Mom Worth about $63,000 This Year and She Wants a Day at the Spa

May 5, 2014, 5:11 am

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Insure.com’s annual Mother’s Day Index finds that Mom’s value is up 5 percent over last year, and an accompanying survey finds she might prefer less traditional gifts.

Foster City, CA (PRWEB) May 05, 2014

Mothers across the nation have something to cheer about: They just got more expensive to replace.

After two consecutive years of decline, Mom’s value increased 5 percent this year to $62,985, according to Insure.com’s annual Mother’s Day Index. The Mother’s Day Index utilizes wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to put a price on common household duties.

“Wages for typical Mom tasks like cleaning, cooking and keeping kids healthy and entertained took a big hit during the recession,” said Penny Gusner, consumer analyst for Insure.com. “This year nearly all of them increased.” (See the full task chart and associated wages.)

The index bottomed out at $59,862 in 2013.

A mother may not get a paycheck or even any recognition for the things she does around the house, Gusner said, but replacing that labor would hit any family that doesn’t have sufficient life insurance.

“If you have more than one child to care for, a special needs child, or Mom working outside the home, then having life insurance on Mom is even more important,” Gusner said.

While the family won’t be handing Mom a paycheck, they probably will be handing her a gift or two – and mothers have some surprising preferences on that, an Insure.com survey shows.

Insure.com asked 1,001 mothers with children living at home to choose three ideal gifts from a list of 16. Classics such as flowers and chocolates didn’t even crack the top five.

Moms’ favorite gifts included:·     A day at the spa: 38 percent
·     A weekend getaway with the whole family: 32 percent
·     Gift card: 25 percent
·     Dinner at your town’s best restaurant: 25 percent
·     A weekend getaway with husband: 25 percent

But hold off on that new blender. The surveyed mothers’ least favorite gifts were:

·     Room remodel: 9 percent
·     Electronics: 7 percent
·     Household appliances: 5 percent

Children don’t need to crack open their piggybanks, the survey found. A majority of mothers, 70 percent, said they preferred homemade gifts from their kids – and 17 percent said they don’t need a gift at all.

Mothers asked about their all-time favorite gifts from kids named:

·     A card: 25 percent
·     Artwork: 23 percent
·     Breakfast in bed: 13 percent
·     A homemade coupon: 8 percent
·     A clean room: 7 percent

See the full article at http://www.insure.com/articles/lifeinsurance/the-mothers-day-index.html.

Methodology

“Mom’s value” is based on occupational wages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and does not include a salary from work outside the home. It is calculated from a list of common household tasks.
For mothers’ gift choices and ways to spend the day, Insure.com commissioned a survey of 1,001 married moms with children under age 18 living at home. The survey was fielded in April 2014.

About Insure.com

Insure.com provides a comprehensive array of information on auto insurance, home insurance, health insurance, and life insurance. The site offers an extensive library of originally authored insurance articles and decision-making tools that are not available from any other single source, including its extensive car insurance discounts tool. Insure.com is owned and operated by QuinStreet, Inc. (NASDAQ: QNST), one of the largest Internet marketing and media companies in the world. QuinStreet is committed to providing consumers and businesses with the information they need to research, find and select the products, services and brands that best meet their needs. The company is a leader in visitor-friendly marketing practices. For more information, please visit QuinStreet.com.

Twitter: @InsureCom

### Reported by PRWeb 7 hours ago.

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American Nurses Association Celebrates National Nurses Week; 1.1 Million More RNs Needed

May 5, 2014, 6:09 am

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With 1.1 million registered nurse jobs projected to be filled by 2022 and nursing colleges struggling to attract enough faculty and accommodate students, the American Nurses Association recommends actions to avoid nursing shortages. National Nurses Week from May 6-12 recognizes the need for more nurses, and their contributions and leadership in improving the quality of health care and patient outcomes.

Silver Spring, Maryland (PRWEB) May 05, 2014

National Nurses Week traditionally is a time to recognize the crucial contributions registered nurses (RN) make to individuals’ health and the U.S. health care system; this year, it’s also a time to sound a note of urgency about the future, as projections signal the need to fill about 1.1 million RN jobs by 2022.

The 2014 National Nurses Week theme is “Nurses: Leading the Way,” emphasizing nurses’ roles in improving the quality of health care; participating as key members of collaborative, performance-based health care teams; and continually advocating to ensure patients remain the focal point of health care. National Nurses Week takes place May 6-12, ending on the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing.

“All nurses are leaders, whether they are in direct patient care, administrative roles, or meeting consumers’ needs in new roles such as care coordinators or wellness coaches,” said ANA President Karen A. Daley, PhD, RN, FAAN. “This week, we acknowledge nurses’ vast contributions, as well as the need to develop the nursing workforce to meet our growing needs and improve the health of the nation.”

As nurses assume more leadership roles in a system that is transforming its focus to emphasize primary care, prevention, wellness, chronic disease management, and coordination of care, a confluence of factors is driving the need for a huge increase in the number of RNs. About 11 million individuals have gained better access to health care through private health insurance marketplaces and the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act; Baby Boomers are projected to swell Medicare rolls by 50 percent by 2025; and 53 percent of nurses are over age 50 and nearing retirement, according to a National Council of State Boards of Nursing survey.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 1.1 million jobs for nurses between 2012 and 2022 – more than 500,000 each for newly created jobs and replacements for retiring nurses. Registered nurse is ranked second in projected new job growth among all occupations from 2012 to 2022, with 527,000 new jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. To achieve that level of growth, ANA recommends four actions:·     Increase funding for federal Nursing Workforce Development Programs (known as Title VIII of the Public Health Service Act, which marks its 50th anniversary this year). Funding generally has stayed level in recent years for these programs that assist in educating, training, and placing new nurses in areas of need.
·     Recruit more nursing professors and increase incentives. Nursing faculty salaries generally are lower than what many faculty members could earn in clinical practice (an average of $68,640 compared to more than $91,000 for nurse practitioners). Many nursing professors also are nearing retirement age – nearly 3 of 4 are over age 50 – and will need to be replaced.
·     Ensure an adequate number of clinical training sites so nursing students can fulfill educational requirements.
·     Encourage hospitals and other employers to hire new nursing graduates now to benefit from mentoring from experienced RNs, and to mitigate the impact of the projected exodus of seasoned RNs in the coming years. Reported by PRWeb 6 hours ago.

Fewer in U.S. lack health insurance, but issues remain: poll

May 5, 2014, 6:42 am

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The percentage of adults in the United States who lack health insurance has fallen to its lowest rate since 2008, down to about 13 percent in April from a peak of 18 percent last year, according to a Gallup poll released on Monday. Reported by Reuters 5 hours ago.

Home Care Medical, Inc. Announces New Contract Relationship with Trilogy Health Plan

May 5, 2014, 6:32 am

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Home Care Medical, Inc., one of Wisconsin’s largest and most respected providers of home medical equipment, clinical therapies, and medical supplies, is pleased to have reached an agreement with Trilogy Health Plan as an in-network provider for their new Medicaid HMO health insurance members in Southeastern Wisconsin.

