Rituals for Passover with Alexander Zaks

While growing up in Riga, Latvia, Alexander Zaks was never taught about Jewish traditions. Friday, three days after arriving in the United States, he and his family got their first taste of religious freedom when they celebrated Passover at a Seder with his brother Yuri. "We never had these traditions," Alexander Zaks, 38, said as he fingered a yarmulke at his brother's apartment in Simi Valley. "This was lost in Russia." Zaks, his wife Irena, his mother Julia, and his 12-year-old daughter Yelena are among two dozen Soviet emigres in Ventura County who are learning about their faith with the help of Temple Etz Chaim, a Thousand Oaks-based synagogue that is at the heart of the Russian immigrant enclave in the county.

Today, Rabbi Shimon Paskow will lead about 200 people, seven of them Russians, in a community Passover dinner that has become an annual celebration of their exodus from the Soviet Union. "In Russia there's nothing for Jews," Paskow said. "The young people are afraid to go to synagogue." Russian immigrants began coming to Temple Etz Chaim for help after a member of the congregation first contacted Paskow to ask for help in finding homes for emigres in the United States. Yakov Galperin's was one of the first families to be sponsored by Temple Etz Chaim. Thirteen years ago, Galperin, then a chemist living in Leningrad, was a "refusenik," the name given to Soviet Jews whose exit visas were refused by the government.

Galperin, 44, said he and his wife Olga used to celebrate Passover in private at home. "We got matzo almost illegally," he said. "The only place you could buy it was a synagogue in Lenin grad. When you went to the synagogue, the KGB would be there." Four and a half years ago, Galperin's family was finally granted exit visas and found their way to Thousand Oaks. Galperin now works as a research chemist in the San Fernando Valley. His wife volunteered at the Temple Etz Chaim office until she found a job as a sales manager at a software company in Westlake. Galperin's 13-year-old son Yuri practices the prayers that his father has never learned. It has been hard learning about his Jewish identity, he said. "It's kind of strange. In Russia, we were Jews in our passport, but we didn't know what that meant," Galperin said. "We came from a different world, not just a different country."

The temple's Hebrew school has eight Russian students. Zaks' daughter Yelena will be the first in two generations to speak Hebrew, Paskow said. In addition to helping newly arrived immigrants practice their faith, the temple has also assisted Russians in finding housing and eased their transition into the community by helping them learn English, Paskow said. And next fall, several Russian couples will reconfirm the civil vows they took in the Soviet Union in a full Jewish ceremony at the temple. In turn, immigrants have contributed to Temple Etz Chaim's growth as the largest synagogue in Ventura County. It now counts 1,000 families among its congregation.

Passover is a particularly poignant time for the Russians because it symbolizes freedom, Paskow said. Before they left the Soviet Union, many had never seen the flat, unleavened bread called matzo, he said. Olga Zaks, 32, who welcomed her brother-in-law's family two days ago, said she and her husband Yuri had to learn about Jewish traditions from the temple when they arrived two years ago. "It was difficult to celebrate," she said, "because we didn't know how."

Reposted from: http://articles.latimes.com/1992-04-18/local/me-681_1_soviet-union 

Claims and Underutilization connection in California

Workers’ compensation insurance fraud is most commonly associated with false claims; scams made by patients claiming mythical injuries or unethical medical providers inflating their treatment costs or billing insurers for services that were never actually provided. False claims in insurance fraud is a problem that can occur at any layer of the health care system, including provider organizations, purchasing cooperatives, employers, HMOs and indemnity health insurers.

False claims insurance fraud encompasses a wide range of deceitful activity; such as an employer lying on an application to get better insurance rates, misrepresentation by purchasing cooperatives to guide buyers to inferior plans, insurance company salesmen promising benefits that a coverage plan doesn’t include and a patient lying about his medical condition to get prescription drugs that are then sold on the black market.

