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MDEL Bulletin, June 24 2021, from the Medical Devices Compliance Program On this page Fees for Medical Device where can i buy ventolin over the counter Establishment Licences (MDELs) We issue Medical Device Establishment Licences (MDELs) to. class I manufacturers importers or distributors of all device classes for human use in Canada The MDEL fee is a flat fee, regardless of when we receive your initial application. The same where can i buy ventolin over the counter fee applies to applications for.

a new MDEL the reinstatement of a suspended MDEL the annual licence review (ALR) of an MDEL If you submit any of these applications, you must pay the MDEL fee when you receive an invoice. See Part 3, Division 2 of the Fees in Respect of Drugs and Medical Devices Order. Normally, we collect the MDEL fee before we review where can i buy ventolin over the counter an application.

However, to help meet the demand for medical devices during the asthma treatment ventolin, we have been reviewing and processing MDEL applications before collecting the fees. As a result, some MDEL holders still haven't paid the fees for their 2020 initial MDEL application, despite multiple reminders. Authority to withhold services where can i buy ventolin over the counter in case of non-payment As stated in the Food and Drug Act, Health Canada has the authority to withhold services, approvals, rights and/or privileges, if the fee for an MDEL application is not paid.

Non-payment of fees 30.64. The Minister may withdraw or withhold a service, the use of a facility, a regulatory process or approval or a product, right or privilege under this Act from any person who fails to pay the fee fixed for it under subsection 30.61(1). For more information, where can i buy ventolin over the counter please refer to.

Cancellation of existing MDELs We will cancel MDELs for existing MDEL holders with outstanding fees for. initial applications or annual licence review applications If your establishment licence is cancelled, you are no longer authorized to conduct licensable activities (such as manufacturing, distributing or importing medical devices). You must stop licensable activities as soon where can i buy ventolin over the counter as you receive your cancellation notice.

Resuming activities after MDEL cancellation To resume licensable activities, you must re-apply for a new establishment licence and pay the MDEL fee. See section 45 of the Medical Device Regulations where can i buy ventolin over the counter. To find out how to re-apply for a MDEL, please refer to our Guidance on medical device establishment licensing (GUI-0016).

In line with the Compliance and Enforcement Policy (POL-0001), Health Canada monitors activities for compliance. If your MDEL has been cancelled, you may be subject to compliance and enforcement actions if you conduct where can i buy ventolin over the counter non-compliant activities. If you have questions about a MDEL or the application process, please contact the Medical Device Establishment Licensing Unit at hc.mdel.questions.leim.sc@canada.ca.

If you have questions about invoicing and fees for an MDEL application, please contact the Cost Recovery Invoicing Unit at hc.criu-ufrc.sc@canada.ca. Related linksResponse to the Expert Panel Report on “Priority strategies to optimize testing and quarantine at Canada’s borders” The Industry Advisory Roundtable on where can i buy ventolin over the counter asthma treatment Testing, Screening, Tracing and Data Management is pleased to release its third report. This report reiterates the importance of balancing public health measures to reduce the importation of asthma treatment with the need to ensure the free flow of people and goods across the Canadian border and support economic recovery.

On this page Executive summary Soon after asthma treatment was declared a global ventolin in March 2020, international borders around the world closed in an effort to limit the spread of the ventolin. To ensure the health and safety of individuals, the movement of people and goods was restricted where can i buy ventolin over the counter. Yet, it was important to maintain access to essential goods and services and sustain trade-based economic sectors.

Canada responded in step with other countries. The government implemented public health measures such where can i buy ventolin over the counter as mandatory testing and quarantine when crossing international borders. Restrictions are necessary to curb the spread of the ventolin.

Yet, in a complex environment such as international borders, it’s crucial to implement and clearly communicate public health measures effectively and clearly. Border where can i buy ventolin over the counter measures such as testing regimes and other public health measures must be based on the most recent science-based public health evidence. Such measures must also leverage advances in testing options, consider vaccination rates and balance the needs of industries operating across borders.

Furthermore, plans must be easy to implement consistently across several entry modes where can i buy ventolin over the counter. They should also be communicated broadly and include a roadmap for easing or increasing border restrictions based on objective criteria and benchmarks. As we enter the second year of the ventolin, the Roundtable is offering insights and recommendations to adjust current border measures.

We have based our recommendations on evidence collected from international scans and observations from where can i buy ventolin over the counter industries that move goods and people across borders. The Roundtable recognizes the effort required to implement plans for easing border restrictions, given rapidly evolving public health circumstances and emerging variants of concern. Prompt action is needed to design and implement a border measures plan that reduces the risk of the ventolin spreading while proactively moving towards economic recovery.

Current border environment In where can i buy ventolin over the counter March 2020, the ability of people to move across the Canadian border was restricted. Since then, several measures were taken to reduce the importation of asthma treatment and limit the spread of the ventolin. As circumstances changed over the following weeks and months, border measures became more restrictive.

In early 2021, more stringent public health measures were introduced for non-essential travellers at air where can i buy ventolin over the counter and land borders. This was done to reduce the importation rate of asthma treatment and its variants of concern. Measures included the following.

mandatory pre-departure asthma treatment molecular test contact/quarantine plan using the ArriveCAN application on-arrival and post-arrival testing for travellers arriving by air, mandatory 3-day quarantine in government-authorized hotels followed by quarantine or isolation where can i buy ventolin over the counter at an approved location such as the traveller’s home The Government of Canada and the aviation industry also worked together on a plan to suspend Canadian air carrier flights to and from Mexico and Caribbean countries from January 31 to April 30, 2021. Then on February 3, 2021, all incoming international commercial passenger flights to Canada were restricted to the 4 largest airports. Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver.

In order to where can i buy ventolin over the counter prevent importation of variants of concern, the Government of Canada took additional measures that included suspension of flights from certain countries. Canada suspended all commercial and passenger flights from the United Kingdom between December 20, 2020 and January 6, 2021. Additionally, on April 22, 2021, all commercial and private passenger flights from India and Pakistan were suspended in response to a high number of cases detected among where can i buy ventolin over the counter individuals travelling on flights originating from the two countries.

