Medicaid paying the Part A premium (Materials by the Medicare Rights Center). 2. Specifiedl Low-Income Medicare Beneficiary (SLMB). For those with incomes between 100% and 120% FPL, the SLMB program will cover Part B premiums only. SLMB is retroactive, however, providing coverage for three months prior to the month of application, as long as your client was eligible during those months. 3. Qualified Individual (QI-1). For those with incomes between 120% and 135% FPL, and not receiving Medicaid, the QI-1 program will cover Medicare Part B premiums only. QI-1 is also retroactive, providing coverage for three months prior to the month of application, as long as your client was eligible during those months. However, QI-1 retroactive coverage can only be provided within the current calendar year. (GIS 07 MA 027) So if you apply in January, you get no retroactive coverage. Q-I-1 recipients would be eligible for Medicaid with a spend-down, but if they want the Part B premium paid, they must choose between enrolling in QI-1 or Medicaid. They cannot be in both. It is their choice. DOH MRG p. 19. In contrast, one may receive Medicaid and either QMB or SLIMB. 4. Four Special Benefits of MSPs (in addition to NO ASSET TEST). Benefit 1. Back Door to Medicare Part D "Extra Help" or Low Income Subsidy -- All MSP recipients are automatically enrolled in Extra Help, the subsidy that makes Part D affordable. They have no Part D deductible or doughnut hole, the premium is subsidized, and they pay very low copayments. Once they are enrolled in Extra Help by virtue of enrollment in an MSP, they retain Extra Help for the entire calendar year, even if they lose MSP eligibility during that year. The "Full" Extra Help subsidy has the same income limit as QI-1 - 135% FPL. However, many people may be eligible for QI-1 but not Extra Help because QI-1 and the other MSPs have no asset limit. People applying to the Social Security Administration for Extra Help might be rejected for this reason. Recent (2009-10) changes to federal law called "MIPPA" requires the Social Security Administration (SSA) to share eligibility data with NYSDOH on all persons who apply for Extra Help/ the Low Income Subsidy. Data sent to NYSDOH from SSA will enable NYSDOH to open MSP cases on many clients. The effective date of the MSP application must be the same date as the Extra Help application. Signatures will not be required from clients. In cases where the SSA data is incomplete, NYSDOH will forward what is collected to the local district for completion of an MSP application. The State implementing procedures are in DOH 2010 ADM-03. Also see CMS "Dear State Medicaid Director" letter dated Feb. 18, 2010 Benefit 2. MSPs Automatically Waive Late Enrollment Penalties for Part B Generally one must enroll in Part B within the strict enrollment periods after turning age 65 or after 24 months of Social Security Disability. An exception is if you or your spouse are still working and insured under an employer sponsored group health plan, or if you have End Stage Renal Disease, and other factors, see this from Medicare Rights Center. If you fail to enroll within those short periods, you might have to pay higher Part B premiums for life as a Late Enrollment Penalty (LEP). Also, you may only enroll in Part B during the Annual Enrollment Period from January 1 - March 31st each year, with Part B not effective until the following July. Enrollment in an MSP automatically eliminates such penalties... For life.. Even if one later ceases to be eligible for the MSP. AND enrolling in an MSP will automatically result in becoming enrolled in Part B if you didn't already have it and only had Part A. See Medicare Rights Center flyer. Benefit 3. No Medicaid Lien on Estate to Recover MSP Benefits Paid Generally speaking, states may place liens on the Estates of deceased Medicaid recipients to recover the cost of Medicaid services that were provided after the recipient reached the age of 55. Since 2002, states have not been allowed to recover the cost of Medicare premiums paid under MSPs. In 2010, Congress expanded protection for MSP benefits. Beginning on January 1, 2010, states may not place liens on the Estates of Medicaid recipients who died after January 1, 2010 to recover costs for co-insurance paid under the QMB MSP program for services rendered after January 1, 2010. The federal government made this change in order to eliminate barriers to enrollment in MSPs. See NYS DOH GIS 10-MA-008 - Medicare Savings Program Changes in Estate Recovery The GIS clarifies that a client who receives both QMB and full Medicaid is exempt from estate recovery for these Medicare cost-sharing expenses. Benefit 4. SNAP (Food Stamp) benefits not reduced despite increased income from MSP - at least temporarily Many people receive both SNAP (Food Stamp) benefits and MSP. Income for purposes of SNAP/Food Stamps is reduced by a deduction for medical expenses, which includes payment of the Part B premium. Since approval for an MSP means that the client no longer pays for the Part B premium, his/her SNAP/Food Stamps income goes up, so their SNAP/Food Stamps go down. Here are some protections. Do these individuals have to report to their SNAP worker that their out of pocket medical costs have decreased?. And will the household see a reduction in their SNAP benefits, since the decrease in medical expenses will increase their countable income?. The good news is that MSP households do NOT have to report the decrease in their medical expenses to the SNAP/Food Stamp office until their next SNAP/Food Stamp recertification. Even if they do report the change, or the local district finds out because the same worker is handling both the MSP and SNAP case, there should be no reduction in the householdâÂÂs benefit until the next recertification. New YorkâÂÂs SNAP policy per administrative directive 02 ADM-07 is to âÂÂfreezeâ the deduction for medical expenses between certification periods. Increases in medical expenses can be budgeted at the householdâÂÂs request, but NYS never decreases a householdâÂÂs medical expense deduction until the next recertification. Most elderly and disabled households have 24-month SNAP certification periods. Eventually, though, the decrease in medical expenses will need to be reported when the household recertifies for SNAP, and the household should expect to see a decrease in their monthly SNAP benefit. It is really important to stress that the loss in SNAP benefits is NOT dollar for dollar. A $100 decrease in out of pocket medical expenses would translate roughly into a $30 drop in SNAP benefits. See more info on SNAP/Food Stamp benefits by the Empire Justice Center, and on the State OTDA website. Some clients will be automatically enrolled in an MSP by the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) shortly after attaining eligibility for Medicare. Others need to apply http://bookwormlbi.com/link-post-type/. The 2010 "MIPPA" law introduced some improvements to increase MSP enrollment. See 3rd bullet below. Also, some people who had Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act before they became eligible for Medicare have special procedures to have their Part B premium paid before they enroll in an MSP. See below. WHO IS AUTOMATICALLY ENROLLED IN AN MSP. Clients receiving even $1.00 of Supplemental Security Income should be automatically enrolled into a Medicare Savings Program (most often QMB) under New York StateâÂÂs Medicare Savings Program Buy-in Agreement with the federal government once they become eligible for Medicare. They should receive Medicare Parts A and B. Clients who are already eligible for Medicare when they apply for Medicaid should be automatically assessed for MSP eligibility when they apply for Medicaid. (NYS DOH 2000-ADM-7 and GIS 05 MA 033). Clients who apply to the Social Security Administration for Extra Help, but are rejected, should be contacted &. Enrolled into an MSP by the Medicaid program directly under new MIPPA procedures that require data sharing. Strategy TIP. Since the Extra Help filing date will be assigned to the MSP application, it may help the client to apply online for Extra Help with the SSA, even knowing that this application will be rejected because of excess assets or other reason. SSA processes these requests quickly, and it will be routed to the State for MSP processing. Since MSP applications take a while, at least the filing date will be retroactive. Note. The above strategy does not work as well for QMB, because the effective date of QMB is the month after the month of application. As a result, the retroactive effective date of Extra Help will be the month after the failed Extra Help application for those with QMB rather than SLMB/QI-1. Applying for MSP Directly with Local Medicaid Program. Those who do not have Medicaid already must apply for an MSP through their local social services district. (See more in Section D. Below re those who already have Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act before they became eligible for Medicare. If you are applying for MSP only (not also Medicaid), you can use the simplified MSP application form (theDOH-4328(Rev. 8/2017-- English) (2017 Spanish version not yet available). Either application form can be mailed in -- there is no interview requirement anymore for MSP or Medicaid. See 10 ADM-04. Applicants will need to submit proof of income, a copy of their Medicare card (front &. Back), and proof of residency/address. See the application form for other instructions. One who is only eligible for QI-1 because of higher income may ONLY apply for an MSP, not for Medicaid too. One may not receive Medicaid and QI-1 at the same time. If someone only eligible for QI-1 wants Medicaid, s/he may enroll in and deposit excess income into a pooled Supplemental Needs Trust, to bring her countable income down to the Medicaid level, which also qualifies him or her for SLIMB or QMB instead of QI-1. Advocates in NYC can sign up for a half-day "Deputization Training" conducted by the Medicare Rights Center, at which you'll be trained and authorized to complete an MSP application and to submit it via the Medicare Rights Center, which submits it to HRA without the client having to apply in person. Enrolling in an MSP if you already have Medicaid, but just become eligible for Medicare Those who, prior to becoming enrolled in Medicare, had Medicaid through Affordable Care Act are eligible to have their Part B premiums paid by Medicaid (or the cost reimbursed) during the time it takes for them to transition to a Medicare Savings Program. In 2018, DOH clarified that reimbursement of the Part B premium will be made regardless of whether the individual is still in a Medicaid managed care (MMC) plan. GIS 18 MA/001 Medicaid Managed Care Transition for Enrollees Gaining Medicare ( PDF) provides, "Due to efforts to transition individuals who gain Medicare eligibility and who require LTSS, individuals may not be disenrolled from MMC upon receipt of Medicare. To facilitate the transition and not disadvantage the recipient, the Medicaid program is approving reimbursement of Part B premiums for enrollees in MMC." The procedure for getting the Part B premium paid is different for those whose Medicaid was administered by the NYS of Health Exchange (Marketplace), as opposed to their local social services district. The procedure is also different for those who obtain Medicare because they turn 65, as opposed to obtaining Medicare based on disability. Either way, Medicaid recipients who transition onto Medicare should be automatically evaluated for MSP eligibility at their next Medicaid recertification. NYS DOH 2000-ADM-7 Individuals can also affirmatively ask to be enrolled in MSP in between recertification periods. IF CLIENT HAD MEDICAID ON THE MARKETPLACE (NYS of Health Exchange) before obtaining Medicare. IF they obtain Medicare because they turn age 65, they will receive a letter from their local district asking them to "renew" Medicaid through their local district. See 2014 LCM-02. Now, their Medicaid income limit will be lower than the MAGI limits ($842/ mo reduced from $1387/month) and they now will have an asset test. For this reason, some individuals may lose full Medicaid eligibility when they begin receiving Medicare. People over age 65 who obtain Medicare do NOT keep "Marketplace Medicaid" for 12 months (continuous eligibility) See GIS 15 MA/022 - Continuous Coverage for MAGI Individuals. Since MSP has NO ASSET limit. Some individuals may be enrolled in the MSP even if they lose Medicaid, or if they now have a Medicaid spend-down. If a Medicare/Medicaid recipient reports income that exceeds the Medicaid level, districts must evaluate the personâÂÂs eligibility for MSP. 08 OHIP/ADM-4 âÂÂIf you became eligible for Medicare based on disability and you are UNDER AGE 65, you are entitled to keep MAGI Medicaid for 12 months from the month it was last authorized, even if you now have income normally above the MAGI limit, and even though you now have Medicare. This is called Continuous Eligibility. EXAMPLE. Sam, age 60, was last authorized for Medicaid on the Marketplace in June 2016. He became enrolled in Medicare based on disability in August 2016, and started receiving Social Security in the same month (he won a hearing approving Social Security disability benefits retroactively, after first being denied disability). Even though his Social Security is too high, he can keep Medicaid for 12 months beginning June 2016. Sam has to pay for his Part B premium - it is deducted from his Social Security check. He may call the Marketplace and request a refund. This will continue until the end of his 12 months of continues MAGI Medicaid eligibility. He will be reimbursed regardless of whether he is in a Medicaid managed care plan. See GIS 18 MA/001 Medicaid Managed Care Transition for Enrollees Gaining Medicare (PDF) When that ends, he will renew Medicaid and apply for MSP with his local district. Individuals who are eligible for Medicaid with a spenddown can opt whether or not to receive MSP. (Medicaid Reference Guide (MRG) p. 19). Obtaining MSP may increase their spenddown. MIPPA - Outreach by Social Security Administration -- Under MIPPA, the SSA sends a form letter to people who may be eligible for a Medicare Savings Program or Extra Help (Low Income Subsidy - LIS) that they may apply. The letters are. ÷ Beneficiary has Extra Help (LIS), but not MSP ÷ Beneficiary has no Extra Help (LIS) or MSP 6. Enrolling in MSP for People Age 65+ who do Not have Free Medicare Part A - the "Part A Buy-In Program" Seniors WITHOUT MEDICARE PART A or B -- They may be able to enroll in the Part A Buy-In program, in which people eligible for QMB who are age 65+ who do not otherwise have Medicare Part A may enroll in Part A, with Medicaid paying the Part A premium. See Step-by-Step Guide by the Medicare Rights Center). This guide explains the various steps in "conditionally enrolling" in Part A at the SSA office, which must be done before applying for QMB at the Medicaid office, which will then pay the Part A premium. See also GIS 04 MA/013. In June, 2018, the SSA revised the POMS manual procedures for the Part A Buy-In to to address inconsistencies and confusion in SSA field offices and help smooth the path for QMB enrollment. The procedures are in the POMS Section HI 00801.140 "Premium-Free Part A Enrollments for Qualified Medicare BenefiIaries." It includes important clarifications, such as. SSA Field Offices should explain the QMB program and conditional enrollment process if an individual lacks premium-free Part A and appears to meet QMB requirements. SSA field offices can add notes to the âÂÂRemarksâ section of the application and provide a screen shot to the individual so the individual can provide proof of conditional Part A enrollment when applying for QMB through the state Medicaid program. Beneficiaries are allowed to complete the conditional application even if they owe Medicare premiums. In Part A Buy-in states like NYS, SSA should process conditional applications on a rolling basis (without regard to enrollment periods), even if the application coincides with the General Enrollment Period. (The General Enrollment Period is from Jan 1 to March 31st every year, in which anyone eligible may enroll in Medicare Part A or Part B to be effective on July 1st). 7. What happens after the MSP approval - How is Part B premium paid For all three MSP programs, the Medicaid program is now responsible for paying the Part B premiums, even though the MSP enrollee is not necessarily a recipient of Medicaid. The local Medicaid office (DSS/HRA) transmits the MSP approval to the NYS Department of Health â that information gets shared w/ SSA and CMS SSA stops deducting the Part B premiums out of the beneficiaryâÂÂs Social Security check. SSA also refunds any amounts owed to the recipient. ) CMS âÂÂdeemsâ the MSP recipient eligible for Part D Extra Help/ Low Income Subsidy (LIS). âÂÂCan the MSP be retroactive like Medicaid, back to 3 months before the application?. âÂÂThe answer is different for the 3 MSP programs. QMB -No Retroactive Eligibility â Benefits begin the month after the month of the MSP application. 18 NYCRR ç 360-7.8(b)(5) SLIMB - YES - Retroactive Eligibility up to 3 months before the application, if was eligible This means applicant may be reimbursed for the 3 months of Part B benefits prior to the month of application. QI-1 - YES up to 3 months but only in the same calendar year. No retroactive eligibility to the previous year. 7. QMBs -Special Rules on Cost-Sharing. QMB is the only MSP program which pays not only the Part B premium, but also the Medicare co-insurance. However, there are limitations. First, co-insurance will only be paid if the provide accepts Medicaid. Not all Medicare provides accept Medicaid. Second, under recent changes in New York law, Medicaid will not always pay the Medicare co-insurance, even to a Medicaid provider. But even if the provider does not accept Medicaid, or if Medicaid does not pay the full co-insurance, the provider is banned from "balance billing" the QMB beneficiary for the co-insurance. Click here for an article that explains all of these rules. This article was authored by the Empire Justice Center.Some "dual eligible" beneficiaries (people who have Medicare and Medicaid) are entitled to receive reimbursement of their Medicare Part B premiums from New York State through the Medicare Insurance Premium Payment Program (MIPP). The Part B premium is $148.50 in 2021. MIPP is for some groups who are either not eligible for -- or who are not yet enrolled in-- the Medicare Savings Program (MSP), which is the main program that pays the Medicare Part B premium for low-income people. Some people are not eligible for an MSP even though they have full Medicaid with no spend down. This is because they are in a special Medicaid eligibility category -- discussed below -- with Medicaid income limits that are actually HIGHER than the MSP income limits. MIPP reimburses them for their Part B premium because they have âÂÂfull Medicaidâ (no spend down) but are ineligible for MSP because their income is above the MSP SLIMB level (120% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). Even if their income is under the QI-1 MSP level (135% FPL), someone cannot have both QI-1 and Medicaid). Instead, these consumers can have their Part B premium reimbursed through the MIPP program. Note. MSP limits are based on the federal poverty line (FPL). The new FPL is released by the federal government at the beginning of each year, but it takes some time for the state to implement them. Therefore, as of February 2021, the MSP limits are still based on the 2020 FPL. This article will be updated with the 2021 limits when they are released. In this article. The MIPP program was established because the State determined that those who have full Medicaid and Medicare Part B should be reimbursed for their Part B premium, even if they do not qualify for MSP, because Medicare is considered cost effective third party health insurance, and because consumers must enroll in Medicare as a condition of eligibility for Medicaid (See 89 ADM 7). There are generally four groups of dual-eligible consumers that are eligible for MIPP. Therefore, many MBI WPD consumers have incomes higher than what MSP normally allows, but still have full Medicaid with no spend down. Those consumers can qualify for MIPP and have their Part B premiums reimbursed. Here is an example. Sam is age 50 and has Medicare and MBI-WPD. She gets $1500/mo gross from Social Security Disability and also makes $400/month through work activity. $ 167.50 -- EARNED INCOME - Because she is disabled, the DAB earned income disregard applies. $400 - $65 = $335. Her countable earned income is 1/2 of $335 = $167.50 + $1500.00 -- UNEARNED INCOME from Social Security Disability = $1,667.50 --TOTAL income. This is above the SLIMB limit of $1,276 (2020) but she can still qualify for MIPP. 2. Parent/Caretaker Relatives with MAGI-like Budgeting - Including Medicare Beneficiaries. Consumers who fall into the DAB category (Age 65+/Disabled/Blind) and would otherwise be budgeted with non-MAGI rules can opt to use Affordable Care Act MAGI rules if they are the parent/caretaker of a child under age 18 or under age 19 and in school full time. This is referred to as âÂÂMAGI-like budgeting.