Patient-Empowering Privacy

B'SD

4 Elul, 5775

It's a new year, may it be brimming with sweet blessings for the world at large.

I'm clinging to the marvelous moods and spiritual highs of the Rosh HaShana holiday followed by a most meaningful Shabbat spent with precious people. 

I have no words for the love shared between me and my friends, and the love that we share for the Torah-oriented life. I doubt that I'll be on the Internet much for the next day or so, as I stay with and cherish the sensations.

Privacy is so necessary when we need to bolster our emotional lives. So, I'll let Rami Klinstayn sing of those emotions for me. 

May 5775 be a source of unending blessings, worldwide. 

Here are the lyrics, in Spanish and Hebrew (I'll post the English-language version if I finish the translation task in reasonable time):

Es otro viernes, respiro el aire
la luz y la sombra juegan otra vez a atraparse
la mesa está puesta, fotos de infancia en el muro
caravanas blancas vuelven de la sinagoga
y el aroma aquel que me rasguña el corazón
se cuela se cuela y abre puertas
a una pequeña alegría a la misma vieja canción
que ha pasado por nosotros a lo largo de las generaciones

Pequeños regalos
alguien me ha enviado pequeños regalos
fragmentos de convicción, círculos de fe
pequeños regalos alguien me ha enviado
pequeños regalos

Es otro viernes, terraza y periódico
el sol tal como las preocupaciones lentamente se van borrando
melodías simples se arrastran por la ventana
y ya ninguna tormenta esconderá por aquí el silencio

Ze od yom shishi noshem et ha’avir
ha’or vehatzel mesachakim shuv tofeset
hashulchan aroch tmunot yaldut al hakir
shayarot levanot chozrot mibeit kneset
vehareach haze shesoret li et halev
mitganev mitganev vepoteach dlatot
el osher katan el oto shir yashan
she’over etzleinu bemeshech dorot

Matanot ktanot
mishehu shalach li matanot ktanot
resisim shel kavana igulim shel emuna
matanot ktanot mishehu shalach li
matanot ktanot
kmo hakoach lekabel et ma she’ein et ma sheyesh
ma od efshar kvar levakesh

Ze od yom shishi mirpeset ve’iton
hashemesh kmo hade’agot le’at nimcheket
manginot pshutot zochalot mehachalon
veshum se’ara kvar lo tastir po et hasheket

זה עוד יום שישי נושם את האוויר
האור והצל משחקים שוב תופסת
השולחן ערוך תמונות ילדות על הקיר
שיירות לבנות חוזרות מבית כנסת
והריח הזה ששורט לי את הלב
מתגנב מתגנב ופותח דלתות
אל אושר קטן אל אותו שיר ישן
שעובר אצלנו במשך דורות

מתנות קטנות
מישהו שלח לי מתנות קטנות
רסיסים של כוונה עיגולים של אמונה
מתנות קטנות מישהו שלח לי
מתנות קטנות
כמו הכוח לקבל את מה שאין את מה שיש
מה עוד אפשר כבר לבקש

זה עוד יום שישי מרפסת ועיתון
השמש כמו הדאגות לאט נמחקת
מנגינות פשוטות זוחלות מהחלון
ושום סערה כבר לא תסתיר פה את השקט

מתנות קטנות…

OK, back to the mundane business of this patient-empowering blog: I want to share a thought with you.

Be careful about the Patient Privacy initiatives you support. Privacy is a necessity. But extreme privacy can present danger to your health.

The last line of the California Medical Association Challenges drug-tracking system in court article explains the serious risk mentioned above, and the risks of rash decisions.

Empower Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge, 

using information that promotes the goal. 

Read

Click on the  image above and buy the  E-book or print edition today.

See you later this week. I'm going to reflect a bit more on the wholesome happiness I feel, first.
 

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism. 

Fill your life with facts you need to know.

 

Wishing YOU a Happier, Healthier New Year Full of Life

B'SD

29 Elul, 5774

I pray that the world will be blessed with genuine, enduring peace this eve of Rosh HaShana/Jewish New Year. 