These measures are in place until at least June 21, 2021. Internal data from the Public Health Agency of Canada indicates the following positivity rates for the seven days up to and including May 27, 2021, for air and land travel combined. the 7-day average positivity rate where can i buy ventolin over the counter for testing on arrival was 0.2% the 7-day average positivity rate for second tests was 0.3% As well, all positive tests undergo genomic sequencing to identify variants of concern.

Cross-border travel volumes decreased significantly from December 2019 to December 2020. Statistics Canada data show that the. number of travellers to Canada was down 93% total number of where can i buy ventolin over the counter international travellers to and from Canada declined from 96.8 million in 2019 to 25.9 million in 2020 Air travel has experienced the most dramatic shifts, as travellers arriving by air are mostly non-exempt from border measures.

In comparison, travellers exempt from border measures make up the vast majority of land border traffic. Essential travel continued largely unimpeded, as governments recognized the importance of preserving vital supply chains to ensure that food, fuel and life-saving medicines continue to reach people. A shifting landscape As of May 28, 2021, variants of concern account for an estimated 70% of reported cases in recent weeks where can i buy ventolin over the counter.

Any border measures must account for this new reality. At the same time, individuals and organizations within and outside of Canada are increasingly looking for. a concrete roadmap to the economic reopening of the country clear guidelines for restarting cross-border travel Plans and guidelines where can i buy ventolin over the counter should clearly spell out the public health criteria for adjusting border measures.

They should also outline when and how restrictions should be eased in the short and longer term. Guidelines must take into consideration the risk of importing new variants of concern in the move towards a safe restart of the where can i buy ventolin over the counter trade and tourism industries that operate internationally. As scientists learn more about how the ventolin spreads, as travellers are tested regularly and as vaccination efforts increase, it will be easier to manage the risk of importing asthma treatment and its variants.

Nevertheless, while the international border is open, there’s always the risk of importation. For a safe reopening, we need a risk framework where can i buy ventolin over the counter that takes into account public health measures and socio-economic factors. To bring the risk to an acceptable level, detection and surveillance options should be part of any robust border testing strategy.

Evidence concerning restrictive border measures, including lengthy quarantines, shows that the effectiveness of these measures declines over time. Non-compliance increases when measures are too tough and/or not communicated well where can i buy ventolin over the counter. This can counter efforts to reduce the spread of the ventolin and break the chains of transmission.

As more and more people in Canada and abroad are vaccinated, it will be necessary to update Canada’s strategy to allow the movement of vaccinated travellers, based on emerging scientific evidence and while respecting public health measures. Complex border measures may present significant implementation challenges, where can i buy ventolin over the counter which can lead to disparities in how the various rules, regulations and guidelines are applied at ports of entry. This may have a negative impact on people crossing the Canadian border and those industries engaged in cross-border and transnational business.

Small and medium companies may be especially impacted. Although essential workers have largely been exempt from border measures, the where can i buy ventolin over the counter Roundtable is aware of the challenges they face when rules are applied inconsistently. For example, several Canadian companies have reported incidences where some engineers, technicians and other specialists have faced challenges crossing the Canada-US border and meeting their contractual obligations to provide skilled services.

Some business executives and professional services providers with cross-border responsibilities are constrained in their ability to manage their operations effectively. As well, disruptions to the cross-border travel of these workers could expose businesses to legal recourse from clients for where can i buy ventolin over the counter failure to meet commitments. Many countries, including Canada, are aggressively rolling out vaccination regimes and partially permitting the movement of people (with restrictions).

Canada is now the top country in the G7, G20 and OECD where can i buy ventolin over the counter for vaccination rates of first doses. As the campaign shifts to second doses, Canada must continue to reach vulnerable populations to ensure treatment equity and broad-based coverage to facilitate re-opening the economy and growth. Canada’s biggest trading partner also shares its largest border.

Efforts should be made to align public health and economic recovery goals where can i buy ventolin over the counter between Canada and the United States. Prioritizing the Canada-US border would be consistent with the commitments made by both countries in the Roadmap for a Renewed U.S.-Canada Partnership. This roadmap recommends a coordinated and science-based approach to ease border restrictions in the future.

Countries around the world are also exploring cooperative arrangements with other countries and where can i buy ventolin over the counter looking at piloting innovative technology and information-sharing platforms designed to facilitate safe travel, such as treatment certification. Implementing significant changes requires wide support and cooperation, as highlighted in the Industry Strategy Council’s Restart, recover, and reimagine prosperity for all Canadians report. The report proposes a three-phase action plan – restart, recover, and reimagine – focused on investment and growth, and embodies values and principles of action and shared responsibility to mobilize all sectors to propel Canada forward.

The phases are anchored in five recommendations to safely restore confidence and commerce, stabilize the hardest-hit sectors, reignite growth by doubling down on a future-oriented investment plan, develop an ambitious where can i buy ventolin over the counter industrial strategy, and establish renewed public-private sector partnerships and investments anchored in a sound and rigorous fiscal framework. At the same time, we must recognize we live in times of uncertainty and contend with a rapidly shifting landscape. Plans should be flexible in order to balance public health concerns with the desire to ease restrictions.

We must work with public health experts where can i buy ventolin over the counter to establish and clearly communicate criteria and benchmarks to help travellers and businesses understand how and when border restrictions will be eased or increased in the coming months. Provinces and territories have outlined their reopening plans, with an important strength being the use of benchmarks to move between several steps of restrictions. Communicating a clear path with well-defined criteria will provide a much-needed level of predictability for reopening to industry and travellers alike.

Recommendations The Industry Roundtable recommends an approach to border measures that where can i buy ventolin over the counter include both short- and longer-term recommendations. Short-term recommendations Provide clear definitions of cross-border essential travellers and apply these in a consistent manner at all ports of entry. Recognize that companies are well positioned to identify essential travellers within their organization, enabling them where can i buy ventolin over the counter to leverage existing domestic testing regimes for employees to demonstrate that public health requirements are met.