â Under MAGI rules income can be up to 138% of the FPLâÂÂagain, higher than the limit for DAB budgeting, which is equivalent to only 83% FPL. MAGI-like consumers can be enrolled in either MSP or MIPP, depending on if their income is higher or lower than 120% of the FPL. If their income is under 120% FPL, they are eligible for MSP as a SLIMB. If income is above 120% FPL, then they can enroll in MIPP. (See GIS 18 MA/001 - 2018 Medicaid Managed Care Transition for Enrollees Gaining Medicare, #4) 3. New Medicare Enrollees who are Not Yet in a Medicare Savings Program When a consumer has Medicaid through the New York State of Health (NYSoH) Marketplace and then enrolls in Medicare when she turns age 65 or because she received Social Security Disability for 24 months, her Medicaid case is normally** transferred to the local department of social services (LDSS)(HRA in NYC) to be rebudgeted under non-MAGI budgeting. During the transition process, she should be reimbursed for the Part B premiums via MIPP. However, the transition time can vary based on age. AGE 65+ For those who enroll in Medicare at age 65+, the Medicaid case takes about four months to be rebudgeted and approved by the LDSS. The consumer is entitled to MIPP payments for at least three months during the transition. Once the case is with the LDSS she should automatically be re-evaluated for MSP. Consumers UNDER 65 who receive Medicare due to disability status are entitled to keep MAGI Medicaid through NYSoH for up to 12 months (also known as continuous coverage, See NY Social Services Law 366, subd. 4(c). These consumers should receive MIPP payments for as long as their cases remain with NYSoH and throughout the transition to the LDSS. NOTE during erectile dysfunction treatment emergency their case may remain with NYSoH for more than 12 months. See here. See GIS 18 MA/001 - 2018 Medicaid Managed Care Transition for Enrollees Gaining Medicare, #4 for an explanation of this process. Note. During the erectile dysfunction treatment emergency, those who have Medicaid through the NYSOH marketplace and enroll in Medicare should NOT have their cases transitioned to the LDSS. They should keep the same MAGI budgeting and automatically receive MIPP payments. See GIS 20 MA/04 or this article on erectile dysfunction treatment eligibility changes 4. Those with Special Budgeting after Losing SSI (DAC, Pickle, 1619b) Disabled Adult Child (DAC). Special budgeting is available to those who are 18+ and lose SSI because they begin receiving Disabled Adult Child (DAC) benefits (or receive an increase in the amount of their benefit). Consumer must have become disabled or blind before age 22 to receive the benefit. If the new DAC benefit amount was disregarded and the consumer would otherwise be eligible for SSI, they can keep Medicaid eligibility with NO SPEND DOWN. See this article. Consumers may have income higher than MSP limits, but keep full Medicaid with no spend down. Therefore, they are eligible for payment of their Part B premiums. See page 96 of the Medicaid Reference Guide (Categorical Factors). If their income is lower than the MSP SLIMB threshold, they can be added to MSP. If higher than the threshold, they can be reimbursed via MIPP. Cialis logoÃÂÂFor the podcast associated with this article, please visit https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/pages/Podcasts.This Issue opens with a Mail order levitra Special Article cialis logo entitled âÂÂThe win ratio approach for composite endpoints. Practical guidance based on previous experienceâ by Björn Redfors from Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden, and colleagues. The authors remind us that the win ratio was introduced in 2012 as a new method for examining composite endpoints and has since been widely adopted in cardiovascular (CV) trials.1 Improving upon conventional methods for analysing composite cialis logo endpoints, the win ratio accounts for relative priorities of the components and allows the components to be different types of outcomes. For example, the win ratio can combine the time to death with the number of occurrences of a non-fatal outcome such as CV-related hospitalizations in a single hierarchical composite endpoint. The win ratio can provide greater statistical power to detect and quantify a treatment difference by using all available information contained in the component outcomes. The win ratio can also incorporate quantitative outcomes such cialis logo as exercise tests or quality of life scores. This manuscript provides an overview of the principles behind the win ratio and reveals insights into how to implement the win ratio in CV trial design and reporting, including how to determine trial size.The Issue continues with a focus on ischaemic heart disease. Artificial intelligence (AI) is profoundly changing our approach to patient management in many fields of CV medicine.2âÂÂ5 In addition, AI can dip into the electronic medical record, screen patients, use natural language processing to identify individuals with specific phenotypes, and rapidly identify candidates for research protocols and invite them into a study programme.6 In a clinical research manuscript entitled âÂÂFeasibility of using deep learning to detect coronary artery disease based on facial photoâÂÂ, Shen Lin from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College in Beijing, PeopleâÂÂs Republic of China and colleagues developed and validated a deep learning algorithm for detecting coronary artery disease (CAD) based on facial photos.7 The authors conducted a multicentre cross-sectional study of patients undergoing coronary angiography or computed tomography angiography at nine Chinese sites to train and validate a deep convolutional neural network for the detection of CAD (at least one stenosis âÂÂ¥50%) from facial photos of patients. Between July 2017 and March 2019, â¼5700 patients from eight sites were consecutively enrolled and randomly cialis logo divided into training and validation groups for algorithm development. Between April 2019 and July 2019, â¼1000 patients from nine sites were enrolled in the test group. Sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) were calculated using invasive coronary angiography or coronary computed tomography angiography as the reference standard cialis logo. Using an operating cut-off point with high sensitivity, the CAD detection algorithm had a sensitivity of 0.80 and specificity of 0.54 in the test group. The AUC was 0.730(Figure 1). The AUC for the algorithm was significantly higher than that for cialis logo the DiamondâÂÂForrester model and for the CAD consortium clinical score. Figure 1Development and validation of a deep learning algorithm to detect coronary artery disease based on facial photo. AUC, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. CAD, coronary artery cialis logo disease. CI, confidence interval. DF, DiamondâÂÂForrester model cialis logo. LR, logistic regression. A deep learning algorithm was developed to detect coronary artery disease based on four facial photos. The algorithm performance was significantly better than traditional models in the validation and test populations (from Lin S, Li Z, Fu B, Chen S, Li X, Wang Y, Wang X, Lv B, Xu B, Song X, cialis logo Zhang Y-J, Cheng X, Huang W, Pu J, Zhang Q, Xia Y, Du B, Ji X, Zheng Z. Feasibility of using deep learning to detect coronary artery disease based on facial photo. See pages 4400âÂÂ4411).Figure 1Development and validation of a deep learning algorithm to detect coronary artery disease based on facial photo. AUC, area cialis logo under the receiver operating characteristic curve. CAD, coronary artery disease. CI, confidence interval cialis logo. DF, DiamondâÂÂForrester model. LR, logistic regression. A deep learning cialis logo algorithm was developed to detect coronary artery disease based on four facial photos. The algorithm performance was significantly better than traditional models in the validation and test populations (from Lin S, Li Z, Fu B, Chen S, Li X, Wang Y, Wang X, Lv B, Xu B, Song X, Zhang Y-J, Cheng X, Huang W, Pu J, Zhang Q, Xia Y, Du B, Ji X, Zheng Z. Feasibility of using deep learning to detect coronary artery disease based on facial photo. See pages cialis logo 4400âÂÂ4411).The authors conclude that their results suggest that a deep learning algorithm based on facial photos can assist in CAD detection in this Chinese cohort. This technique may hold promise for pre-test CAD probability assessment in outpatient clinics or CAD screening in a community. The manuscript is accompanied by an Editorial by Christos Kotanidis and Charalambos Antoniades from the University of Oxford in the UK.8 They note that deep learning and AI in general are slowly claiming the central spot in biomedical research cialis logo. Combined with advances in technology, they will pave the way for highly accurate, personalized diagnostics and revolutionize medicine as we know it.The use of beta-blockers in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients remains a controversial topic. The 2012 European Society of Cardiology guidelines recommended the use of beta-blockers in patients with COPD and CV diseases (CVDs).9 Although the rate of beta-blocker prescription has increased significantly since then, the problem of underutilization remains prominent in many countries.10 In a clinical research article entitled âÂÂAssociation of beta-blocker use with survival and pulmonary function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary and cardiovascular disease. A systematic review cialis logo and meta-analysisâÂÂ, Ruo-Lan Xiang from the Peking University School of Basic Medical Sciences in Beijing, China, and colleagues sought to clarify the effect of beta-blockers on respiratory function and survival in COPD patients with CVD as well as the difference between the effects of cardioselective and non-cardioselective beta-blockers.11 In this meta-analysis, the authors compared the differences in various survival indicators between COPD patients taking beta-blockers and those not taking beta-blockers. Forty-nine studies were included, with a total sample size of â¼670 000 patients. Among these, 12 studies were randomized controlled trials and 37 studies were observational. The hazard ratios of all-cause mortality were significantly lower between COPD cialis logo patients who were treated with beta-blockers, whether cardioselective beta-blockers or non-cardioselective beta-blockers, as compared with those who were not treated with beta-blockers. Of note, COPD patients treated with cardioselective beta-blockers showed no difference in ventilation effect after the use of an agonist, in comparison with placebo.The authors conclude that the use of beta-blockers in COPD patients is not only safe but also reduces their all-cause and in-hospital mortality. In addition, cialis logo cardioselective beta-blockers do not affect the action of bronchodilators. Thus, beta-blockers should be prescribed freely when indicated in patients with COPD and CVD. This manuscript is accompanied by an Editorial by Roberto Ferrari from the Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria di Ferrara Arcispedale SantâÂÂAnna in Cotignola, Italy, and colleagues.12 The authors note that the last and most important aspect that shines through in several parts of the article by Yang et al. Is the strong, passionate, and honest appeal to doctors to avoid unjustified bias in the use of a class of drugs that has the potential to save several lives.Current clinical practice guidelines recommend early intravenous administration of beta-blockers (as a drug class) to patients with an ongoing acute myocardial infarction.13 However, it is unknown whether different beta-blockers exert the same cardioprotective effect in ischaemiaâÂÂreperfusion injury which remains an unmet therapeutic need.14 In a translational research article entitled âÂÂMetoprolol exerts a non-class effect against ischaemiaâÂÂreperfusion injury by abrogating exacerbated cialis logo inflammationâÂÂ, AgustÃÂn Clemente-Moragón from the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC) in Madrid, Spain, and colleagues compared three clinically approved intravenous beta-blockers.15 Mice undergoing 45 min/24 h ischaemia/reperfusion received vehicle, metoprolol, atenolol, or propranolol after 35 min of ischaemia. The effect on neutrophil infiltration was tested in three models of exacerbated inflammation. Neutrophil migration was evaluated in vitro and in vivo by intravital microscopy. The effect of beta-blockers on the conformation of the ò1 adrenergic receptor was studied in silico cialis logo. Of the tested beta-blockers, only metoprolol significantly reduced infarct size by almost 50%, while atenolol and propranolol had no effect on infarct size. In the cialis logo three exacerbated inflammation models, neutrophil infiltration was significantly attenuated only in the presence of metoprolol (60, 65, and 70% reductions vs. Vehicle in myocardial ischaemia/reperfusion injury, thioglycolate-induced peritonitis, and lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury, respectively). Migration studies confirmed the particular ability of metoprolol to disrupt neutrophil dynamics. In silico analysis indicated intracellular ò1 adrenergic receptor conformational changes cialis logo when bound to different metoprolol from those observed with the other two beta-blockers (Figure 2). Figure 2Metoprolol exerts a particular protective effect against neutrophil-mediated ischaemia-reperfusion injury. The cardioprotective properties of metoprolol derive from its particular ability to target neutrophils and reduce ischaemia-reperfusion injury, whereas atenolol and propranolol have no effect on this cell population or on IS. Conformational changes induced in the ò1AR upon binding to metoprolol differ significantly from cialis logo those induced by atenolol and propranolol, and this difference may underlie the neutrophil-stunning action of metoprolol. These data have important implications because clinical practice guidelines currently recommend the use of ò-blockers during acute myocardial infarction as a drug class, making no distinction between them. (from Clemente-Moragón A, Mónica M, Villena-Gutiérrez R, Lalama DV, cialis logo GarcÃÂaâÂÂPrieto J, MartÃÂnez F, Sánchez-Cabo F, Fuster V, Oliver E, Ibáñez B. Metoprolol exerts a non-class effect against ischaemiaâÂÂreperfusion injury by abrogating exacerbated inflammation. See pages 4425âÂÂ4440)Figure 2Metoprolol exerts a particular protective effect against neutrophil-mediated ischaemia-reperfusion injury. The cardioprotective properties of metoprolol derive from its particular ability to cialis logo target neutrophils and reduce ischaemia-reperfusion injury, whereas atenolol and propranolol have no effect on this cell population or on IS. Conformational changes induced in the ò1AR upon binding to metoprolol differ significantly from those induced by atenolol and propranolol, and this difference may underlie the neutrophil-stunning action of metoprolol. These data have important implications because clinical practice guidelines currently recommend the use of ò-blockers during acute myocardial infarction as a drug class, making no distinction between them. (from Clemente-Moragón cialis logo A, Mónica M, Villena-Gutiérrez R, Lalama DV, GarcÃÂaâÂÂPrieto J, MartÃÂnez F, Sánchez-Cabo F, Fuster V, Oliver E, Ibáñez B. Metoprolol exerts a non-class effect against ischaemiaâÂÂreperfusion injury by abrogating exacerbated inflammation. See pages 4425âÂÂ4440)The authors conclude that metoprolol exerts a disruptive action cialis logo on neutrophil dynamics during exacerbated inflammation, resulting in an infarct-limiting effect not observed with atenolol or propranolol. The differential effect of beta-blockers may be related to distinct conformational changes in the ò1 adrenergic receptor upon metoprolol binding. The manuscript is accompanied by an Editorial by Gerd Heusch and Petra Kleinbongard from the Zentrum für Innere Medizin in Essen, Germany.16 They propose the following roadmap for the future. (i) confirmation of the current findings cialis logo in the more clinically relevant pig model of reperfused acute myocardial injury. (ii) inclusion in future studies of a detailed morphometric analysis of neutrophil capillary plugging, measurement of regional myocardial blood flow, and quantification of the area of microvascular coronary obstruction. And (iii) comparison of metoprolol with stronger competitors such as carvedilol and nebivolol to ascertain its superiority over other beta-blockers in cardioprotection.The editors hope that this issue of the European Heart Journal will be of interest to its readers and thank the reviewers for their outstanding contribution to the success of the Journal.With thanks to Amelia Meier-Batschelet, Johanna Huggler, and Martin Meyer for help with compilation of this article. References1Redfors B, Gregson J, Crowley A, McAndrew T, Ben-Yehuda O, Stone GW, Pocock cialis logo SJ. The win ratio approach for composite endpoints. Practical guidance based on previous experience cialis logo. Eur Heart J 2020;41:4391âÂÂ4399.2Pennell D, Delgado V, Knuuti J, Maurovich-Horvat P, Bax JJ. The year in cardiology. Imaging. Eur Heart J 2020;41:739âÂÂ747.3Fraser AG, Byrne RA, Kautzner J, Butchart EG, Szymaà Âski P, Leggeri I, de Boer RA, Caiani EG, Van de Werf F, Vardas PE, Badimon L. Implementing the new European Regulations on medical devices-clinical responsibilities for evidence-based practice. A report from the Regulatory Affairs Committee of the European Society of Cardiology. Eur Heart J 2020;41:2589âÂÂ2596.4Camm AJ, Lip GYH, Schilling R, Calkins H, Steffel J. The year in cardiology. Arrhythmias and pacing. Eur Heart J 2020;41:619âÂÂ625.5Ray KK, Laufs U, Cosentino F, Lobo MD, Landmesser U. The year in cardiology. Cardiovascular prevention. Eur Heart J 2020;41:1157âÂÂ1163.6Nicholls M. ESC Paul Hugenholtz Lecture for Innovation 2020. Eur Heart J 2020;doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehaa788.7Lin S, Li Z, Fu B, Chen S, Li X, Wang Y, Wang X, Lv B, Xu B, Song X, Zhang Y-J, Cheng X, Huang W, Pu J, Zhang Q, Xia Y, Du B, Ji X, Zheng Z. Feasibility of using deep learning to detect coronary artery disease based on facial photo. Eur Heart J 2020;41:4400âÂÂ4411.8Kotanidis CP, Antoniades C. Selfies in cardiovascular medicine. Welcome to a new era of medical diagnostics. Eur Heart J 2020;41:4412âÂÂ4414.9McMurray JJ, Adamopoulos S, Anker SD, Auricchio A, Böhm M, Dickstein K, Falk V, Filippatos G, Fonseca C, Gomez-Sanchez MA, Jaarsma T, Køber L, Lip GY, Maggioni AP, Parkhomenko A, Pieske BM, Popescu BA, Rønnevik PK, Rutten FH, Schwitter J, Seferovic P, Stepinska J, Trindade PT, Voors AA, Zannad F, Zeiher A. ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure 2012. The Task Force for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Acute and Chronic Heart Failure 2012 of the European Society of Cardiology. Developed in collaboration with the Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the ESC. Eur Heart J 2012;33:1787âÂÂ1847.10Sessa M, Mascolo A, Mortensen RN, Andersen MP, Rosano GMC, Capuano A, Rossi F, Gislason G, Enghusen-Poulsen H, Torp-Pedersen C. Relationship between heart failure, concurrent chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and beta-blocker use. A Danish nationwide cohort study. Eur J Heart Fail 2018;20:548âÂÂ556.11Yang Y, Xiang Z, Yang J, Wang W, Xu Z, Xiang R. Association of beta-blocker use with survival and pulmonary function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary and cardiovascular disease. A systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur Heart J 2020;41:4415âÂÂ4422.12Ferrari R, Pavasini R, Campo G. Beta-blockers and COPD. How can harmony be restored in a marriage in crisis?. Eur Heart J 2020;41:4423âÂÂ4424.13Ibanez B, James S, Agewall S, Antunes MJ, Bucciarelli-Ducci C, Bueno H, Caforio ALP, Crea F, Goudevenos JA, Halvorsen S, Hindricks G, Kastrati A, Lenzen MJ, Prescott E, Roffi M, Valgimigli M, Varenhorst C, Vranckx P, Widimský P. 2017 ESC Guidelines for the management of acute myocardial infarction in patients presenting with ST-segment elevation. The Task Force for the management of acute myocardial infarction in patients presenting with ST-segment elevation of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). Eur Heart J 2018;39:119âÂÂ177.14Hausenloy DJ, Botker HE, Engstrom T, Erlinge D, Heusch G, Ibanez B, Kloner RA, Ovize M, Yellon DM, Garcia-Dorado D. Targeting reperfusion injury in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. Trials and tribulations. Eur Heart J 2017;38:935âÂÂ941.15Clemente-Moragón A, Gómez M, Villena-Gutiérrez R, Lalama DV, GarcÃÂa-Prieto J, MartÃÂnez F, Sánchez-Cabo F, Fuster V, Oliver E, Ibáñez B. Metoprolol exerts a non-class effect against ischaemiaâÂÂreperfusion injury by abrogating exacerbated inflammation. Eur Heart J 2020;41:4425âÂÂ4440.16Heusch G, Kleinbongard P. Is metoprolol more cardioprotective than other beta-blockers?. Eur Heart J 2020;41:4441âÂÂ4443. Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. é The Author(s) 2020. For permissions, please email. Journals.permissions@oup.com.. ÃÂÂFor the podcast associated with this article, please visit https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/pages/Podcasts.This Issue opens with a Special Article entitled âÂÂThe win ratio approach how to get cialis without prescription for composite endpoints. Practical guidance based on previous experienceâ by Björn Redfors from Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden, and colleagues. The authors remind us that the win ratio how to get cialis without prescription was introduced in 2012 as a new method for examining composite endpoints and has since been widely adopted in cardiovascular (CV) trials.1 Improving upon conventional methods for analysing composite endpoints, the win ratio accounts for relative priorities of the components and allows the components to be different types of outcomes. For example, the win ratio can combine the time to death with the number of occurrences of a non-fatal outcome such as CV-related hospitalizations in a single hierarchical composite endpoint. The win ratio can provide greater statistical power to detect and quantify a treatment difference by using all available information contained in the component outcomes. The win ratio can how to get cialis without prescription also incorporate quantitative outcomes such as exercise tests or quality of life scores. This manuscript provides an overview of the principles behind the win ratio and reveals insights into how to implement the win ratio in CV trial design and reporting, including how to determine trial size.The Issue continues with a focus on ischaemic heart disease. Artificial intelligence (AI) is profoundly changing our approach to patient management in many fields of CV medicine.2âÂÂ5 In addition, AI can dip into the electronic medical record, screen patients, use natural language processing to identify individuals with specific phenotypes, and rapidly identify candidates for research protocols and invite them into a study programme.6 In a clinical research manuscript entitled âÂÂFeasibility of using deep learning to detect coronary artery disease based on facial photoâÂÂ, Shen Lin from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College in Beijing, PeopleâÂÂs Republic of China and colleagues developed and validated a deep learning algorithm for detecting coronary artery disease (CAD) based on facial photos.7 The authors conducted a multicentre cross-sectional study of patients undergoing coronary angiography or computed tomography angiography at nine Chinese sites to train and validate a deep convolutional neural network for the detection of CAD (at least one stenosis âÂÂ¥50%) from facial photos of patients. Between July 2017 and March 2019, â¼5700 patients from eight sites were consecutively how to get cialis without prescription enrolled and randomly divided into training and validation groups for algorithm development. Between April 2019 and July 2019, â¼1000 patients from nine sites were enrolled in the test group. Sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) were calculated using invasive coronary angiography or coronary computed tomography angiography as how to get cialis without prescription the reference standard. Using an operating cut-off point with high sensitivity, the CAD detection algorithm had a sensitivity of 0.80 and specificity of 0.54 in the test group. The AUC was 0.730(Figure 1). The AUC for the algorithm was significantly higher than that for the how to get cialis without prescription DiamondâÂÂForrester model and for the CAD consortium clinical score. Figure 1Development and validation of a deep learning algorithm to detect coronary artery disease based on facial photo. AUC, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. CAD, coronary artery disease how to get cialis without prescription. CI, confidence interval. DF, DiamondâÂÂForrester how to get cialis without prescription model. LR, logistic regression. A deep learning algorithm was developed to detect coronary artery disease based on four facial photos. The algorithm performance was significantly better than traditional models in the validation and how to get cialis without prescription test populations (from Lin S, Li Z, Fu B, Chen S, Li X, Wang Y, Wang X, Lv B, Xu B, Song X, Zhang Y-J, Cheng X, Huang W, Pu J, Zhang Q, Xia Y, Du B, Ji X, Zheng Z. Feasibility of using deep learning to detect coronary artery disease based on facial photo. See pages 4400âÂÂ4411).Figure 1Development and validation of a deep learning algorithm to detect coronary artery disease based on facial photo. AUC, area how to get cialis without prescription under the receiver operating characteristic curve. CAD, coronary artery disease. CI, confidence how to get cialis without prescription interval. DF, DiamondâÂÂForrester model. LR, logistic regression. A deep how to get cialis without prescription learning algorithm was developed to detect coronary artery disease based on four facial photos. The algorithm performance was significantly better than traditional models in the validation and test populations (from Lin S, Li Z, Fu B, Chen S, Li X, Wang Y, Wang X, Lv B, Xu B, Song X, Zhang Y-J, Cheng X, Huang W, Pu J, Zhang Q, Xia Y, Du B, Ji X, Zheng Z. Feasibility of using deep learning to detect coronary artery disease based on facial photo. See pages 4400âÂÂ4411).The authors conclude that their results suggest how to get cialis without prescription that a deep learning algorithm based on facial photos can assist in CAD detection in this Chinese cohort. This technique may hold promise for pre-test CAD probability assessment in outpatient clinics or CAD screening in a community. The manuscript is accompanied by an Editorial by Christos Kotanidis and Charalambos Antoniades from the University of Oxford in the UK.8 They note that deep learning and AI in general are slowly how to get cialis without prescription claiming the central spot in biomedical research. Combined with advances in technology, they will pave the way for highly accurate, personalized diagnostics and revolutionize medicine as we know it.The use of beta-blockers in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients remains a controversial topic. The 2012 European Society of Cardiology guidelines recommended the use of beta-blockers in patients with COPD and CV diseases (CVDs).9 Although the rate of beta-blocker prescription has increased significantly since then, the problem of underutilization remains prominent in many countries.10 In a clinical research article entitled âÂÂAssociation of beta-blocker use with survival and pulmonary function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary and cardiovascular disease. A systematic review and meta-analysisâÂÂ, Ruo-Lan Xiang from the Peking University School of Basic how to get cialis without prescription Medical Sciences in Beijing, China, and colleagues sought to clarify the effect of beta-blockers on respiratory function and survival in COPD patients with CVD as well as the difference between the effects of cardioselective and non-cardioselective beta-blockers.11 In this meta-analysis, the authors compared the differences in various survival indicators between COPD patients taking beta-blockers and those not taking beta-blockers. Forty-nine studies were included, with a total sample size of â¼670 000 patients. Among these, 12 studies were randomized controlled trials and 37 studies were observational. The hazard ratios of all-cause mortality were significantly lower between COPD patients who were treated with beta-blockers, whether cardioselective beta-blockers or non-cardioselective beta-blockers, as compared with those who were not treated with beta-blockers how to get cialis without prescription. Of note, COPD patients treated with cardioselective beta-blockers showed no difference in ventilation effect after the use of an agonist, in comparison with placebo.The authors conclude that the use of beta-blockers in COPD patients is not only safe but also reduces their all-cause and in-hospital mortality. In addition, cardioselective beta-blockers how to get cialis without prescription do not affect the action of bronchodilators. Thus, beta-blockers should be prescribed freely when indicated in patients with COPD and CVD. This manuscript is accompanied by an Editorial by Roberto Ferrari from the Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria di Ferrara Arcispedale SantâÂÂAnna in Cotignola, Italy, and colleagues.12 The authors note that the last and most important aspect that shines through in several parts of the article by Yang et al. Is the strong, passionate, and honest appeal to doctors to avoid unjustified bias in the use of a class of drugs that has the potential to save several lives.Current clinical practice guidelines recommend early intravenous administration of beta-blockers (as a drug class) to patients with an ongoing acute myocardial infarction.13 However, it is unknown whether different beta-blockers exert the same cardioprotective effect in ischaemiaâÂÂreperfusion injury which remains an unmet therapeutic need.14 In a translational research article entitled âÂÂMetoprolol exerts a non-class effect against ischaemiaâÂÂreperfusion injury by abrogating exacerbated inflammationâÂÂ, AgustÃÂn Clemente-Moragón from the Centro how to get cialis without prescription Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC) in Madrid, Spain, and colleagues compared three clinically approved intravenous beta-blockers.15 Mice undergoing 45 min/24 h ischaemia/reperfusion received vehicle, metoprolol, atenolol, or propranolol after 35 min of ischaemia. The effect on neutrophil infiltration was tested in three models of exacerbated inflammation. Neutrophil migration was evaluated in vitro and in vivo by intravital microscopy. The effect of beta-blockers on the conformation of the ò1 adrenergic receptor was studied in how to get cialis without prescription silico. Of the tested beta-blockers, only metoprolol significantly reduced infarct size by almost 50%, while atenolol and propranolol had no effect on infarct size. In the three exacerbated inflammation models, neutrophil infiltration was significantly attenuated only in the presence of metoprolol (60, 65, how to get cialis without prescription and 70% reductions vs. Vehicle in myocardial ischaemia/reperfusion injury, thioglycolate-induced peritonitis, and lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury, respectively). Migration studies confirmed the particular ability of metoprolol to disrupt neutrophil dynamics. In silico analysis how to get cialis without prescription indicated intracellular ò1 adrenergic receptor conformational changes when bound to different metoprolol from those observed with the other two beta-blockers (Figure 2). Figure 2Metoprolol exerts a particular protective effect against neutrophil-mediated ischaemia-reperfusion injury. The cardioprotective properties of metoprolol derive from its particular ability to target neutrophils and reduce ischaemia-reperfusion injury, whereas atenolol and propranolol have no effect on this cell population or on IS. Conformational changes induced in the ò1AR upon binding to metoprolol differ significantly from those induced by atenolol and propranolol, and this difference may how to get cialis without prescription underlie the neutrophil-stunning action of metoprolol. These data have important implications because clinical practice guidelines currently recommend the use of ò-blockers during acute myocardial infarction as a drug class, making no distinction between them. (from Clemente-Moragón A, Mónica M, Villena-Gutiérrez R, Lalama DV, GarcÃÂaâÂÂPrieto J, MartÃÂnez F, Sánchez-Cabo F, Fuster V, Oliver E, Ibáñez how to get cialis without prescription B. Metoprolol exerts a non-class effect against ischaemiaâÂÂreperfusion injury by abrogating exacerbated inflammation. See pages 4425âÂÂ4440)Figure 2Metoprolol exerts a particular protective effect against neutrophil-mediated ischaemia-reperfusion injury. The cardioprotective properties of metoprolol derive from its particular ability to target neutrophils and reduce ischaemia-reperfusion injury, whereas atenolol and propranolol have no effect on this cell population or on IS how to get cialis without prescription. Conformational changes induced in the ò1AR upon binding to metoprolol differ significantly from those induced by atenolol and propranolol, and this difference may underlie the neutrophil-stunning action of metoprolol. These data have important implications because clinical practice guidelines currently recommend the use of ò-blockers during acute myocardial infarction as a drug class, making no distinction between them. (from Clemente-Moragón A, Mónica M, Villena-Gutiérrez R, Lalama DV, GarcÃÂaâÂÂPrieto J, MartÃÂnez F, Sánchez-Cabo F, Fuster V, Oliver E, Ibáñez how to get cialis without prescription B. Metoprolol exerts a non-class effect against ischaemiaâÂÂreperfusion injury by abrogating exacerbated inflammation. See pages 4425âÂÂ4440)The authors how to get cialis without prescription conclude that metoprolol exerts a disruptive action on neutrophil dynamics during exacerbated inflammation, resulting in an infarct-limiting effect not observed with atenolol or propranolol. The differential effect of beta-blockers may be related to distinct conformational changes in the ò1 adrenergic receptor upon metoprolol binding. The manuscript is accompanied by an Editorial by Gerd Heusch and Petra Kleinbongard from the Zentrum für Innere Medizin in Essen, Germany.16 They propose the following roadmap for the future. (i) confirmation how to get cialis without prescription of the current findings in the more clinically relevant pig model of reperfused acute myocardial injury. (ii) inclusion in future studies of a detailed morphometric analysis of neutrophil capillary plugging, measurement of regional myocardial blood flow, and quantification of the area of microvascular coronary obstruction. And (iii) comparison of metoprolol with stronger competitors such as carvedilol and nebivolol to ascertain its superiority over other beta-blockers in cardioprotection.The editors hope that this issue of the European Heart Journal will be of interest to its readers and thank the reviewers for their outstanding contribution to the success of the Journal.With thanks to Amelia Meier-Batschelet, Johanna Huggler, and Martin Meyer for help with compilation of this article. References1Redfors B, how to get cialis without prescription Gregson J, Crowley A, McAndrew T, Ben-Yehuda O, Stone GW, Pocock SJ. The win ratio approach for composite endpoints. Practical guidance based on how to get cialis without prescription previous experience. Eur Heart J 2020;41:4391âÂÂ4399.2Pennell D, Delgado V, Knuuti J, Maurovich-Horvat P, Bax JJ. The year in cardiology. Imaging. Eur Heart J 2020;41:739âÂÂ747.3Fraser AG, Byrne RA, Kautzner J, Butchart EG, Szymaà Âski P, Leggeri I, de Boer RA, Caiani EG, Van de Werf F, Vardas PE, Badimon L. Implementing the new European Regulations on medical devices-clinical responsibilities for evidence-based practice. A report from the Regulatory Affairs Committee of the European Society of Cardiology. Eur Heart J 2020;41:2589âÂÂ2596.4Camm AJ, Lip GYH, Schilling R, Calkins H, Steffel J. The year in cardiology. Arrhythmias and pacing. Eur Heart J 2020;41:619âÂÂ625.5Ray KK, Laufs U, Cosentino F, Lobo MD, Landmesser U. The year in cardiology. Cardiovascular prevention. Eur Heart J 2020;41:1157âÂÂ1163.6Nicholls M. ESC Paul Hugenholtz Lecture for Innovation 2020. Eur Heart J 2020;doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehaa788.7Lin S, Li Z, Fu B, Chen S, Li X, Wang Y, Wang X, Lv B, Xu B, Song X, Zhang Y-J, Cheng X, Huang W, Pu J, Zhang Q, Xia Y, Du B, Ji X, Zheng Z. Feasibility of using deep learning to detect coronary artery disease based on facial photo. Eur Heart J 2020;41:4400âÂÂ4411.8Kotanidis CP, Antoniades C. Selfies in cardiovascular medicine. Welcome to a new era of medical diagnostics. Eur Heart J 2020;41:4412âÂÂ4414.9McMurray JJ, Adamopoulos S, Anker SD, Auricchio A, Böhm M, Dickstein K, Falk V, Filippatos G, Fonseca C, Gomez-Sanchez MA, Jaarsma T, Køber L, Lip GY, Maggioni AP, Parkhomenko A, Pieske BM, Popescu BA, Rønnevik PK, Rutten FH, Schwitter J, Seferovic P, Stepinska J, Trindade PT, Voors AA, Zannad F, Zeiher A. ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure 2012. The Task Force for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Acute and Chronic Heart Failure 2012 of the European Society of Cardiology. Developed in collaboration with the Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the ESC. Eur Heart J 2012;33:1787âÂÂ1847.10Sessa M, Mascolo A, Mortensen RN, Andersen MP, Rosano GMC, Capuano A, Rossi F, Gislason G, Enghusen-Poulsen H, Torp-Pedersen C. Relationship between heart failure, concurrent chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and beta-blocker use. A Danish nationwide cohort study. Eur J Heart Fail 2018;20:548âÂÂ556.11Yang Y, Xiang Z, Yang J, Wang W, Xu Z, Xiang R. Association of beta-blocker use with survival and pulmonary function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary and cardiovascular disease. A systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur Heart J 2020;41:4415âÂÂ4422.12Ferrari R, Pavasini R, Campo G. Beta-blockers and COPD. How can harmony be restored in a marriage in crisis?. Eur Heart J 2020;41:4423âÂÂ4424.13Ibanez B, James S, Agewall S, Antunes MJ, Bucciarelli-Ducci C, Bueno H, Caforio ALP, Crea F, Goudevenos JA, Halvorsen S, Hindricks G, Kastrati A, Lenzen MJ, Prescott E, Roffi M, Valgimigli M, Varenhorst C, Vranckx P, Widimský P. 2017 ESC Guidelines for the management of acute myocardial infarction in patients presenting with ST-segment elevation. The Task Force for the management of acute myocardial infarction in patients presenting with ST-segment elevation of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). Eur Heart J 2018;39:119âÂÂ177.14Hausenloy DJ, Botker HE, Engstrom T, Erlinge D, Heusch G, Ibanez B, Kloner RA, Ovize M, Yellon DM, Garcia-Dorado D. Targeting reperfusion injury in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. Trials and tribulations. Eur Heart J 2017;38:935âÂÂ941.15Clemente-Moragón A, Gómez M, Villena-Gutiérrez R, Lalama DV, GarcÃÂa-Prieto J, MartÃÂnez F, Sánchez-Cabo F, Fuster V, Oliver E, Ibáñez B. Metoprolol exerts a non-class effect against ischaemiaâÂÂreperfusion injury by abrogating exacerbated inflammation. Eur Heart J 2020;41:4425âÂÂ4440.16Heusch G, Kleinbongard P. Is metoprolol more cardioprotective than other beta-blockers?. Eur Heart J 2020;41:4441âÂÂ4443. Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. é The Author(s) 2020. For permissions, please email. Journals.permissions@oup.com.. How to make cialis work betterOver the past 20 years, a large body of research has documented a relationship between higher nurse-to-patient staffing ratios and better patient outcomes, including shorter hospital stays, lower rates of failure to prevent mortality after an in-hospital complication, inpatient mortality for multiple types of patients, hospital-acquired pneumonia, unplanned extubation, respiratory failure and cardiac arrest.1âÂÂ5 In addition, patients report higher satisfaction when they are cared for in Can you buy levitra at walmart hospitals with higher staffing levels.6 7To date, most studies have not identified an âÂÂoptimalâ how to make cialis work better nurse staffing ratio,8 which creates a challenge for determining appropriate staffing levels. If increasing nurse staffing always produces at least some improvement in the quality of care, how does one determine what staffing level is best?. This decision is ultimately an economic one, balancing the benefits of nurse staffing with the other options for which how to make cialis work better those resources could be used. It is in this context that hospitals develop staffing plans, generally based on historical patterns of patient acuity.Practical challenges of nurse staffingHospital staffing plans provide the structure necessary for determining hiring and scheduling, but fall short for a number of reasons. First, there are multiple how to make cialis work better ways in which patient acuity can be measured, which can have measurable effects on the staffing levels resulting from acuity models.9 Second, patient volume and acuity can shift rapidly with changes in the volume of admissions, discharges and transfers between units. Third, staffing plans provide little guidance regarding the optimal mix of permanent staff, variable staff and externally contracted staff.The paper by Saville and colleagues10 in this issue of BMJ Quality &. Safety addresses how to make cialis work better the latter two issues by applying a simulation model to identify the optimal target for baseline nurse staffing in order to minimise periods of understaffing. Included in this model is consideration of the extent to which hospitals should leverage temporary personnel (typically obtained through an external agency) to fill gaps. The model how to make cialis work better acknowledges the likelihood that a hospital cannot realistically prevent all shifts from having a shortfall of nurses at all times, as well as the reality that hospital managers lack information about the best balance between permanent and temporary staff. In addition, the analysis includes a calculation of the costs of each staffing approach, drawing from the records of 81 inpatient wards in four hospital organisations.The application of sophisticated simulation models and other advanced analyticl approaches to analysis of nurse staffing has been limited to date, and this paper is an exemplar of the value of such research. Recent studies have used machine learning methods to forecast hospital discharge volume,11 a discrete event simulation model to determine nursing staff needs in a neonatal intensive care unit,12 and a prediction model using machine learning and hierarchical linear regression to link variation in nurse staffing with patient outcomes.13 This new study applied a unique Monte Carlo simulation model to estimate demand for nursing care and test different strategies to meet demand.The results of the analysis are not surprising in that hospitals are much how to make cialis work better less likely to experience understaffed patient shifts if they aim to have higher baseline staffing. The data demonstrate a notable leftward skew, indicating that hospitals are more likely to have large unanticipated increases in patient volume and acuity than to have unanticipated decreases. This results in hospitals being more likely to have shifts that are understaffed than shifts that are overstaffed, which inevitably places how to make cialis work better pressure on hospitals to staff at a higher level and/or have access to a larger pool of temporary nurses. It also is not surprising that hospitals will need to spend more money per patient day if they aim to reduce the percent of shifts that are understaffed. What is surprising about the results is that hospitals do not necessarily achieve cost savings by relying on temporary personnel versus setting regular staffing at a higher level.Trade-offs between permanent and temporary staffThe temporary nursing workforce enables healthcare facilities to maintain flexible yet full care teams based on patient care needs. Hospitals can how to make cialis work better use temporary nurses to address staffing gaps during leaves of absence, turnover or gaps between recruitment of permanent nurses, as well as during high-census periods. Temporary personnel are typically more expensive on an hourly basis than permanent staff. In addition, over-reliance on temporary staff can have detrimental effects on permanent nursesâ morale and motivation how to make cialis work better. Orientations prior to shifts are often limited, which leads to a twofold concern as temporary nurses feel ill-prepared for shifts and permanent staff feel flustered when required to bring the temporary nurse up to speed while being expected to continue normal operations.14 Agency nurses may be assigned to patients and units that are incongruent with their experience and skillsâÂÂeither to unfamiliar units, which affects their ability to confidently deliver care, or to less complex patients where they feel as if their skills are not used adequately.14 15 These issues can create tension between temporary and permanent nursing staff, which can be compounded by the wage disparity. Permanent staff might feel demoralised and expendable when working alongside temporary staff who are not integrated into the social fabric of the staff.16Hospital managers also must be cognisant of how to make cialis work better the potential quality impact of relying heavily on temporary nursing staff. Research on the impact of contingent nursing employment on costs and quality have often found negative effects on quality, including mortality, and higher costs.17 18 However, other studies have found that the association between temporary nursing staff and low quality result from general shortages of nursing staff, which make a hospital more likely to employ temporary staff, and not directly from the contingent staff.19âÂÂ21 Thus, temporary nurses play an important role in alleviating staffing shortages that would otherwise lead to lower quality of care.22Charting a path forward in hospital management and healthcare researchThe maturation of electronic health records and expansion of computerised healthcare management systems provide opportunities both for improved decision making about workforce deployment and for advanced workforce research. In the area of workforce management, nursing how to make cialis work better and other leaders have a growing array of workforce planning tools available to them. Such tools are most effective when they display clear information about predicted patient needs and staff availability, but managers still must rely on their on-the-ground understanding of their staff and their context of patient care.23 Integration of human resources data with patient outcomes data has revealed that individual nurses and their characteristics have important discrete effects on the quality of care.24 25 Future development of workforce planning tools should translate this evidence to practice. In addition, new technology platforms how to make cialis work better are emerging to facilitate direct matching between temporary healthcare personnel and healthcare organisations. One recent study tested a smartphone-based application that allowed for direct matching of locum tenens physicians with a hospital in the English National Health Service, finding that the platform generated benefits including greater transparency and lower cost.26 Similar technologies for registered nurses could facilitate better matching between hospital needs and temporary nursesâ preparedness to meet those needs.Analytical methods that fully leverage the large datasets compiled through electronic health records, human resources systems and other sources can be applied to advance research on the composition of nursing teams to improve quality of care. As noted above, prior research has applied machine learning and discrete event simulation to how to make cialis work better analyses of healthcare staffing. Other recent studies have leveraged natural language processing of nursing notes to identify fall risk factors27 and applied data mining of human resources records to understand the job titles held by nurses.28 Linking these rapidly advancing analytical approaches that assess the outcomes and costs of nurse staffing strategies, such as the work by Saville and colleagues published in this issue, to data on the impact of nurse staffing on the long-term costs of patient care will further advance the capacity of hospital leaders to design cost-effective policies for workforce deployment.Guidelines aim to align clinical care with best practice. However, simply publishing a guideline rarely triggers behavioural changes to match guideline recommendations.1âÂÂ3 We thus transform guideline recommendations into actionable tasks by introducing interventions that promote behavioural changes meant to produce guideline-concordant care. Unfortunately, not much has changed in the 25 years since Oxman and colleagues concluded that we have no âÂÂmagic bulletsâ when it comes to changing clinician behaviour.4 In fact, far from magic bullets, interventions aimed at increasing the degree to which patients receive care recommended in guidelines (eg, educational interventions, reminders, audit and feedback, financial incentives, computerised decision support) typically produce disappointingly small improvements in care.5âÂÂ10Much improvement work aims to âÂÂmake the right thing how to make cialis work better to do the easy thing to do.â Yet, design solutions which hardwire the desired actions remain few and far between. Further, improvement interventions which âÂÂsoftwireâ such actionsâÂÂnot guaranteeing that they occur, but at least increasing the likelihood that clinicians will deliver the care recommended in guidelinesâÂÂmostly produce small improvements.5âÂÂ9 Until this situation changes, we need to acknowledge the persistent reality that guidelines themselves represent a main strategy for promoting care consistent with current evidence, which means their design should promote the desired actions.11 12In this respect, guidelines constitute a type of clinical decision support. And, like all decision support interventions, guidelines require how to make cialis work better. (1) user testing to assess if the content is understood as intended and (2) empirical testing to assess if the decision support provided by the guideline does in fact promote the desired behaviours. While the processes for developing guidelines have received substantial attention over the years,13âÂÂ18 surprisingly little attention has been paid to empirically answering basic questions how to make cialis work better about the finished product. Do users understand guidelines as intended?. And, how to make cialis work better what version of a given guideline engenders the desired behaviours by clinicians?. In this issue of BMJ Quality and Safety, Jones et al19 address this gap by using simulation to compare the frequency of medication errors when clinicians administer an intravenous medication using an existing guideline in the UKâÂÂs National Health Service (NHS) versus a revised and user-tested version of the guideline that more clearly promotes the desired actions. Their findings demonstrate how to make cialis work better that changes to guideline design (through addition of actionable decision supports) based on user feedback does in fact trigger changes in behaviour that can improve safety. This is an exciting use of simulation, which we believe should encourage further studies in this vein.Ensuring end users understand and use guidelines as intendedJones and colleaguesâ approach affords an opportunity to reflect on the benefits of user testing and simulation of guidelines. The design how to make cialis work better and evaluation of their revised guidelines provides an excellent example of a careful stepwise progression in the development and evaluation of a guideline as a type of decision support for clinicians. First, in a prior study,20 they user tested the original NHS guidelines to improve retrieval and comprehension of information. The authors produced a revised guideline, which included reformatted sections as well as increased support for key calculations, such as for infusion rates. The authors again user tested the revised guideline, successfully showing higher rates of how to make cialis work better comprehension. Note that user testing refers to a specific approach focused on comprehension rather than behaviour21 and is distinct from usability testing. Second, in the current study, Jones et al evaluated whether nurse and midwife end users exhibited the desired behavioural changes when given the revised how to make cialis work better guidelines (with addition of actionable decision supports), compared with a control group working with the current version of the guidelines used in practice. As a result, Jones and colleagues verify that end users (1) understand the content in the guideline and (2) actually change their behaviour in response to using it.Simulation can play a particularly useful role in this context, as it can help identify problems with usersâ comprehension of the guideline and also empirically assess what behavioural changes occur in response to design changes in the guidelines. The level of methodological control and qualitative detail that simulation provides is difficult to feasibly replicate with real-world pilot studies, and therefore simulation fills a critical gap.Jones et al report successful changes in behaviour due to the revised guidelines in which how to make cialis work better they added actionable decision supports. For example, their earlier user testing found that participants using the initial guidelines did not account for displacement volume when reconstituting the powdered drug, leading to dosing errors. A second error with the initial guidelines involved participants using the shortest infusion rate provided (eg, guidelines state âÂÂ1 to 3âÂÂhoursâÂÂ), without realising that the shortest rate how to make cialis work better is not appropriate for certain doses (eg, 1âÂÂhour is appropriate for smaller doses, but larger doses should not be infused over 1âÂÂhour because the drug would then be administered faster than the maximum allowable infusion rate of 3âÂÂmg/kg/hour). These two issues were addressed in the revised guidelines by providing key determinants for âÂÂactionâ such as calculation formulas that account for displacement volume and infusion duration, thereby more carefully guiding end users to avoid these dose and rate errors. These changes to the how to make cialis work better guideline triggered specific behaviours (eg, calculations that account for all variables) that did not occur with the initial guidelines. Therefore, the simulation testing demonstrated the value of providing determinants for action, such as specific calculation formulas to support end users, by showing a clear reduction in dose and rate errors when using the revised guidelines compared with the initial guidelines.The authors also report that other types of medication-specific errors remained unaffected by the revised guidelines (eg, incorrect technique and flush errors)âÂÂthe changes made did not facilitate the desired actions. The initial guidelines indicate âÂÂDO NOT SHAKEâ in capital letters, and there how to make cialis work better is a section specific to âÂÂFlushingâÂÂ. In contrast, the revised guidelines do not capitalise the warning about shaking the vial, but embed the warning with a numbered sequence in the medication preparation section, aiming to increase the likelihood of reading it at the appropriate time. The revised guidelines do not have a section specific to flushing, but embed the flushing instructions as an unnumbered step in the administration section. Thus, the value of embedding technique and flushing information within the context of use was not validated in the simulation testing (ie, no significant differences in the rates of these errors), how to make cialis work better highlighting precisely the pivotal role that simulation can play in assessing whether attempts to improve usability result in actual behavioural changes.Finally, simulation can identify potential unintended consequences of a guideline. For instance, Jones and colleagues observed an increase in errors (although not statistically significant) that were not medication specific (eg, non-aseptic technique such as hand washing, swabbing vials with an alcohol wipe). Given that the revised guidelines were specific to the medication tested, it is unusual that we see a tendency how to make cialis work better toward a worsening effect on generic medication preparation skills. Again, this finding was not significant, but we highlight this to remind ourselves of the very real possibility that some interventions might introduce new and unexpected errors in response to changing workflow and practice6. Simulations offer an opportunity to spot these risks in advance.Now that Jones et how to make cialis work better al have seen how the revised guidelines change behaviour, they are optimally positioned to move forward. On one hand, they have the option of revising the guidelines further in attempts to address these resistant errors, and on the other, they can consider designing other interventions to be implemented in parallel with their