House Republicans issued a report Wednesday saying that one-third of people who signed up for health insurance through new federal exchanges hadn't paid their first month's premium as of mid-April, which could undermine the Obama administration's claims of robust enrollment under the new health law. Reported by Journal Gazette 10 hours ago.

*Healthy aging into your 80s and beyond*

Sixty years ago an American who made it to 65 could expect to live an additional 14 years. Today, it’s 19 years. The most important question then: how to grow older healthfully so that we can actually enjoy those extra years? A ­Con­sumer Reports survey of 2,066 Americans age 50 and older ­revealed that we’re eager to maintain our quality of life into retirement and far, far beyond.

“Whether you’re just starting to think about your golden years or are well into retirement, it turns out that most of us have pretty similar goals: remaining independent, keeping mentally sharp, and staying as mobile as possible,” said Fernando Torres-Gil, Ph.D., director of the UCLA Center for Policy Research on Aging.

But that kind of successful aging requires savvy planning and decision-making. Our survey found that multiple chronic illnesses, shelves full of medications, and numerous medical specialists are common for Americans older than 50, so lining up good health care and managing it smartly are important. We also discovered that mobility decreases dramatically as you age; 33 percent of those older than 80 have difficulty walking, and more than 25 percent have a tough time simply getting out of chairs, so a fitness plan that maintains strength, flexibility, and balance is vital. Our survey group told us that their current home was the top choice of where to live as they aged and needed more care. But the ability to do so is highly dependent on the home’s location and physical features. Also, maintaining an active social network for yourself and being a lifelong learner are the best ways to reduce the risk of cognitive decline, the situation that respondents feared most about old age.

(Read the earlier reports in our series on managing your health and health care: "The Nurse Practioner Will See You Now,""A Doctor's Office That's All About You," and "Your Doctor Will E-mail You Now.")

The good news: No matter whether you’ve just hit 50 or are well on your way toward the century mark, there are strategies that can help you stay healthy, keep you socially and intellectually engaged in the world around you, and create a living situation that is comfortable and safe.

Three out of four of those we surveyed had at least one health condition, such as high blood pressure, arthritis, or dia­betes—and 31 percent had three or more.

“You’re likely to end up with multiple doctors, not all of whom are coordinated with each other," said Daniel Callahan, Ph.D., a medical ethicist specializing in aging (who, at 83, says “I’ve now got a chance to study myself”). "The basic question is who’s in charge here anyway?”

It’s not easy to get your arms around the complexities of modern health care. But if you assemble a capable team and take ­advantage of some of the recent improvements in the way doctors are organizing their services, you can minimize confusion. What are the most important items on your medical to-do list?

-*A great primary care doctor*-

This person (usually an internist or family practitioner) should be your main point of contact with the health care system. Seventy-two percent of our survey respondents said they already have such a doctor, but if you don’t, find one now and make an appointment for an initial visit. Look for a physician whose practice is a “patient-centered medical home.” That means the doctor’s office has organized itself to quarterback all of your care, including alerting you when it’s time for a test or visit, intervening if it looks like you’re likely to develop type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure, keeping tabs on all of your medications, and coordinating care with your specialists. That last point is crit­ical; about three-quarters of survey re­spondents 65 and older said they had seen two or more specialists in the previous year. (Read more about patient-centered medical homes.)

-*Well-managed medications*-

Among respondents 80 and older, 72 percent took at least three prescription medications, and 84 percent took three or more over-­the-­counter medications, including vitamins and nutritional supplements.

“People are on five, 10, 20 medications," Mary Tinetti, M.D., chief of geriatric medicine at the Yale New Haven Health System and the Yale School of Medicine, said. "And nobody thinks that 20 medications are beneficial.” A least once a year, you should put all of your pill bottles in a bag (including all over-the-counter drugs and supplements) and take them to your primary care doctor for a review. Make a note of any side effects or problems you’ve noticed. If it turns out your medications are working at cross-­purposes or causing unacceptable side effects, ask your doctor to work out the optimum combination of medications. Also keep an up-to-date list of your drugs (including dosages) in your wallet or handbag in case of a medical emergency. (Learn more about managing your medications.)

-*Health-insurance savvy*-

Carefully go through your health plan’s requirements, so you really know how it works and whether you need to get referrals for specialist visits or prior authorization for elective surgery or costly tests. Not following those rules could result in a nasty surprise on your bill. You can find all of that information in your plan’s summary of benefits and coverage, a standardized plan-information document that should have come with your policy. (If it didn’t, ask for it.)

A few months ahead of your 65th birthday, be sure to enroll in Medicare. The process can be complicated, especially if you are still working at a job with health benefits, so study up at Medicare.gov or at Consumer Reports' Medicare information page. Review your plan choices every year at open enrollment.

