WEDI Releases ICD-10 Readiness Survey for Industry Participation

August 4, 2014, 5:33 am

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WEDI seeks participation from providers, health plans, vendors and clearinghouses in ICD-10 readiness survey by Aug. 21.

Reston, VA (PRWEB) August 04, 2014

The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI), the nation’s leading nonprofit authority on the use of health IT to create efficiencies in healthcare information exchange, announced the release of an ICD-10 readiness survey to determine how well the healthcare industry is progressing towards the Oct. 1, 2015 implementation deadline. The survey results will be evaluated and compiled into a report for the industry.

Providers, health plans, vendors and clearinghouses are invited to participate in this important initiative to help monitor progress as we move closer toward the implementation deadline. The survey is available here. The final submission deadline is August 21, 2014.

“Since 2009 WEDI has been conducting these surveys, allowing us to gain a broad perspective on the readiness status for different sections of the industry, and to gauge how quickly they are progressing,” says Jim Daley, WEDI chairman and ICD-10 Workgroup co-chair. “The monumental impact the shift to ICD-10 will have on the industry makes it imperative that all organizations stay diligently focused and continue the necessary preparations in order to make the conversion in Oct. 2015 as smooth as possible. This survey is an important part of the educational and advisory roles our organization plays within the industry on ICD-10 and other health IT matters – bringing together all industry sectors to deliver a successful transition.”

As an advisor to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), WEDI brings to the attention of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issues that it believes warrant review and consideration, and continually reports the results of these periodic ICD-10 readiness surveys to CMS.

WEDI will continue to conduct surveys throughout 2014 and 2015, and information collected from these surveys will help determine where additional outreach and education is needed.

About WEDI
The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) is the leading authority on the use of health IT to improve healthcare information exchange in order to enhance the quality of care, improve efficiency, and reduce costs of our nation’s healthcare system. WEDI was formed in 1991 by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) and was designated in the 1996 HIPAA legislation as an advisor to HHS. WEDI’s membership includes a broad coalition of organizations, including: hospitals, providers, health plans, vendors, government agencies, consumers, not-for-profit organizations, and standards development organizations. To learn more, visit http://www.wedi.org and connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn. Reported by PRWeb 2 hours ago.

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What Boehner's Lawsuit Really Means

August 4, 2014, 6:30 am

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Thank you John Boehner. The nation truly appreciates you and your fellow House Republicans altruistically devoting your last moments in Congress, before a much-deserved 5 1/2 week vacation (hey, you try doing nothing for a whole year...it's exhausting!) to protecting healthcare. Despite obsessively voting fifty times and spending $70+ million of taxpayer money to repeal the Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, you're on a mission to ensure that Americans receive every single benefit the insurance law intended. Bravo!

That's right. Republicans have sued the President of the United States. That's a pretty serious action. Must've been over something so egregious... something so detrimental to America's health and welfare... something that, if unchecked, could literally bring down our great nation. Guess again.

The lawsuit is over Obama's use of an executive order to delay for one-year the employer mandate provision of ACA, which requires business owners to provide health care for its employees. Forget Immigration, minimum wage or extended unemployment insurance. There's no time to waste on these pesky little issues when one aspect of Obamacare is at risk! Because no one wants to force businesses to provide health insurance to employees more than House Republicans, right?

Oh, those executive orders! Republicans hate them, especially when it's a Democrat who signs them. But for anyone keeping score, Obama's signed 183, far less than any president in modern history, especially Republicans. George W. Bush signed 291 of them. Bill Clinton 364. Ronald Reagan 381. And George H. W. Bush 166 (in four years). So why all the Republican concern about the Constitution all of a sudden? It's because the only one thing Republicans hate more than a Democratic president's use of executive orders is this president himself. No president has been more disrespected, or been the object of more vengeful scheming, than Obama.

To be sure, for Republicans, the lawsuit is not only baseless but meaningless. It will have no material impact on Obama's presidency, and its cost to taxpayers will ultimately seem small compared to the cost to the party come election day. But the real gain is to be had by Democrats, whose base is more energized than ever heading into November's critical midterms, while being handed on a silver platter a delicious boon to fundraising. They've raised millions since the suit's been filed... at a rate of about $1-million per day. Reported by Huffington Post 1 hour ago.

CPS Cards Offers Healthcare Organizations a Higher Level of Security with HIPAA Compliance

August 4, 2014, 7:08 am

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Card solutions provider transforms operations to protect customer's health information

Allentown, PA (PRWEB) August 04, 2014

CPS Cards, a leading full-service provider of card solutions for the health and insurance industries, has become HIPAA compliant. The card provider has taken steps to safeguard electronic protected health information (PHI), as outlined in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, in their Allentown, Pa. facility.

“We are excited to offer this level of security to our clients,” said Tom Knaus, president of CPS Cards. “From new access control procedures to solid encryption safeguards, we have built a HIPAA-compliant infrastructure that ensures strict confidentiality and provides our customers with peace of mind. We are committed to maintaining our compliance by investing in the latest technologies and procedures necessary to protect sensitive data.”

These HIPAA credentials allow CPS Cards to provide an array of card products to the healthcare and insurance industries without the concern of unauthorized access.

To learn more about CPS Card’s HIPAA safeguards visit: http://www.cpscards.com/the-cps-difference.

About CPS Cards
CPS Cards is an integrated service provider that specializes in streamlining and simplifying the entire card production process – from printing and personalization to packaging and fulfillment. With production facilities in Allentown, Pa. and Chicago, Ill., CPS Cards produces more than 400 million cards annually for a wide range of customers, including leading national retailers, gift card processors and membership organizations. For more than 15 years, CPS Cards has served the needs of both channel partners and direct clients. As a single-source solution provider, they help clients save time, money and the difficulty of dealing with multiple vendors. For more about CPS Cards, visit: http://www.cpscards.com. Reported by PRWeb 40 minutes ago.

Past Computer Glitches Haunt States Readying For Second Health Care Enrollment Season

August 4, 2014, 8:31 am

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This piece comes to us courtesy of Stateline. Stateline is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news service of the Pew Charitable Trusts that provides daily reporting and analysis on trends in state policy.
As states ready their health insurance exchanges for a second open enrollment season in November, many have more to worry about than the computer glitches that plagued them last year.

Last month’s federal appeals court ruling that said language in the Affordable Care Act allows only state-run exchanges to give consumers tax credits to help pay for policy premiums is spurring several states to solidify their state-based credentials.

“Until now, it was inconsequential what you were called,” said Larry Levitt, vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation.  “All of a sudden, it may matter.”

Only the District of Columbia and 14 states — California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington — have established state exchanges and are on firm legal ground, according the decision, Halbig v. Burwell.

Consumers in the remaining 36 states that use the federal exchange ultimately could be blocked from future premium subsidies if the U.S. Supreme Court sides with Obamacare opponents. At stake is discounted insurance coverage for more than 7 million people and access to federal subsidies amounting to $36 billion in 2016, according to a study by the Urban Institute.

The July 22 decision by the federal court of appeals in Washington, D.C., struck down an Internal Revenue Service rule that authorizes payment of tax subsidies for policy premiums in states that rely on the federal insurance exchange. The court strictly interpreted language in the law that says individuals can apply for tax subsidies at “state” exchanges.

The same day, another federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, took the opposite view, ruling that despite the glitch in the drafting of the law, Congress intended that consumers in all states, regardless of the legal status of their exchanges, could receive subsidies. Two other cases on premium subsidies and federal exchanges are pending in federal district courts in Oklahoma and Indiana.