While claims fraud attracts the most attention of all types of false statement insurance fraud, there are multiple types of false claims and other false statement techniques, as follows: 

• Unbundling - In this type of fraud the medical provider submits separate claims for a single treatment, raising his profit for the procedure.

• Upcoding - A provider sends in a bill to the insurer for a procedure that is much more expensive than the one actually performed.

• Billing for Services Not Provided - Fraud that goes a step further than upcoding, a provider submits a claim for a treatment that the patient never received.

• Exclusion of Covered Benefits - This is a scheme by unscrupulous providers, who tell a patient that the treatment they need isn’t covered by their insurance when it actually is. The provider then offers to provide the services at a discount if the patient pays directly.

• False Coverage - False coverage fraud is a scam run by “fly-by-night” insurance companies that take an employee's premium payments but then fail to pay legitimate claims, leaving the patient on the hook with the medical provider.

• Credentials Falsification - The false credentials ruse occurs when a medical provider or facility presents credentials that they haven’t earned and provide services they’re not qualified to perform, putting the patient’s health and life at risk.

One of the most egregious cases of false claim insurance fraud was perpetrated by Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), the largest private operator of health care facilities in the world. Following FBI investigations HCA pleaded guilty to fourteen felonies, including systematically overcharging the government, filing false statements, fraudulently billing Medicare and providing kickbacks to doctors who referred patients to HCA facilities. The company ended up paying the federal government $631 million, plus interest, in addition to $250 million in restitution on fraudulent Medicare claims. The insurance fraud also cost HCA more than $2 billion to settle civil claims.

A key tool in combating false statement insurance fraud is for workers’ compensation patients to seek out highly reputable providers. The best approach to navigating the fray of health insurance or workers’ compensation red tape is to play it straight down the line, provide the highest level of patient care, while strictly adhering to ethical guidelines for workers’ compensation cases.

Alexander Zaks interventional pain management Surgeon

Alexander Zaks interventional pain management Surgeon

Though one may hope it will never be necessary, there may come a time when a chronic pain disorder becomes so severe that the services of an interventional pain management surgeon will be required. For over a decade, Alexander Zaks has been a trusted surgeon, anesthesiologist, and pain management specialist to Southern Californians seeking relief from chronic or work-related pain and suffering. In fact, Dr. Zaks and his expert team of nearly 100 work diligently from the Comprehensive Outpatient Surgery Center located in Beverly Hills to treat thousands of patients who suffer from chronic and acute pain, as well as work related accidents.
 

Alexander Zaks Is A Pain Management Specialist

Whether an individual is suffering from back pain, seeking remedies and treatment for severe arthritis, or needs expert relief from a specialist who accepts California worker’s compensation insurance, Alexander Zaks has the licenses, training, and experience to take care of it.

A Georgetown University School of Medicine graduate, Alex Zaks’s area of expertise is in pain management and treatment solutions. With no history of malpractice or sanctions, Dr Alexander Zaks MD is a name that can be trusted for proper pain management remedies.
 

Alexeander  Zaks Is An Interventional Pain Management Surgeon

When other treatments fail, surgery may be necessary in order to treat chronic pain or pan that is associated with work related injuries. Dr. Alexander Zaks is a licensed interventional pain management surgeon and has the expertise and wisdom to know when a surgical remedy is required for relief, and what type of procedure will be best. It is critical that patients are referred to pain management surgeons like Alex Zaks who will make every effort to treat pain and suffering carefully and responsibly through various methods before resorting to a surgical procedure. Dr. Zaks is sure to always explain possible outcomes of any surgical processes, walks patients through the process of what they should expect, answers any questions, and ensures that his patients are comfortable with the procedure that may be recommended to them.