Accepting employer-issued proof of testing would shift the onus away from the border and alleviate traveller flow pressures. Explicitly state the conditions for testing travellers and the criteria for shortening or removing quarantine measures. Connect the pace of vaccination rollout with public health measures and where can i buy ventolin over the counter the gradual lifting of travel restrictions, and include clear procedures for vaccinated, partially vaccinated and unvaccinated travellers.

This may need to adjust as new variants of concern emerge. Enable industry to take an active role in meeting vaccination targets in Canada by supporting priority vaccination of cross-border essential workers. Aggressive vaccination targets where can i buy ventolin over the counter for these workers would help companies contribute to the safe reopening of the economy in a timely manner.

Apply measures consistently at air and land borders, whenever possible. Provide clear, straightforward messaging for every person and company involved in the cross-border movement of people and goods. Clear communication leads to effective, consistent where can i buy ventolin over the counter implementation of any border measure and subsequent updates.

Longer-term recommendations Take into account evolving scientific evidence and adopt emerging findings. For example, evidence suggests that rapid antigen testing can be effective as a screening tool and adds another layer of defence when used as part of surveillance testing. Ensure that processes, information systems and infrastructure needed to implement modified border measures are in place and can manage increased travel volumes effectively.

Re-position Canada as a competitive participant in the tourism and global trade sectors through enabling border measures that facilitate the movement of people and goods across international borders. In collaboration with the private sector, the government should develop an enhanced framework to better prepare for and respond to future ventolins..

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Whether you’re too much ventolin thinking about getting pregnant, or you’re currently pregnant, Buy generic amoxil online you might be wondering how to know which medications are safe to use during your pregnancy. This includes everything from prescription medications, to over-the-counter cold remedies to your daily multivitamin. How do you know what’s safe, and what you shouldstop taking to protect yourself and your baby?.

Nearly every pregnant woman will too much ventolin face a decision regarding medication at some pointduring their pregnancy. However, there’s not detailed information on effects of manymedications when it comes to pregnant women, because they are not included in safetystudies. What we do know, though, is that there are some cases in which it would be more harmful to stop taking a medication during pregnancy, if, for example, the medication helps control a health condition.

On the flip side, there are also too much ventolin certain medications that increase the risk of birth defects, miscarriage or developmental disabilities. Certain things, such as the dose of the medication, during what trimester you take the medication and what health conditions you have, all play a role in this as well. The best thing to do is to discuss any medications you are currently taking with yourhealth care provider.

You can do this even before you are pregnant, as there are somemedications too much ventolin that are unsafe in early pregnancy. Your provider will help you create atreatment plan so that you, and your baby, are as healthy and as safe as possible. Throughout your pregnancy, you’ll want to check in with your doctor before starting orstopping any new medication, and this includes prescriptions, vitamins, supplements orover-the-counter remedies.

Even after you deliver your baby, your doctor will be able towork with you to determine if you should continue taking your medication or, when it’ssafe for you to resume taking medication you stopped taking too much ventolin during pregnancy. Together, you and your doctor can work together to come up with a plan to keep you and your baby as healthy and safe as possible. Obstetrician/Gynecologist Shawna Ruple, M.D., sees patients at MidMichigan Obstetrics &.

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Whether you’re thinking about getting pregnant, or you’re currently pregnant, Buy generic amoxil online you might be wondering how to know which medications are safe where can i buy ventolin over the counter to use during your pregnancy. This includes everything from prescription medications, to over-the-counter cold remedies to your daily multivitamin. How do you know what’s safe, and what you shouldstop taking to protect yourself and your baby?.

Nearly every pregnant woman will face a decision regarding medication at some pointduring their pregnancy where can i buy ventolin over the counter. However, there’s not detailed information on effects of manymedications when it comes to pregnant women, because they are not included in safetystudies. What we do know, though, is that there are some cases in which it would be more harmful to stop taking a medication during pregnancy, if, for example, the medication helps control a health condition.

On the flip side, there are also certain where can i buy ventolin over the counter medications that increase the risk of birth defects, miscarriage or developmental disabilities. Certain things, such as the dose of the medication, during what trimester you take the medication and what health conditions you have, all play a role in this as well. The best thing to do is to discuss any medications you are currently taking with yourhealth care provider.

You can do this where can i buy ventolin over the counter even before you are pregnant, as there are somemedications that are unsafe in early pregnancy. Your provider will help you create atreatment plan so that you, and your baby, are as healthy and as safe as possible. Throughout your pregnancy, you’ll want to check in with your doctor before starting orstopping any new medication, and this includes prescriptions, vitamins, supplements orover-the-counter remedies.

Even after you deliver your baby, your doctor will be able towork with you to determine if you should continue taking your medication or, when it’ssafe for you where can i buy ventolin over the counter to resume taking medication you stopped taking during pregnancy. Together, you and your doctor can work together to come up with a plan to keep you and your baby as healthy and safe as possible. Obstetrician/Gynecologist Shawna Ruple, M.D., sees patients at MidMichigan Obstetrics &.

Gynecology in where can i buy ventolin over the counter Midland. Dr. Ruple specializes in routine and problem gynecology care, gynecologic surgery, prevention of female reproductive cancers, birth control options, caring for women while pregnant and more.

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Over 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.1–5 In addition, patients report is ventolin available over the counter look at this site higher satisfaction when they are cared for in hospitals with higher staffing levels.6 7To date, most studies have not identified an ‘optimal’ 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 is ventolin available over the counter 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 is ventolin available over the counter 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 is ventolin available over the counter 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 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 is ventolin available over the counter 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 is ventolin available over the counter 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 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 to staff at a is ventolin available over the counter 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 is ventolin available over the counter 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 nurses’ morale and is ventolin available over the counter 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 skills—either 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 the potential quality is ventolin available over the counter 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.19–21 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 leaders have a growing array of workforce planning tools available to is ventolin available over the counter 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 healthcare personnel and healthcare organisations is ventolin available over the counter.