user-tested guidance. At first glance, the errors that were resistant to change appear to be mechanical tasks that how to make cialis work better end users might think of as applying uniformly to multiple medications (eg, flush errors, non-aseptic technique). Therefore, a second intervention that has a more general scope (rather than drug specific) might be pursued. Regardless of how to make cialis work better what they decide to pursue, we applaud their measured approach and highlight that the key takeaway is that their next steps are supported with clearer evidence of what to expect when the guidelines are releasedâÂÂcertainly a helpful piece of information to guide decisions as to whether broad implementation of guidelines is justified.Caveats and conclusionSimulation is not a panaceaâÂÂit is not able to assess longitudinal adherence, and there are limitations to how realistically clinicians behave when observed for a few sample procedures when under the scrutiny of observers. Further, studies where interventions are implemented to assess whether they move the needle on the outcomes we care about (eg, adverse events, length of stay, patient mortality) are needed and should continue. However, having end users physically perform clinical tasks with the intervention in representative environments represents an important strategy to assess the degree to which guidelines and other decision support interventions in fact promote the desired behaviours and to how to make cialis work better spot problems in advance of implementation. Such simulation testing is not currently a routine step in intervention design. We hope it becomes a more common phenomenon, with more improvement work following the example of the approach so effectively demonstrated by Jones and colleagues.. Over the past 20 years, a large body of research has documented a relationship between http://keimfarben.dplusc.de/can-you-buy-levitra-at-walmart/ higher nurse-to-patient staffing ratios and better patient outcomes, including shorter hospital stays, lower rates of failure to prevent mortality after an in-hospital complication, inpatient mortality for multiple types of patients, hospital-acquired pneumonia, unplanned extubation, respiratory failure and cardiac arrest.1âÂÂ5 In addition, patients report higher satisfaction when they are cared for in hospitals with higher staffing levels.6 7To date, most studies have not identified an âÂÂoptimalâ nurse staffing ratio,8 which creates a challenge for determining appropriate staffing levels how to get cialis without prescription. If increasing nurse staffing always produces at least some improvement in the quality of care, how does one determine what staffing level is best?. This decision is ultimately an economic one, balancing the benefits of nurse how to get cialis without prescription staffing with the other options for which those resources could be used. It is in this context that hospitals develop staffing plans, generally based on historical patterns of patient acuity.Practical challenges of nurse staffingHospital staffing plans provide the structure necessary for determining hiring and scheduling, but fall short for a number of reasons. First, there are multiple ways in which patient acuity can be measured, which can have measurable effects on the staffing levels resulting from acuity models.9 Second, patient volume and acuity can shift rapidly with changes in the volume of admissions, discharges and transfers between units how to get cialis without prescription. Third, staffing plans provide little guidance regarding the optimal mix of permanent staff, variable staff and externally contracted staff.The paper by Saville and colleagues10 in this issue of BMJ Quality &. Safety addresses the latter two issues by applying a how to get cialis without prescription simulation model to identify the optimal target for baseline nurse staffing in order to minimise periods of understaffing. Included in this model is consideration of the extent to which hospitals should leverage temporary personnel (typically obtained through an external agency) to fill gaps. The model acknowledges the likelihood that a hospital cannot realistically prevent all shifts from having a shortfall of nurses at all times, as well as the reality that how to get cialis without prescription hospital managers lack information about the best balance between permanent and temporary staff. In addition, the analysis includes a calculation of the costs of each staffing approach, drawing from the records of 81 inpatient wards in four hospital organisations.The application of sophisticated simulation models and other advanced analyticl approaches to analysis of nurse staffing has been limited to date, and this paper is an exemplar of the value of such research. Recent studies have used machine learning methods to forecast hospital discharge volume,11 a discrete event simulation model to determine nursing staff needs in a neonatal intensive care unit,12 and a prediction model using machine learning and hierarchical linear regression to link variation in nurse staffing with patient outcomes.13 This new study applied a unique Monte Carlo simulation model to estimate demand for nursing care and test different strategies to meet demand.The results of the how to get cialis without prescription analysis are not surprising in that hospitals are much less likely to experience understaffed patient shifts if they aim to have higher baseline staffing. The data demonstrate a notable leftward skew, indicating that hospitals are more likely to have large unanticipated increases in patient volume and acuity than to have unanticipated decreases. This results in hospitals being more likely to have shifts that are understaffed than shifts that are overstaffed, which inevitably places pressure on hospitals how to get cialis without prescription to staff at a higher level and/or have access to a larger pool of temporary nurses. It also is not surprising that hospitals will need to spend more money per patient day if they aim to reduce the percent of shifts that are understaffed. What is surprising about the results is that hospitals do not necessarily achieve cost savings by relying on temporary personnel versus setting regular staffing at a higher level.Trade-offs between permanent and temporary staffThe temporary nursing workforce enables healthcare facilities to maintain flexible yet full care teams based on patient care needs. Hospitals can use temporary nurses to address staffing gaps during leaves of absence, turnover or gaps between recruitment of permanent nurses, as how to get cialis without prescription well as during high-census periods. Temporary personnel are typically more expensive on an hourly basis than permanent staff. In addition, how to get cialis without prescription over-reliance on temporary staff can have detrimental effects on permanent nursesâ morale and motivation. Orientations prior to shifts are often limited, which leads to a twofold concern as temporary nurses feel ill-prepared for shifts and permanent staff feel flustered when required to bring the temporary nurse up to speed while being expected to continue normal operations.14 Agency nurses may be assigned to patients and units that are incongruent with their experience and skillsâÂÂeither to unfamiliar units, which affects their ability to confidently deliver care, or to less complex patients where they feel as if their skills are not used adequately.14 15 These issues can create tension between temporary and permanent nursing staff, which can be compounded by the wage disparity. Permanent staff might feel demoralised and expendable when how to get cialis without prescription working alongside temporary staff who are not integrated into the social fabric of the staff.16Hospital managers also must be cognisant of the potential quality impact of relying heavily on temporary nursing staff. Research on the impact of contingent nursing employment on costs and quality have often found negative effects on quality, including mortality, and higher costs.17 18 However, other studies have found that the association between temporary nursing staff and low quality result from general shortages of nursing staff, which make a hospital more likely to employ temporary staff, and not directly from the contingent staff.19âÂÂ21 Thus, temporary nurses play an important role in alleviating staffing shortages that would otherwise lead to lower quality of care.22Charting a path forward in hospital management and healthcare researchThe maturation of electronic health records and expansion of computerised healthcare management systems provide opportunities both for improved decision making about workforce deployment and for advanced workforce research. In the area of workforce management, nursing and how to get cialis without prescription other leaders have a growing array of workforce planning tools available to them. Such tools are most effective when they display clear information about predicted patient needs and staff availability, but managers still must rely on their on-the-ground understanding of their staff and their context of patient care.23 Integration of human resources data with patient outcomes data has revealed that individual nurses and their characteristics have important discrete effects on the quality of care.24 25 Future development of workforce planning tools should translate this evidence to practice. In addition, new technology platforms are emerging to facilitate direct matching between temporary how to get cialis without prescription healthcare personnel and healthcare organisations. One recent study tested a smartphone-based application that allowed for direct matching of locum tenens physicians with a hospital in the English National Health Service, finding that the platform generated benefits including greater transparency and lower cost.26 Similar technologies for registered nurses could facilitate better matching between hospital needs and temporary nursesâ preparedness to meet those needs.Analytical methods that fully leverage the large datasets compiled through electronic health records, human resources systems and other sources can be applied to advance research on the composition of nursing teams to improve quality of care. As noted above, prior research has applied machine learning and discrete event how to get cialis without prescription simulation to analyses of healthcare staffing. Other recent studies have leveraged natural language processing of nursing notes to identify fall risk factors27 and applied data mining of human resources records to understand the job titles held by nurses.28 Linking these rapidly advancing analytical approaches that assess the outcomes and costs of nurse staffing strategies, such as the work by Saville and colleagues published in this issue, to data on the impact of nurse staffing on the long-term costs of patient care will further advance the capacity of hospital leaders to design cost-effective policies for workforce deployment.Guidelines aim to align clinical care with best practice. However, simply publishing a guideline rarely triggers behavioural changes to match guideline recommendations.1âÂÂ3 We thus transform guideline recommendations into actionable tasks by introducing interventions that promote behavioural changes meant to produce guideline-concordant care. Unfortunately, not much has changed in the 25 years since Oxman and colleagues concluded that we have no âÂÂmagic bulletsâ when it comes to changing clinician behaviour.4 In fact, far from magic bullets, interventions aimed at increasing the degree to which patients receive care recommended in guidelines (eg, educational interventions, reminders, audit and feedback, financial incentives, computerised decision support) typically produce disappointingly small improvements in care.5âÂÂ10Much improvement work aims to âÂÂmake the right thing to do how to get cialis without prescription the easy thing to do.â Yet, design solutions which hardwire the desired actions remain few and far between. Further, improvement interventions which âÂÂsoftwireâ such actionsâÂÂnot guaranteeing that they occur, but at least increasing the likelihood that clinicians will deliver the care recommended in guidelinesâÂÂmostly produce small improvements.5âÂÂ9 Until this situation changes, we need to acknowledge the persistent reality that guidelines themselves represent a main strategy for promoting care consistent with current evidence, which means their design should promote the desired actions.11 12In this respect, guidelines constitute a type of clinical decision support. And, like all decision how to get cialis without prescription support interventions, guidelines require. (1) user testing to assess if the content is understood as intended and (2) empirical testing to assess if the decision support provided by the guideline does in fact promote the desired behaviours. While the processes for developing guidelines have received substantial attention over the years,13âÂÂ18 surprisingly little attention has been how to get cialis without prescription paid to empirically answering basic questions about the finished product. Do users understand guidelines as intended?. And, what version of a given how to get cialis without prescription guideline engenders the desired behaviours by clinicians?. In this issue of BMJ Quality and Safety, Jones et al19 address this gap by using simulation to compare the frequency of medication errors when clinicians administer an intravenous medication using an existing guideline in the UKâÂÂs National Health Service (NHS) versus a revised and user-tested version of the guideline that more clearly promotes the desired actions. Their findings demonstrate that how to get cialis without prescription changes to guideline design (through addition of actionable decision supports) based on user feedback does in fact trigger changes in behaviour that can improve safety. This is an exciting use of simulation, which we believe should encourage further studies in this vein.Ensuring end users understand and use guidelines as intendedJones and colleaguesâ approach affords an opportunity to reflect on the benefits of user testing and simulation of guidelines. The design how to get cialis without prescription and evaluation of their revised guidelines provides an excellent example of a careful stepwise progression in the development and evaluation of a guideline as a type of decision support for clinicians. First, in a prior study,20 they user tested the original NHS guidelines to improve retrieval and comprehension of information. The authors produced a revised guideline, which included reformatted sections as well as increased support for key calculations, such as for infusion rates. The authors again user tested the revised guideline, successfully showing higher rates of comprehension how to get cialis without prescription. Note that user testing refers to a specific approach focused on comprehension rather than behaviour21 and is distinct from usability testing. Second, in the current study, Jones et al evaluated whether nurse and midwife end users exhibited the desired behavioural changes when given the revised guidelines (with addition of actionable decision supports), compared with a control group working with the current version of the guidelines used how to get cialis without prescription in practice. As a result, Jones and colleagues verify that end users (1) understand the content in the guideline and (2) actually change their behaviour in response to using it.Simulation can play a particularly useful role in this context, as it can help identify problems with usersâ comprehension of the guideline and also empirically assess what behavioural changes occur in response to design changes in the guidelines. The level of methodological control and qualitative detail that simulation provides is difficult to feasibly how to get cialis without prescription replicate with real-world pilot studies, and therefore simulation fills a critical gap.Jones et al report successful changes in behaviour due to the revised guidelines in which they added actionable decision supports. For example, their earlier user testing found that participants using the initial guidelines did not account for displacement volume when reconstituting the powdered drug, leading to dosing errors. A second error with the initial guidelines involved participants using the shortest infusion rate provided (eg, guidelines state âÂÂ1 to 3âÂÂhoursâÂÂ), without realising that the shortest rate is not appropriate for certain doses (eg, 1âÂÂhour is appropriate for smaller doses, but how to get cialis without prescription larger doses should not be infused over 1âÂÂhour because the drug would then be administered faster than the maximum allowable infusion rate of 3âÂÂmg/kg/hour). These two issues were addressed in the revised guidelines by providing key determinants for âÂÂactionâ such as calculation formulas that account for displacement volume and infusion duration, thereby more carefully guiding end users to avoid these dose and rate errors. These changes to the guideline triggered specific behaviours (eg, calculations that account for all variables) that did not occur with the initial how to get cialis without prescription guidelines. Therefore, the simulation testing demonstrated the value of providing determinants for action, such as specific calculation formulas to support end users, by showing a clear reduction in dose and rate errors when using the revised guidelines compared with the initial guidelines.The authors also report that other types of medication-specific errors remained unaffected by the revised guidelines (eg, incorrect technique and flush errors)âÂÂthe changes made did not facilitate the desired actions. The initial guidelines indicate âÂÂDO NOT SHAKEâ in capital letters, how to get cialis without prescription and there is a section specific to âÂÂFlushingâÂÂ. In contrast, the revised guidelines do not capitalise the warning about shaking the vial, but embed the warning with a numbered sequence in the medication preparation section, aiming to increase the likelihood of reading it at the appropriate time. The revised guidelines do not have a section specific to flushing, but embed the flushing instructions as an unnumbered step in the administration section. Thus, the value of embedding technique and flushing information within the context of use was not validated in the simulation testing (ie, no significant how to get cialis without prescription differences in the rates of these errors), highlighting precisely the pivotal role that simulation can play in assessing whether attempts to improve usability result in actual behavioural changes.Finally, simulation can identify potential unintended consequences of a guideline. For instance, Jones and colleagues observed an increase in errors (although not statistically significant) that were not medication specific (eg, non-aseptic technique such as hand washing, swabbing vials with an alcohol wipe). Given that the revised guidelines were specific to the medication tested, it is unusual that we see a how to get cialis without prescription tendency toward a worsening effect on generic medication preparation skills. Again, this finding was not significant, but we highlight this to remind ourselves of the very real possibility that some interventions might introduce new and unexpected errors in response to changing workflow and practice6. Simulations offer an opportunity to spot these risks in advance.Now that Jones et al have seen how the revised guidelines change behaviour, they are optimally positioned how to get cialis without prescription to move forward. On one hand, they have the option of revising the guidelines further in