New Berlin, Wisconsin (PRWEB) May 05, 2014

Home Care Medical, Inc., one of Wisconsin’s largest and most respected providers of home medical equipment, clinical therapies, and medical supplies, is pleased to have reached an agreement with Trilogy Health Plan as an in-network provider for their new Medicaid HMO health insurance members in Southeastern Wisconsin.

Trilogy Health Plan provides quality, personal service to all Medicaid HMO members in Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, and Waukesha counties. This agreement allows Trilogy’s Medicaid HMO members to access Home Care Medical’s award-winning products and services from all five lines of business:·     Infusion and enteral therapy
·     High-tech rehab equipment
·     Respiratory care
·     Home medical equipment and supplies
·     Bracing and compression garments

Home Care Medical’s flagship retail showroom is an additional resource to all Trilogy Health Plan members and is located at 4818 South 76th Street in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

“We are pleased to welcome health insurance members from Trilogy Health Plan,” explains John Teevan, President and CEO, Home Care Medical, Inc. “Accredited by the Joint Commission and an active member of Wisconsin Association of Medical Equipment Services and AAHomecare, our Home Care Medical team of healthcare professionals look forward to serving the needs of Trilogy members for many years to come.”

About Home Care Medical, Inc.
Serving Southeastern Wisconsin since 1974, Home Care Medical, Inc. provides home infusion, enteral nutrition, and hospice care; rehab technology; respiratory care; home medical equipment and supplies; and bracing and compression garments. Home Care Medical, Inc. is the WAMES (Wisconsin Association of Medical Equipment Services) HME Provider of the Year award recipient in 2013 and 2012. Accredited by the Joint Commission and an active member of WAMES, the MedGroup and AAHomecare, Home Care Medical’s mission is to enhance the lives of those we serve.

Home Care Medical, Inc. Locations:
Corporate Headquarters, 5665 South Westridge Drive, New Berlin, Wisconsin
Milwaukee Retail Store, 4818 South 76th Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Sheboygan Retail Store, 2922 South Business Drive, Sheboygan, Wisconsin
West Bend Retail Store, 1709 South 18th Avenue, West Bend, Wisconsin

For more information, please visit:
Website: http://www.homecaremedical.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/homecaremedical
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/HCM_Wisconsin Reported by PRWeb 6 hours ago.

Obamacare Threatens to Cancel 90,000 Nevadans' Insurance Plans

May 5, 2014, 7:01 am

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As many as 90,000 Nevadans may have their health insurance plans canceled this fall due to Obamacare, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Despite the Obama administration's decision to delay Obamacare's employer mandate, early plan renewals are beginning to trickle in, with premiums skyrocketing from 35% to 120% on policies set for July to December renewal. 

"The increases are especially acute among employers with workforces made up of younger, healthier men. That's because Obamacare prohibits offering lower rates to healthier groups," reported the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

As Las Vegas insurance broker Frank Nolimal of Assurance Ltd. explained, "It's like if there were no more safe-driver discounts with State Farm. Everybody has the same rate, whether you have three DUIs, or you're a (nondrinking) churchgoing Mormon."

Nolimal told the Review-Journal that business clients are already seeing dramatic rate hikes, such as workers' monthly premiums more than doubling from $160 to $340 in June. The employer plans to have workers cover most of the cost.

Nevada's Obamacare-induced rate spikes will "hit mailboxes in September and October--just before November's elections," reported the Review-Journal. Reported by Breitbart 5 hours ago.

Fewer Americans Lack Health Insurance, but Issues Remain

May 5, 2014, 6:55 am

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Filed under: Health Care, Personal Finance, Barack Obama, Health Insurance

*Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images*

By Susan Heavey

WASHINGTON -- The percentage of adults in the United States who lack health insurance has fallen to its lowest rate since 2008, down to about 13 percent in April from a peak of 18 percent last year, according to a Gallup poll released Monday.

The decline coincided with the October 2013 launch of the health insurance exchanges that allowed people to buy coverage on their own under the Affordable Care Act and accelerated as the deadline to buy coverage neared, the nonpartisan research organization said.

Gallup said enrollment rates could still be affected by several lingering issues such as states' handling of Medicaid coverage under the law as well as the potential for people to lose coverage by not paying their insurance premiums.

The Gallup findings came ahead of a House of Representatives hearing scheduled for Wednesday to address enrollment data.

Under the controversial 2010 law passed under President Barack Obama, Americans must have health care coverage or face fines. Many people have insurance from their employer or are covered by a government-based plan such as Medicare or Medicaid, but others must purchase their own.The initial deadline to buy coverage was last month, and the Obama administration reported that more than 8 million Americans signed up for a private plan in state and federal insurance marketplaces during the law's first enrollment period. The administration had expected 7 million sign-ups.

Gallup's findings, based on interviews with more than 14,700 Americans throughout April, found the uninsured number fell most sharply among blacks and those with lower incomes.

Among blacks, about 14 percent reported being uninsured last month compared to nearly 21 percent in late 2013. The rate among those with a household income of less than $36,000 a year reported a 5.5 percentage point drop, from nearly 31 percent to 25 percent.

Hispanics, who as a group had the highest rate of those lacking coverage, also saw a significant decline in uninsured, from nearly 39 percent last year to 33 percent in April, according to the poll.

The poll had a margin of error of 1 percentage point.

While the overall numbers reflect "the surge in late health insurance sign-ups," many states' decision to expand coverage under the Medicaid insurance program for the poor also are likely a factor, Gallup said.

*Remaining Issues*

There also are several remaining issues that could impact the uninsured rate in the months ahead, including the potential for some people who have signed up for plans neglecting to pay their insurance premiums and losing coverage.

"It is also possible that the uninsured rate could hold steady until early 2015, when those currently without insurance sign up for policies going into effect at the beginning of next year," Gallup said.

Analysts for the Capital Alpha research firm said while the Obama administration has cited health insurance companies as saying as many as 85 to 90 percent of new enrollees have paid their premiums, the Republican-led House Energy and Commerce Committee last week said just 67 percent have paid up.

"Both reports are probably flawed," Capital Alpha's Kim Monk and Rob Smith wrote.

Separate findings released on Monday also found that the recent enrollment increase has not swayed people's opinion about the law, which is unpopular among Republicans and has become a campaign issue ahead of the November midterm elections.

The Pew Research Center poll found that 55 percent of those surveyed said they still disapprove of the Affordable Care Act, while 41 percent said they support it. At the same time, nearly half of those polled said they think the law's provisions are likely to remain in place.

"The share disapproving of the law ... is as high as it ever has been in the four-year history of the law," according to Pew, which conducted the poll for USA Today.
 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments Reported by DailyFinance 5 hours ago.

Uninsured Rate Drops To New Low As Obamacare Sign-Ups Surge

May 5, 2014, 8:09 am

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The percentage of Americans without health insurance is at its lowest since Gallup started tracking such data in 2008.

According to Gallup's most recent data, 13.4 percent of Americans lacked health insurance in April. That's down from 15 percent in March and 18 percent in the third quarter of 2013.