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 nurses’ 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 is ventolin available over the counter 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.1–3 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 ‘magic bullets’ 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, is ventolin available over the counter financial incentives, computerised decision support) typically produce disappointingly small improvements in care.5–10Much improvement work aims to ‘make the right thing to do the easy thing to do.’ Yet, design solutions which hardwire the desired actions remain few and far between. Further, improvement interventions which ‘softwire’ such actions—not guaranteeing that they occur, but at least increasing the likelihood that clinicians will deliver the care recommended in guidelines—mostly produce small improvements.5–9 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 is ventolin available over the counter 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 is ventolin available over the counter guidelines have received substantial attention over the years,13–18 surprisingly little attention has been paid to empirically answering basic questions about the finished product.

Do users understand guidelines http://ribbonebrewingcompany.com/?p=61 as intended?. And, what version of a given guideline engenders the desired behaviours by is ventolin available over the counter 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 UK’s 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 guideline is ventolin available over the counter 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 colleagues’ approach affords an opportunity to reflect on the benefits of user testing and simulation of guidelines. The design and evaluation of is ventolin available over the counter 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 is ventolin available over the counter revised guideline, successfully showing higher 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 is ventolin available over the counter 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 users’ 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 is ventolin available over the counter 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 ‘1 is ventolin available over the counter to 3 hours’), without realising that the shortest rate is not appropriate for certain doses (eg, 1 hour is appropriate for smaller doses, but larger doses should not be infused over 1 hour because the drug would then be administered faster than the maximum allowable infusion rate of 3 mg/kg/hour).

These two issues were addressed in the revised guidelines by providing key determinants for ‘action’ 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 is ventolin available over the counter 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)—the changes made did not facilitate the desired actions.

The initial guidelines indicate ‘DO NOT SHAKE’ in is ventolin available over the counter capital letters, and there is a section specific to ‘Flushing’. 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 is ventolin available over the counter 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 is ventolin available over the counter tested, it is unusual that we see a 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 is ventolin available over the counter 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 is ventolin available over the counter 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 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 released—certainly a helpful piece of information to guide decisions as to whether broad implementation of guidelines is justified.Caveats and conclusionSimulation is not a panacea—it 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 is ventolin available over the counter 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 is ventolin available over the counter 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..

Over 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.1–5 In addition, patients report higher satisfaction when they are cared for in hospitals with higher staffing levels.6 7To where can i buy ventolin over the counter date, most studies have not identified an ‘optimal’ 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 where can i buy ventolin over the counter an economic one, balancing the benefits of nurse 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 where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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 where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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 hospital managers lack information about the best balance between permanent where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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 less likely to experience understaffed patient where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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 where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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 absence, turnover or gaps where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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 where can i buy ventolin over the counter temporary staff can have detrimental effects on permanent nurses’ 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 skills—either 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 the potential quality impact where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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.19–21 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 leaders have a growing array of workforce planning where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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, where can i buy ventolin over the counter new technology platforms 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 nurses’ 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 where can i buy ventolin over the counter applied machine learning and discrete 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.1–3 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 ‘magic bullets’ when it comes to changing clinician behaviour.4 In fact, where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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.5–10Much improvement work aims to ‘make the right thing to do the easy thing to do.’ Yet, design solutions which hardwire the desired actions remain few and far between. Further, improvement interventions which ‘softwire’ such actions—not guaranteeing that they occur, but at least increasing the likelihood that clinicians will deliver the care recommended in guidelines—mostly produce small improvements.5–9 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 where can i buy ventolin over the counter. (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,13–18 surprisingly little attention has been paid to empirically where can i buy ventolin over the counter answering basic questions about the finished product. Do users understand guidelines as intended?. And, what version of a given where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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 UK’s 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 guideline design (through where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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 colleagues’ approach affords an opportunity to reflect on the benefits of user testing and simulation of guidelines. The design and evaluation where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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 where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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 current version of the where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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 users’ 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 where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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 ‘1 to where can i buy ventolin over the counter 3 hours’), without realising that the shortest rate is not appropriate for certain doses (eg, 1 hour is appropriate for smaller doses, but larger doses should not be infused over 1 hour because the drug would then be administered faster than the maximum allowable infusion rate of 3 mg/kg/hour).

These two issues were addressed in the revised guidelines by providing key determinants for ‘action’ 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 where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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)—the changes made did not facilitate the desired actions. The initial guidelines indicate ‘DO NOT SHAKE’ in where can i buy ventolin over the counter capital letters, and there is a section specific to ‘Flushing’.

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 where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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 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 where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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 where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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, where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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 where can i buy ventolin over the counter released—certainly a helpful piece of information to guide decisions as to whether broad implementation of guidelines is justified.Caveats and conclusionSimulation is not a panacea—it 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 where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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..

Ventolin expectorant dosage

Comment on ‘Statin treatment and muscle symptoms ventolin expectorant dosage. Series of randomised, placebo controlled n-of-1 trials’ published in the British Medical Journal (DOI. Http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n135).Key pointsStatinWISE (Statin Web-based Investigation of Side Effects)1 was ventolin expectorant dosage a series of institutionally funded, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled n-of-1 trials, recruiting 200 participants from general practices across 50 sites in the UK to establish the effect of statins on muscle symptoms.

Participants, who were taking any type of statin at any dose before trial enrolment, had recently stopped or were considering stopping treatment with statins because of muscle symptoms. Exclusion criteria were previously raised levels of serum alanine aminotransferase (≥3 times the upper limit of normal). Persistent, generalized, ventolin expectorant dosage unexplained muscle pain.

Levels of creatine kinase ≥5 times the upper limit of normal. Any contraindication ventolin expectorant dosage to atorvastatin treatment.The overall length of the trial was 1 year for each participant and comprised six 2-month treatment periods (three of placebo, three of atorvastatin 20 mg daily) in a randomly allocated order. At the end of each treatment period, participants rated their muscle symptoms on a visual analogue scale.

The primary outcome compared symptom scores (score 0 = no symptoms, 5 = moderate symptoms, and 10 = worst possible symptoms) in the statin and placebo periods. Three months ventolin expectorant dosage after the end of the final treatment period, participants were asked whether they had, or intended to restart treatment with statins.Of the 200 participants, 151 (76%) provided one or more visual analogue scale measurements in both a statin and a placebo period and were included in the primary analysis. No statistically significant difference in muscle symptom scores was found between the statin and placebo periods [mean ± SD.