In all of the cases, plaintiffs argue that the ACA refers only to state exchanges, not federal exchanges, in its provision calling for subsidies. Qualifying individuals, the law says, can receive subsidies toward the purchase of health insurance “through an exchange established by the state.”
ACA supporters argue there is no evidence that Congress ever intended to exclude consumers who live in states that failed to establish their own exchange and defaulted to using the federal exchange.

Oregon, which secured state exchange credentials in 2011, decided earlier this year to let the federal government take over its day-to-day website operations after experiencing some of the worst technical difficulties in the country last fall. Nevada did the same thing for the same reasons, and Massachusetts is contemplating it as well.

Officials in those states say they plan to take back their sites in the future, while maintaining overall legal authority for them in the meantime. Legal experts agree that the exchanges in all three of those states are technically state-based exchanges.

Opinions differ, however, on whether Idaho and New Mexico, which received state-exchange status from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services too late to build their own websites, qualify as state exchanges.

The Richmond panel included New Mexico and Idaho in its list of states that ran their own exchanges, but the Halbig decision did not.  Idaho’s exchange group issued a statement saying it will continue to operate its “state-based exchange” for the 2014 open enrollment period. New Mexico exchange officials decided to postpone taking over operation of its exchange until next year’s open season.

No Easy Fix

The question is when does an exchange legally become a “state” exchange? According to Timothy Jost, a health law professor at Washington and Lee University, it is when state lawmakers or the executive branch appoints a state entity, such as a government agency or nonprofit organization, to run its exchange.

In theory, Jost said, that state entity could then contract with the federal government to use the federal HealthCare.gov insurance marketplace, and it would be considered a state exchange. Under Jost’s definition, New Mexico and Idaho are clearly in the state exchange column since they both named state entities to take charge of their exchanges.

Unflagging political opposition to the ACA over the four years since its enactment has made it difficult for governors who want to establish state exchanges to get their legislatures to agree. That’s why only the District of Columbia and the 14 states, most run by Democratic governors, have been able to set up their own exchanges.

Under the ACA, there is no deadline for states to let the federal government know they want to run their own exchanges. The administration has so far accommodated every request, provided the state had a reasonable plan for running its insurance marketplace. But there is a deadline of mid-November for states to receive additional federal money to complete their exchanges. After that, states are on their own financially.

If the case against the health law is accepted for consideration by the Supreme Court, and many expect it will be, a decision won’t come until 2016. That gives states time to reconsider operating their own exchanges when most legislatures reconvene next year. Premium subsidies to consumers are expected to remain unchanged until that time.

In a gray area are seven states — Arkansas, Delaware, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, New Hampshire and West Virginia — that have entered a partnership with the federal government to operate their exchanges. For legal purposes, those exchanges are currently considered federal exchanges, although the states do their own marketing and outreach under the partnership. 

Arkansas is preparing to ask the federal government for state exchange status, and lawmakers in Illinois are trying to get agreement within the state to do the same thing.

For states that have not established legal authority to run their own exchanges, there is still time.  But if this legislative season is any indicator, there may not be a flood of new applicants anytime soon.

According to a July 20 report from the National Conference of State Legislatures, bills were introduced in Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin to change their exchanges from federal to state-administered. No bills became law. 

Maine lawmakers passed a bill, but Republican Gov. Paul LePage vetoed it. State exchange bills are pending in New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania, where legislatures are open until the end of the year. For lawmakers on the fence, the prospect of losing millions in federal tax subsidies could make a difference.

“There are a lot of similarities between the exchange decision and the Medicaid expansion,” Kaiser’s Levitt said. “Lawmakers will be under a lot of pressure from providers and insurers in the state to keep the money flowing.”  Reported by Huffington Post 1 day ago.

Children's opens express-care clinic in Washington

August 4, 2014, 8:31 am

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Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC on Tuesday will open an Express Care center at Washington Health System’s Washington Hospital, which will feature extended and weekend hours for treatment of minor injuries and illnesses. The clinic will be the sixth operated by Children’s Hospital. Appointments will not be needed and parking will be free. Health insurance copayments at the clinic generally will be less than for visits to a hospital emergency department. “We are pleased to partner… Reported by bizjournals 1 day ago.

The Democrats' Defeatism

August 4, 2014, 9:11 am

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Defeatism infects the Democratic Party's bloodstream. This affliction is systemic and chronic. It has spread through every limb and organ of the party from the White House to towns across America. The ulterior source is a political lifestyle dating back to the Reagan years of passivity as the Republicans aggressively seized the commanding heights of the nation's political discourse. That well orchestrated, all-out offensive had several fronts: the media, the think tanks, the foundations, high finance, school boards and local organizations. Democrats became observers of their own marginalization or, worse, entered into the gradual but inexorable process of accommodating themselves to the New Thinking. They became an accessory to this silent revolution in the country's political life.

Democrats still win elections -- at great cost. The party has abandoned its historic constituencies, allowed the radically reactionary opposition to set the agenda and to define the issues. Victories are hollow. A Democratic President, Bill Clinton, pronounced "the era of big government is over." He let loose the locusts of financial predation on the land. He and Hillary hobnob with the Wall Street barons. He promotes the Bowles-Simpson assault on Social Security, Medicare and federal social problems of all sorts. Barack Obama, the glamorous champion of renewal, began his second day in the White House putting a depressed economy's fate in the hands of those who had pillaged and crippled it. He gave them all E-Z passes. He set as his administration's centerpiece a bizarre health insurance plan cooked-up by the ultra-Right American Heritage Foundation. Obamacare might rightly be called Heritage Care. He embraced austerity. He appointed Bowles-Simpson after first proposing to Congress even more dire threats to social spending. He promoted the "sequester" that has achieving the perennial Republican objective of downsizing government. He has launched a campaign against public schools and public universities. He has drastically undermined the most basic civil liberties in blatant ways. He has pressed a draconian program for expelling undocumented immigrants that tears apart families all the while pledging humane treatment.

Obama's conservative program began when Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress. His neutrality on the great issues raised by the financial crisis paved the way for the rise of the Tea Party and losses in the off-year elections of 2010. His naïve philosophy of bi-partisanship neutered his supporters and his party while emboldening his enemies. Most serious, he never has made the case for liberal principles and progressive government. He manifestly does not believe in them.

Enslaved by this mindset, Democrats, and Mr. Obama in particular, no longer even are able to recognize a gift horse when it is presented to them. The news a few months back that Apple pays zero taxes to the United States Treasury should have been latched onto as a golden opportunity to press the issues of inequality and corporate creative accounting. Apple is one of a number of the big businesses that evade their fiscal obligations, GE also being a zero taxpayer. The story was reduced to a 48 hour news flash because the Democrats spurned the chance to exploit it. They looked the gift horse in the mouth and saw campaign funding from Silicon Valley. So they have kept silent and proposed no remedy. What is the point of amassing war chests when you are clueless as to whom to attack using what strategy? Buying airtime to say nothing more than "vote for me" is a surefire recipe for failure - as proven time after time. It will be proven again this November. And what is the point of winning the Presidency, when luck presents you with a hapless opponent, if you have run a campaign that validates Republican principles and premises?