As you can see from the chart above, the uninsured rate has been steadily falling since the first open enrollment period for Obamacare began in October 2013. Since then, more than 8 million people have signed up for health insurance on the exchanges that were established under the Affordable Care Act. Though the launch was initially pretty messy, sign-ups ultimately surged in March and April.

Gallup's latest data is also proof that Obamacare is working to insure the people who need health coverage most. According to the poll results, which are based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 14,704 adults, the uninsured rate of people from households earning less than $36,000 a year has fallen by 5.5 percent since the end of 2013, more than any other income subgroup. The percentages of uninsured blacks and Hispanics -- who are more likely to be uninsured than whites, Gallup found -- have also fallen by 7.1 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively. Still, one-third of Hispanics remain uninsured, according to the Gallup data.

Despite the law's initial successes, Republicans still want to repeal it. Just last week, House Republicans drummed up anti-Obamacare support with a misleading survey that supposedly showed that those who signed up for health insurance aren't paying for it. According to Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, the survey was "rigged" because it prematurely asked insurers what percentage of premiums were paid before they were even due for millions of people. Reported by Huffington Post 4 hours ago.

Why It's More Important Than Ever to Keep an Eye on Health Insurers

May 5, 2014, 7:58 am

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After writing a couple weeks back that we need to keep an eye on profit-hungry health insurers to make sure they are not refusing to pay for medically necessary care, I got a flood of emails and tweets from people with stories to share.

That column was published just as Arizona media were reporting that the country's third largest insurer had told a Phoenix man he would have to pay a $165,000 hospital bill himself. Many wrote to tell me how outraged they were to hear that had it not been for the media attention, Cliff Faraci, called a good Samaritan for trying to save the life of a 19-year-old girl following a fiery crash in Arizona, might be facing bankruptcy.

I, too, was outraged, but, sadly, not at all shocked. It was just the most recent example of how health insurance bureaucrats insert themselves between patients and their doctors, all too often resulting in potentially life-saving treatment not being provided or patients getting stuck with bills far beyond their ability to pay.

The Arizona Republic wrote about Faraci's nightmare as part of a series of stories about people who find themselves in financial trouble as a result of the country's "fragmented health-care system."

Here's what happened, in reporter Robert Anglen's words:
The accident happened in an instant. One second, traffic was moving steadily. The next, metal debris was flying past Cliff Faraci's windshield as cars skidded across Loop 101 near Scottsdale Road.Faraci jammed on his breaks. In front of him, a battered red car was stopped sideways and steaming. Inside, a teenage girl, covered in blood, slumped in the driver's seat. Faraci ran to the car and tried to help her out. The driver and passenger doors were jammed. He talked to the girl, told her everything was going to be OK.

"I noticed smoke coming from under the hood," Faraci said, describing the March 2013 accident as if it were still unfolding in front of him, the way it will play out inside his head for the rest of his life.

"I reached in through the driver's window to turn off the ignition...but I could not reach it...I reached further into the car with both arms and upper body...I was halfway through the driver's window."

The engine ignited. Faraci, standing in a puddle of gasoline, was enveloped by searing heat and yellow flames. He jerked away, trying to stop the burning. The ruptured gas tank exploded and Faraci watched the girl inside the car die.
Faraci was taken to the burn unit at Maricopa County Medical Center where he was treated over the coming week for first-, second- and third-degree burns.

Two days after he was discharged, he got a letter from Aetna telling him that the company didn't believe his injuries were "sufficient to warrant" a weeklong stay in the burn unit.

As Anglen wrote,

"Almost overnight, the freeway Good Samaritan had become a victim of a health-care nightmare. His case is an example of what can happen when an insurance company decided to question the administration of care provided by doctors and other medical experts directly involved in the patient's treatment."

Faraci said he was shocked to be denied coverage. He assumed that because he paid the premiums, his insurance company would be there for him if he ever had an emergency.

Faraci filed an appeal, but Aetna executives wouldn't budge. They said in their denial letter that Faraci's coverage extended only to services and supplies that Aetna -- not his doctors or hospital staff -- deems medically necessary.

Faraci decided to become a squeaky wheel. He hired a lawyer and contacted Channel 12 News.

When Faraci's second appeal was also denied, his lawyer requested an external review of the case. Under the Affordable Care Act, insurers, which deny millions of claims every year, must have an approved external review process in place to resolve disputes. The reviewers chosen by the parties involved in an appeal must be physicians affiliated with an independent review organization and have training in the area of medicine in question.

In Faraci's case, requesting the external review and asking Channel 12 to intervene paid off. The independent examiner ruled that Aetna should pay half of Faraci's hospitalization. Soon after that, Aetna told Channel 12 that Maricopa Medical Center would not bill Faraci for the remaining $82,500.

Anglen wrote that an Aetna spokeswoman said the company was "pleased the matter is resolved," adding that Faraci would be responsible only for his deductible and co-insurance.

As a former insurance company PR guy who used to deal with reporters when something like this happened, I can assure you that becoming a squeaky wheel can make all the difference.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported on April 24 that Aetna's medical loss ratio -- "the amount of premiums used to pay patient medical costs" -- fell to 80.4 percent during the first three months of 2014, down from 81.9 percent a year earlier. That helped the company make $665.5 million in profits during the first quarter, an increase of 36 percent over the same period a year ago. The company seems to be muddling through. Reported by Huffington Post 4 hours ago.

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Fewer in U.S. lack health insurance after Obamacare rollout, poll finds

May 5, 2014, 7:48 am

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By Susan Heavey WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The percentage of adults in the United States who lack health insurance has fallen to its lowest rate since 2008, down to about 13 percent in April from a peak of 18 percent last year, according to a Gallup poll released on Monday. The decline coincided with the October 2013 launch of the health insurance exchanges that allowed people to buy coverage on their own under the Affordable Care […] Reported by Raw Story 4 hours ago.

The Marriage Equality Movement Takes On Oklahoma

May 5, 2014, 8:59 am

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As the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reviews an Oklahoma lawsuit challenging the state’s ban on same-sex unions, a new statewide television ad sponsored by national advocacy group Freedom to Marry airs Monday in the state.

The weeklong commercial features retired Army colonel and Purple Heart recipient Ed Cuyler and his wife Robbie advocating on behalf of their lesbian daughter Deedra, who married her partner Amber in Massachusetts in 2011. The couple and their three children live on Cuyler’s ranch near Fort Sill.

“Here in Oklahoma we value family,” Cuyler begins, as the ad shows the family walking around the ranch with their children, a scene set to appeal to the red state’s rural values. “When Deedra told me she was gay, as her dad, I was worried, because I wanted to protect her.”

“As a veteran, I know freedom means freedom for everyone,” Cuyler says in the ad, which is also backed by the Equality Network’s statewide public education campaign Freedom Oklahoma. “And no family should be denied a basic freedom.”

Under Oklahoma’s 2004 constitutional amendment banning the recognition of same-sex marriages performed legally in other states, Deedra is unable to add Amber to her health insurance policy despite having worked at the Lawton Goodyear tire factory for almost 24 years.

"We're a normal family," Deedra explained in an interview with The Oklahoman on Sunday. “We work, we try to take care of our children.”

“I know some people are afraid -- you are afraid of what you don’t know," Deedra added.