1.7 ± 2.6 vs. 1.8 ± ventolin expectorant dosage 2.7. Mean difference statin minus placebo −0.1.

95% confidence interval (CI) −0.4 to ventolin expectorant dosage 0.1. P = 0.40]. Atorvastatin showed no significant effect on development of muscle symptoms overall with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.11 (99% CI, 0.62–1.99).

Nor was there any effect on muscle symptoms that could not ventolin expectorant dosage be attributed to another cause (OR, 1.22. 95% CI, 0.77–1.94).Of the 80 withdrawals during the study for any reason, 42% occurred when the patient was on the statin, 49% when the patient was on placebo, and 9% after randomization but before either statin or placebo had been initiated. Withdrawals because of intolerable muscle symptoms were 9% during a statin period and 7% during a placebo period.

Two-thirds of those completing the six treatment periods (74/113 participants) reported restarting long-term statin treatment ventolin expectorant dosage. CommentThe European Atherosclerosis Society Consensus Panel and other groups established that there is evidence for causality for only three statin-related adverse effects. Muscle side ventolin expectorant dosage effects, new-onset diabetes, and transient elevations of liver enzymes, with muscle symptoms being the most common complaint during statin treatment.2 Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have confirmed the safety of statins, showing that the risk of myopathy and its progression to severe rhabdomyolysis are rare, and suggesting that symptomatic adverse events may be misattributed to statins.3–5 Indeed, the association between muscle symptoms and statins has suffered the bias of observational studies, reinforced by media reports.

Patients taking statins expect to experience adverse effects, and therefore reporting of symptoms in statin users may be higher than in a comparable population not on statins. This phenomenon, known as the ‘nocebo’ effect, often leads to patients discontinuing treatment, exposing them to an increased risk of cardiovascular events.6In the present study, patients who had previously faced severe muscle symptoms on a statin reported similar muscle symptom prevalence or severity during blinded statin or placebo periods. Also, there were no differences for the effect of muscle symptoms on several aspects of daily life between statin ventolin expectorant dosage and placebo periods.

Thus, the study adds to the evidence from SAMSON,7 a recent trial with similar design, and from RCTs like ODYSSEY ALTERNATIVE8 and GAUSS-39 showing that a significant number of people who have problems with muscle pain associated with statins are experiencing a ‘nocebo’ effect, and that re-challenge with statins can be tolerated by most patients.StatinWISE, however, has several limitations. (i) the lack of creatine kinase measurement did not allow establishing what proportion of participants had symptoms associated with biochemical signs ventolin expectorant dosage of muscle damage. (ii) the trial results may not apply to higher doses of atorvastatin or other statins, as only the effects of atorvastatin 20 mg were assessed.

(iii) most importantly, 86 of the original 200 participants did not complete the whole trial, 49 of whom did not provide sufficient data to contribute to the primary analysis. Furthermore, withdrawals due to intolerable muscle symptoms were not significantly different between statin (9%) and placebo (7%) periods, but ventolin expectorant dosage StatinWISE was not powered to detect a difference in such withdrawals. (iv) the study participants may not be representative of all those who believe they experience side effects with statins.

On one hand, the study may have selected people who were less susceptible to the ‘nocebo’ effect. On the other hand, the majority (70%) of study participants had a history of cardiovascular disease, and they may have had a higher ventolin expectorant dosage commitment to statin therapy than those in primary prevention. And (v) the 2-month treatment period should be long enough to allow washout between different treatments and avoid the carry-over of symptoms between statin and placebo periods.

However, while muscle pain/weakness typically occurs within 4–6 weeks after starting statin treatment, the onset may be delayed months or years.10Despite these limitations, ventolin expectorant dosage these findings underscore the need for clinicians to acknowledge their patients’ muscle symptoms on statin therapy and, using a StatinWISE-like approach, ensure that as many as possible continue on a statin to reduce their cardiovascular risk.Conflict of interest. G.L. Received grant support (to the Institution) for investigator-initiated research from American Heart Association, Italian National Health Service and Italian Minister of Education, University and Research.

She is currently involved in the Research Programmes of ventolin expectorant dosage the Italian Cardiovascular Network. C.P. Received consultant and speaker fees from Acticor Biotech, Amgen, Bayer, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Tremeau, Zambon, and grant support (to the Institution) for investigator-initiated research from AIFA (Italian Drug Agency), Bayer, Cancer Research UK, and European Commission.

He chairs ventolin expectorant dosage the Scientific Advisory Board of the International Aspirin Foundation. References1Herrett E, Williamson E, Brack K, Beaumont D, Perkins A, Thayne A, Shakur-Still H, Roberts I, Prowse D, Goldacre B, van Staa T, MacDonald TM, Armitage J, Wimborne J, Melrose P, Singh J, Brooks L, Moore M, Hoffman M, Smeeth L, on behalf of the StatinWISE Trial Group. Statin treatment ventolin expectorant dosage and muscle symptoms.

Series of randomised, placebo controlled n-of-1 trials. BMJ 2021;372:n135.2Stroes ES, Thompson PD, Corsini A, Vladutiu GD, Raal FJ, Ray KK, Roden M, Stein E, Tokgözoğlu L, Nordestgaard BG, Bruckert E, De Backer G, Krauss RM, Laufs U, Santos RD, Hegele RA, Hovingh GK, Leiter LA, Mach F, März W, Newman CB, Wiklund O, Jacobson TA, Catapano AL, Chapman MJ, Ginsberg HN, European Atherosclerosis Society Consensus Panel. Statin-associated muscle symptoms ventolin expectorant dosage.