One of the ongoing effects of aging is loss of muscle mass. If you don’t do anything to fight it, you could find yourself unable to get out of an armchair or off the toilet one day. Aging also brings declines in aerobic capacity and flexibility. And those factors together increase your risk of falls—at a time in life when bones tend to be more brittle. Eighteen percent of our survey respondents said they had fallen in the last year, and of those, 71 percent were injured, including 8 percent who broke a bone.

Here’s a quick test to find out whether your fitness has deteriorated to a point that puts you at risk: Time how long it takes you to get out of an armchair, walk 10 feet, walk back, and sit down again. A healthy adult older than 60 should be able to do it in 10 seconds or less.

Flunked the test? The good news is that it’s never too late to start working out to counter aging’s effects. “There’s no medication, no medical device that has anywhere near the effectiveness of physical activity,” Tinetti said.

Here are some concrete steps you can take, based on recommendations from experts at the American Heart Association and American College of Sports Medicine.

-*Get a physical-therapy evaluation*-

Ask your doctor to prescribe a consultation with a licensed physical therapist who can help you design a safe exercise program.

-*Do 150 minutes of cardio every week*-

Aim for at least 30 minutes at a time of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise (think a brisk walk where you’re not breathing so hard that you can’t carry on a conversation) five days per week. For motivation, consider using an activity tracker; the Fitbit One is our top-rated model.

-*Add strength training*-

You should strength train on two or three nonconsecutive days each week and do eight to 10 exercises targeting the muscles of your upper body, lower body, and core. Start slowly and work up to a weight or resistance that causes fatigue after eight to 14 repetitions. If you have problems with your joints or bones, consult a certified trainer or physical ther­apist before starting a program.

-*Keep your balance*-

One of the simplest exercises is to practice standing on one leg. Also consider tai chi, which numerous studies have shown improves balance and reduces the risk of falls. Find local classes by putting “tai chi” and the name of your city into a search engine.

-*Stay flexible*-

Yoga is great for improving your flexibility. But clear the idea with your doctor first if you have any chronic problems, find a qualified instructor, and make sure he or she knows about any physical limitations you have.

The older Americans we surveyed said that losing their cognitive abilities was their No. 1 fear about aging. Nothing you do will protect you 100 percent from developing Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia, but there are ways to reduce your risk:

-*Remain physically fit*-

Follow the fitness advice in the previous section because staying physically active decreases the risk of cognitive decline.

-*Stay socially engaged*-

Our survey found that our social lives start to dwindle even before retirement; 43 percent of respondents ages 50 to 64 said they spent less time with friends than they had a decade previously. Keep in contact with family and friends, and expand your social circle by volunteering, attending local cultural events, taking continuing-education classes at a local college or traveling with a group such as Road Scholars (formerly known as Elderhostel).

-*Learn something new*-

Crossword puzzles or Luminosity aren’t enough, especially if you’ve been doing them for years. The key to brain fitness is to establish new neural connections by taking on fresh mental challenges. Try learning a new foreign language or taking lessons on a new musical instrument.

Fifty-five percent of our respondents wanted to stay in their own homes, with help as needed, as they got older and required more care. But a recent AARP survey revealed that only about half of older adults thought their homes could accommodate them “very well” as they age; 12 percent said “not well” or “not well at all.”

“The time to think about your housing options is when you first retire and are relatively healthy and young,” said Linda Fodrini-­Johnson, a geriatric-care manager in Walnut Creek, Calif. “You need to think realistically about the things that might happen over the next 20 years.”

If you want to “age in place,” here are some modifications to consider if your home doesn’t already have them.

· *Ground-floor sleeping space. *Adding a first-floor bedroom and bath would be great, but at an average cost of $225,000, according to Remodeling Magazine, it might be out of reach. A more cost-effective option might be converting a den into a bedroom and expanding the ground-floor powder room into a full bath.
· * Bathroom safety features. *Replace the tub with a roomy shower that has no threshold to step over. Add grab bars and a shower seat. Install a “comfort height” toilet seat, 2 inches taller than usual, that’s easier to get off of.
· *Lever-type doorknobs and faucet handles. *They’re easier to turn for people with stiff or weak hands and arms.
· *Chairlift. *If your stairs are wide enough (37 inches is the recommended minimum) you can install an electric chairlift. But they are expensive—more than $10,000, depending on needed modifications, models, and specifications.

Here are some more "aging-in-place" renovation ideas. 

The National Association of Home Builders has a searchable list of Certified Aging-in-Place Specialists with special training in designing and building aging-friendly home renovations. 