In January, U.S. Senior District Judge Terence Kern ruled that Oklahoma’s same-sex marriage ban was unconstitutional, describing the statute as "an arbitrary, irrational exclusion of just one class of Oklahoma citizens from a governmental benefit." A three-judge panel on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to decide on the case, and a similar one from Utah, in the next few weeks. Reported by Huffington Post 3 hours ago.

Accounting issues await companies that shift retirees to Affordable Care Act exchanges

May 5, 2014, 9:03 am

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Companies considering moving retirees off their own health insurance and onto health insurance exchanges established under th -More-  Reported by SmartBrief 3 hours ago.

The GOP Agenda Is a Talking Point Designed to Mislead the American People

May 5, 2014, 9:14 am

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The GOP's latest Benghazi smoking gun, revealed earlier this week, illuminated two shocking details.

First of all, the White House and the CIA agreed on their talking points in the immediate wake of the tragedy of the deaths of four Americans at a CIA outpost in Libya. Secondly, government officials sometimes may use talking points that end up being incorrect or even misleading.

For the party that spent years pushing the myth that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and this lie was somehow connected to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, this latter revelation was especially shocking.

We've known the extent of the tragic security failure in Benghazi since early 2013, after the release of the Accountability Review Board report authored by Republican diplomat Thomas Pickering and retired admiral Mike Mullen.

But for more than a year now, Republicans have tried to create a new Watergate that will completely destroy President Obama and Hillary Clinton out of the banal process of bureaucrats shaping talking points. Because nothing is more sacred to the GOP than the sanctity of marriage and talking points, at least that's what they tell their mistresses.

On Wednesday, House Republicans attempted to get ahead of the announcement that over 8 million Americans have signed up for insurance through Obamacare exchanges while 4.8 million gained coverage since last year through Medicaid. They produced a report that said only 67 percent of people who chose coverage had paid for it, even though all evidence shows that at least 80 percent of new customers are paying.

The report was immediately debunked by anyone paying attention, and the insurance industry itself. And Republicans have even stopped trying to defend it after House Minority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) was caught using bad math on Twitter.

LOL.

Republicans just hate misleading talking points.

That's why after five years of Republicans saying that Obamacare would destroy jobs and bankrupt the country, we're looking at the best year for job creation since 1999 and the deficit at a five-year low.

That's why after years of using the deficit as excuse to cut off the long-term unemployed, slash food stamps and cut medical research, the House GOP is rushing to approve $300 billion in tax breaks for multinational corporations.

That's why a judge took a look at the right's case for voter IDs, which suggests that in-person voting fraud justifies erecting obstacles to voting, and found that it's completely fake.That's why the Republican National Committee is pretending to reach out to minorities while canceling early voting in Ohio to fix the problem of too many black people voting.

That's why Republicans complain that not enough people are being covered by Obamacare, while denying 5 million working people Medicaid expansion.

That's why they're still fixated on Solyndra in 2014 even though the stimulus gave birth to a clean energy revolution that has seen solar production grow 418 percent since 2010.

That's why Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is pretending to care about poverty as he pushes a budget that would take health insurance from tens of millions and usher millions into poverty.

That's why they say they can't do immigration reform because they don't trust this president -- who has done more than any other recent  president -- to secure the border.

That's why they say they're "pro-life" while refusing to admit that Democrats have just done more than conservatives have ever done to reduce abortions by simply mandating birth control coverage.

After leaving this country with a Great Recession and two wars, the best the GOP can do after spending millions of taxpayer dollars investigating the White House is an allegation of misleading talking points.

If misleading talking points were an impeachable offense, Washington, D.C. would be empty and the GOP platform would be a blank piece of paper.

There's a simple reason Republicans engage in this kind of politics, and The New Republic's Jonathan Cohn nailed it in his post describing how Obamacare is now getting the Benghazi treatment:The tactic works, no matter how many times fact-checkers and media point out the distortions. Once information like this is out there, it becomes a permanent part of the conversation. Republicans and their supporters will keep citing it, over and over again. Some will even say it's proof that Obama is "cooking the books"--even if it turns out that it's Republicans, not the White House, playing games with the numbers.Republicans are looking forward to a 2014 election where a friendly map will likely result in them appearing to be the victors.

But the last election they won big was in 2010, in the middle of the worst recession in 50 years that was definitely not prevented by, and was possibly even the result of, conservative policies. Sandwiched around that election were 2006, 2008 and 2012, when voters decided that they'd mostly had enough of the far right.

There may be a point when the American people tire of having their intelligence insulted. And Republicans seem to willing to find out if that point exists.

Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Get the latest from Jason Sattler AKA @LOLGOP in the National Memo's free daily newsletter and TheLOLGOP.com. Reported by Huffington Post 3 hours ago.

Medwise Insurance Advocacy Founder Adria Gross: Featured Speaker at 92nd St Y in New York City In March

May 5, 2014, 11:56 am

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Founder and CEO of MedWise Insurance Advocacy and MedWise Billing conducted seminar entitled “Diagnosing and Decoding Your Medical Bills”

Manhattan, NY (PRWEB) May 05, 2014

Among Adria Gross’ many speaking engagements to better inform the public about the confusing subject of medical billing, she was distinguished as the featured speaker on the March 25 “To Your Health” series of the 92nd St. Y. presenting “Seven Ways to Cut Your Medical Bills”.

The audience response was overwhelmingly appreciative of the very important information presented, and left feeling empowered and educated on how to navigate the health care system and advocate for themselves and others.

Typical of attendee accolades, C. McCarthy of Jackson Heights, NY commented “Adria shared some important tips about demystifying medical billing—and what we can do to “break the codes” and save money! Her knowledge, skills, personal energy, passion and humor “won” our hearts and increased our ability to be our own advocate’.

Gross has nearly 25 years of experience in the insurance field and has helped clients recoups over one million dollars in medical bills and expenses since starting her company in 2012.

The presentation, “Diagnosing and Decoding Your Medical Bills” covered topics such as:· The Importance of knowing patient rights
· Understanding your health insurance policy
· Comparing prices and procedures
· Ascertaining whether procedures are necessary
· Options for uninsured and underinsured patients
· Deciphering procedure codes
· Ways to save on medications

Adria was motivated to develop her company recognizing the need to help individuals through action and education as they conquer the world of health care.

In addition, Gross has decades of personal experience dealing with explanation of benefits, diagnosis and procedure codes, and mounting medical bills as a sufferer of epilepsy.

“While I am grateful that a major surgical procedure put an end to my condition, deciphering and determining the accuracy of the bills was a nightmare. My professional experience, and the spiraling costs and confusions in health care, induced me to offer my services,” Adria Gross commented.

For more information about how a medical insurance advocate can help individuals work through their insurance bills and recoup the correct reimbursement amounts, and upcoming sessions, contact Adria Gross at adria@medicalinsuranceadvocacy.com or (845)238-2532 or visit http://www.medicalinsuranceadvocacy.com. Adria is always available for a free consultation.

