Acute shoulder pain ruining your holiday season?
I am seeing more and more patients with acute onset of shoulder pain that are seeking early treatment. This is a key factor in preventing long term problems like a frozen shoulder or even developing a rotator cuff tear. What can you do as soon as you begin to develop anterior shoulder pain? Eliminate the risk factors like excessive reaching for your computer mouse, avoiding overhead lifting like holiday decorating chores and stop holding heavy items out away from your body. It is important for you to use the arm to maintain your mobility, but don't abuse it. When you experience pain, apply ice and take NSAIDS like Motrin or Advil to help reduce any inflammation. Then you may begin to perform gentle stretching by pulling your arm across your body and across your lower back. This will stretch the tendon that is often inflamed. If your pain persists for more than seven days, please call the office for an evaluation to prevent long term effects. |
Medicare physician fee reductions affect everyone
Unless Congress addresses the problem quickly, the Medicare sustainable growth rate formula will reduce physician payments for all services by 27.4% on January 1, 2012. This will create patient access issues in the year ahead since more practitioners will drop out of Medicare participation. In addition, the physical therapy cap of $1,880 with no exceptions process also begins on January 1st, unless a fix or extension to the cap exception process is created by Congress. What can you do? Contact your members of Congress immediately and ask them to support correcting these situations immediately. Take Action Now! |