Check to see whether you already live in an area served by a village, a membership network of people who are “aging in place” in their own homes with the help of services such as rides to the doctor, home maintenance and repair, computer troubleshooting, social events, in-home medical care, and light housekeeping in exchange for a monthly or annual fee. Find one near you at Village to Village Network.

Renovations and villages aren’t an option for everyone. You might find yourself struggling to take care of a big yard or feeling isolated because driving at night has become difficult. Those may be signs that it’s time to relocate to a more aging-friendly home.

Ray Mack, 68, a retired chemist, reached that point after “one too many visits to the emergency room” for mishaps involving heavy machinery and yard maintenance on his 5-acre spread near Houston. He and his wife relocated to a house on a small lot in Baton Rouge, La., within walking distance of a university, museums, and parks.

Some features to look for include:

· Entryways and interior doors without raised thresholds.
· Wide hallways and doorways.
· Bathroom, bedroom, and laundry on the main floor.
· “Universal design” features such as levered door handles, grab bars in bathrooms, and a place to sit while preparing meals.
· Services, shopping, transit, and recreational facilities within walking distance. Go to walkscore.com to calculate a neighborhood’s walkability.

In certain areas you can also buy into a cohousing development. Cohousing features regular private homes built on small parcels and clustered around common facilities such as a recreation building where residents gather to share weekly meals and social events. The Cousing Organization of the United States has more information on this option, including a directory of communities. 

Or you might reach a point where even those types of homes are too much to manage. When? “If you realize you’re not getting out at least three times a week,” Fodrini-­Johnson said “When your vision is poor and you can’t set your thermostats, or read your medicine bottle, or just don’t have the stamina to take care of yourself.”

Here are your top choices at that point.

· Continuing-care retirement community. These developments offer a continuum of housing options, from regular independent apartments to assisted living to skilled nursing facilities, which residents can move among as their medical and physical needs dictate. But the buy-in can run from the low six figures up, with additional four-figure monthly fees for any extra services you might require. And, Fodrini-Johnson said, the communities might not accept you if you’ve already developed a serious ailment such as Parkinson’s disease.
· Assisted living. If you don’t need skilled nursing care but can no longer manage on your own, assisted-livings offer some combination of housing, meals, help with daily-living tasks such as dressing and bathing, and, in some cases, help with medical tasks such as medication management. Prices and amenities vary widely.

Start your search at eldercare.gov, which will guide you to local agencies that can help you avoid unlicensed centers.

Accountable Care Organizations: Introducing a new approach to good care

You may have received a notice that you’ve been assigned to an Accountable Care Organization, or ACO. Here’s what it is and how it’s supposed to work.

An ACO consists of a group of doctors, a hospital, or a combination of both, who have made a deal with either Medicare or a private insurance company that upends the usual financial incentives. Normally providers are paid a fee for every service they provide, even if it’s to fix a mistake they made or isn’t necessary to begin with. An ACO gets a financial bonus for providing safe and appropriate care that keeps patients healthy. It becomes “accountable” for the overall cost and quality of care of its assigned population.

ACOs that do a good job on quality measures, such as controlling diabetics’ blood sugar or giving the appropriate medications to people with heart disease, share the savings with the insurance company or Medicare. In practice, that means giving extra attention to people with serious or multiple conditions. The first hospital-­led ACOs started up in 2010, and the first Medicare ACOs in 2012. Now almost 500 of them are in operation, covering more than 31 million patients.

If you’re assigned to an ACO, it most likely means that your doctor’s office is participating in one. You can opt out, but we recommend that you don’t. Being in an ACO has no effect on your insurance coverage and doesn’t restrict your ability to see the doctor of your choice. And if the ACO does a good job, your out-of-pocket costs might go down if you need fewer doctor visits or hospital stays to manage your condition.

This article also appeared in the June 2014 issue of Consumer Reports magazine. This report is the fourth in a series on how to manage your health and health care in the years ahead, funded in part by a grant from the Atlantic Philanthropies. Read our earlier reports: "The Nurse Practioner Will See You Now,""A Doctor's Office That's All About You," and "Your Doctor Will E-mail You Now."*Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers or sponsors on this website. Copyright © 2006-2014 Consumers Union of U.S.*

*Subscribe now!*
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    Reported by Consumer Reports 6 hours ago.

North Carolina ranks dead last in terms of adult minorities without a usual source of health care. We also rank 50th out of 51 (the ranking includes Washington, D.C.) in minorities who do not have health insurance, and rank 47th in the overall equity category according to the latest Commonwealth Fund State Health System report. In terms of the overall health ranking, which factors access, prevention and treatment and avoidable hospital use, among other factors, North Carolina ranks 36th, although… Reported by bizjournals 6 hours ago.