attempts to address these resistant errors, and on the other, they can consider designing other interventions to be implemented in parallel with their user-tested guidance. At first glance, the errors that were resistant to change appear to be mechanical tasks that end users might think of as applying uniformly to multiple medications (eg, flush errors, non-aseptic technique) how to get cialis without prescription. Therefore, a second intervention that has a more general scope (rather than drug specific) might be pursued. Regardless of what they decide to pursue, we applaud their measured approach and highlight that the key takeaway is that their next steps are supported with clearer evidence of what to expect when the guidelines are releasedâÂÂcertainly a helpful piece of information to guide decisions as to whether broad implementation of guidelines is justified.Caveats and conclusionSimulation is not a panaceaâÂÂit is not able to assess longitudinal adherence, and there are how to get cialis without prescription limitations to how realistically clinicians behave when observed for a few sample procedures when under the scrutiny of observers. Further, studies where interventions are implemented to assess whether they move the needle on the outcomes we care about (eg, adverse events, length of stay, patient mortality) are needed and should continue. However, having end users physically perform clinical tasks with the intervention in representative environments represents an important strategy to assess the degree to which guidelines and other decision support interventions in fact promote the desired behaviours and to spot problems in advance of implementation. Such simulation testing is not currently a routine step in intervention design. We hope it becomes a more common phenomenon, with more improvement work following the example of the approach so effectively demonstrated by Jones and colleagues.. Cialis flashbackJohn Rawls begins a my sources Theory of Justice with the observation that 'Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought⦠Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare cialis flashback of society as a whole cannot override'1 (p.3). The erectile dysfunction treatment cialis has resulted in lock-downs, the restriction of liberties, debate about the right to refuse medical treatment and many other cialis flashback changes to the everyday behaviour of persons. The justice issues it raises are diverse, profound and will demand our attention for some time. How we can respect the Rawlsian commitment to the inviolability of each person, when the welfare of societies as a whole is under threat goes to the heart of some of the difficult ethical issues we face and are discussed in cialis flashback this issue of the Journal of Medical Ethics.The debate about ICU triage and erectile dysfunction treatment is quite well developed and this journal has published several articles that explore aspects of this issue and how different places approach it.2âÂÂ5 Newdick et al add to the legal analysis of triage decisions and criticise the calls for respecting a narrow conception of a legal right to treatment and more detailed national guidelines for how triage decisions should be made.6They consider scoring systems for clinical frailty, organ failure assessment, and raise some doubts about the fairness of their application to erectile dysfunction treatment triage situations. Their argument seems to highlight instances of what is called the McNamara fallacy. US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara used enemy body counts as a measure of military success during the cialis flashback Vietnam war. So, the fallacy occurs when we rely solely on considerations that appear to be quantifiable, to the neglect of vital qualitative, difficult to measure or contestable features.6 Newdick et al point to variation in assessment, subtlety in condition and other factors as reasons why it is misleading to present scoring systems as âÂÂobjectiveâ tests for triage. In doing so they draw a distinction between procedural and outcome consistency, which is important, and cialis flashback hints at distinctions Rawls drew between the different forms of procedural fairness. While we might hope to come up with a triage protocol that is procedurally fair and arrives at a fair outcome (what Rawls calls perfect procedural justice, p. 85) there is little prospect cialis flashback of that. As they observe, reasonable people can disagree about the outcomes we should aim for in allocating health resources and ICU triage for erectile dysfunction treatment is no exception. Instead, we should work toward a transparent cialis flashback and fair process, what Rawls would describe as imperfect procedural justice (p. 85). His example of this is a criminal trial where we adopt processes that we have reason to believe are our best chance of determining guilt, but which do not guarantee the truth of a verdict, and this is a reason why they must be transparent and consistent (p. 85). Their proposal is to triage patients into three broad categories. High, medium and low priority, with the thought that a range of considerations could feed into that evaluation by an appropriately constituted clinical group.Ballantyne et al question another issue that is central to the debate about erectile dysfunction treatment triage.4 They describe how utility measures such as QALYs, lives saved seem to be in tension with equity. Their central point is that ICU for erectile dysfunction treatment can be futile, and that is a reason for questioning how much weight should be given to equality of access to ICU for erectile dysfunction treatment. They claim that there is little point admitting someone to ICU when ICU is not in their best interests. Instead, the scope of equity should encompass preventing 'remediable differences among social, economic demographic or geographic groups' and for erectile dysfunction treatment that means looking beyond access to ICU. Their central argument can be summarised as follows.Maximising utility can entrench existing health inequalities.The majority of those ventilated for erectile dysfunction treatment in ICU will die.Admitting frailer or comorbid patients to ICU is likely to do more harm than good to these groups.Therefore, better access to ICU is unlikely to promote health equity for these groups.Equity for those with health inequalities related to erectile dysfunction treatment should broadened to include all the services a system might provide.Brown et al argue in favour of erectile dysfunction treatment immunity passports and the following summarises one of the key arguments in their article.7erectile dysfunction treatment immunity passports are a way of demonstrating low personal and social risk.Those who are at low personal risk and low social risk from erectile dysfunction treatment should be permitted more freedoms.Permitting those with immunity passports greater freedoms discriminates against those who do not have passports.Low personal and social risk and preserving health system capacity are relevant reasons to discriminate between those who have immunity and those who do not.Brown et al then consider a number of potential problems with immunity passports, many of which are justice issues. Resentment by those who do not hold an immunity passport along with a loss of social cohesion, which is vital for responding to erectile dysfunction treatment, are possible downsides. There is also the potential to advantage those who are immune, economically, and it could perpetuate existing inequalities. A significant objection, which is a problem for the justice of many policies, is free riding. Some might create fraudulent immunity passports and it might even incentivise intentional exposure to the cialis. Brown et al suggest that disincentives and punishment are potential solutions and they are in good company as the Rawlsian solution to free riding is for 'law and government to correct the necessary corrections.' (p. 268)Elves and Herring focus on a set of ethical principles intended to guide those making policy and individual level decisions about adult social care delivery impacted by the cialis.8 They criticize the British governmentâÂÂs framework for being silent about what to do in the face of conflict between principles. They suggest the dominant values in the framework are based on autonomy and individualism and argue that there are good reasons for not making autonomy paramount in policy about erectile dysfunction treatment. These include that information about erectile dysfunction treatment is incomplete, so no one can be that informed on decisions about their health. The second is one that highlights the importance of viewing our present ethical challenges via the lens of justice or other ethical concepts such as community or solidarity that enable us to frame collective obligations and interests. They observe that erectile dysfunction treatment has demonstrated how health and how we live our lives are linked. That what an individual does can have profound impact on the health of many others.Their view is that appeals to self-determination ring hollow for erectile dysfunction treatment and their proposed remedy is one that pushes us to reflect on what the liberal commitment to the inviolability of each person means. They explain DworkinâÂÂs account of 'associative obligations' which occur within a group when they acknowledge special rights and responsibilities to each other. These obligations are a way of giving weight to community considerations, without collapsing into full-blown utilitarianism and while still respecting the inviolability of persons.The erectile dysfunction treatment cialis is pushing ethical deliberation in new directions and many of them turn on approaching medical ethics with a greater emphasis on justice and related ethical concepts.IntroductionAs erectile dysfunction treatment spread internationally, healthcare services in many countries became overwhelmed. One of the main manifestations of this was a shortage of intensive care beds, leading to urgent discussion about how to allocate these fairly. In the initial debates about allocation of scarce intensive care unit (ICU) resources, there was optimism about the âÂÂgoodâ of ICU access. However, rather than being a life-saving intervention, data began to emerge in mid-April showing that most critical patients with erectile dysfunction treatment who receive access to a ventilator do not survive to discharge. The minority who survive leave the ICU with significant morbidity and a long and uncertain road to recovery. This reality was under-recognised in bioethics debates about ICU triage throughout March and April 2020. Central to these disucssions were two assumptions. First, that ICU admission was a valuable but scarce resource in the cialis context. And second, that both equity and utility considerations were important in determining which patients should have access to ICU. In this paper we explain how scarcity and value were conflated in the early ICU erectile dysfunction treatment triage literature, leading to undue optimism about the âÂÂgoodâ of ICU access, which in turned fuelled equity-based arguments for ICU access. In the process, ethical issues regarding equitable access to end-of-life care more broadly were neglected.Equity requires the prevention of avoidable or remediable differences among social, economic, demographic, or geographic groups.1 How best to apply an equity lens to questions of distribution will depend on the nature of the resource in question. Equitable distribution of ICU beds is significantly more complex than equitable distribution of other goods that might be scarce in a cialis, such as masks or treatments. ICU (especially that which involves intubation and ventilation i.e. Mechanical ventilation) is a burdensome treatment option that can lead to significant sufferingâÂÂboth short and long term. The degree to which these burdens are justified depends on the probability of benefit, and this depends on the clinical status of the patient. People are rightly concerned about the equity implications of excluding patients from ICU on the grounds of pre-existing comorbidities that directly affect prognosis, especially when these align with and reflect social disadvantage. But this does not mean that aged, frail or comorbid patients should be admitted to ICU on the grounds of equity, when this may not be in their best interests.ICU triage debateThe erectile dysfunction treatment cialis generated extraordinary demand for critical care and required hard choices about who will receive presumed life-saving interventions such as ICU admission. The debate has focused on whether or not a utilitarian approach aimed at maximising the number of lives (or life-years) saved should be supplemented by equity considerations that attempt to protect the rights and interests of members of marginalised groups. The utilitarian approach uses criteria for access to ICU that focus on capacity to benefit, understood as survival.2 Supplementary equity considerations have been invoked to relax the criteria in order to give a more diverse group of people a chance of entering ICU.3 4Equity-based critiques are grounded in the concern that a utilitarian approach aimed at maximising the number (or length) of lives saved may well exacerbate inequity in survival rates between groups. This potential for discrimination is heightened if triage tools use age as a proxy for capacity to benefit or are heavily reliant on Quality-Adjusted Life-Years (QALYs) which will deprioritise people with disabilities.5 6 Even if these pitfalls are avoided, policies based on maximising lives saved entrench existing heath inequalities because those most likely to benefit from treatment will be people of privilege who come into the cialis with better health status than less advantaged people. Those from http://www.em-leonard-vinci-strasbourg.ac-strasbourg.fr/nouveau-site/ lower socioeconomic groups, and/or some ethnic minorities have high rates of underlying comorbidities, some of which are prognostically relevant in erectile dysfunction treatment . Public health ethics requires that we acknowledge how apparently neutral triage tools reflect and reinforce these disparities, especially where the impact can be lethal.7But the utility versus equity debate is more complex than it first appears. Both the utility and equity approach to ICU triage start from the assumption that ICU is a valuable goodâÂÂthe dispute is about how best to allocate it. Casting ICU admission as a scarce good subject to rationing has the (presumably unintended) effect of making access to critical care look highly appealing, triggering cognitive biases. Psychologists and marketers know that scarcity sells.8 People value a commodity more when it is difï¬Âcult or impossible to obtain.9 When there is competition for scarce resources, people focus less on whether they really need or want the resource. The priority becomes securing access to the resource.Clinicians are not immune to scarcity-related cognitive bias. Clinicians treating patients with erectile dysfunction treatment are working under conditions of significant information overload but without the high quality clinical research (generated from large data sets and rigorous methodology) usually available for decision-making. The combination of overwhelming numbers of patients, high acuity and uncertainty regarding best practice is deeply anxiety provoking. In this context it is unsurprising that, at least in the early stages of the cialis, they may not have the psychological bandwidth to challenge assumptions about the benefits of ICU admission for patients with severe disease. Zagury-Orly and Schwartzstein have recently argued that the health sector must accept that doctorsâ reasoning and decision-making are susceptible to human anxieties and in the âÂÂâ¦effort to âÂÂdo goodâ for our patients, we may fall prey to cognitive biases and therapeutic errorsâÂÂ.10We suggest the global publicity and panic regarding ICU triage distorted assessments of best interests and decision-making about admittance to ICU and slanted ethical debate. This has the potential to compromise important decisions with regard to care for patients with erectile dysfunction treatment.The emerging reality of ICUIn general, the majority of patients who are ventilated for erectile dysfunction treatment in ICU will die. Although comparing data from different health systems is challenging due to variation in admission criteria for ICU, clear trends are emerging with regard to those critically unwell and requiring mechanical ventilation. Emerging data show case fatality rates of 50%âÂÂ88% for ventilated patients with erectile dysfunction treatment. In China11 and Italy about half of those with erectile dysfunction treatment who receive ventilator support have not survived.12 In one small study in Wuhan the ICU mortality rate among those who received invasive mechanical ventilation was 86% (19/22).13 Interestingly, the rate among those who received less intensive non-invasive ventilation (NIV)1 was still 79% (23/29).13 Analysis of 5700 patients in the New York City area showed that the mortality for those receiving mechanical ventilation was 88%.14 In the UK, only 20% of those who have received mechanical ventilation have been discharged alive.15 Hence, the very real possibility of medical futility with regard to ventilation in erectile dysfunction treatment needs to be considered.It is also important to consider the complications and side effects that occur in an ICU context. These patients are vulnerable to hospital acquired s such as ventilator associated pneumonias with high mortality rates in their own right,16 neuropathies, myopathies17 and skin damage. Significant long term morbidity (physical, mental and emotional challenges) can also be experienced by people who survive prolonged ventilation in ICU.12 18 Under normal (non-cialis) circumstances, many ICU patients experience significant muscle atrophy and deconditioning, sleep disorders, severe fatigue,19 post-traumatic stress disorder,20 cognitive deficits,21 depression, anxiety, difficulty with daily activities and loss of employment.22 Although it is too soon to have data on the long term outcomes of ICU survivors in the specific context of erectile dysfunction treatment, the UK Chartered Society of Physiotherapy predicts a âÂÂtsunami of rehabilitation needsâ as patients with erectile dysfunction treatment begin to be discharged.23 The indirect effects of carer-burden should also not be underestimated, as research shows that caring for patients who have survived critical illness results in high levels of depressive symptoms for the majority of caregivers.24The emerging mortality data for patients with erectile dysfunction treatment admitted to ICUâÂÂin conjunction with what is already known about the morbidity of ICU survivorsâÂÂhas significant implications for the utilityâÂÂequity debates about allocating the scarce resource of ICU beds. First, they undermine the utility argument as there seems to be little evidence that ICU admission leads to better outcomes for patients, especially when the long term morbidity of extended ICU admission is included in the balance of burdens and benefits. For some patients, perhaps many, the burdens of ICU will not outweigh the limited potential benefits. Second, the poor survival rates challenge the equity-based claim for preferential access to treatment for members of disadvantaged groups. In particular, admitting frailer or comorbid patients to ICU to fulfil equity goals is unlikely to achieve greater survival for these population groups, but will increase their risk of complications and may ultimately exacerbate or prolong their suffering.The high proportions of people who die despite ICU admission make it particularly important to consider what might constitute better or worse experiences of dying with erectile dysfunction treatment, and how ICU admission affects the likelihood of a âÂÂgoodâ death. Critical care may compromise the ability of patients to communicate and engage with their families during the terminal phase of their livesâÂÂin the context of an intubated, ventilated patient this is unequivocal.Given the high rates of medical futility with patients with erectile dysfunction treatment in ICU, the very significant risks for further suffering in the short and long term and the compromise of important psychosocial needsâÂÂsuch as communicating with our familiesâÂÂin the terminal phase of life, our ethical scope must be wider than ICU triage. Ho and Tsai argue that, âÂÂIn considering effective and efficient allocation of healthcare resources as well as physical and psychological harm that can be incurred in prolonging the dying process, there is a critical need to reframe end-of-life care planning in the ICU.