Alexander Zaks may recommend pain management procedures such as:

• Epidurals

• Facet blocks

• Trigger point injections

• Disc decompression

• Laminectomies

• Disc decompressions

• Radiculopathy

• Chronic pain issue operations

• Acute spinal pain issue operations

 

Alexander Zaks MD is an Anesthesiologist

Anesthesiology Board Certified and a DABA Diplomat of the American Board of Anesthesiology , Alex Zaks is fully qualified to care for the thousands of patients who are seeking solutions for their problems due to a variety of acute and chronic pain disorders. These certifications are a prestigious honor which took Dr. Alexander Zaks years of hard work and dedication to obtain. After earning a MD degree, Dr. A. Zaks spent another four years in residence before passing a rigorous oral and written examination process. Paired with his experience and concern for patients, Alexander Zaks is a pain specialist in southern California.

Whether referring a patient to an interventional pain management surgeon or seeking one out for yourself, it is critical that the specialist selected is as highly qualified and skilled as Dr. Alexander Zaks MD.

Dr. Alexander Zaks DABA Diplomate of the American Board of Anesthesiology

Dr.Alexander Zaks is an American trained M.D., Anesthesiologist and surgeon with a sub specialty in Pain Management. Dr. Alexander Zaks is a Board Certified Anesthesiologist who has practiced medicine in California for nearing twenty years. He is a respected member of the American Medical Association (AMA), the American Society of Anesthesiologists and the California Society of Anesthesiologists. Dr. Alexander Zaks also serves as the Medical Director of the ComprehensiveOutpatient Surgery Center in Beverly Hills California.

What Does It Mean to Be A Diplomate of the American Board of Anesthesiology?

Dr. Alexander Zaks has a steadfast commitment to high quality care with a Board Certification in Anesthesiology. Board certification goes beyond the M.D. licensure to help further qualify a doctor's knowledge, experience and expertise to provide high quality care within his or her specific specialty. As a DABA Diplomate of the American Board of Anesthesiology, Dr. Alexander Zaks provides medical management and consultation during the perioperative period, in pain medicine and in critical care medicine. A diplomate of the American Board of Anesthesiology must have a solid command of the clinical skills, technical acumen, knowledge, judgment, adaptability and personal characteristics in order to achieve excellence in the entire scope of an anesthesiology practice.

A diplomate of the Board is capable of serving as an expert in issues related to anesthesiology, evaluate situations with other medical professionals and provide advice in the many aspects of the specialty of anesthesiology. A Board certified anesthesiologist, like Dr. Alexander Zaks, is likewise capable as heading an anesthesiology care team.

Dr.Alexander Zaks is a Board Certified Anesthesiologist and a Diplomate of the American Board of Anesthesiology. Due in part to the nature of anesthesiology, ABA diplomates like Dr. Alexander Zaks, must be ready to manage developing life-threatening situations in independently and quickly. The ability to independently procure and evaluate information quickly is critical to ensure individual responsibility for all aspects of anesthesiology care. An ABA diplomate must possess the ability to organize and clearly present rational diagnoses and appropriate treatment protocols to their peers, patients, patient's families and others medical team members.

Dr. Alexander Zaks Has a Solid Reputation for Clinical Excellence

Among the many things that set Dr. Alexander Zaks apart, his commitment to regularly achieving superior clinical outcomes in a responsive, patient-focused setting are paramount. Choosing your medical doctor or Board CertifiedAnesthesiologist is one of the most important health care decisions you can make. There is nothing more important than safeguarding your health or the health of a family member.

Your physician will be your partner in health care, there to help you understand your options and guide you to the most effective treatments, which is why it is so fundamental to choose carefully. Dr. Alexander Zaks has a proven track record and solid reputation as a first-class practitioner who delivers consistently positive outcomes with proven methods, technologically advanced treatments and exceptional patient care. 

• American trained M.D.
• Member of the American Medical Association
• Board Certified Anesthesiologist
• Fellowship in Pain Management
• Practicing Surgeon
• Member of the California Society of Anesthesiologists
• DABA Diplomat of the American Board of Anesthesiology
• Interventional Pain Management Specialist
• Member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists