Knowledge is Healing

For some people, the morning starts with a hot cup of coffee while other people prefer cappuccino and others latte. Latte is an Italian drink often referred to café latte, especially in westernized countries. Regardless of the name, this drink is made with milk and coffee and can be served hot or cold. To change the flavor of the base ingredients, other ingredients can be added. From this, we have seen the green tea latte recipe becoming a favorite, morning, noon, and night. This combination provides the hot, relaxing latte with the health benefits and slight sweetness of the green tea.

The medicinal benefits of green tea have been well documented. Although enjoyed by the Asian population for centuries, we are now seeing green tea used in a variety of foods such as cookies, cakes, puddings, smoothies, and now, lattes. With any green tea latte recipe, you can add some of your favorite foods to customize it. Just imagine sipping on a hot or cold drink while also fighting disease such as cancer, arthritis, cholesterol, and cardiovascular, which is exactly what you do with a green tea latte recipe.

Green Tea Latte Recipe – One

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon green tea powder (Matcha)
6 ounces warm milk
Honey or brown sugar to taste

Mix two ounces of warm milk with the green tea powder, mixing just enough to create a thick paste. Place the paste in the cup, adding the honey or brown sugar, along with remaining milk. Mix well and enjoy!

Green Tea Latte Recipe – Two

1/2 to 1 teaspoon green tea powder
2 ounces warm water
4 ounces warm milk
3 teaspoons sugar or honey
1/2 to 1 cup ice cubes

Mix the green tea powder with the 2 ounces of warm water, mixing well to dissolve. Transfer this mixture to a blender. Add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.

Green Tea Latte Recipe – Three

3/4 to 1 teaspoon green tea powder
3 teaspoons sugar or honey
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup soy or regular 2% milk
1/2 to 1 cup ice

Place the green tea powder in a bowl. Add the warm water and sugar or honey. Blend well until the mixture is thoroughly dissolved. Transfer the green tea mixture into a serving glass and then add the ice cubes. To this, add the milk.

Green Tea Latte Recipe – Four

4 cups cold water
2 Chai tea bags
3 green tea bags
1 cup milk, chilled
4 tablespoons brown sugar or honey

Boil water and then add both Chai and green tea bags. Seep the tea for three to five minutes, removing the bags and discarding. In ad blender, blend the milk so it is frothy. Pour the tea into individual serving cups and then to each, add 1 tablespoon of the brown sugar of honey. To the tea mixture, add frothy milk. If you like, you can sprinkle a little green tea powder or cinnamon on top.

A helpful tip when brewing green tea is to retain the flavor while not losing the health benefits. For this, we recommend you use one tea bag for each cup of water. For the water, start with cold water, bringing it to a boil. As soon as the water reaches the boil point, remove it from the heat source and let is stand for three minutes. Then, add the tea bags and allow them to seep for three to five minutes, or place a tea bag into a serving cup, pouring the boiled water on top. While this might sound elementary, you will enjoy both flavor and health benefits for each green tea latte recipe by following these guidelines.

Julie Health writes about health benefits of green tea and has provided you with more recipes using green tea.

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The California Dept. of Managed Health Care has fined Kaiser Foundation Health Plan $3 million.

The department said the fine is for Kaiser not adequately providing oversight of quality assurance programs intended to address patient complaints and physician peer review cases at its 29 medical centers in California.

The DMHC started an investigation in August 2006 after issues were identified during an investigation into Kaiser's San Francisco Medical Center kidney transplant facility, and after several complaints were received by the DMHC's HMO help center.

The department found that Kaiser did not meet state requirements in two ways. It lacked adequate health plan oversight of quality assurance programs, and it was inconsistent in its handling of quality of care cases referred for peer review.

But the plan could not verify whether serious problems were being addressed now, according to the department.

"State law requires health plans to have processes in place to hear member concerns and act upon them in a timely manner," said Cindy Ehnes, director of the DMHC, in a prepared statement.

In its own prepared statement, Kaiser said it has "a long history of evaluating and improving quality assurance processes, and monitors performance through data tracking and reporting to the highest level of management."

[...]

The New Jersey Dept. of Banking and Insurance fined Aetna a record $9.5 million for trying to pay nonparticipating physicians 125% of the existing Medicare fee schedule instead of their billed charges. The department also ordered the health plan to reimburse physicians for those billed charges.

The bulk of the fine -- due immediately and one of the largest ever imposed by the department -- stems from Aetna's attempt to apply the 125% schedule to out-of-network physicians who were providing emergency care to patients, providing care during patient admission to a network hospital, or providing care after referrals or authorizations from Aetna, according to the order.

"Aetna was trying to impermissibly shift the cost of care onto the patient, where it was Aetna's obligation under New Jersey law to cover those services," said Larry Downs, general counsel for the Medical Society of New Jersey.

The July 23 order also tags the health plan for "misrepresenting Aetna's obligation with respect to claims" in a June 1 letter sent to 130 physicians and for "not providing its members the right to be free of balance billing."

It says Aetna must "reprocess all claims under insured contracts" for services rendered by the affected physicians, and that Aetna must pay them "an amount sufficient to insure they do not balance-bill members."

Department spokeswoman Jaimee Gilmartin said, "We're going to let the order speak for itself," and issued no further comment.

Aetna spokeswoman Cynthia Michener said the plan would request an appeal hearing with the department. The order says Aetna has 30 days to submit the request in writing.

[...]