âÂÂ25 We propose that the focus on equity concerns during the cialis should broaden to include providing all people who need it with access to the highest possible standard of end-of-life care. This requires attention to minimising barriers to accessing culturally safe care in the following interlinked areas. Palliative care, and communication and decision support and advanced care planning.Palliative careScaling up palliative and hospice care is an essential component of the erectile dysfunction treatment cialis response. Avoiding non-beneficial or unwanted high-intensity care is critical when the capacity of the health system is stressed.26 Palliative care focuses on symptom management, quality of life and death, and holistic care of physical, psychological, social and spiritual health.27 Evidence from Italy has prompted recommendations that, âÂÂGovernments must urgently recognise the essential contribution of hospice and palliative care to the erectile dysfunction treatment cialis, and ensure these services are integrated into the healthcare system response.âÂÂ28 Rapid palliative care policy changes were implemented in response to erectile dysfunction treatment in Italy, including more support in community settings, change in admission criteria and daily telephone support for families.28 To meet this increased demand, hospice and palliative care staff should be included in personal protective equipment (PPE) allocation and provided with appropriate preventon and control training when dealing with patients with erectile dysfunction treatment or high risk areas.Attention must also be directed to maintaining supply lines for essential medications for pain, distress and sedation. Patients may experience pain due to existing comorbidities, but may also develop pain as a result of excessive coughing or immobility from erectile dysfunction treatment. Such symptoms should be addressed using existing approaches to pain management.27 Supply lines for essential medications for distress and pain management, including fentanyl and midazolam are under threat in the USA and propofolâÂÂused in terminal sedationâÂÂmay also be in short supply.29 The challenges are exacerbated when people who for various reasons eschew or are unable to secure hospital admission decline rapidly at home with erectile dysfunction treatment (the time frame of recognition that someone is dying may be shorter than that through which hospice at home services usually support people). There is growing debate about the fair allocation of novel drugsâÂÂsometimes available as part of ongoing clinical trialsâÂÂto treat erectile dysfunction treatment with curative intent.2 30 But we must also pay attention to the fair allocation of drugs needed to ease suffering and dying.Communication and end-of-life decision-making supportEnd-of-life planning can be especially challenging because patients, family members and healthcare providers often differ in what they consider most important near the end of life.31 Less than half of ICU physiciansâÂÂ40.6% in high income countries and 46.3% in lowâÂÂmiddle income countriesâÂÂfeel comfortable holding end-of-life discussions with patientsâ families.25 With ICUs bursting and health providers under extraordinary pressure, their capacity to effectively support end-of-life decisions and to ease dying will be reduced.This suggests a need for specialist erectile dysfunction treatment communication support teams, analogous to the idea of specialist ICU triage teams to ensure consistency of decision making about ICU admissions/discharges, and to reduce the moral and psychological distress of health providers during the cialis.32 These support teams could provide up to date information templates for patients and families, support decision-making, the development of advance care plans (ACPs) and act as a liaison between families (prevented from being in the hospital), the patient and the clinical team. Some people with disabilities may require additional communication support to ensure the patientsâ needs are communicated to all health providers.33 This will be especially important if carers and visitors are not able to be present.To provide effective and appropriate support in an equitable way, communication teams will need to include those with the appropriate skills for caring for diverse populations including. Interpreters, specialist social workers, disability advocates and cultural support liaison officers for ethnic and religious minorities. Patient groups that already have comparatively poor health outcomes require dedicated resources. These support resources are essential if we wish to truly mitigate equity concerns that arisingduring the cialis context. See Box 1 for examples of specific communication and care strategies to support patients.Box 1 Supporting communication and compassionate care during erectile dysfunction treatmentDespite the sometimes overwhelming pressure of the cialis, health providers continue to invest in communication, compassionate care and end-of-life support. In some places, doctors have taken photos of their faces and taped these to the front of their PPE so that patients can âÂÂseeâ their face.37 In Singapore, patients who test positive for erectile dysfunction are quarantined in health facilities until they receive two consecutive negative tests. Patients may be isolated in hospital for several weeks. To help ease this burden on patients, health providers have dubbed themselves the âÂÂsecond familyâ and gone out of their way to provide care as well as treatment. Elsewhere, medical, nursing and multi-disciplinary teams are utilising internet based devices to enable âÂÂvirtualâ visits and contact between patients and their loved ones.38 Some centres are providing staff with masks with a see-through window panel that shows the wearerâÂÂs mouth, to support effective communication with patient with hearing loss who rely on lip reading.39Advance care planningACPs aim to honour decisions made by autonomous patients if and when they lose capacity. However, talking to patients and their loved ones about clinical prognosis, ceilings of treatment and potential end-of-life care is challenging even in normal times. During erectile dysfunction treatment the challenges are exacerbated by uncertainty and urgency, the absence of family support (due to visitor restrictions) and the wearing of PPE by clinicians and carers. Protective equipment can create a formidable barrier between the patient and the provider, often adding to the patientâÂÂs sense of isolation and fear. An Australian palliative care researcher with experience working in disaster zones, argues that the âÂÂPPE may disguise countenance, restrict normal human touch and create an unfamiliar gulf between you and your patient.âÂÂ34 The physical and psychological barriers of PPE coupled with the pressure of high clinical loads do not seem conducive to compassionate discussions about patientsâ end-of-life preferences. Indeed, a study in Singapore during the 2004 SARS epidemic demonstrated the barrier posed by PPE to compassionate end-of-life care.35Clinicians may struggle to interpret existing ACPs in the context of erectile dysfunction treatment, given the unprecedented nature and scale of the cialis and emerging clinical knowledge about the aetiology of the disease and (perhaps especially) about prognosis. This suggests the need for erectile dysfunction treatment-specific ACPs. Where possible, proactive planning should occur with high-risk patients, the frail, those in residential care and those with significant underlying morbidities. Ideally, ACP conversations should take place prior to illness, involve known health providers and carers, not be hampered by PPE or subject to time constraints imposed by acute care contexts. Of note here, a systematic review found that patients who received advance care planning or palliative care interventions consistently showed a pattern toward decreased ICU admissions and reduced ICU length of stay.36ConclusionHow best to address equity concerns in relation to ICU and end-of-life care for patients with erectile dysfunction treatment is challenging and complex. Attempts to broaden clinical criteria to give patients with poorer prognoses access to ICU on equity grounds may result in fewer lives saved overallâÂÂthis may well be justified if access to ICU confers benefit to these âÂÂequityâ patients. But we must avoid tokenistic gestures to equityâÂÂadmitting patients with poor prognostic indicators to ICU to meet an equity target when intensive critical care is contrary to their best interests. ICU admission may exacerbate and prolong suffering rather than ameliorate it, especially for frailer patients. And prolonging life at all costs may ultimately lead to a worse death. The capacity for harm not just the capacity for benefit should be emphasised in any triage tools and related literature. Equity can be addressed more robustly if cialis responses scale up investment in palliative care services, communication and decision-support services and advanced care planning to meet the needs of all patients with erectile dysfunction treatment. Ultimately, however, equity considerations will require us to move even further from a critical care framework as the social and economic impact of the cialis will disproportionately impact those most vulnerable. Globally, we will need an approach that does not just stop an exponential rise in s but an exponential rise in inequality.AcknowledgmentsWe would like to thank Tracy Anne Dunbrook and David Tripp for their helpful comments, and NUS Medicine for permission to reproduce the erectile dysfunction treatment Chronicles strip.. John Rawls begins a Theory of Justice with the observation that 'Justice is the first http://karenthefengshuilady.com/2011/07/29/western-school-of-feng-shui/ virtue of how to get cialis without prescription social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought⦠Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override'1 (p.3). The erectile dysfunction treatment cialis has resulted in lock-downs, the restriction of liberties, debate about the right to refuse medical treatment and how to get cialis without prescription many other changes to the everyday behaviour of persons. The justice issues it raises are diverse, profound and will demand our attention for some time. How we can respect the Rawlsian commitment to the inviolability of each person, when the welfare of societies as a whole is under threat goes to the heart of some of the difficult ethical issues we face and are discussed in this issue of the Journal of Medical Ethics.The debate about ICU triage and erectile dysfunction treatment is quite well developed and this journal has published several articles that explore aspects of this issue and how different places approach it.2âÂÂ5 Newdick et al add to the legal analysis of triage decisions and criticise the calls for respecting a narrow conception of a legal right to treatment and more detailed national guidelines for how triage decisions how to get cialis without prescription should be made.6They consider scoring systems for clinical frailty, organ failure assessment, and raise some doubts about the fairness of their application to erectile dysfunction treatment triage situations. Their argument seems to highlight instances of what is called the McNamara fallacy. US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara used enemy body counts as a measure of military success during the Vietnam how to get cialis without prescription war. So, the fallacy occurs when we rely solely on considerations that appear to be quantifiable, to the neglect of vital qualitative, difficult to measure or contestable features.6 Newdick et al point to variation in assessment, subtlety in condition and other factors as reasons why it is misleading to present scoring systems as âÂÂobjectiveâ tests for triage. In doing so they draw a distinction between procedural and outcome consistency, which is important, and hints at distinctions Rawls drew between the different forms of how to get cialis without prescription procedural fairness. While we might hope to come up with a triage protocol that is procedurally fair and arrives at a fair outcome (what Rawls calls perfect procedural justice, p. 85) there how to get cialis without prescription is little prospect of that. As they observe, reasonable people can disagree about the outcomes we should aim for in allocating health resources and ICU triage for erectile dysfunction treatment is no exception. Instead, we should work toward a transparent and fair process, what Rawls would describe as imperfect procedural justice (p how to get cialis without prescription. 85). His example of this is a criminal trial where we adopt processes that we have reason to believe are our best chance of determining guilt, but which do not guarantee the truth of a verdict, and this is a reason why they must be transparent and consistent (p. 85). Their proposal is to triage patients into three broad categories. High, medium and low priority, with the thought that a range of considerations could feed into that evaluation by an appropriately constituted clinical group.Ballantyne et al question another issue that is central to the debate about erectile dysfunction treatment triage.4 They describe how utility measures such as QALYs, lives saved seem to be in tension with equity. Their central point is that ICU for erectile dysfunction treatment can be futile, and that is a reason for questioning how much weight should be given to equality of access to ICU for erectile dysfunction treatment. They claim that there is little point admitting someone to ICU when ICU is not in their best interests. Instead, the scope of equity should encompass preventing 'remediable differences among social, economic demographic or geographic groups' and for erectile dysfunction treatment that means looking beyond access to ICU. Their central argument can be summarised as follows.Maximising utility can entrench existing health inequalities.The majority of those ventilated for erectile dysfunction treatment in ICU will die.Admitting frailer or comorbid patients to ICU is likely to do more harm than good to these groups.Therefore, better access to ICU is unlikely to promote health equity for these groups.Equity for those with health inequalities related to erectile dysfunction treatment should broadened to include all the services a system might provide.Brown et al argue in favour of erectile dysfunction treatment immunity passports and the following summarises one of the key arguments in their article.7erectile dysfunction treatment immunity passports are a way of demonstrating low personal and social risk.Those who are at low personal risk and low social risk from erectile dysfunction treatment should be permitted more freedoms.Permitting those with immunity passports greater freedoms discriminates against those who do not have passports.Low personal and social risk and preserving health system capacity are relevant reasons to discriminate between those who have immunity and those who do not.Brown et al then consider a number of potential problems with immunity passports, many of which are justice issues. Resentment by those who do not hold an immunity passport along with a loss of social cohesion, which is vital for responding to erectile dysfunction treatment, are possible downsides. There is also the potential to advantage those who are immune, economically, and it could perpetuate existing inequalities. A significant objection, which is a problem for the justice of many policies, is free riding. Some might create fraudulent immunity passports and it might even incentivise intentional exposure to the cialis. Brown et al suggest that disincentives and punishment are potential solutions and they are in good company as the Rawlsian solution to free riding is for 'law and government to correct the necessary corrections.' (p. 268)Elves and Herring focus on a set of ethical principles intended to guide those making policy and individual level decisions about adult social care delivery impacted by the cialis.8 They criticize the British governmentâÂÂs framework for being silent about what to do in the face of conflict between principles. They suggest the dominant values in the framework are based on autonomy and individualism and argue that there are good reasons for not making autonomy paramount in policy about erectile dysfunction treatment. These include that information about erectile dysfunction treatment is incomplete, so no one can be that informed on decisions about their health. The second is one that highlights the importance of viewing our present ethical challenges via the lens of justice or other ethical concepts such as community or solidarity that enable us to frame collective obligations and interests. They observe that erectile dysfunction treatment has demonstrated how health and how we live our lives are linked. That what an individual does can have profound impact on the health of many others.Their view is that appeals to self-determination ring hollow for erectile dysfunction treatment and their proposed remedy is one that pushes us to reflect on what the liberal commitment to the inviolability of each person means. They explain DworkinâÂÂs account of 'associative obligations' which occur within a group when they acknowledge special rights and responsibilities to each other. These obligations are a way of giving weight to community considerations, without collapsing into full-blown utilitarianism and while still respecting the inviolability of persons.The erectile dysfunction treatment cialis is pushing ethical deliberation in new directions and many of them turn on approaching medical ethics with a greater emphasis on justice and related ethical concepts.IntroductionAs erectile dysfunction treatment spread internationally, healthcare services in many countries became overwhelmed. One of the main manifestations of this was a shortage of intensive care beds, leading to urgent discussion about how to allocate these fairly. In the initial debates about allocation of scarce intensive care unit (ICU) resources, there was optimism about the âÂÂgoodâ of ICU access. However, rather than being a life-saving intervention, data began to emerge in mid-April showing that most critical patients with erectile dysfunction treatment who receive access to a ventilator do not survive to discharge. The minority who survive leave the ICU with significant morbidity and a long and uncertain road to recovery. This reality was under-recognised in bioethics debates about ICU triage throughout March and April 2020. Central to these disucssions were two assumptions. First, that ICU admission