Impact on statin therapy-European Atherosclerosis Society Consensus Panel Statement on Assessment, Aetiology and Management. Eur Heart J 2015;36:1012–1022.3Collins R, Reith C, Emberson J, Armitage J, Baigent C, Blackwell L, Blumenthal R, Danesh J, Smith GD, DeMets D, Evans S, Law M, MacMahon S, Martin S, Neal B, Poulter N, Preiss D, Ridker P, Roberts I, Rodgers A, Sandercock P, Schulz K, Sever P, Simes J, Smeeth L, Wald N, Yusuf S, Peto R. Interpretation of the evidence for the efficacy and safety ventolin expectorant dosage of statin therapy.

Lancet 2016;388:2532–2561.4Gupta A, Thompson D, Whitehouse A, Collier T, Dahlof B, Poulter N, Collins R, Sever P, ASCOT Investigators. Adverse events associated with unblinded, but not with ventolin expectorant dosage blinded, statin therapy in the Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial-Lipid-Lowering Arm (ASCOT-LLA). A randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial and its non-randomised non-blind extension phase.

Lancet 2017;389:2473–2481.5Newman CB, Preiss D, Tobert JA, Jacobson TA, Page RL2nd, Goldstein LB, Chin C, Tannock LR, Miller M, Raghuveer G, Duell PB, Brinton EA, Pollak A, Braun LT, Welty FK, American Heart Association Clinical Lipidology, Lipoprotein, Metabolism and Thrombosis Committee, a Joint Committee of the Council on Atherosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology and Council on Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health. Council on ventolin expectorant dosage Cardiovascular Disease in the Young. Council on Clinical Cardiology.

Stroke Council ventolin expectorant dosage. Statin safety and associated adverse events. A scientific statement from the American Heart Association.

Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 2019;39:e38–e81.6Mach F, Baigent C, Catapano AL, Koskinas KC, Casula M, Badimon L, Chapman MJ, ventolin expectorant dosage De Backer GG, Delgado V, Ference BA, Graham IM, Halliday A, Landmesser U, Mihaylova B, Pedersen TR, Riccardi G, Richter DJ, Sabatine MS, Taskinen MR, Tokgozoglu L, Wiklund O, ESC Scientific Document Group. 2019 ESC/EAS Guidelines for the management of dyslipidaemias. Lipid modification to reduce cardiovascular risk.

Eur Heart ventolin expectorant dosage J 2020;41:111–188.7Wood FA, Howard JP, Finegold JA, Nowbar AN, Thompson DM, Arnold AD, Rajkumar CA, Connolly S, Cegla J, Stride C, Sever P, Norton C, Thom SAM, Shun-Shin MJ, Francis DP. N-of-1 trial of a statin, placebo, or no treatment to assess side effects. N Engl J Med 2020;383:2182–2184.8Moriarty PM, Jacobson TA, Bruckert ventolin expectorant dosage E, Thompson PD, Guyton JR, Baccara-Dinet MT, Gipe D.

Efficacy and safety of alirocumab, a monoclonal antibody to PCSK9, in statin-intolerant patients. Design and rationale of ODYSSEY ALTERNATIVE, a randomized phase 3 trial. J Clin Lipidol 2014;8:554–561.9Nissen SE, Stroes E, Dent-Acosta RE, Rosenson RS, Lehman SJ, Sattar N, Preiss D, Bruckert E, Ceška R, Lepor N, Ballantyne CM, Gouni-Berthold I, Elliott M, Brennan DM, Wasserman SM, Somaratne ventolin expectorant dosage R, Scott R, Stein EA, for the GAUSS-3 Investigators.

Efficacy and tolerability of evolocumab vs ezetimibe in patients with muscle-related statin intolerance. The GAUSS-3 randomized clinical trial. JAMA 2016;315:1580–1590.10Parker ventolin expectorant dosage BA, Capizzi JA, Grimaldi AS, Clarkson PM, Cole SM, Keadle J, Chipkin S, Pescatello LS, Simpson K, White CM, Thompson PD.

Effect of statins on skeletal muscle function. Circulation 2013;127:96–103 ventolin expectorant dosage. Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology.

All rights reserved. © The ventolin expectorant dosage Author(s) 2021. For permissions, please email.

Comment on ‘Statin treatment and muscle Price of zithromax at walmart symptoms where can i buy ventolin over the counter. Series of randomised, placebo controlled n-of-1 trials’ published in the British Medical Journal (DOI. Http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n135).Key pointsStatinWISE (Statin Web-based Investigation of Side Effects)1 was a series of institutionally funded, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled n-of-1 trials, recruiting 200 participants from where can i buy ventolin over the counter general practices across 50 sites in the UK to establish the effect of statins on muscle symptoms. Participants, who were taking any type of statin at any dose before trial enrolment, had recently stopped or were considering stopping treatment with statins because of muscle symptoms.

Exclusion criteria were previously raised levels of serum alanine aminotransferase (≥3 times the upper limit of normal). Persistent, generalized, unexplained where can i buy ventolin over the counter muscle pain. Levels of creatine kinase ≥5 times the upper limit of normal. Any contraindication to atorvastatin treatment.The overall length of the trial was 1 where can i buy ventolin over the counter year for each participant and comprised six 2-month treatment periods (three of placebo, three of atorvastatin 20 mg daily) in a randomly allocated order.

At the end of each treatment period, participants rated their muscle symptoms on a visual analogue scale. The primary outcome compared symptom scores (score 0 = no symptoms, 5 = moderate symptoms, and 10 = worst possible symptoms) in the statin and placebo periods. Three months after the end where can i buy ventolin over the counter of the final treatment period, participants were asked whether they had, or intended to restart treatment with statins.Of the 200 participants, 151 (76%) provided one or more visual analogue scale measurements in both a statin and a placebo period and were included in the primary analysis. No statistically significant difference in muscle symptom scores was found between the statin and placebo periods [mean ± SD.

1.7 ± 2.6 vs. 1.8 ± where can i buy ventolin over the counter 2.7. Mean difference statin minus placebo −0.1. 95% confidence interval (CI) −0.4 to where can i buy ventolin over the counter 0.1.

P = 0.40]. Atorvastatin showed no significant effect on development of muscle symptoms overall with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.11 (99% CI, 0.62–1.99). Nor was there any effect on muscle symptoms that could not be attributed to another cause (OR, where can i buy ventolin over the counter 1.22. 95% CI, 0.77–1.94).Of the 80 withdrawals during the study for any reason, 42% occurred when the patient was on the statin, 49% when the patient was on placebo, and 9% after randomization but before either statin or placebo had been initiated.