Friday, the Labor Department is expected to report the economy added 215,000 jobs in April. A moderate improvement over February and March when the pace averaged 195,000, indicating growth will improve this spring over its tepid winter performance.

Still good jobs will remain scarce and wages depressed, because policies put in place over the last quarter century have permanently slowed growth.

The unemployment rate is expected to fall a notch to 6.6 percent—well below the 10 percent recession peak—however, that largely reflects fewer adults participating in the labor force. Were the same percentage of adults working or looking for work today as when the recession began, the unemployment rate would be 9.3 percent.

Baby boomer retirements are not driving down adult participation—the percentage of working Americans ages 65 to 69 has risen from 22 to 30 percent over the last 15 years. Given rising life expectancies and the secular decline in stock market returns and interest rates, this is likely to continue.

Rather, decent employment opportunities for prime working age adults have not kept pace with population growth. The percentage of Americans ages 25 to 54 that has a job is down to 77 percent from 81 percent 15 years ago, despite a larger share of women employed.

Shrinking opportunities, especially in manufacturing and the building trades, have hit men particularly hard. One out of six between the ages of 25 and 54 is without a job, and many have few prospects of finding one.

Twenty million Americans over 25 are working part-time, owing much to poor economic conditions and government incentives not to work full time. ObamaCare and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) encourage low wage employees to work part-time to avoid losing benefits, and employers are limiting workers to less than 30 hours per week to avoid health insurance mandates.

All this pins down wages—especially for high school graduates with little additional training and college graduates from non-elite institutions—and worsens income inequality.

Through the recent recession and recovery, low wage businesses—those paying in the bottom third of all industries—added about 1,851,000 employees, while high wage employers—those paying in the top third—shed 976,000 workers.

No surprise, average family income, adjusted for inflation fell from $55,627 in 2007 to $51,017 in 2012.

The root cause of poor jobs creation and falling incomes is slow economic growth that has bedeviled Presidents Bush and Obama. During the Reagan-Clinton era, GDP growth averaged 3.4 percent; however, since 2000 the pace has halved to 1.7 percent, thanks to well meaning but ill conceived government policies,

Trade agreements have further exposed U.S. manufacturers to foreign competition, but have not similarly improved their market access abroad. Principal competitors China, Japan and Germany all systematically undervalue their currencies to make their exports artificially cheaper than U.S. products both in domestic and rapidly growing Asian markets.

Similarly, unlike Canada, which shares many of the same demographics shaping U.S. labor markets, the United States has chosen to outsource—not reduce—environmental risks associated with petroleum development by shutting down or curtailing production on the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts, the Gulf and Alaska.

Those policies are responsible for a $485 billion trade deficit, which easily suppress growth from 3.4 to 1.7 percent. Just the lost R&D, so prevalent in manufacturing and energy but now captured by foreign competitors, could boost U.S. economic growth by 2 percentage points a year.

Also, dysfunctions in banking, higher education and health care imposed by misguided regulations and government subsidies permit professionals to earn inflated incomes but harm the availability of credit, workers with the skills employers need and affordable health care and insurance. Along with the inefficiencies imposed by the excessively complex corporate and personal income tax systems, those lower productivity, investment and growth dramatically.

Emerging from a long recession, the economy should grow at 4 or 5 percent and create the needed jobs, but misguided and abusive government policies do not permit the economy to accomplish takeoff speed and raise wages.

Peter Morici is an economist and business professor at the University of Maryland, national columnist and five-time winner of the MarketWatch best forecaster award. He tweets @pmorici1 Reported by Breitbart 5 hours ago.

PCIP Coverage Extended Through June 2014

Park City, UT (PRWEB) May 01, 2014

Today, Zane Benefits, the #1 Online Health Benefits Solution, published a new information on the PCIP coverage extension through June 2014.

According to Zane Benefits’ website, on April 24, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it will once again extend transitional coverage to those currently enrolled in the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP) until June 30, 2014. PCIP has been the federal health insurance risk pool, created in 2010 by health reform.

This is the third extension of PCIP, giving participants additional time to transition to a guaranteed-issue Exchange or private health insurance plan.

Zane Benefits’ website says that CMS's announced the latest extension in a bulletin, saying the additional extension provides a “60-day special enrollment period due to exceptional circumstances for individuals remaining in the program who have not found new coverage that begins on May 1.”

Click here to read the full article.

--

About Zane Benefits
Zane Benefits, the #1 Online Health Benefits Solution, was founded in 2006 to revolutionize the way employers provide employee health benefits in America. We empower employees to take control over their own healthcare, while helping employers recruit and retain the best talent. Our online solutions allow small and medium-sized businesses to successfully transition to a health benefits program that creates happier employees, reduces costs and frees up more time to serve their customers. For more information about ZaneHealth, visit http://www.zanebenefits.com. Reported by PRWeb 5 hours ago.

In general, courts don’t tend to side with consumers in data breach incidents. However, a federal court in Florida is the apple among the oranges. It approved a $3 million settlement for victims whose data was on a stolen laptop in December 2009, that contained personal health information.

The laptops belonged to AvMed, a health insurer, and the unencrypted data involved records of tens of thousands of the company’s customers.

Though the consumer-plaintiffs suffered no identity theft or other direct losses, they blamed AvMed of breach of contract and fiduciary duty, negligence and unjust enrichment.

These claims were dismissed by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, but the plaintiffs appealed. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit remanded the case.

AvMed’s attempt for another dismissal went down the tubes, prompting the company to enter into settlement talks with the plaintiffs.

The agreement says that each victim will get up to $10 for every year they made an insurance payment to AvMed, with a cap at $30. This is money, say the victims, that AvMed could have spent on better data security. The agreement also requires AvMed to pay damages to anyone who gets stung with identity theft.

AvMed will also employ encryption and new password protocols, plus GPS technology for its laptops.

Apparently, this settlement is the first in which the awarded victims didn’t have to show tangible evidence of loss.

Traditionally, courts nationwide don’t take on such claims, and that a claim lacks merit if it’s based on the possibility of future damages rather than actual concrete losses that have already occurred.

The ruling serves as a precedent for future data breach cases, to support customers’ stance that a segment of their health insurance premiums should fund data security placements.

Robert Siciliano is an Identity Theft Expert to AllClearID. He is the author of 99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Your Identity Was Stolen See him knock’em dead in this identity theft prevention video. Disclosures. Reported by Huffington Post 4 hours ago.

For some companies, security training is a minor component during the new-hire training process, probably sandwiched between health insurance choices and vacation time information. But given the speed with which a company can be taken down by an internal threat, security training deserves much more prominence than it usually gets. In a 2013 report by cyber protection firm Clearswift, it was noted that 58 percent of security incidents came from within an extended enterprise, which means employees,… Reported by bizjournals 4 hours ago.

Cigna (CI) became the latest in a parade of health insurance companies to report they are going to make even more money than they thought they would in 2014 thanks to new business strategies and a surge of younger customers signing up for coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Reported by Forbes.com 3 hours ago.

In recent weeks, liberals in Washington have been on parade regarding Obamacare enrollment figures. President Obama even said that "it's well past time to move on" from the Obamacare debate because the law is so hunky dory.

It's clear that President Obama and his liberal allies in Congress have been desperately searching for a way to spin the troubled law, because the latest enrollment figures hardly qualify as a success. In fact, the Associated Press recently noted that Obamacare has merely "chipped away at one of its core goals: to sharply reduce the number of people without insurance."

The American people have taken notice of Obamacare's flaws and see right through liberals' enrollment elation.

In fact, from March to April, their sour views on Obamacare have grown. According to data from YG Network's Battleground Tracking Survey, battleground constituents' disapproval escalated from 52 percent in March to 55 in April.

When taking into account CBO projections that say 31 million Americans will still not have health insurance by 2024, we see that battleground constituents are not applauding Obamacare like liberals in Washington.

When respondents were asked if they believe the fact that 31 million Americans will remain uninsured in 10 years means the law is a success, the law is a failure, or something in between, only eight percent (you read that right, eight percent!) said it should be deemed a success.

And even when self-identified Democrats responded, only 15 percent said the law should be deemed a success.

Such anemic support should be a wakeup call to liberals in Washington: Obamacare is the wrong health care strategy for the American people.

Not only does the law fail to address the uninsured population, but it also hurts people's pocketbooks. Dan Balz of the Washington Post recently revealed that "58 percent majority say the new law is causing higher costs overall" in a new Washington Post/ABC News poll.

Pocketbooks for small businesses are at risk too, because the law compelling them to rethink important planning.

Small business owners "have begun restructuring their businesses, reducing their employees' hours, for example, or trimming their total head counts to fewer than 50 full-time workers," according to the Wall Street Journal's Sarah E. Needleman and Angus Loten.

The economy is in a fragile place right now, and it's unfair to millions of workers that liberals in Washington continue to zone-in on this disastrous law.

That's why it's important for conservatives to stand with the American people in opposition to Obamacare, but they can't stop there.

To truly make life work better for hardworking Americans, conservatives must advocate sound health care policy that helps people that lowers costs, expands access, and empowers patients and doctors. If they do, the American people are ready to listen. Reported by Huffington Post 3 hours ago.