was a valuable but scarce resource in the cialis context. And second, that both equity and utility considerations were important in determining which patients should have access to ICU. In this paper we explain how scarcity and value were conflated in the early ICU erectile dysfunction treatment triage literature, leading to undue optimism about the âÂÂgoodâ of ICU access, which in turned fuelled equity-based arguments for ICU access. In the process, ethical issues regarding equitable access to end-of-life care more broadly were neglected.Equity requires the prevention of avoidable or remediable differences among social, economic, demographic, or geographic groups.1 How best to apply an equity lens to questions of distribution will depend on the nature of the resource in question. Equitable distribution of ICU beds is significantly more complex than equitable distribution of other goods that might be scarce in a cialis, such as masks or treatments. ICU (especially that which involves intubation and ventilation i.e. Mechanical ventilation) is a burdensome treatment option that can lead to significant sufferingâÂÂboth short and long term. The degree to which these burdens are justified depends on the probability of benefit, and this depends on the clinical status of the patient. People are rightly concerned about the equity implications of excluding patients from ICU on the grounds of pre-existing comorbidities that directly affect prognosis, especially when these align with and reflect social disadvantage. But this does not mean that aged, frail or comorbid patients should be admitted to ICU on the grounds of equity, when this may not be in their best interests.ICU triage debateThe erectile dysfunction treatment cialis generated extraordinary demand for critical care and required hard choices about who will receive presumed life-saving interventions such as ICU admission. The debate has focused on whether or not a utilitarian approach aimed at maximising the number of lives (or life-years) saved should be supplemented by equity considerations that attempt to protect the rights and interests of members of marginalised groups. The utilitarian approach uses criteria for access to ICU that focus on capacity to benefit, understood as survival.2 Supplementary equity considerations have been invoked to relax the criteria in order to give a more diverse group of people a chance of entering ICU.3 4Equity-based critiques are grounded in the concern that a utilitarian approach aimed at maximising the number (or length) of lives saved may well exacerbate inequity in survival rates between groups. This potential for discrimination is heightened if triage tools use age as a proxy for capacity to benefit or are heavily reliant on Quality-Adjusted Life-Years (QALYs) which will deprioritise people with disabilities.5 6 Even if these pitfalls are avoided, policies based on maximising lives saved entrench existing heath inequalities because those most likely to benefit from treatment will be people of privilege who come into the cialis with better health status than less advantaged people. Those from lower socioeconomic groups, and/or some ethnic minorities have high rates of underlying comorbidities, some of which are http://www.maxmosscrop.com/exhibitions/interrupted-correspondence/ prognostically relevant in erectile dysfunction treatment . Public health ethics requires that we acknowledge how apparently neutral triage tools reflect and reinforce these disparities, especially where the impact can be lethal.7But the utility versus equity debate is more complex than it first appears. Both the utility and equity approach to ICU triage start from the assumption that ICU is a valuable goodâÂÂthe dispute is about how best to allocate it. Casting ICU admission as a scarce good subject to rationing has the (presumably unintended) effect of making access to critical care look highly appealing, triggering cognitive biases. Psychologists and marketers know that scarcity sells.8 People value a commodity more when it is difï¬Âcult or impossible to obtain.9 When there is competition for scarce resources, people focus less on whether they really need or want the resource. The priority becomes securing access to the resource.Clinicians are not immune to scarcity-related cognitive bias. Clinicians treating patients with erectile dysfunction treatment are working under conditions of significant information overload but without the high quality clinical research (generated from large data sets and rigorous methodology) usually available for decision-making. The combination of overwhelming numbers of patients, high acuity and uncertainty regarding best practice is deeply anxiety provoking. In this context it is unsurprising that, at least in the early stages of the cialis, they may not have the psychological bandwidth to challenge assumptions about the benefits of ICU admission for patients with severe disease. Zagury-Orly and Schwartzstein have recently argued that the health sector must accept that doctorsâ reasoning and decision-making are susceptible to human anxieties and in the âÂÂâ¦effort to âÂÂdo goodâ for our patients, we may fall prey to cognitive biases and therapeutic errorsâÂÂ.10We suggest the global publicity and panic regarding ICU triage distorted assessments of best interests and decision-making about admittance to ICU and slanted ethical debate. This has the potential to compromise important decisions with regard to care for patients with erectile dysfunction treatment.The emerging reality of ICUIn general, the majority of patients who are ventilated for erectile dysfunction treatment in ICU will die. Although comparing data from different health systems is challenging due to variation in admission criteria for ICU, clear trends are emerging with regard to those critically unwell and requiring mechanical ventilation. Emerging data show case fatality rates of 50%âÂÂ88% for ventilated patients with erectile dysfunction treatment. In China11 and Italy about half of those with erectile dysfunction treatment who receive ventilator support have not survived.12 In one small study in Wuhan the ICU mortality rate among those who received invasive mechanical ventilation was 86% (19/22).13 Interestingly, the rate among those who received less intensive non-invasive ventilation (NIV)1 was still 79% (23/29).13 Analysis of 5700 patients in the New York City area showed that the mortality for those receiving mechanical ventilation was 88%.14 In the UK, only 20% of those who have received mechanical ventilation have been discharged alive.15 Hence, the very real possibility of medical futility with regard to ventilation in erectile dysfunction treatment needs to be considered.It is also important to consider the complications and side effects that occur in an ICU context. These patients are vulnerable to hospital acquired s such as ventilator associated pneumonias with high mortality rates in their own right,16 neuropathies, myopathies17 and skin damage. Significant long term morbidity (physical, mental and emotional challenges) can also be experienced by people who survive prolonged ventilation in ICU.12 18 Under normal (non-cialis) circumstances, many ICU patients experience significant muscle atrophy and deconditioning, sleep disorders, severe fatigue,19 post-traumatic stress disorder,20 cognitive deficits,21 depression, anxiety, difficulty with daily activities and loss of employment.22 Although it is too soon to have data on the long term outcomes of ICU survivors in the specific context of erectile dysfunction treatment, the UK Chartered Society of Physiotherapy predicts a âÂÂtsunami of rehabilitation needsâ as patients with erectile dysfunction treatment begin to be discharged.23 The indirect effects of carer-burden should also not be underestimated, as research shows that caring for patients who have survived critical illness results in high levels of depressive symptoms for the majority of caregivers.24The emerging mortality data for patients with erectile dysfunction treatment admitted to ICUâÂÂin conjunction with what is already known about the morbidity of ICU survivorsâÂÂhas significant implications for the utilityâÂÂequity debates about allocating the scarce resource of ICU beds. First, they undermine the utility argument as there seems to be little evidence that ICU admission leads to better outcomes for patients, especially when the long term morbidity of extended ICU admission is included in the balance of burdens and benefits. For some patients, perhaps many, the burdens of ICU will not outweigh the limited potential benefits. Second, the poor survival rates challenge the equity-based claim for preferential access to treatment for members of disadvantaged groups. In particular, admitting frailer or comorbid patients to ICU to fulfil equity goals is unlikely to achieve greater survival for these population groups, but will increase their risk of complications and may ultimately exacerbate or prolong their suffering.The high proportions of people who die despite ICU admission make it particularly important to consider what might constitute better or worse experiences of dying with erectile dysfunction treatment, and how ICU admission affects the likelihood of a âÂÂgoodâ death. Critical care may compromise the ability of patients to communicate and engage with their families during the terminal phase of their livesâÂÂin the context of an intubated, ventilated patient this is unequivocal.Given the high rates of medical futility with patients with erectile dysfunction treatment in ICU, the very significant risks for further suffering in the short and long term and the compromise of important psychosocial needsâÂÂsuch as communicating with our familiesâÂÂin the terminal phase of life, our ethical scope must be wider than ICU triage. Ho and Tsai argue that, âÂÂIn considering effective and efficient allocation of healthcare resources as well as physical and psychological harm that can be incurred in prolonging the dying process, there is a critical need to reframe end-of-life care planning in the ICU.âÂÂ25 We propose that the focus on equity concerns during the cialis should broaden to include providing all people who need it with access to the highest possible standard of end-of-life care. This requires attention to minimising barriers to accessing culturally safe care in the following interlinked areas. Palliative care, and communication and decision support and advanced care planning.Palliative careScaling up palliative and hospice care is an essential component of the erectile dysfunction treatment cialis response. Avoiding non-beneficial or unwanted high-intensity care is critical when the capacity of the health system is stressed.26 Palliative care focuses on symptom management, quality of life and death, and holistic care of physical, psychological, social and spiritual health.27 Evidence from Italy has prompted recommendations that, âÂÂGovernments must urgently recognise the essential contribution of hospice and palliative care to the erectile dysfunction treatment cialis, and ensure these services are integrated into the healthcare system response.âÂÂ28 Rapid palliative care policy changes were implemented in response to erectile dysfunction treatment in Italy, including more support in community settings, change in admission criteria and daily telephone support for families.28 To meet this increased demand, hospice and palliative care staff should be included in personal protective equipment (PPE) allocation and provided with appropriate preventon and control training when dealing with patients with erectile dysfunction treatment or high risk areas.Attention must also be directed to maintaining supply lines for essential medications for pain, distress and sedation. Patients may experience pain due to existing comorbidities, but may also develop pain as a result of excessive coughing or immobility from erectile dysfunction treatment. Such symptoms should be addressed using existing approaches to pain management.27 Supply lines for essential medications for distress and pain management, including fentanyl and midazolam are under threat in the USA and propofolâÂÂused in terminal sedationâÂÂmay also be in short supply.29 The challenges are exacerbated when people who for various reasons eschew or are unable to secure hospital admission decline rapidly at home with erectile dysfunction treatment (the time frame of recognition that someone is dying may be shorter than that through which hospice at home services usually support people). There is growing debate about the fair allocation of novel drugsâÂÂsometimes available as part of ongoing clinical trialsâÂÂto treat erectile dysfunction treatment with curative intent.2 30 But we must also pay attention to the fair allocation of drugs needed to ease suffering and dying.Communication and end-of-life decision-making supportEnd-of-life planning can be especially challenging because patients, family members and healthcare providers often differ in what they consider most important near the end of life.31 Less than half of ICU physiciansâÂÂ40.6% in high income countries and 46.3% in lowâÂÂmiddle income countriesâÂÂfeel comfortable holding end-of-life discussions with patientsâ families.25 With ICUs bursting and health providers under extraordinary pressure, their capacity to effectively support end-of-life decisions and to ease dying will be reduced.This suggests a need for specialist erectile dysfunction treatment communication support teams, analogous to the idea of specialist ICU triage teams to ensure consistency of decision making about ICU admissions/discharges, and to reduce the moral and psychological distress of health providers during the cialis.32 These support teams could provide up to date information templates for patients and families, support decision-making, the development of advance care plans (ACPs) and act as a liaison between families (prevented from being in the hospital), the patient and the clinical team. Some people with disabilities may require additional communication support to ensure the patientsâ needs are communicated to all health providers.33 This will be especially important if carers and visitors are not able to be present.To provide effective and appropriate support in an equitable way, communication teams will need to include those with the appropriate skills for caring for diverse populations including. Interpreters, specialist social workers, disability advocates and cultural support liaison officers for ethnic and religious minorities. Patient groups that already have comparatively poor health outcomes require dedicated resources. These support resources are essential if we wish to truly mitigate equity concerns that arisingduring the cialis context. See Box 1 for examples of specific communication and care strategies to support patients.Box 1 Supporting communication and compassionate care during erectile dysfunction treatmentDespite the sometimes overwhelming pressure of the cialis, health providers continue to invest in communication, compassionate care and end-of-life support. In some places, doctors have taken photos of their faces and taped these to the front of their PPE so that patients can âÂÂseeâ their face.37 In Singapore, patients who test positive for erectile dysfunction are quarantined in health facilities until they receive two consecutive negative tests. Patients may be isolated in hospital for several weeks. To help ease this burden on patients, health providers have dubbed themselves the âÂÂsecond familyâ and gone out of their way to provide care as well as treatment. Elsewhere, medical, nursing and multi-disciplinary teams are utilising internet based devices to enable âÂÂvirtualâ visits and contact between patients and their loved ones.38 Some centres are providing staff with masks with a see-through window panel that shows the wearerâÂÂs mouth, to support effective communication with patient with hearing loss who rely on lip reading.39Advance care planningACPs aim to honour decisions made by autonomous patients if and when they lose capacity. However, talking to patients and their loved ones about clinical prognosis, ceilings of treatment and potential end-of-life care is challenging even in normal times. During erectile dysfunction treatment the challenges are exacerbated by uncertainty and urgency, the absence of family support (due to visitor restrictions) and the wearing of PPE by clinicians and carers. Protective equipment can create a formidable barrier between the patient and the provider, often adding to the patientâÂÂs sense of isolation and fear. An Australian palliative care researcher with experience working in disaster zones, argues that the âÂÂPPE may disguise countenance, restrict normal human touch and create an unfamiliar gulf between you and your patient.âÂÂ34 The physical and psychological barriers of PPE coupled with the pressure of high clinical loads do not seem conducive to compassionate discussions about patientsâ end-of-life preferences. Indeed, a study in Singapore during the 2004 SARS epidemic demonstrated the barrier posed by PPE to compassionate end-of-life care.35Clinicians may struggle to interpret existing ACPs in the context of erectile dysfunction treatment, given the unprecedented nature and scale of the cialis and emerging clinical knowledge about the aetiology of the disease and (perhaps especially) about prognosis. This suggests the need for erectile dysfunction treatment-specific ACPs. Where possible, proactive planning should occur with high-risk patients, the frail, those in residential care and those with significant underlying morbidities. Ideally, ACP conversations should take place prior to illness, involve known health providers and carers, not be hampered by PPE or subject to time constraints imposed by acute care contexts. Of note here, a systematic review found that patients who received advance care planning or palliative care interventions consistently showed a pattern toward decreased ICU admissions and reduced ICU length of stay.36ConclusionHow best to address equity concerns in relation to ICU and end-of-life care for patients with erectile dysfunction treatment is challenging and complex. Attempts to broaden clinical criteria to give patients with poorer prognoses access to ICU on equity grounds may result in fewer lives saved overallâÂÂthis may well be justified if access to ICU confers benefit to these âÂÂequityâ patients. But we must avoid tokenistic gestures to equityâÂÂadmitting patients with poor prognostic indicators to ICU to meet an equity target when intensive critical care is contrary to their best interests. ICU admission may exacerbate and prolong suffering rather than ameliorate it, especially for frailer patients. And prolonging life at all costs may ultimately lead to a worse death. The capacity for harm not just the capacity for benefit should be emphasised in any triage tools and related literature. Equity can be addressed more robustly if cialis responses scale up investment in palliative care services, communication and decision-support services and advanced care planning to meet the needs of all patients with erectile dysfunction treatment. Ultimately, however, equity considerations will require us to move even further from a critical care framework as the social and economic impact of the cialis will disproportionately impact those most vulnerable. Globally, we will need an approach that does not just stop an exponential rise in s but an exponential rise in inequality.AcknowledgmentsWe would like to thank Tracy Anne Dunbrook and David Tripp for their helpful comments, and NUS Medicine for permission to reproduce the erectile dysfunction treatment Chronicles strip.. |
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