Withdrawals because of intolerable muscle symptoms were 9% during a statin period and 7% during a placebo period. Two-thirds of those completing where can i buy ventolin over the counter the six treatment periods (74/113 participants) reported restarting long-term statin treatment. CommentThe European Atherosclerosis Society Consensus Panel and other groups established that there is evidence for causality for only three statin-related adverse effects. Muscle side effects, new-onset diabetes, and transient elevations of liver enzymes, with muscle symptoms being the most common complaint during statin treatment.2 Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have confirmed the safety of statins, showing that the risk of myopathy and its progression to severe rhabdomyolysis are rare, and suggesting that symptomatic where can i buy ventolin over the counter adverse events may be misattributed to statins.3–5 Indeed, the association between muscle symptoms and statins has suffered the bias of observational studies, reinforced by media reports.

Patients taking statins expect to experience adverse effects, and therefore reporting of symptoms in statin users may be higher than in a comparable population not on statins. This phenomenon, known as the ‘nocebo’ effect, often leads to patients discontinuing treatment, exposing them to an increased risk of cardiovascular events.6In the present study, patients who had previously faced severe muscle symptoms on a statin reported similar muscle symptom prevalence or severity during blinded statin or placebo periods. Also, there were no differences for the effect where can i buy ventolin over the counter of muscle symptoms on several aspects of daily life between statin and placebo periods. Thus, the study adds to the evidence from SAMSON,7 a recent trial with similar design, and from RCTs like ODYSSEY ALTERNATIVE8 and GAUSS-39 showing that a significant number of people who have problems with muscle pain associated with statins are experiencing a ‘nocebo’ effect, and that re-challenge with statins can be tolerated by most patients.StatinWISE, however, has several limitations.

(i) the where can i buy ventolin over the counter lack of creatine kinase measurement did not allow establishing what proportion of participants had symptoms associated with biochemical signs of muscle damage. (ii) the trial results may not apply to higher doses of atorvastatin or other statins, as only the effects of atorvastatin 20 mg were assessed. (iii) most importantly, 86 of the original 200 participants did not complete the whole trial, 49 of whom did not provide sufficient data to contribute to the primary analysis. Furthermore, withdrawals due to intolerable muscle symptoms were not significantly different between statin (9%) where can i buy ventolin over the counter and placebo (7%) periods, but StatinWISE was not powered to detect a difference in such withdrawals.

(iv) the study participants may not be representative of all those who believe they experience side effects with statins. On one hand, the study may have selected people who were less susceptible to the ‘nocebo’ effect. On the other hand, the majority (70%) of study participants had a history of cardiovascular disease, where can i buy ventolin over the counter and they may have had a higher commitment to statin therapy than those in primary prevention. And (v) the 2-month treatment period should be long enough to allow washout between different treatments and avoid the carry-over of symptoms between statin and placebo periods.

However, while muscle pain/weakness typically occurs within 4–6 weeks after starting statin treatment, the onset may be delayed months or years.10Despite these limitations, these findings underscore the need for clinicians to acknowledge their patients’ muscle symptoms on statin therapy and, using a StatinWISE-like approach, ensure that as many as possible continue on a statin to reduce their cardiovascular risk.Conflict where can i buy ventolin over the counter of interest. G.L. Received grant support (to the Institution) for investigator-initiated research from American Heart Association, Italian National Health Service and Italian Minister of Education, University and Research. She is currently involved in the where can i buy ventolin over the counter Research Programmes of the Italian Cardiovascular Network.

C.P. Received consultant and speaker fees from Acticor Biotech, Amgen, Bayer, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Tremeau, Zambon, and grant support (to the Institution) for investigator-initiated research from AIFA (Italian Drug Agency), Bayer, Cancer Research UK, and European Commission. He chairs the Scientific Advisory Board where can i buy ventolin over the counter of the International Aspirin Foundation. References1Herrett E, Williamson E, Brack K, Beaumont D, Perkins A, Thayne A, Shakur-Still H, Roberts I, Prowse D, Goldacre B, van Staa T, MacDonald TM, Armitage J, Wimborne J, Melrose P, Singh J, Brooks L, Moore M, Hoffman M, Smeeth L, on behalf of the StatinWISE Trial Group.

Statin treatment and muscle symptoms where can i buy ventolin over the counter. Series of randomised, placebo controlled n-of-1 trials. BMJ 2021;372:n135.2Stroes ES, Thompson PD, Corsini A, Vladutiu GD, Raal FJ, Ray KK, Roden M, Stein E, Tokgözoğlu L, Nordestgaard BG, Bruckert E, De Backer G, Krauss RM, Laufs U, Santos RD, Hegele RA, Hovingh GK, Leiter LA, Mach F, März W, Newman CB, Wiklund O, Jacobson TA, Catapano AL, Chapman MJ, Ginsberg HN, European Atherosclerosis Society Consensus Panel. Statin-associated muscle where can i buy ventolin over the counter symptoms.

Impact on statin therapy-European Atherosclerosis Society Consensus Panel Statement on Assessment, Aetiology and Management. Eur Heart J 2015;36:1012–1022.3Collins R, Reith C, Emberson J, Armitage J, Baigent C, Blackwell L, Blumenthal R, Danesh J, Smith GD, DeMets D, Evans S, Law M, MacMahon S, Martin S, Neal B, Poulter N, Preiss D, Ridker P, Roberts I, Rodgers A, Sandercock P, Schulz K, Sever P, Simes J, Smeeth L, Wald N, Yusuf S, Peto R. Interpretation of the evidence for the where can i buy ventolin over the counter efficacy and safety of statin therapy. Lancet 2016;388:2532–2561.4Gupta A, Thompson D, Whitehouse A, Collier T, Dahlof B, Poulter N, Collins R, Sever P, ASCOT Investigators.