Nine out of 10 American employees who now get their health insurance through employers will be using government exchanges cre -More-  Reported by SmartBrief 37 minutes ago.

MGN Online WASHINGTON (AP) -- A report by House Republicans says that one-third of people who signed up for health insurance through new federal exchanges hadn't Reported by CapitalBay 16 minutes ago.

A total of 734,000 Texans bought health insurance through the federal marketplace from Oct. 1 through April 19, according to a "report released today by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The marketplace was set up as part of the Affordable Care Act, sometimes called Obamacare. Approximately 6 million Texans were uninsured in 2012. With 25 percent of the state uninsured, Texas has the worst rate in the nation. The results show that the ACA is working to provide Texans with affordable… Reported by bizjournals 17 hours ago.

Latest post highlights grandfathered plans under health care reform.

Richmond, Va. (PRWEB) May 01, 2014

Remember back when President Obama said that if you liked your health insurance plan, you could keep it?

That applies to people who have grandfathered plans, Tracy Cornatzer, Experient Health Benefits Consultant, wrote in The Health Journal last month.

Experient Health, a Virginia Farm Bureau Company, launched a guest blogging series with The Health Journal this year to help further educate the community on the changes families and businesses are seeing under health care reform.

This latest post highlighted grandfathered plans, what they are are what people should ask their insurance providers about regarding them.

"If you were on a plan before the President signed the health care reform bill into law, you may be able keep your plan indefinitely," Cornatzer wrote. "That means you’re exempt from having to buy a new plan through the Affordable Care Act."

But there are certain provisions that prevent buyers from getting some of the rights and protections that other plans offer.

"First of all, in order to be considered grandfathered, the plan has to have been in existence on or before March 23, 2010, and it can’t have been changed significantly," Cornatzer wrote. "In Virginia, none of the group plans offered through major insurance companies are grandfathered. So if you get your health insurance through an employer, this topic does not apply to you. But if it’s an individual plan—the kind you buy yourself—it may qualify as grandfathered. In Virginia, it’s estimated than less than 5 percent of people fall into this category."

Health care reform requires that there be certain essential health benefits offered to consumers. On a grandfathered plan, some of the rules of health care reform don’t apply. The part of the law that requires routine preventative care be covered at 100 percent? That doesn’t apply.

To read more about grandfathered health insurance plans, visit The Health Journal health care reform Blog by Experient Health. Learn more about Experient Health and health care reform here. Reported by PRWeb 18 hours ago.

Medicaid and the Child's Health Insurance Program reported on Thursday that 4.8 million were added to their rolls during the first open enrollment period of the Affordable Care Act. Reported by Denver Post 17 hours ago.

How House Republicans Rigged Obamacare Survey
How House Republicans Rigged Obamacare Survey
Health
Nation
Politics
Blame Obamacare
Has Been Optimized

According to a recent survey by the GOP-controlled House Energy and Commerce Committee, only 67 percent of people enrolled in health insurance via Obamacare had paid their first monthly premium.

The survey was yet another Republican effort to attack Obamacare, which has signed up 8 million Americans who previously could not get health insurance under GOP rule.

According to CBS News, the House Energy and Commerce Committee "consequently reached out to every insurance provider... on the federal Obamacare marketplace and collected the data itself."

Americans had no idea that their private financial transactions with insurance companies were being sent to the House GOP, which often claims it opposes government involvement in health care matters.

House Energy and Commerce Committee head Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) insisted that Republicans have a right to know exactly how many Americans are paying their health insurance premiums.

However, Talking Points Memo reports that the survey by the House Energy and Commerce Committee was rigged.

"The survey was so incredibly rigged to produce this result, it was a joke," said a health insurance company employee, who provided the survey to Talking Points Memo. "Everyone who saw it knew exactly what the goal was."

The House Energy and Commerce Committee survey did not mention that many people still have until April 30 to pay their premium.

But April 15 was the deadline when the House Energy and Commerce Committee asked health insurance companies to return their answers.

According to Talking Points Memo, almost 40 percent of the people who enrolled via Obamacare did so after March 15, which means their premiums weren't due on April 15.

"They were clearly trying to get a specific result to rebut any positive news about enrollment," the health insurance company source told Talking Points Memo. "If they were really trying to get full data, they would have waited until early May for the answers."

Sources: Talking Points Memo and CBS News

1
Video Piece: 
Regular Piece Reported by Opposing Views 17 hours ago.

Here is what Bloomberg' survey sees as consensus for tomorrow's key data:

· *Nonfarm payrolls: +218,000*
· *Private payrolls: +215,000*
· *Unemployment Rate: 6.6%*
· *Avg Hourly Earnings: 0.2% MoM, 2.1% YoY*
· *Avg Weekly Hours: 34.5*

 

Weather is the biggest factor, as Goldman notes...