The classic Jewish custom is to bless people for a "Good, sweet, healthy" year, not a "happy" year. Happiness is fleeting, sometimes based on mistaken ideas. Focus on decency, compassion, patience, forgiveness. For YOURSELF, and for others. Progress happens when you are kind towards yourself. 

So does happiness.

I was offered employment suitable for a person under thirty this week. Puzzled by the phenomenon, I asked friends what they thought of the situation. 

Several people remarked to me that I appear young and energetic, shocking as that may be when we consider the physical/emotional ordeal I faced with that long-ago benign-but-a-killer brain tumor. 

My present appearance and behavior deceive onlookers unfamiliar with my realities.

The secret is in the sauce, so to speak. I knew on the day I learned of the diagnosis that I had only one chance to remain alive and thriving. I seized it, indulging in compassion for my clumsy efforts to survive

I went on to make medical history, seeing again after having been blinded by a brain tumor and seeing ever-better over time, shocking  the teaching doctors handling my case.

Had I indulged in bitterness, anger, hatred, vindictiveness (name the negativity), I'd have died a miserable death - inside and outside.

Heaven has rewarded me with astonishingly remarkable friends and achievements. I am wealthy in the truest sense. I feel the love lavished on me hour by hour. 

Negativity destroys lives inside and out. I sweated and struggled my way to life, never knowing if my efforts would pay off. My self-respect grew. So did other true riches in my life.

I pray that my experiences can help other people to stop flailing and failing to meet difficult goals.

I share this essay, by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, with the wider world, and pray that each reader absorbs its universal lessons. 

Returning to Our Best Selves

As I once taught when I used to be an EMETT leader, "You don't need to feel positive when you begin to improve your character and outlooks on life. You need to behave positively. Your actions will convince your mind that you are indeed happy. Then the universe opens to you. GOD fills your life with blessings. Learn to recognize them; they are specific to you and your needs."

Want to know how I achieved that life-giving mindset despite a dire diagnosis? Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. It teaches you the steps I took to stay alive emotionally and physically.  

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism. 

Forgiveness begins with YOU. Forgive Yourself.

 

לחברינו ולקוחותינו היקרים!

שנה טובה ומתוקה

שנת בריאות, שנת אושר

שנת ברכה והצלחה

מתוקה מדבש!!!

Catching up with Life and Wishing YOU a Sweeter One

B'SD

27 Elul 5774

I've been rushing around the country this past month, interviewing for employment since I passing my final exams in ICD-10 medical coding.

If you need to remember what that means, here you go: I am skilled in translating a patient's medical records into specific alpha-numeric codes created by the World Health Organization. Medical researchers and medical insurance professionals use those codes in their work. People such as me save them hours and hours of time by reducing lengthy text into succinct coded summaries of exactly why someone needed medical care and which care they received.

OK, back to my life. It's been a tiring, time-consuming, EXPENSIVE and hectic effort mixed with fun social events.

Now I'm preparing for the start of the Jewish New year aka Rosh HaShana.

Care to join me in reading a wonderful, heartwarming essay about Rosh HaShana? It's at A Holy Family.

Here are some FYIs about the Jewish New Year:

Anticipating a Sweeter Future 

(recorded in 2006 but 

SO relevant for today!

I bet you'll LUV every word/lesson

in the recording!)

Life after 75

Harnessing your WILLPOWER!

Why the Jewish New Year greeting is not

 "Happy New Year"

Reconciling with GOD

Medical, emotional and mental health (financial, etc.) problems can make life seem unappealing. 

Holidays tend to make everything, including you, seem to be worse off. 

The reality, though, is that it's a matter of regaining a neutral - or even better - a POSITIVE perspective on the situations before you.

The fun part of the Torah-oriented point of view is that GOD/HaShem gives us still more chances to get things right. 

Life is literally a do-over.

I wish you a sweeter life, and perspective, in the new year 5775.









 Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge.  

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism. 

Fill yourself with emotional strength. It's a lifelong process - and it pays off well.

 

How a Calming Conversation Can Improve Your Health

B'SD

14 Elul, 5774

What a conversation! Someone called me this afternoon, my time. 

The caller related her several severe medical issues and that a friend in another country calmed her with the words "You need to get a book written by this Israeli lady, Golani is her name. It motivates you to take the actions you need and even tells you how to take those actions! I know someone who has it. It changed their life."

So, the counseled caller looks up my contact info and asks, "How do I get the book?"

"Easily," I told her. "Go online and order it from the publisher, Booklocker, which sends it faster than any book shop, even faster than the online book outlets."

She breathed a sigh of relief and mentioned that she felt better already.

I'm always impressed at how far word travels, and so grateful that my efforts help people. I have no idea who the people mentioned above may be. It's an exciting feeling to know that I've helped people I might never meet.

Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge.  

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism. 

Find out how to help yourself as your friends might recommend.

 

What to do if Medical ID Theft Happens to YOU!

B'SD

9 Elul, 5774

It's been a difficult summer with high heat and humidity plus the On-Again-Off-Again war upon Israel and her Jews. I'm relaxing as much as I can and plan to enjoy some live theater this evening, to recharge my joie de vivre.

But first, I want to share a miraculous medical story with you:

Surgery Unlocks Muscles For Boy Trapped In His Own Body

The other news I want to share with you is for editors of news publications and websites. A longtime journalist (and newly certified medical coder), I've been aware of identity theft problems for years. They usually involved credit cards. But now that the financial stakes of medical insurance are so high, and so many people are suffering economic poverty, there's a whole new development: Medical ID theft!

FBI: Malicious Actors Targeting Protected Healthcare Information

I'd addressed the need to protect personal medical information in the EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge book.

Now I've prepared a feature story about preventing and minimizing the Medical ID theft problem. 

Here's an excerpt of the article, for editors to sample. I can tailor the content per publication specifications:

THE Medical Back-up Plan: What to Do if Medical ID Theft Happens to YOU!

By Yocheved Golani http://www.linkedin.com/in/yochevedgolaniink

That’s not a typo in the headline, it’s an emphatic reminder: You, and only you, are able to back up your medical record files with a safety technique that nobody else can perform. We’ll explore the method soon. First you need to know why the action is necessary.

Hack Attack: Your Life, Financial Information and Medical Realities

Natural disasters (storms, fires, etc.) can cause the accidental and/or physical loss of your medical information in the doctor’s office or at home. So can a careless action such as forgetting where you aimlessly put printouts, discs and letters. But in the Digital Age, when medical records are also known as Electronic Health Records (EHRs), you have another concern regarding the potential loss of your medical information, even your very identity: Hackers.

Hackers abuse online security systems for personal benefit. Some of them steal the medical identities of vulnerable people from security systems and from record-keepers who weren’t careful to prevent thefts in the first place. The information can be used to steal your health insurance, Medicare or Medicaid information plus your credit card numbers. The thief can make doctor appointments, receive medical services (medication, surgery, therapy, etc.), and insurance reimbursements in your name. They can buy things with your money even if you struggle to prove that the real you didn’t buy the purloined stuff. The problem can grow even uglier.

This item from Bloomberg news cites what I call Medical ID Thieves Have All Kinds of Reasons for their Crimes.

Medical ID theft became a growing problem with the development of technology. Digital copies of vital patient information and history are stored in computer files and on CDs, also known as Electronic Health Records (EHRs)...

... Minimizing, Possibly Preventing All-Out Disaster

Here are several medical record safety tips, excerpted from EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge:

A Five-Step Plan to Organization:

Simple suggestions for keeping your papers

and yourself organized:

STEP ONE: 
 ... What to Do if Medical ID Theft Happens to You

How can you convince the world at large it is YOU who are the patient, not the impostor? You need to know the proven recovery techniques for persons whose medical ID was stolen.

Notify... 


Buy the story for your readers by contacting yocheved.golani @ gmail.com (eliminate the spaces to make that address work).



Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. 

Psst - you'll learn some valuable tips for preventing all-out medical theft ID disaster that way.

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism. 

Fill your life with safe, sensible thoughts and action.