Adria Gross, founder and CEO of MedWise Insurance Advocacy and MedWise Billing, Inc. is a New York State-licensed insurance broker and consultant, certified in medical credentialing and medical billing. As a medical insurance advocate, she is the expert liaison between patients, providers, and insurance carriers to resolve billing issues, lien claims, insurance pre-authorizations, denials, and medical letters of appeal. She is an active member of the American Medical Billing Association, Alliance of Claims Assistance Professionals, and American Academy of Professional Coders, and serves on the board of Insurance Professionals of Orange County (New York). Reported by PRWeb 8 minutes ago.

Pro-Amnesty Evangelicals Swarm Capitol Hill

May 5, 2014, 9:25 am

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Two hundred fifty left-wing Evangelicals, part of a coalition that calls itself the Evangelical Immigration Table (EIT), swarmed Capitol Hill last week to lobby an estimated 100 Republican Congressmen in support of amnesty for illegal aliens. 

A year ago, the same group launched a $250,000 advertising campaign financed by a George Soros-funded non-profit to promote the "Gang of Eight" immigration bill and what it calls "six principles" of immigration reform. The principles say individuals who "wish to become permanent residents" should be afforded a "path toward legal status and/or citizenship."

In its new push on Capitol Hill, the group appears to be making efforts to avoid creating the impression it's a left-wing front group.

On its website, EIT says it is "a broad coalition of evangelical organizations and leaders advocating for immigration reform consistent with biblical values." The coalition's website, however, offers no details of its organizational structure or funding, though it display a list of groups that are part of its coalition. 

The list includes such left-wing organizations as Sojourners and the Chicago-based Christian Community Development Association, whose mission has been described as "Reconciliation, Relocation and Redistribution" by its founder, John Perkins.

It also includes the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, a group headed until 2013 by Dr. Richard Land, now executive editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Christian Post.

One affiliated group, G92, was organized in 2011 at Cedarville University, the Christian college in Ohio that recently terminated the contract of adjunct professor J.D. Winteregg, Speaker John Boehner's (R-OH) challenger in this month's GOP Republican primary in Ohio's 8th Congressional District.

Last June, the group's pro-amnesty press conference featured high-profile left-winger Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners. No nationally prominent left-wingers were featured at this year's press conference. Instead, local pastors, among the many flown in from 25 states to Washington for a day of Congressional lobbying, were the main speakers.

An email to the group from Breitbart News asking who paid for travel and arrangements for the pastors did not receive a reply.

One of the local pastors who spoke at the press conference, Dr. Richard Nathan, senior pastor at Vineyard Columbus, also claimed that Evangelicals were united in their support for the EIT's version of immigration reform.

"Virtually every other issue that you can think of that impacts people will see divisions in the faith community," Nathan said. "But around the need for immigration reform there is virtually total unanimity. There is a wall without any breach," he asserted.

However, Mark Tooley, President of the Institute on Religion and Democracy says Evangelicals do not support amnesty. "There's little indication that most Evangelicals or most Americans support a mass legalization first, greater enforcement later (maybe) approach, or a doubling of legal immigration," Tooley told Breitbart News Wednesday.

"Religious lobbyists for this approach often portray their political cause as the clear Gospel way," Tooley added. "But the Bible offers no specific legislative guidance on immigration law, about which people of faith may disagree."

Kelly Monroe Kullberg, author of Finding God Beyond Harvard and coordinator of Evangelicals for Biblical Immigration, a group of Evangelicals who oppose amnesty for illegal aliens, pointed to recent polling evidence that contradicted Nathan's assertions.

"According to a 2014 Pulse Opinion Research poll presented at NRB, about 80% of evangelicals don't agree with the EIT's positions. 78% feel that biblical admonition to 'love the stranger' means to treat unlawful immigrants humanely while applying the rule of law. Only 11% felt it meant to offer legal status," Kullberg noted.

"The question remains," Kullberg  continued, "why does the EIT keep misrepresenting The Bible, American workers, and the Church. We're to be kind to our own most vulnerable citizens, many of whom are handicapped and elderly, as well as kind to immigrants. But kindness, in Scripture, does not usually translate as full citizenship in any one nation," she concluded.

Many Republican lawmakers who were lobbied by the EIT activists were unimpressed. 

"My response to them was, No. 1, a policy of legalizing the people who are here, the sort of easy way out, would in the long run put 40 million new people into our country, which would change the nature of our country, and that would be a bad thing, not to mention breaking the bank, etc.," Congressman Dana Rohrbacher (R-CA), an outspoken opponent of amnesty for illegal aliens, told Roll Call.

"Christian love is not furthered by advocacy of government policy," Rohrbacher said, "but instead by individual action and commitment."

Rohrbacher told Roll Call that "[i]ndividual commitment is not individual commitment to changing a government policy, it is to come out and help specific people and people who are in need, and if [the pastors] really wanted to help people who are here illegally or in bad situations they, they want to pay for their health insurance and everything, then I would be saying how wonderful that is."

"But if they are advocating that the government do that, then it will break our bank and destroy our country," Rohrbacher concluded, expressing a viewpoint held by many Christians both in and outside of the public arena.

EIT activists have sought to frame the immigration debate as a battle between Biblical values and the views of those who are unsupportive of those values.

Speaking at the press conference, Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, based in Fort Worth, Texas, said his immigration views are based in his Christian beliefs.

"It is my desire to see the fear of God inform all of our actions," Patterson told the Christian Post.

"Consequently, I believe that fear of God informing our actions would cause us to reach out to many, many people in this country, from many different origins who are not known law-breakers, not workers of wickedness, but simply needing an opportunity and seizing the American opportunity," he added.

Bryant Wright of Georgia's Johnson Ferry Baptist Church said at the press conference, "[t]he leadership of the [2011 Southern Baptist Convention] was concerned that so many conservative Christians were having their views shaped by talk radio and other news outlets, and we wanted them to come to a position shaped by Biblical teaching... Now it’s time to bring these Biblical teachings to our leaders in Washington, D.C., and ask for immigration reform this year."

The Institution for Religion and Democracy's Tooley disputed Wright's views. "The religious lobbyists for quick mass legalization advocate for illegal immigrants but forget the many legal immigrants and other Americans who comprise the growing ranks of chronically unemployed, not to mention millions of low pay workers whose wages are stagnant.  How will they be affected by 'immigration reform?' " Tooley asked.

"Ideally," Tooley said, "these religious lobbyists will reconsider and adopt a new more unifying approach that most religious Americans can support and that would actually benefit most Americans."

Kullberg agreed with Tooley. "[EIT's] position does not reflect the whole counsel of Scripture. The Bible teaches wise discernment, not blanket citizenship. We're to embrace the 'ger' or sojourner, which is the lawful immigrant who comes as blessing," she told Breitbart News on Wednesday.

"[W]e're to be kind to citizens as well as guests, and twenty-three million American citizens are looking for jobs right now. An influx of more than ten million new workers is unkind to hurting Americans whom God also loves," Kullberg added. Reported by Breitbart 3 hours ago.

Tennessee GOP State Senator Likens Obamacare Sign-Ups To Nazi Death Trains

May 5, 2014, 11:21 am

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A Tennessee state senator thinks it's unwise for the Obama administration to brag about how many Americans have signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, likening it to the Nazis touting how many Jews were shipped to concentration camps.