*We forecast a 220k increase in nonfarm payrolls in April, a touch stronger than the consensus estimate of 215k.*

 

We expect private payrolls increased 215k (vs. consensus 215k).

 

Payroll gains now stand just shy of 200k for February and March and look poised to come in stronger in April. Notably, the employment components of all ten of the major business surveys released so far rose in April, in every case to a level consistent with increased employment. In addition, jobless claims reached a new post-recession low just prior to the April reference week, and *continued normalization of weather conditions in April from a still-chilly March could provide a modest additional boost. *We also think it is likely that the April report will include substantial positive back-revisions, as has tended to be the case historically.



*Arguing for a stronger report:*



*The employment components of all ten major business surveys available so far improved in April.* Among manufacturing surveys, gains were seen in the ISM manufacturing index (+3.6pt to 54.7), the Chicago PMI (+7.8pt to 57.8), and the Philly (+5.2pt to 6.9), Empire (+2.3pt to 8.2), Richmond (+4pt to 4), Kansas City (+3pt to 3), and Dallas (+4.7pt to 19.7) Fed surveys. While the ISM nonmanufacturing index is not yet available, the employment components of the New York Fed's service sector (+4.5pt to 6.2) and the Richmond Fed's service sector survey (+10pt to 6) both improved.

 

*Weather conditions finally returned to seasonal norms in April.* Much of the bounce-back from the unseasonably cold and snowy winter was already apparent in the March data. In particular, weekly hours rebounded strongly from disruptions caused by major snowstorms in the previous months. However, measured as the deviation from normal, March was the most unseasonably cold month of the winter, suggesting that some additional room remains for a further weather boost in April.

 

*The four-week moving average of initial claims for unemployment benefits reached a new post-recession low during the April reference week*, declining 18k from the March reference week. However, the Labor Department has cautioned in recent weeks that seasonal adjustment of weekly claims is challenging around the Easter holiday and spring break from schools.

 

*Private job gains reported by ADP rose to 220k* in April from an initially-reported March gain of 192k. That said, we attach only limited weight to the ADP report because its initial print has yet to prove itself as a reliable indicator of payroll job growth as measured by the Labor Department.

*Both new and total online job ads rose modestly in April.* While the series tends to be quite volatile and is a forward-looking rather than coincident indicator, it has printed at a decent level over the last few months.



*Arguing for a weaker report*



*The labor differential?the difference in the percentage of respondents in the Conference Board's consumer confidence survey describing jobs as plentiful vs. hard to get?worsened by 2pt* to -19.6 in April from an upwardly-revised March base. The index has shown a fairly steady recovery since late 2011, but has stalled in recent months.



*Neutral indicators*



*Announced layoffs were up on a seasonally-adjusted basis in April, *but only modestly, according to Challenger, Gray, and Christmas. The heaviest job cuts in April were seen in the retail and financial sectors. However, job cuts in the health care sector declined from March, suggesting at most a modest impact from layoffs of temporary workers at the end of the sign-up period for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.



*We expect that the unemployment rate declined to 6.6% in April (vs. consensus 6.6%) from an unrounded 6.71% in March. *Despite strong employment gains in the household survey this year, the unemployment rate has held steady since December as a result of a 0.4pp increase in labor force participation. As we noted last week, the unemployment rate has recently fallen more quickly and the participation rate has increased more quickly among workers with lower education levels over the last few months.

*Average hourly earnings (AHE) are likely to be in focus on Friday following several months of heightened attention to wage growth and labor market slack.*



*We expect an increase of 0.2% in April (vs. consensus 0.2%).*

 

AHE for all workers were flat in March, likely reflecting the reversal of weather distortions that boosted the gain in February, and rose 2.1% over the past year. Even at this low growth rate, AHE have been rising more quickly than other wage measures. Wednesday's Employment Cost Index showed compensation growth of just 0.3% in Q1 (1.8% year-on-year) and wage & salary growth of just 0.25% in Q1 (1.7% year-on-year), and compensation per hour in the nonfarm business sector rose just 0.3% year-on-year as of 2013Q4.



And here are a smorgasboard of optimistic and pessimistic "economists" perspectives:

*UBS's Sam Coffin: 150,000* — "Our forecast reflects a small boost from a residual weather-related rebound and some continued improvement in underlying trends, with a counterweight from unfavorable calendar effects... Within payrolls, incremental strength is likely in manufacturing, retail trade, and information industry payrolls—all of which had slowed, on balance, in recent months. The decline in jobless claims over the past month has been consistent with some labor market improvement.   We do see some drag from calendar effects. The gap between the March and April payroll surveys was four weeks. A four-week gap has been associated with below- trend April payrolls in 12 of the last 15 instances (and more recently in 4 of the last 5 instances). We put the downward bias for this month at about 20k and otherwise would have estimated April payrolls at 200k."