The consequence of these two nominally Democratic presidencies, aided and abetted by timid Congressional leadership, has been to sap the Democratic Party of conviction, of political savvy, and of fighting spirit. It is now dominated by those who have sold themselves to the established interests (the financial, military, intelligence establishments), by careerists whose sole commitment is to the next appointment or next elected office, and by trendy "liberal" intellectuals who derive some odd sense of superiority by attacking those who still feel for the common man, believe in public education and the Bill of Rights; question "globalized" trade deals that cut the ground from under American workers; and see through the deceit that is the Global War On Terror. Barack Obama is the personification of these trendy liberals; and they are his die-hard apologists and protectors.

All of this is a strategy tailored to lose elections. What we see is not political expediency trumping principle and good governance. What we see is a dumb political strategy marching hand-in-hand with irresponsible governance.

Hillary? A HRC presidency would be the 5th term of the White House led Democratic retreat - if she were to win. The bonus would be a renaming of the Lincoln bedroom the Goldman Sachs Suite.

Democratic politicians bemoan their electoral fortunes, yet act as if they were powerless to do anything about it. All we witness is hand-wringing, breast beating and pearl clutching. This is not the conduct of a serious political party - much less a political party that takes seriously its program and its constituents. It bespeaks a party leadership resigned to its fate and unable either to muster much conviction or the passion to fight for it. The appearance is that of a leadership that will be leaving office en masse on January 21, 2017 to write its memoirs.

This across the board retreat is psychological and intellectual as well as political. Democrats have accustomed themselves to being punching bags for the Republicans. They live in a crouch of defensive fearfulness - warding off blows or anticipating the next one. This is not Mohammed Ali's rope-a-dope strategy against George Foreman in the "rumble in the jungle." Democrats somehow find hanging on the ropes absorbing punishment to be natural. They have no evident plans to launch a decisive counter attack. It is all thrust from side and (weak) parry on the other. There are two astounding features of this pathetic state of affairs that provide the most telling evidence of how debilitated the Democrats are by the disease of defeatism.

One is their inability to initiate an attack, or land a stunning counterpunch, even when public opinion is overwhelmingly on their side. This is true on gun control, environmental regulation, spying/electronic surveillance, Social Security and Medicare, abortion rights, reining in financial predators, raising the minimum wage, even trading for the release of Bergdahl. The list covers the vast majority of public issues. A detached observer recently arrived from Mars would be amazed to discover this reality after observing the comparative behavior of Democrats and Republicans. After a bit of library work, he will be further amazed that the White House's policy locus is somewhere to the Right of Richard Nixon's.

The other, related phenomenon is the now instinctive defensiveness of progressive Democratic commentators. The topics they choose, their point of departure, and their tone reflects what has been initiated by the Republicans - even crackpot Tea Party Republicans. Almost all of the aforementioned commentators follow this pattern - however unwittingly. The result is to give automatic credit to the position taken by the so-called "conservatives." For it is their charges and statements that are at the head of the column. They thereby get primacy and free publicity - whatever critical comments follow. Consider something as fundamental as the Republicans shameless abuse of the filibuster in the Senate. It defies all political logic not to campaign unrelentingly against a practice unprecedented in American history that subverts the democratic principle. Democrats should be hammering away at it rather than taking a grin-and-bear-it attitude. They so completely come to accept it as the new norm that a large slice of the citizenry probably thinks that the Constitution requires a 60 vote majority to pass legislation.

Even in regard to predatory financial institutions and their contribution to growing inequality, the Democrats will not challenge vested interests unless an establishment figure has provided them protective cover. It was Newt Gingrich, of all people, who made the rapacious actions of hedge funds and private equity an issue in his 2012 debates with Mitt Romney. Their resonance with the public produced a brief flurry of commentary that the Democrats dropped during the presidential campaign and have never returned to. It is no secret that the hedge fund pirates are the very people Obama was cultivating on his recent trip to the West Coast fund raising for his presidential library.

Aggressiveness by liberals is all the more imperative because the mainstream media have lapsed into the role of spokesmen for the status quo. That is a status quo with a very strong conservative or "conservative" flavor. In some cases this is intentional; in other cases, it is the outcome of the pervasive ethic of going with the flow. One expression of this reality is that whoever makes the most noise gets headline attention - no matter how outrageous, inaccurate or just silly the action or statement is. The "liberal leaning media," always a fiction, has become an oxymoron.

So comprehensive has this transformation been that outlets long touted as vaguely liberal have shifted gears to accommodate the powers that be. The most striking, and embarrassing, instance is provided by the Public Broadcasting Corporation. Its descent into conservative territory began when the Bush administration got away with appointing as its Chair the co-head of the Republican National Committee. The slashing of the organization's budget, targeted and by virtue of Obama's sequester, has pushed it into the arms of corporate and foundation sponsors. One of the biggest is the Koch brothers. Koch actually sits on NPR's board. Small surprise that a contracted documentary on the Koch Brothers phenomenon recently was axed by PBS. This story didn't even break into the MSM; after all, such carrying-on has become commonplace.

This accommodating mindset afflicts many of even the most earnest liberals. Consider Paul Krugman. In the past few months, he has rediscovered virtues in Barack Obama 's performance otherwise invisible to the naked eye or attentive follower of the news. The discredited champion is undergoing a rehabilitation based on little more than an unquenchable yearning for something better than what we actually have -- or will have. This assessment of Obama, moreover, is a prelude to a favorable forecast for a Hillary Clinton presidency that will continue the slow but steady regression in the name of pragmatism.

In this frame of mind, Krugman is even able to discern positive signs in the stellar Tea Party performance in Virginia, Texas and Mississippi. A reinvigorated but over confident Far Right supposedly will fatally undermine the Republican establishment. The main conclusion that should be drawn from these events is that the Tea Party's return to its populist roots in directing ire at Wall Street instead of concentrating on government alone exposes the Democrats' fateful error in abandoning that terrain while themselves cozying up to the moneybags. The cause of liberalism is hurt by the grasping for illusory signs of a change in the temper of American politics. There is no progressive wind sweeping over the country. The self stylized intellectual vanguard of liberal sentiment is too parochial in its vision and too willing to inflate accomplishments. Are Obama's feeble, flawed 'financial reforms,' largely crippled in the 5-year rule setting process dominated by Wall Street interests, truly an historic achievement that glows as the jewel in the crown of the Obama presidency as Krugman now inexplicably asserts?

By contrast, liberal assertiveness can work. To take one example, it is the activism of Elizabeth Warren on the student loan crisis that forced Obama to offer his support for legislation that could reduce the interest rates on a significant fraction of loans sourced from private lenders. Until he had been sharply prodded, Obama gave a string of excuses why the reform couldn't be done. Bending to pressure, and then pronouncing himself an earnest devotee of its good cause, is what Obama is all about. All the pressure, though, over the past five years has come from the Right - on budget balancing, cutting so-called 'entitlements," refloating zombie banks. True, that orientation conforms to his natural leanings. Still, if liberals had screamed and howled every time he betrayed them, his response would have been to accommodate them - especially before November 2012. Instead, the Milquetoast liberals were given the back of Obama's hand and routinely insulted by Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel.

We can be certain of one thing: if the Democrats continue down this path, nostalgic sympathizers of what used to be America's progressive party will be placing coins in its mouth. "Two bits for Charon" would be a fitting epitaph. Reported by Huffington Post 1 day ago.

First Rehab Life Changes Name To Shelterpoint Life NY-Based Insurance Carrier Changes Name in Anticipation of National Expansion

August 4, 2014, 8:43 am

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Effective today, The First Rehabilitation Life Insurance Company of America (First Rehab Life) changed its name to ShelterPoint Life Insurance Company, and is hereby ringing in a new chapter in the company’s history.