Adverse events associated with unblinded, but not with blinded, where can i buy ventolin over the counter statin therapy in the Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial-Lipid-Lowering Arm (ASCOT-LLA). A randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial and its non-randomised non-blind extension phase. Lancet 2017;389:2473–2481.5Newman CB, Preiss D, Tobert JA, Jacobson TA, Page RL2nd, Goldstein LB, Chin C, Tannock LR, Miller M, Raghuveer G, Duell PB, Brinton EA, Pollak A, Braun LT, Welty FK, American Heart Association Clinical Lipidology, Lipoprotein, Metabolism and Thrombosis Committee, a Joint Committee of the Council on Atherosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology and Council on Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health. Council on Cardiovascular Disease in the where can i buy ventolin over the counter Young.

Council on Clinical Cardiology. Stroke Council where can i buy ventolin over the counter. Statin safety and associated adverse events. A scientific statement from the American Heart Association.

Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 2019;39:e38–e81.6Mach F, Baigent C, Catapano AL, Koskinas KC, Casula M, Badimon L, Chapman MJ, De Backer GG, Delgado V, Ference BA, Graham IM, Halliday A, Landmesser U, Mihaylova B, Pedersen TR, Riccardi G, Richter DJ, Sabatine MS, Taskinen MR, Tokgozoglu L, Wiklund O, ESC Scientific Document Group where can i buy ventolin over the counter. 2019 ESC/EAS Guidelines for the management of dyslipidaemias. Lipid modification to reduce cardiovascular risk. Eur Heart J 2020;41:111–188.7Wood where can i buy ventolin over the counter FA, Howard JP, Finegold JA, Nowbar AN, Thompson DM, Arnold AD, Rajkumar CA, Connolly S, Cegla J, Stride C, Sever P, Norton C, Thom SAM, Shun-Shin MJ, Francis DP.

N-of-1 trial of a statin, placebo, or no treatment to assess side effects. N Engl J Med 2020;383:2182–2184.8Moriarty PM, Jacobson TA, Bruckert E, Thompson PD, where can i buy ventolin over the counter Guyton JR, Baccara-Dinet MT, Gipe D. Efficacy and safety of alirocumab, a monoclonal antibody to PCSK9, in statin-intolerant patients. Design and rationale of ODYSSEY ALTERNATIVE, a randomized phase 3 trial.

J Clin Lipidol 2014;8:554–561.9Nissen SE, Stroes E, Dent-Acosta RE, Rosenson RS, Lehman SJ, Sattar N, where can i buy ventolin over the counter Preiss D, Bruckert E, Ceška R, Lepor N, Ballantyne CM, Gouni-Berthold I, Elliott M, Brennan DM, Wasserman SM, Somaratne R, Scott R, Stein EA, for the GAUSS-3 Investigators. Efficacy and tolerability of evolocumab vs ezetimibe in patients with muscle-related statin intolerance. The GAUSS-3 randomized clinical trial. JAMA 2016;315:1580–1590.10Parker BA, Capizzi JA, where can i buy ventolin over the counter Grimaldi AS, Clarkson PM, Cole SM, Keadle J, Chipkin S, Pescatello LS, Simpson K, White CM, Thompson PD.

Effect of statins on skeletal muscle function. Circulation 2013;127:96–103 where can i buy ventolin over the counter. Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved.

© The Author(s) where can i buy ventolin over the counter 2021. For permissions, please email. Journals.permissions@oup.com..

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Those in QMB receive additional ventolin boots uk subsidies for Medicare costs https://www.cubcadet.co.uk/where-to-get-amoxil-pills/. See 2021 Fact Sheet on MSP in NYS by Medicare Rights Center ENGLISH SPANISH State law. N.Y. Soc.

Serv. L. § 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 – 120% FPL 120 – 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 “Part A Buy-In” 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 §360-7.8(b)(5) Yes – Retroactive to 3rd month before month of application, if eligible in prior months Yes – 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.

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 “SSI-related category.” 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 program’s 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 household’s benefit until the next recertification.

New York’s SNAP policy per administrative directive 02 ADM-07 is to “freeze” the deduction for medical expenses between certification periods. Increases in medical expenses can be budgeted at the household’s request, but NYS never decreases a household’s 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 State’s 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 person’s eligibility for MSP. 08 OHIP/ADM-4 ​If 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 “Remarks” 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 – that information gets shared w/ SSA and CMS SSA stops deducting the Part B premiums out of the beneficiary’s Social Security check. SSA also refunds any amounts owed to the recipient.

The Three MSP Programs - What where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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 where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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 where can i buy ventolin over the counter. 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 where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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 – where can i buy ventolin over the counter 120% FPL 120 – 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 “Part A Buy-In” YES YES Pays Part A &.

B deductibles & where can i buy ventolin over the counter. 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 §360-7.8(b)(5) Yes – Retroactive where can i buy ventolin over the counter to 3rd month before month of application, if eligible in prior months Yes – 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 where can i buy ventolin over the counter Same Time?. YES YES NO!. Must choose between QI-1 and Medicaid. Cannot have both, not even Medicaid where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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 where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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 where can i buy ventolin over the counter 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 where can i buy ventolin over the counter. 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 “SSI-related category.” 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 program’s 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 household’s benefit until the next recertification. New York’s SNAP policy per administrative directive 02 ADM-07 is to “freeze” the deduction for medical expenses between certification periods. Increases in medical expenses can be budgeted at the household’s request, but NYS never decreases a household’s 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 State’s 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 person’s eligibility for MSP.

08 OHIP/ADM-4 ​If 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 “Remarks” 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 – that information gets shared w/ SSA and CMS SSA stops deducting the Part B premiums out of the beneficiary’s Social Security check. SSA also refunds any amounts owed to the recipient. (Note. This process can take awhile!.

!. !. ) CMS “deems” the MSP recipient eligible for Part D Extra Help/ Low Income Subsidy (LIS). ​Can the MSP be retroactive like Medicaid, back to 3 months before the application?. ​The answer is different for the 3 MSP programs.

QMB -No Retroactive Eligibility – Benefits begin the month after the month of the MSP application. 18 NYCRR § 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.