State Sen. Stacey Campfield (R) made the comment on his personal blog Monday morning in a post called, "Thought of the day":
Democrats bragging about the number of mandatory sign ups for Obamacare is like Germans bragging about the number of manditory sign ups for "train rides" for Jews in the 40s.
Campfield did not return a request for comment on how Obamacare is like the Holocaust.

Chris Devaney, the state GOP chairman, quickly distanced the party from Campfield's remarks in a statement to the Nashville Scene:
While Stacey Campfield routinely makes remarks that are over the top, today's comments are ignorant and repugnant. No political or policy disagreement should ever be compared to the suffering endured by an entire generation of people. Those comments have no place in our public discourse. He should offer an apology to members of the Jewish faith immediately.
Campfield, of course, isn't the first Republican to compare the government's attempt to insure millions of people to a government's attempt to kill millions of people.

Campfield has attracted notice for his controversial statements in the past as well, likening homosexuality to bestiality and making an impolitic joke after the Boston Marathon bombing. Reported by Huffington Post 43 minutes ago.

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In Oregon Senate GOP Primary, Beltway Favorite vs 'Homeless to Harvard' Underdog

May 5, 2014, 10:21 am

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The Republican Senate primary in Oregon on May 20 is emerging as one of the most interesting races in the country. The seat, currently held by one-term incumbent Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), has suddenly come in play, at least in the minds of some Republican leaders, due in part to the scandals related to the state of Oregon's failed implementation of an Obamacare exchange. 

Despite the Cook Political Report's recent April 25 finding that still rates the race "Solid Democrat," the surprising possibility that Oregon might be in play in the 2014 general election means it could be one of the six Senate seats Republicans need to take from Democrats to become the majority party in the Senate.The race is also notable for the compelling personal stories of the two leading candidates and the groups who support them, pediatric attorney Monica Wehby and "Homeless to Harvard" attorney Jason Conger.

Wehby grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. Her father was a C.P.A. and her mother was a registered nurse. She attended Notre Dame University and Baylor Medical School and moved to Portland in 1998 to become director of pediatric neurosurgery at Randall Children’s Hospital. 

Wehby's campaign has run a highly effective, emotional ad showing the mother of one of her pediatric patients speaking eloquently over tears about how Wehby saved her daughter's life. The ad has run on both cable and network televison in Oregon. The YouTube video of the ad has generated more than 100,000 views.

Conger has his own heart-tugging story, told in a five minute YouTube video of his journey from "Homeless to Harvard." 

Conger was born in California to "hippie parents." His mother abandoned the family when he was a child, and Conger grew up with his father, moving from trailer park to trailer park on the wrong side of town. In order to escape a dysfunctional family situation, Conger moved out on his own. For a period of time in high school he was homeless. 

Working any job he could get, he paid his way through community colleges, and then Humboldt State University in California. After he graduated from Humboldt State, he did well enough on his LSATs to be accepted at Harvard Law School, where he enrolled and graduated three years later.

Married just out of high school, the father of five lives with his wife in Bend, Oregon now, where he is a partner with the respected law firm of Miller & Nash.

In 2010, Conger was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives, and was re-elected in 2012.

A key selling point for Conger is that he knows what it's like to be poor. "He's not your average Republican," says the liberal local radio talk show host on his YouTube video.

A Benenson Strategies poll conducted April 14 to 17 gave Merkley a 50 percent to 32 percent lead over Conger and 52 percent to 30 percent lead over Wehby.

A recent poll conducted by Republican consulting firm Vox Populi showed Wehby in a statistical dead heat with Merkley. It did not match up Conger vs. Merkley.

Mitt Romney's endorsement of Wehby on Thursday, following on the heels of her endorsement on Tuesday by Newt Gingrich, showed top Republicans are backing her candidacy. Officially, the National Republican Senate Committee is neutral, but a recent memo authored by Political Director Ward Baker sings the praises of Wehby and makes no mention of Conger.

Wehby also holds a substantial financial advantage over Conger, having raised $591,000 in the first quarter of 2014, with $741,000 in cash as of March 31, 2014, according to the report her campaign filed with the Federal Election Commission. Conger, in contrast, raised only $64,000 during the same period, with $89,000 in cash, according to his first quarter report filed with the FEC.

Both candidates broadly claim to be conservatives, with the most significant difference coming on the issue of abortion. Conger is pro-life, Wehby is pro-choice.

Both candidates also criticize Obamacare, but neither can pass the test of having consistently opposed every aspect of it from the beginning. 

Oregon Live reported that "Conger has been forced to defend his legislative votes in favor of setting up Oregon's health insurance exchange, saying it seemed the best option at the time under the federal law."

Such a position may have destroyed a Republican challenger in a predictably conservative state, but Oregon has been, for the most of the past two decades, a very liberal Democratic state that occasionally elects Republicans.

Wehby, for her part "has defended her support for a bill sponsored by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., that included a health insurance exchange and an individual mandate to buy insurance, two elements of Obamacare frequently criticized by Republicans. She says Wyden's plan was bipartisan, more market-friendly and didn't add to the federal debt."

Of the two, Wehby's position is less palatable to conservatives, but Conger wins no awards for his.

Wehby also "talks up a Medicare plan proposed by the American Medical Association, of which she was once a board member. The plan would allow doctors to individually contract with Medicare patients to charge more than the Medicare fee schedule."

Conger opposes the plan, which he says helps create "this underclass of poorer Medicare patients who have even less access, presumably, or at least that's the risk."

With her significant financial advantage, high-profile endorsements, and favorable polling, Wehby's team may think she's ahead of the game and doesn't need to "punch down." For example, Wehby rejected a proposal to debate Conger on a local television station prior to the May 20 primary.

But a negative ad campaign involving Wehby's friend with whom she has been romantically linked, lumber executive Andrew Miller, has raised eyebrows.

As Oregon Live reported in April "Stimson Lumber chief Andrew Miller and Nevada businessman Loren Parks have funneled $106,000 into an advertising campaign attacking GOP Senate candidate Jason Conger, a state representative from Bend."

The funds were contributed to an independent expenditure committee (a Super PAC) with the unusual name "If He Votes Like That in Salem Imagine What He Will Do In Congress." Under federal election law, independent expenditure committees are prohibited from coordinating marketing activities with the campaigns of candidates they support, or who are running against candidates they oppose.

According to an amended first quarter 2014 report filed by the committee with the Federal Election Commission on April 14, Parks contributed $75,000, while Miller contributed $25,000. Miller also made a $5,950 in-kind donation for billboard space used by the committee, bringing his total cash and in-kind contributions to $30,950.

As Oregon Live reported, "Miller has been romantically linked to . . . Wehby, Conger's chief rival in the race for the Republican nomination to oppose Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. However, people connected to the committee and to Wehby's campaign insist the Miller-Parks committee is operating independently as required by federal law."

Despite claims by Gregg Clapper, who handled the advertising campaign for the Miller funded Super PAC that there was no coordination between the Super PAC and the Wehby campaign, and Wehby's campaign manager Charlie Pearce's recent statement that "[w]e've had no coordination with this group, with anybody funding this group and that's it," Conger is not buying it.