Great Neck, NY (PRWEB) August 04, 2014

Ownership and management of the company remain unchanged. The company has grown to become the largest writer of New York State Statutory Disability Insurance (DBL) with currently over $70 million in covered premium* and over 150,000 covered employers for this line of business alone, all of which was sold by independent insurance Agents and Brokers. Now, as ShelterPoint Life, the company is looking to expand nationally through its newly acquired subsidiary, develop new products in the context of a changing health insurance environment, and continue to increase web-based capabilities that empower their producers, policyholders, and members alike.

Richard White, CEO, explains the driving factors behind the name change: “As we have evolved over our 42-year history, it is time to go with a name that is more reflective of who we are and what we do. We chose a name that expresses our mission of offering benefits that are simple, to the point, and which embrace our commitment to shelter our clients. At the same time, we are growing. It's a very exciting time since we just acquired an insurance company that is licensed in 48 states; so, we were looking for a name that illustrates our next chapter and will give us a nationwide identity.”

From a policyholder’s perspective, the name change means business as usual. To ease the transition, all ShelterPoint Life envelopes and key correspondence are cobranded with First Rehab Life. Policyholders will be notified via mail and receive an endorsement for their policies. While the ShelterPoint Life name change has been officially finalized in New York, the company’s state of domicile, it is in the process of obtaining approval of the new name in other states in which First Rehab Life has been licensed. Policyholders outside New York will receive a name change endorsement in the future – but in the meantime, they may start seeing or hearing the new company name in communications, such as billing, claims or other correspondence.

ShelterPoint Life’s location, claims addresses, and phone numbers remain the same, while new web and email addresses are necessary to reflect the changed name. The new URL is http://www.shelterpoint.com.

*Source: DB-680 reports as filed by all statutory disability carriers with the State of NY, at time of report covered premium was at $65m.

About ShelterPoint:
The ShelterPoint family of companies consists of ShelterPoint Life Insurance Company (formerly First Rehab Life) and ShelterPoint Insurance Company.

ShelterPoint Life was founded in 1972 as The First Rehabilitation Life Insurance Company of America (First Rehab Life) and is headquartered in Great Neck, NY. Since its inception, ShelterPoint Life has grown into New York’s largest* statutory disability carrier and holds the rating of A- (Excellent) by A.M. Best Company and A- by Standard & Poor’s. Through the years, ShelterPoint Life has added additional employee benefits to its product portfolio and currently insures more than 150,000 employers and over 1.3 million members. In 2014, First Rehab Life changed its name to ShelterPoint Life Insurance Company.

A Florida-domiciled carrier was acquired in 2014, which was renamed ShelterPoint Insurance Company. This newly acquired entity is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ShelterPoint Life and is licensed in 48 states and territories.

Forward looking statements disclaimer:
This press release contains forward-looking statements and information – that is, statements related to future, not past, events. Such statements are based on the current expectations and certain assumptions of the management of ShelterPoint family of companies (ShelterPoint Life Insurance Company and ShelterPoint Insurance Company, collectively ShelterPoint), and are, therefore, subject to certain risks and uncertainties. A variety of factors, many of which are beyond their control, affect their operations, performance, business strategy and results and could cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Risks may include, but are not limited to uncertainties in connection with: disposing of business activities, certain strategic reorientation measures; the performance of its equity interests and strategic alliances; the challenge of integrating major acquisitions, implementing joint ventures and other significant portfolio measures; the introduction of competing products or technologies by other companies or market entries by new competitors; changing competitive dynamics; the risk that new products or services will not be accepted by customers targeted by ShelterPoint and its subsidiaries or affiliates; changes in business strategy; its relationships with governmental bodies and customers; developments in the health care market, legislation, and regulation; changes to the independent insurance broker/agent industry; approvals of the State Insurance Departments; and various other factors. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in the relevant forward-looking statement as expected, anticipated, intended, planned, believed, sought, estimated or projected. ShelterPoint neither intends to, nor assumes any obligation to, update or revise these forward-looking statements in light of developments which differ from those anticipated. Reported by PRWeb 1 day ago.

Obama Claims His Policies Have Been Friendly Towards Businesses

August 4, 2014, 11:09 am

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In an interview published in The Economist, Saturday, the president claimed that his policies have generally been friendly towards business, adding that he understands why they might be a little frustrated with his onerous regulations.

Via The Hill:



“They always complain about regulation,” Obama said of business leaders. “That’s their job.

“I would take the complaints of the corporate community with a grain of salt,” he adds. “If you look at what our policies have been, they have generally been friendly towards business.”



He went on to boast, “I think you'd have to say that we've managed the economy pretty well and business has done OK.”

No doubt the president would give himself "a solid B+" on the economy.

But under his stewardship of the nation's economy, the government has intervened in the private sector in an unprecedented and sweeping fashion - and not everyone in the "corporate community" have benefited from his policies. That's the main feature of his regime of crony socialism  - when the government picks winners and losers, you're going to have a lot of unhappy losers.

No president has done more to channel subsidies, contracts, grants and other taxpayer-funded incentives to his friends, campaign contributors and political cronies than this president. 

Crony Socialism is in fact at the heart of the president's signature achievement, ObamaCare, with pharmaceutical giants and health insurance companies benefiting from the law's kickback schemes.

Other examples of Obama's crony socialism via Seton Motley at Red State: 



Obama Donor’s Firm Hired to Fix Health Care Web Mess It Created, Obama Crony Wins Contract to Give Phones to Jobless, Obama’s United Auto Workers Bailout, and 80% of DOE Green Energy Loans Went to Obama Backers.



And as Seton notes, when he’s not rewarding his friends – he’s punishing his enemies.



Obama’s Fingerprints All Over IRS Tea Party Scandal, IRS Tea Party Intimidation an Echo of Raid on Gibson Guitar, Stats Demonstrate That Chrysler Dealers Likely Shuttered on a Partisan Basis, President Obama On His NLRB’s Boeing Lawsuit.



Among the politically disfavored who consider Obama's policies to be "unfriendly",  are small businesses - 69% of whom say Obama's policies have hurt them.This nation has never seen this level of pernicious government intervention in the private sector. It's certainly nothing to brag about. Reported by Breitbart 22 hours ago.

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Pat Roberts Pushed Legislation for Which His Son Lobbied

August 4, 2014, 11:39 am

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Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) has pushed legislation that his son has lobbied for as a paid lobbyist, Breitbart News has learned.

Back in 2002, David Roberts—Sen. Roberts’ son—lobbied for Kansas State University at the lobbying firm Van Scoyoc Associates, Inc., pushing in part for a new bioterrorism facility at the university federal lobbying disclosure reports filed with the U.S. Senate show. After receiving $50 million in taxpayer funds for the new facility the following year, in 2003, Sen. Roberts appeared at the groundbreaking ceremony for the building of the facility.

“This facility will help protect us from bio-terrorism," Sen. Roberts said at that event, according to the Associated Press.

The Associated Press reported that Roberts “was instrumental, along with former Gov. Bill Graves, legislative leaders and members of the Kansas Board of Regents, in the initial push to provide the money for the institute.”

At the event, then Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius praised the new facility as well, the AP reported, and pledged "to keep this kind of initiative going.”

According to Kansas State University’s website, the program that Sen. Roberts helped send that $50 million worth of taxpayer money to—that his son was paid to lobby for—is housed inside “Pat Roberts Hall” on the university’s campus.