*High Frequency Economics' Jim O'Sullivan: 185,000* — "...but we are allowing for the recurring pattern of payrolls being under-reported initially, only to be revised up later. Nor are we counting on any additional catch-up for weather effects. The household survey series on the number of people with a job but not at work because of bad weather was back to its normal level in March after being unusually high in February."

*Citi's Peter D'Antonio: 225,000* — "We expect another solid gain in payroll employment in April, as the labor market normalizes from the weather distorted readings in December and January. By our estimates, this should be the last reading influenced by winter weather. At this point, we think the trend is still about 180K per month, but we do expect that the running rate will pick up this year toward 200K. Note 1: We can’t rule out that the tail end of the payroll rebound occurs through revisions, rather than a big rise in April. Last month, the headline gain was smaller than we expected, but upward revisions to earlier months made up the difference."

*Deutsche Bank's Joe LaVorgna 240,000* — "...claims data showed a new cyclical low for the employment survey period. This is a very positive sign for the labor market that is also being confirmed by the growth in employee tax withholding receipts."

*Barclays' Dean Maki: 250,000* — "Both initial and continuing jobless claims have fallen significantly in April, suggesting a more robust pace of job growth than in recent months. We also believe more normal weather conditions than those prevailing earlier in the year will support job creation in April."

*Morgan Stanley's Ted Wieseman: 250,000* — "Since the weather started to become less severe in mid-February, jobless claims have shown a big improvement that accelerated in the first half of April, pointing to a significantly reduced pace of firings recently. The 4-week average of initial claims fell to 312,000 in the survey week for the April employment report from 329,500 in March, and 336,500 in February, a seven-year low and very strong level historically. With layoffs declining, as long as hiring rates have at least held steady, net job growth has accelerated. We look for a temporary pickup to a pace moderately above the pre-winter trend near 200,000, reflecting some catch up reversal of winter drags." Reported by Zero Hedge 17 hours ago.

Health insurance premiums in states with low sign-ups could rise more sharply than in states with high enrollment, such as California. Reported by L.A. Times 17 hours ago.

A last-minute deluge of health insurance sign-ups came from states where political leaders have opposed the Obama administration’s health-care law, according to federal figures released Thursday.

In March and April, the number of people enrolling in plans more than doubled in the 36 states that chose not to set up their own marketplaces, the figures show. Most of these states deferred to the federal marketplace, HealthCare.gov, in a show of resistance to the program. Reported by Washington Post 14 hours ago.

Kenner will save five percent on monthly health insurance premiums next year after City Council on Thursday approved switching to a new carrier. The current carrier, UnitedHealthcare, is charging $476.76 per enrolled employee for the 2014 fiscal year, which ends... Reported by nola.com 16 hours ago.

Experient Health Benefits Consultant Highlights Subsidies Under Health Care Reform In Guest Blog Series

Richmond, Va. (PRWEB) May 02, 2014

Wondering how to afford health insurance?

It might be more in range than you thought, wrote Janet Rickman in the latest Health Journal blog post on health care reform. Rickman, a Benefits Consultant with Experient Health, a Virginia Farm Bureau Company, is one of several consultants guest blogging for the Williamsburg, Va. magazine on health care reform.

In Rickman's latest post, she examines and explains subsidies.

"For a lot of Americans, there’s help out there," Rickman wrote. "But figuring it all out—such as who’s eligible—can be a little tricky."

In order to be eligible to receive financial help with health insurance, known as a subsidy, one has to sign up for a plan through the government marketplace—healthcare.gov. Those who get insurance through their employer are not eligible for the subsidy.

"Here’s another important point: if you can get insurance through an employer, but choose not to, you’re not eligible for a subsidy," Rickman wrote. "If an employer makes insurance affordable for the employee (meaning it can’t be more than 9.5 percent of one’s monthly salary), the family isn’t eligible for the subsidy, either. It’s just the way the law is."

For those who qualify for a subsidy, here’s how it works.

"The government determines how much subsidy someone can get based on the federal poverty level," Rickman wrote. "As a rule of thumb, if your family income is less than four times the federal poverty level, and you’re not eligible for employer- or public-assisted health care such as Medicaid or Medicare, you can receive a subsidy to help pay for insurance."

To read more about subsidies on The Health Journal blog, click here. Learn more about health insurance for businesses and individuals with Experient Health and the Virginia Farm Bureau. Reported by PRWeb 10 hours ago.