In a statement, the Conger campaign said it was "nasty, false, illegal advertising." Conger also suggested, but did not assert, that the Wehby campaign had coordinated with the Miller funded Super PAC.

A contribution by the spouse of a candidate to an independent expenditure committee supporting that candidate and opposing other candidates in the same race would almost certainly be considered illegal coordination under the law by the Federal Election Commission. 

While it is unclear if a similar contribution from a "romantically linked" friend to a candidate would also be considered illegal, it would seem that the burden to prove that no coordination took place would be on candidate Wehby and her "romantically linked" friend Miller in the event a formal complaint were filed with the Federal Election Commission by Conger.

Though the Conger-Wehby race is not the classic "Tea Party vs. GOP establishment" match up, conservatives seem to be lining up behind Conger.

Conservative icon Richard Viguerie, for instance, has endorsed Conger, as have the Oregon Firearms Federaton and Oregon Right to Life.

Despite a more conservative perspective that aligns with many of the Tea Party Movement's core values of fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government, and free markets, Conger cannot be described as "the Tea Party endorsed candidate." In Oregon, the Tea Party is not as significant force as it is in many other states, and local Tea Party groups, for the most part, have not jumped into the endorsement game in the Republican U.S. Senate primary.

One fringe challenger, Mark Callahan, a perennial gadfly who has been a member of three different political parties over the past decade and recently filed for personal bankruptcy, espouses the limited government values of the Tea Party, but has received no endorsement from local or national Tea Party groups. Mainstream press outlets, including the New York Daily News and NewsMax, have erroneously described Callahan as "the Tea Party-backed" candidate.

Whether Conger or Wehby emerge victorious on May 20, the winner will have an uphill battle in November's general election against Merkley. Reported by Breitbart 2 hours ago.

Is Obamacare working? Uninsured rate now only 13.4%, Gallup reports

May 5, 2014, 9:44 am

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Only 13.4 percent of adult Americans didn’t have health insurance in April, the lowest uninsured rate since Gallup began tracking it in 2008. That’s down from a peak of 18 percent in the third quarter of 2013, before the Affordable Care Act’s new insurance exchanges opened. Those exchanges enrolled 8 million individuals in private insurance plans, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. More than 4.8 million additional Americans have enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s… Reported by bizjournals 2 hours ago.

Obamacare at work: Uninsured rate drops to 13.4 percent

May 5, 2014, 9:44 am

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A new report shows the percentage of Americans without health insurance has fallen to its lowest level since polling began on the subject. According to a new Gallup poll, the uninsured rate fell to 13.4 percent in April — down from 15 percent the previous month and 18 percent in the third quarter of 2013. It represents the lowest uninsured rate since the polling organization began tracking health insurance coverage in 2008. The data suggests that the combination of the new health care law and… Reported by bizjournals 2 hours ago.

Memorial Hermann Believes Every Week Should Be Nurse Appreciation Week

May 5, 2014, 10:05 am

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Nurses are ranked as the most trusted profession in the nation, according to a recent Gallup survey.

Houston, TX (PRWEB) May 05, 2014

May 6 marks the beginning of National Nurses Week across the country. With a wide variety of celebrations and events, Memorial Hermann takes this opportunity to raise awareness of the important role nurses play in patient outcomes, safety, and overall well-being.

Nurses are ranked as the most trusted profession in the nation, according to a recent Gallup survey, which ranks professions on the public’s perception of their honesty and ethics. Nurses have topped the list since 1999, with the exception of 2001 when firefighters claimed the honor for their prominent role in the 9/11 rescue efforts.

“The public's constant high regard for the nursing profession, combined with nurses' education, communication skills, and direct impact on individual patient safety and health, makes them critical components in the quality of care delivered by Memorial Hermann,” said Charles "Chuck" D. Stokes, M.H.A., R.N., Memorial Hermann Health System chief operating officer.

Recently, Memorial Hermann was named among the top 100 hospitals by the international business research firm Truven Health Analytics. The Truven Health 100 Top Hospitals® study measures hospital performance across 10 areas: mortality; inpatient complications; patient safety; average patient stay; expenses; profitability; patient satisfaction; adherence to clinical standards of care; and post-discharge mortality and readmission rates for heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia. The study has been annually conducted since 1993, and Memorial Hermann has been recognized with this honor five times.

“Memorial Hermann has received numerous national awards for quality care, and our nurses play a pivotal role in achieving that recognition,” said Victoria King, M.H.A., M.S.N., Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center chief nursing officer. “They are at the bedside every single day: listening to, watching over, and coordinating care for our patients.”

Approximately 7,850 registered nurses and 450 licensed vocational nurses work at Memorial Hermann, including 2,242 board certified nurses. Board certification of nurses involves a rigorous process of testing and peer evaluation that is designed and administered by specialists in the specific area of medicine.

“Pursuing excellence by obtaining board certification is just one example of how our nurses are dedicated to delivering the highest standards of care,” said Tami Herschmann, M.S.N., C.N.O.R., director of surgical services and interim chief nursing officer at Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Hospital. “Nursing is the heart and soul of Memorial Hermann, and I am very proud of the work they do and proud to be a nurse in this organization.”

In addition to the Truven Health Analytics honor, the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) granted Magnet® recognition for excellence in nursing to Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center and Memorial Hermann The Woodlands. Only six percent of U.S. healthcare organizations achieve this honor. The ANCC also granted Pathways to Excellence designation to eight Memorial Hermann acute care hospitals and TIRR Memorial Hermann, one of the country’s leading rehabilitation hospitals. Acute care hospitals with this designation include Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, Memorial Hermann Memorial City, Memorial Hermann The Woodlands, Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital, Memorial Hermann Northwest Hospital, Memorial Hermann Southeast Hospital, Memorial Hermann Katy Hospital, and Memorial Hermann Northeast Hospital.

Click here to see what it means to be a NURSE at Memorial Hermann.

About Memorial Hermann
An integrated health system, Memorial Hermann is known for world-class clinical expertise, patient-centered care, leading edge technology, and innovation. The system, with its exceptional medical staff and more than 20,000 employees, serves to advance health in Southeast Texas and the Greater Houston community. Memorial Hermann’s 12 hospitals include three hospitals in the Texas Medical Center, including the Texas Trauma Institute – a level I trauma center which houses the Life Flight® air ambulance – a hospital for children and a rehabilitation hospital, eight suburban hospitals, and a second rehabilitation hospital in Katy. The system also operates three Heart & Vascular Institutes, the Mischer Neuroscience Institute, three Ironman Sports Medicine Institute locations, cancer centers, imaging and surgery centers, sports medicine and rehabilitation centers, outpatient laboratories, a chemical dependency treatment center, a home health agency, a retirement community and a nursing home. As an Accountable Care Organization, the system also offers employers health solutions and health benefit plans through its wholly owned Memorial Hermann Health Insurance Company. Reported by PRWeb 2 hours ago.

CHIP: Don't Mess With Success

May 5, 2014, 10:50 am

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Conventional wisdom offers a few dictums that should apply to the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), including:
· "Don't mess with success."· "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."· "Leave well enough alone."
For the sake and well-being of 8 million children across the nation receiving health coverage through the successful Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), let's hope that Congress listens to common sense and heeds these simple words as they consider and deal with the future of CHIP.