“The Biosecurity Research Institute (BRI) at Pat Roberts Hall on the Kansas State University campus is a unique biocontainment research and education facility,” Kansas State University brags on its website. “The BRI supports comprehensive "farm-to-fork" infectious disease research programs that address threats to plant, animal, and human health.  Home to 113,000 square feet of lab, education, and administrative space, this BSL-3, ABSL-3 and BSL3-Ag facility offers countless research and education opportunities.”

Over a year ago at Breitbart News’ first “The Uninvited” panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in 2013, Peter Schweizer of the anti-crony capitalist Government Accountability Institute called for a ban on lobbying by family members of members of Congress.

“First of all, there needs to be a lifetime ban on lobbying for members of Congress,” Schweizer said. He added:

Second of all, there needs to a ban on family members as registered lobbyists. If you are elected to serve the people, you ought to be serving the people—not little Johnny who has lobbying clients. I think the third thing that I have really changed my view on is I have come to the conclusion that there really is no alternative to term limits. You simply are going to continue to have this problem until that happens.

Schweizer said during that event that regardless of any politician’s political stances, the allure of Washington as a business model—the culture of money in politics—keeps Americans from achieving policies in their interests.

“Have you ever noticed things don’t really change in Washington?” Schweizer asked attendees of that panel, adding: 

Whoever is the president, whoever controls the House, whoever controls the Senate—there might be a slight shifting of the ship but it’s basically going in the same direction. Now you’re going to hear a lot of talk about how this is an ideological problem, that we need to fight for limited government, that we need to combat on the level of ideas, that we are fighting socialism—and there is certainly some truth to that. What I’m going to argue today is that the problem we face is ultimately not ideological—it’s cultural. The reason that government continues to grow in Washington is that for liberals, for centrists and even for some conservatives, the fact of the matter is government grows because it’s profitable when it grows.”

That Biosecurity Research Institute is not the only example of Sen. Roberts pushing legislation that his son David was paid to lobby for.

Back in October 2005, Roberts teamed with Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) to introduce legislation they say was aimed at providing job opportunities for people with disabilities. 

“If in fact we have those with severe disabilities doing work on behalf of our national security my goodness, think what they can do in other endeavors,” Roberts said at a press conference on Capitol Hill, according to the Kansas City Star. “It is time we change the way we think about employing individuals with severe disabilities.”

The Kennedy-Roberts legislation would have used the government to grant certain firms a competitive advantage. “Businesses would get a preference when vying for federal contracts if severely disabled people make up 25 percent of their work force, if the firms pay fair wages to those workers and if they pay at least 50 percent of the workers' health-insurance premiums,” the Kansas City Star’s Matt Stearns wrote on Oct. 8, 2005. “The bill's goal is to provide employment for 1 percent, or 94,000, of severely disabled Americans.”

Roberts and Kennedy framed their bill—which was pushed the Cerebral Palsy Research Foundation—after an Army program at Fort Leavenworth where people with severe disabilities were hired to analyze information. “With job opportunities scarce for disabled Americans, especially the 9.4 million with severe disabilities, advocates say the Army's decision is a model for other organizations,” the Star’s Stearns wrote before quoting Cerebral Palsy Research Foundation government relations official Pat Terick as saying, “Just because someone has a disability doesn't mean they can't analyze information.”

Capitol Hill lobbying disclosure forms show that Roberts’ son David was a paid lobbyist on behalf of the Cerebral Palsy Research Foundation from at least 2003 through 2005. David Roberts lobbied on behalf of government relations firm Rhoads Weber Shandwick—which later became simply “The Rhoads Group.”

On The Rhoads Group’s 2003, 2004 and 2005 lobbying disclosure forms for its client the Cerebral Palsy Research Foundation, the lobbying firm listed David Roberts as one of the paid lobbyists on that account.

During that timeframe in which his son lobbied for the Cerebral Palsy Research Foundation—which is based in Wichita, Kansas—Sen. Roberts took other actions on that organization’s behalf.

In 2005, Roberts intervened on the organization’s behalf in dealings with the Department of Education during the George W. Bush presidency. In late 2004, The Wichita Eagle reported in 2005, a regional administrator from Bush’s Department of Education “prohibited vocational rehabilitation counselors from referring people with vision loss or severe disabilities to either Center Industries, a charter company of the Cerebral Palsy Research Foundation, or Envision, which provides services, education and employment for the blind.”

Envision was looking to hire more people with severe disabilities to make plastic bags while Center Industries wanted them to work for its defense industry contracts, but the local news outlet reported that the ruling from the Bush administration “meant Center Industries and Envision had to look elsewhere for employees—sometimes out of state.”

So the organizations turned to Sen. Roberts for help—and Roberts used his official senatorial power to help his son’s struggling clients. “Roberts, along with other members of Kansas' congressional delegation, wrote to then-Secretary of Education Rod Paige asking him to reconsider the ruling by Rehabilitation Services Administration regional commissioner Joe Cordova and permit job placements at Center Industries and Envision,” the Wichita Eagle wrote on Feb. 26, 2005. “The letter said that Center Industries and Envision ‘employ both disabled and non-disabled individuals in a broad range of manufacturing jobs.’”

In response to Roberts’ actions, the Bush Department of Education reversed its original ruling—and did so through Roberts.

“In response, the Education Department has retracted the ruling as it applies specifically to Center Industries, according to a letter released to The Eagle by Roberts' staff,” The Wichita Eagle wrote. “Sarah Ross Little, communications director in Roberts' office, said that although the reversal applies specifically to Center Industries, ‘this sets a precedent, and it should be easy for Envision’ to receive a similar nod of approval.”

Little, who remains in the communications director role for Sen. Roberts to this day, told the local paper that Center Industries—which was a charter company of Roberts’ son’s lobbying client the Cerebral Palsy Research Foundation—had specifically asked the senator for help. “Asked why Envision was not included in the letter, she said it was because Center Industries had specifically requested Roberts' help,” the Wichita Eagle wrote.

The local paper wrote that Pat Terick, the top government relations official for the Cerebral Palsy Research Foundation, was “delighted by the news” of what their lobbyist’s father and U.S. Sen. Roberts was able to do for them.

“We are extremely pleased,” Terick said. “This means individuals can be employed competitively with Center Industries.” Reported by Breitbart 21 hours ago.

Healthcare CIO: Innovation Lessons From United States And Taiwan

August 4, 2014, 11:57 am

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Healthcare in the United States (U.S.) is a regular topic of the media in general and this blog in specific, but we don't often get the opportunity to take an inside look at the healthcare systems of other countries. David Chou, the CIO at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC), who has co-authored several articles and appeared with me on CXOtalk, was born in Taiwan. Chou returned to Taiwan in July 2014 to speak at the HIMSS eHealth Conference. While in the country, David spent time with 15-20 healthcare CIO leaders, including people from the ministries of health of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. David took the opportunity to see how the country's national single payer system is working.

Here is his report along with his suggestions for what we can learn from Taiwan as well as what they can learn from us, based on his experience at UMMC.
David Chou (Twitter: @dchou1107) - CIO UMMC

In 1995, Taiwan launched a National Health Insurance (NHI) program covering 99.9% of the population, including prison inmates. Before that, roughly 41% of the citizens were uninsured and without healthcare access. Today, Taiwan has 500 hospitals and 20,000 clinics with a very high average length of hospital stay of 10.3 days. Healthcare in Taiwan is viewed as a human right, not a privilege. NHI-approved care includes not only western procedures and prescription drugs, but traditional Chinese medicine as well. Monthly insurance premiums vary, but are affordable at less than US $50 per month.

While this is a much easier prospect in a smaller country like Taiwan, than it would be in the US, it would be something to explore at a state level as a test bed. Collecting data from a single payer source can make a big difference in terms of preventative care models. We recognize that data is king in the US, but we have to find a method of collaboration among all healthcare entities.

Unlike in the US, CIOs in Taiwan are still very traditional, focusing on in-house data centers and custom programming for their electronic medical records (EMRs). Every hospital develops its own application software and builds its own data center. David advises the technology leaders in Taiwan to focus on these four pillars of next generation IT: cloud, mobile, social, and big data. If these four pillars are applied to the Taiwan healthcare system, as he has done at UMMC, David believes that they can become a world powerhouse in healthcare. This advice is equally valid for all healthcare providers worldwide.

*Cloud* -A shift in mindset to solutions and outcomes will shift the focus to the cloud and away from local infrastructure. The cloud can provide the infrastructure for a national EMR and research database. The biggest challenge in healthcare is integration across insurance payers, providers, billing, and patients. The cloud can be the foundation allowing the scalability and agility that every government dreams of. Taiwan's technology leaders must transform their culture to embrace cloud technology.

UMMC is in the process of setting up their public cloud with the goal of moving the majority of their infrastructure there. They have an enterprise document storage environment set up in the cloud that allows for collaboration both internally and with other similar organizations.

*Big Data *- Taiwan has an advantage in Big Data from a claims perspective over the United States. With national health insurance, all claims and billing data are housed in one system. Taiwan could take advantage of this consolidated claims data and use it to improve quality and provide the highest level of care at the lowest costs. One side of this equation is already complete with their national insurance system. The next challenge will be to create either a standard for interoperability or a national EMR system to avoid the integration challenges.

In the US, we are collecting and setting standards for interoperability between the payers and providers, which will be a great benefit once we have enabled all system to communicate. Our Big Data initiative has kicked off with a focus primarily on the healthcare data side. We will have the tools necessary to allow our end users to run analyses as well as collaborate with government payers to determine how we can most efficiently practice medicine.

*Social* - Of Taiwan's 23.3 million people, about 15 million (64%) subscribe to Facebook. Yet business and thought leaders are not utilizing social and Big Data to assist the healthcare community in predictive and personalized medicine. Social consumers in Taiwan spend on average 2½ hours on social media daily. A recent study showed that the younger generation tends to rely on social media for health information. People aged 40+ use social media for help and support in general, and for researching health information and experiences in specific, especially around negative side effects. Healthcare organizations in Taiwan should incorporate social as part of an enterprise strategy for patient outreach, as we are doing in the United States. If a US healthcare provider is not active on social media, patients often seek an alternative provider. Chou is an incredibly social CIO who sees lots of benefits for healthcare providers to adopt social collaboration.

At UMMC, David is using an enterprise social tool for collaboration that provides a forum for sharing updates within the department and across the organization. He is continuing to grow adoption internally among the 10,000+ UMMC employees and students.

*Mobile *- Taiwan has 29.5 million active mobile subscriptions, which is 126% of their population, meaning people use multiple mobile devices. Consumers in Taiwan spend on average of 2 hours and 19 minutes each day accessing the Internet on their mobile devices. With the rise in consumer healthcare, every healthcare entity should be thinking about virtual health and telemedicine, but the NHI does not yet provide reimbursement for virtual care. These are virtual health benefits that they are missing:
· Decreased readmission rates· Improved patient access· Improved patient follow-ups· Improved provider satisfaction· Improved overall outcomes

In a country dominated by mobile usage, consumers will expect the same mobile capabilities from healthcare providers as are available from airlines, retailers, and banks; where mobile has become the primary platform for consumer engagement.

At UMMC, mobile is the platform of choice and David is designing the enterprise IT system to be mobile first. The UMMC EMR system is already accessible via tablet and smartphone. When the country of Taiwan begins using mobile capabilities to implement virtual healthcare along with the four pillars described above, they will truly become a world class healthcare nation.

This post was co-authored by David Chou, CIO University of Mississippi Medical Center Reported by Huffington Post 21 hours ago.

No on Prop 45 Campaign Reports $37 Million Raised from Health Insurers; Amount is 3 Times the $12 Million Federal Refund Californians Just Got, says Consumer Watchdog Campaign

August 4, 2014, 12:19 pm

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SANTA MONICA, Calif., Aug. 4, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Six health insurance companies financing the No on Proposition 45 committee have donated $37.3 million through June 30, 2014 against the ballot measure to regulate health insurance rates in California, according to campaign... Reported by PR Newswire 20 hours ago.

Wonkblog: Studies: Thank the recession for the health spending slowdown

August 4, 2014, 1:19 pm

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Some of the best news for health care in a while is also driving one of its biggest debates — what exactly is behind the historic slowdown in health-care spending these past few years. Just how much credit should be given to structural changes in the health-care system versus the effects of the Great Recession? The answer has major fiscal implications for the country's future as the economy improves and millions more gain health insurance under the 2010 health-care law. Reported by Washington Post 19 hours ago.

5 Questions To Ask About Lowering Your Hospital Delivery Bill

August 4, 2014, 2:24 pm

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Written by Lacie Glover for U.S. News & World Report

When you’re excited about the arrival of your baby, money may be the last thing you want to think about. But to ensure a bright future for your newest family member, you need to consider the bills that come with delivering your bundle of joy and the other expenses that will follow.

Just giving birth is usually expensive: Vaginal deliveries cost an average of $30,000 in the U.S., while cesareans cost closer to $50,000. You may have health insurance that will cover most of it, but you’ll probably still be on the hook for a portion. Once that final bill comes and it’s time to face the music, here’s what to ask to cover your bases.

*1. Can I lower my bill?*

Most of the time, you can lower your medical bill through various means like checking for errors and negotiation. Billing errors are common, and even though you’ve got a lot to focus on, you should go over your bills with a clear mind. Your statement should be detailed and itemized, with every procedure, medication and test for you and the baby listed. You’re entitled to receive this, but you’ll probably have to ask for it. So if your bill has just one giant charge or lump sums listed for “laboratory” and “miscellaneous materials,” call the hospital and ask for an itemized statement.

Once you have the list of all charges, check for anything that’s duplicated, unfamiliar or you know you didn’t use, like medications. Highlight these charges along with any others you don’t understand or seem unfair; also note any misspellings or incorrect personal information. You may be able to get the charges removed or lowered by making an appointment with the hospital billing department.

*2. What did my insurance cover?*

Under the Affordable Care Act, all insurance policies should have maternity benefits, but exactly what they cover varies among companies and policies. Once you’ve looked over your medical bill to check for errors, it’s time to break out your insurance company’s explanation of benefits. This is the document that shows the charges and lists in a table what the insurance company did and did not pay for. The terms can be confusing, so keep a simple guide handy as you look it over. You’ll also want to keep your insurance policy nearby to reference, but it might help to read over the maternity benefits section before.

The medical bill and EOB should have the same charges listed, so if one has more than the other, make note. As you’re checking over what the insurance company did and didn’t pay, keep note of anything that you think the policy should have covered but didn’t.