Since its inception in 1997 as a bipartisan initiative of a Republican Congress and President Bill Clinton, this federal-state partnership has been successfully implemented in every state in the country. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation report, "Over the 1997 to 2012 period the rate of uninsured children was cut in half from 14 percent to a low of 7 percent." This occurred while the uninsured rate for adults ages 19-64 increased over the same time period and stood at 21 percent in 2012, which is three times worse than the rate for children.

The fact is that states across this nation -- under both Democratic and Republican leadership -- have built CHIP to work best for kids through the creation of pediatric-focused health networks that serve their unique health care needs. Since children are "not little adults" and have specific developmental and health concerns, kids need access to medical care from pediatric experts and CHIP, with only rare exceptions, provides it.

According to the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), "A survey of parents of CHIP enrollees in 10 states found that most CHIP enrollees (88 percent) had a usual source of care in the last 12 months and that 83 percent of CHIP parents found it usually or always easy to get appointments. The same survey also found that four-fifths of children received a preventive visit and 86 percent had a doctor or other health professional visit in 2012."

And, as the CHIP evaluation report by Mathematica Policy Research found, 92 percent of parents of CHIP enrollees never or rarely had problems paying their child's medical care. In sharp contrast, nearly half of the uninsured are not confident they can afford to pay for the health care services they need.

In short, CHIP expands health coverage to kids, tailors services and benefits to address the special health care needs of children, improves access to health care, and reduces financial burdens for low-income families. In the face of a raft of bad news for children, including the fact that 22 percent of our America's kids are living in poverty, CHIP stands out as a shining success story.

Fortunately, the American people know a good thing when they see it. In November 2008, a Lake Research Partners survey found that American voters supported renewing CHIP, which was facing expiration in March 2009, by a resounding 82-10 percent margin. And, although not always the case, Congress responded to the wishes of the American people and worked with President Barack Obama to get the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) passed and signed into law on February 4, 2009.

Four years later, another Lake Research Partners survey found that, despite the partisanship that had developed around the Affordable Care Act (ACA), voters in both political parties strongly supported extending CHIP by a wide 83-13 percent margin. At a time when one-quarter of the American people seem to be so disenchanted and cynical that they oppose everything, it is surprising that CHIP has the support of even half of the "haters" and near unanimous support from everyone else.

With CHIP funding set to expire on September 30, 2015, Congress must, once again, take action to keep the program functioning. Although it may seem a long time away, there are just 50 or so legislative days left in this calendar year and Congress will need to pass something either later this year or early next year in order to give states some certainty that the program will continue.

In light of the fact that CHIP is a resounding success story and strongly supported by the American people versus the fact that the ACA or Obamacare is a work in progress with a majority of the American public still concerned about its implementation, it might seem logical that Congress would adopt the "don't mess with success" dictum and simply extend CHIP. However, as we all know, strange things happen in Congress.

In fact, just this past week, the House Ways and Means Committee voted to extend $310 billion in tax breaks for corporate interests that will greatly increase the federal budget deficit -- a debt that will have to be paid back by our nation's children. And yet, when it comes to our nation's most vulnerable children, that same Committee, on the very same day, stripped a provision out of a child trafficking bill that would guarantee children aging out of foster care access to their birth certificates, Social Security cards, and medical records because the provision would cost an estimated $1 million a year.

Fearing possible inaction by Congress to protect the health of 8 million children getting health coverage through CHIP, over 400 organizations representing all 50 states wrote a letter urging Congress to protect and extend CHIP funding. Although the children's groups are pretty much unanimous in support of the continuation of CHIP, there are surprisingly some in Washington, D.C. who are considering other options.

First, many Republicans are opposed to the idea of eliminating CHIP, as doing so would result in the elimination of a successful and popular source of health coverage for 8 million children. They also worry that CHIP's demise would force millions of kids to move into weaker health coverage under Obamacare's health care exchanges, a program that House Republicans have attempted to repeal 52 times.

So, instead of simply protecting CHIP, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan has proposed repealing CHIP and moving those kids into a Medicaid block grant that would be simultaneously cut by an astounding $732 billion over 10 years. This would be an unmitigated disaster for kids, as I have written about repeatedly on this blog, including here, here, here, here, and here.

Suffice it to say, this would be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea.

Another idea, which was recently raised at a recent Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) meeting, acknowledges that moving kids from CHIP to the ACA insurance exchanges would leave all 8 million children worse off because an estimated 1.9 million CHIP kids would lose coverage entirely due to the "kid or family glitch" in the ACA and the remaining 6 million or so would find themselves with higher cost sharing and weaker benefits, including much weaker dental coverage, in either the health insurance exchanges or the individual market. Yet again, rather than simply protecting CHIP, the recommendation calls for moving CHIP kids into ACA health exchanges in 2017 - a two-year transition period.

The argument is that somehow the ACA shortcomings for children due to the "kid glitch," cost sharing, benefit, and provider network problems can only be fixed if you end CHIP and force some sort of major change. This is sort of the idea that "things have got to become worse before you can make it better" and the notion comes from a good place.

However, there are three significant problems here. First, there currently is not a policy fix or legislative proposal out there about how Congress could address the "kid glitch," the cost sharing differences, the benefit shortfalls, or the provider network inadequacies of the ACA in comparison to CHIP. There is an enormous leap of faith here that assumes the solutions will suddenly appear and get all worked out.

Unfortunately, since enactment of the ACA, there have been over 100 organizations calling for a fix to the "kid glitch", and yet, years later there still is no consensus on how best to do that or any legislative proposal introduced to fix the problem.

Beyond violating the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", the "leave well enough alone", and the "don't mess with success" dictums for CHIP, there is another source of wisdom that should apply here. As the mother of one of my high school friends yelled out to us from her porch while we were tinkering with his car in the driveway, "Kids, if you don't know how to fix it, for heaven's sake, don't break it!"

Second, such a proposal is a major gamble with the health of millions of children. It presupposes that Congress would choose to work in a bipartisan manner in order to formulate a pretty extensive legislative proposal that would make substantial improvements in the Affordable Care Act to ensure that all 8 million CHIP kids would be able to transition to plans in the newly created exchanges that would be comparable to what took 17 years to develop and build in CHIP. It also assumes that the House, which has voted 52 times to repeal Obamacare since its enactment, would suddenly reverse course and choose to work to make Obamacare better. Not even the greatest of circus elephants can achieve such a flip.

For the 8 million kids served by CHIP today, we simply can't put their health coverage at risk in this way. And, as I have urged previously, children should never be put in a position where they could be at risk of being collateral damage in a game of political brinksmanship.

Instead, we are asking Congress to protect, extend, and make CHIP permanent. If the day comes when Congress chooses to act in a bipartisan way and fix any shortcomings and glitches with the ACA so that it is fully comparable to CHIP, it is at that point when we could consider transitioning kids into the ACA.

But until that time, we should recognize that CHIP works well for kids and choose to not mess with success. Reported by Huffington Post 1 hour ago.