Once you’ve gone over all these documents, it’s time to bring any errors you found to the attention of both the hospital billing department and the insurance company. Alert both bodies by phone, and make an appointment to see the hospital billing staff in person as soon as you can. They may be able to rebill and resubmit a claim to your health insurance company if they’ve made errors.

*3. Do I qualify for financial aid?*

Depending on your income and family’s status, you may be able to get financial assistance through the hospital or a charitable organization. Many hospitals offer aid for families with no insurance or those who make up to 400 percent of the federal poverty threshold. Check the hospital’s website or call its patient services line for information.

If you have a deep need, independent charitable organizations may be able to help, and your hospital might have resources on how to apply for aid. If you’re religious, check with leaders of your faith to see if they can direct you toward faith-based charities. Another option may be local Elks chapters, which often help families in their communities pay medical bills.

*4. What do I have to pay for next?*

After receiving a large hospital bill, you may not think about what expenses come next. In the short term, your baby will need doctor’s visits, clothes, diapers and formula. Make a list of all things large and small that you’ll have to pay for, even if you already have older children and have done this before. Also consider that your health insurance premium may go up now that there’s a new member in your family.

In the long run, you may have to pay for child care, and if you live in a larger city, you might have to put your baby on a waitlist now. And child care isn’t cheap. According to a report last year from Child Care Aware of America, the average annual child care cost for a 4-year-old was higher than the one year of college tuition in 19 states and the District of Columbia in 2012. So make sure to research low-cost, high-quality options in your area to prepare.

*5. How should I adjust my budget?*

Any time your life changes in a big way, your finances usually follow, so it’s best to be prepared. Every budget is different, so you’ll have to scrutinize where you can cut expenses. Are you quitting your job to care for the baby, or will you now need to budget for child care? Look over your list of new costs and your old budget and see where cuts need to be made to make room for your new expenses. While it’s not always fun to go over your budget and prepare for your financial future, you’ll thank yourself for it later. Reported by Huffington Post 18 hours ago.

Experient Health Highlights Importance of Choosing the Right Wellness Program in Latest Blog Post

August 4, 2014, 3:43 pm

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Many U.S. employers implement wellness programs, but the success of the program is dependent on both employee engagement and support from all levels of management.

Richmond, VA (PRWEB) August 04, 2014

Many U.S. employers implement wellness programs, but the success of the program is dependent on both employee engagement and support from all levels of management.

In a culture where wellness is often emphasized, approximately half of U.S. employers with 50 or more employees sponsor some type of workplace wellness program, according to a RAND survey that Experient Health, the Virginia Farm Bureau's health insurance arm, reported on its latest blog post.

However, in order for these programs to ensure success, it takes a joint effort from both the employees and management to create a workplace wellness program that’s fitting for the company, Experient Health wrote.

Experient Health launched its blog series last year to help keep the community educated on ways to stay fit and healthy as a first line of defense for preventative medicine.

"As the issues of rising health care costs and increased absenteeism due to health problems grow, wellness programs are seen as an effective method of improving employee health and morale and decreasing health-related costs for employers," Experient Health wrote.

The first step? Determining needs and resources.

"Assess your workplace to determine your employees’ health problems and fitness levels, as well as their interest in different types of wellness programs," Experient Health suggested. "Consider using surveys, focus groups and health risk assessments to learn more about the health status and interest areas of your employees."

To ensure the support of management, inform managers about the program early on and encourage them to participate. Communicate the program’s goals and benefits clearly and often.

"Gaining upper-level management support will give you an easier access to sufficient resources and staff time to develop and implement your wellness program," Experient Health wrote. "You also need support from upper management in order to set an example through their participation in the program. The participation of direct managers throughout your organization is also important because they will be able to encourage more engagement among all your employees, increasing the ROI of your program through widespread participation."

Once a company has determined its needs and emphasized the importance of management support, a company can then specify the type of program it is interested in incorporating into the company.

Programs can include areas of focus including disease prevention, fitness, smoking cessation, alcohol and substance abuse counseling, nutrition education, entail health help, weight loss and stress management.

For more information on these types of programs and legal compliance to consider before offering them, visit Experient Health online or contact a Benefits Consultant today.

Experient Health is a Virginia Farm Bureau Company headquartered in Richmond, VA. Reported by PRWeb 17 hours ago.

Change That Is Difficult to Believe In

August 4, 2014, 5:23 pm

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I am glad that Maggie Gyllenhaal said what many of my generation feel about being extremely disillusioned by President Obama. I believed that change we could believe in meant a true progressive in office. Obama once famously said, "I'd rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president." Yet save for some miracles in his final two years, mediocre, and many times worse, is exactly what kind of a president he has been.

One cannot ignore that the Republican Party has treated President Obama with unmerited disdain and blatant disrespect that they never would have accorded to a white president. At the beginning of President Obama's first term, Congressman Joe Wilson yelled at Obama "You lie!" while he was explaining Obamacare. (It is insane to think that even back in 2009, defeating Obamacare was the party's destructive obsession.) Even President Bush, who lied to our nation at disastrous proportions, was more trusted than President Obama. When a voter in Georgia told the New York Times during the government shutdown, "I just don't trust him," how can that have nothing to do with race? Why else do they deeply mistrust him? For providing health insurance to our massively uninsured and unhealthy citizens?

However, when formidable politicians like Mitt Romney accuse Obama of "rotting away" his second term, they are completely disregarding that their party has made doing most things nearly impossible. Even when President Obama does something the right wing would otherwise triumph, the party misconstrues what he is doing. Deport children back to poverty and violence stricken countries? What could be more GOP friendly than that?

Because Obama's hands are tied by the gridlock, I wish that he would go further with executive orders on gun control and the minimum wage. Because things will not get any better for our country while the GOP holds Congress. If President Obama views gun control legislation as the "biggest frustration" of his presidency, why doesn't he pass an executive order on gun control? The Republicans are already suing him so why not go further?

But not all of Obama's lackluster record cannot be entirely blamed on the GOP. Beyond the gridlock, some of his administration's signature policies, including mass deportations and drones, have devastated entire communities and are very unworthy of a Nobel Peace Prize.

While the Obama administration finally condemned Israel's bombing of a UN school, Obama-appointed White House adviser dismissed criticism of Israel killing hundreds of civilians. Rice went even further by chastising other nations for doing so, as if the U.S. can impose a gag rule at the United Nations on judgement of Israel's acts.

President Obama is massively disliked by the Republican Party even if he has deported more undocumented immigrants than any other president. So then why was he trying to speed up the deportation of the unaccompanied minors? As with many, many things, these actions have left liberals like me scratching our heads over the president we thought that we could believe in. Reported by Huffington Post 15 hours ago.

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Insurers face tougher mental health coverage fines

August 4, 2014, 5:22 pm

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A bill approved Monday by the Legislature would increase penalties for health insurance companies that provide substandard benefits for mental health care. Reported by Miami Herald 15 hours ago.

The Truth About Obama's Executive Orders That Republicans Fail to Explain

August 4, 2014, 6:39 pm

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President Barack Obama and his supporters tout the fact that he’s issued fewer executive orders than other recent presidents, suggesting Republicans are pushing a non-issue. But Republicans seem incompetent at explaining why the number is irrelevant; the problem is that Obama’s orders are making and breaking the law.

Every president issues executive orders, and commentators only open themselves to ridicule if they suggest there’s anything wrong with those orders as such. Presidents issue them to agencies or employees of the executive branch of the federal government—not the American people—regarding how to carry out specific duties or programs.

The Take Care Clause of the Constitution in Article II commands each president to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” So long as he issues orders specifically directing his subordinates on how to administer or enforce some aspect of federal law, he’s fulfilling his constitutional duty.

But two things executive orders cannot do: They cannot make law, and they cannot stop laws from being carried out. This is where Obama is taking what may be unprecedented steps in violation of the Constitution.

For example, refusing to prosecute a class of drug crimes is failing to enforce the law as Congress wrote it. If laws such as the different punishments for powder cocaine versus crack cocaine are unjustified, then it is up to the Congress—the lawmaking branch of government—to decide whether to change that law.

Or voter intimidation. The Black Panthers intimidated white voters in Philadelphia in 2008. The federal government under the Bush administration won a court judgment against some of those responsible. When Obama took over, he ordered the Justice Department to drop the matter by not filing the final papers, even though the case was already won.

Or Obamacare’s employer mandate, which Congress specified in the Affordable Care Act went into effect on Jan. 1, 2014. The impact was going to be politically disastrous for Democrats in the midterm elections, so Obama announced in a speech that the IRS would not enforce that provision of the ACA until 2015.

Those are three of many instances of not enforcing the law; sometimes Obama puts it in a formal executive order, other times not. (For example, he had the employer mandate suspension announced by an assistant treasury secretary in a blog post.)

Even worse, some of Obama’s executive orders actually make substantive public policy. In other words, they actually make new law without Congress.

Obama’s DACA program (not deporting “Dreamers”) is an example. He’s not just failing to enforce immigration law. Instead he’s created a new federal program, designating illegal aliens into four different categories and establishing new criteria for who can indefinitely stay in the United States and who cannot.

Another is Obama’s executive order that organizations who do not support the LGBT agenda under the rubric of “nondiscrimination” cannot receive a business contract with the federal government. As a consequence, if Hobby Lobby or any other business wholly owned and operated by observant Evangelicals, Catholics, Mormons, Orthodox Jews, or even Muslims, denies spousal benefits to same-sex partners, or doesn’t want to bake wedding cakes for gay-marriage receptions, the federal government can refuse to do business with them.

Frankly, even if Congress passed such a law it should be held unconstitutional under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. The unconstitutional-conditions doctrine provides that no American can be required to forfeit their rights in order to do business with the federal government.

So even Congress cannot do this, but Obama did it anyway.

Or again with Obamacare. Evidently to push back its job-killing effects, Obama has announced that he’s delaying the employer mandate yet again, but only for some businesses.

Congress specified that companies with 50 or more full-time employees are subject to the mandate to offer health insurance. But Obama announced that for 2015 he’ll not enforce it against companies with 50 to 99 employees, but he will enforce it for 100 or more.

That’s essentially making new law. Congress specified that the mandate starts at 50. Obama is essentially rewriting the law by saying it starts at 100. Congress can change that number at any time, but the president can never change it.

Yet Republicans fail to make the simple point: “It makes no difference whether he issues fewer orders than past presidents. They issued orders about how to follow the law, but he’s issuing orders not to follow the law.”

Ken Klukowski is senior legal analyst for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @kenklukowski. Reported by Breitbart 14 hours ago.

National Briefing | New England: Vermont: State Severs Link to Website Designer

August 4, 2014, 6:40 pm

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The state is ending its relationship with CGI, the company that designed the troubled website used to sign people up for health insurance. Reported by NYTimes.com 14 hours ago.

U.S. Army Medicine Civilian Corps: Army Medicine Behavioral Health Service Line Offers Rewarding Careers for Civilian Service

August 4, 2014, 6:01 pm

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Many former active duty personnel who are now U.S. Army Medicine Civilian Corps employees often state, “Going from active duty service to civilian service is the right career move without a doubt.”

Fort Sam Houston, Texas (PRWEB) August 04, 2014

Many former active duty personnel who are now U.S. Army Medicine Civilian Corps employees often state, “Going from active duty service to civilian service is the right career move without a doubt.”

For many, working as a civilian in Army Medicine offers a rewarding career experience simply because of the population served. They are true heroes, they are warriors, they are compliant and they are part of the bigger team. The exceptional benefits, well-managed operations and job security add to the many reasons why civilian employees appreciate the work they do every day.

The Civilian Corps of the U.S. Army Medical Command works persistently to find the right individuals to staff the Behavioral Health Service Line. “We focus our recruitment efforts on staffing all of Army Medicine with high quality civilian employees,” says Dr. Joseph Harrison, Jr., Chief, Recruitment and Retention, Headquarters U.S. Army Medical Command, Civilian Human Resources Division. “We are honored to work alongside our military counterpart to efficiently provide all healthcare needs, including Behavioral Health, to a unique population.”

Civilians, roughly 45,000, make up approximately 60% of the total Army Medicine workforce providing the day-to-day care for Army Soldiers, beneficiaries and their families at Army hospitals and clinics worldwide. Civilian providers continue to make a difference in Army Medicine Behavioral Health by providing preventative and effective treatment. The Civilian Corps has more than 2,500 job openings in different medical, dental and behavioral health professions. Behavioral Health positions available include Psychiatrists, Clinical Psychologists, Licensed Clinical Social Workers, Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners and more.

The Civilian Corps provides rewarding career opportunities for civilians to practice their medical specialty while serving those who serve their county. Employees are not subject to military requirements, such as enlistment or deployment, and receive excellent benefits, including flexible work schedules, competitive salaries, health insurance and access to state-of-the-art training and equipment.

For more information about the Civilian Corps and rewarding career opportunities, visit http://www.CivilianMedicalJobs.com. Reported by PRWeb 15 hours ago.

General Car Insurance Discounts Now Supplied to Motorists Through Auto Insurer Portal Online

August 4, 2014, 8:13 pm

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General car insurance discounts are now included for car owners to review when using the QuotesPros.com website. Special rates are now delivered online at http://quotespros.com/auto-insurance.html.

Tacoma, WA (PRWEB) August 04, 2014

Minimum insurance rates can be different in each part of the U.S. depending on factors that are considered by insurance companies. Drivers can now use the QuotesPros.com website to find general car insurance discounts that are supplied through the portal at http://quotespros.com/auto-insurance.html.

The rates decrease for national plans that are supplied inside the search portal are calculated through a matching zip code procedure. Insurers across the country now use city data to determine the policy costs for motorists and the new system is taking this data into consideration when delivering pricing.

"A general auto insurance price delivered through our system can inform a driver of expected rates for a monthly or annual plan," said a Quotes Pros rep.

One immediate driver benefit that is found when exploring the new system in place this year is the selectable insurers. While one company might have a set pricing plan, the other agencies inside of the system that are accessible can provide further discounts or drops in price for a comparable policy.

"The programmed research system that we have in place for online insurance shoppers is meant to provide a base level price point that can be further negotiated with each agency," said the rep.

The Quotes Pros website has been transformed into a larger resource to search for coverage packages on a national level. The zip format that is used to find affordable automobile insurance is also promoting prices for health and life insurance found at http://quotespros.com/health-insurance.html.

About QuotesPros.com

The QuotesPros.com company is supplying a lookup tool for consumers on its website that makes it simpler for locating discounts from insurers in the U.S. The national platform that the company has developed has helped change the research process for thousands of consumers this year. The QuotesPros.com company connects monthly with insurance agencies and other providers in the U.S. to provide a price research strategy for car owners and general consumers who need insurance coverage. Reported by PRWeb 13 hours ago.