WASHINGTON, Sept. 10, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being released by the U.S. Census Bureau: What: The Census Bureau will hold a webinar on Sept. 11 in advance of the planned Sept. 18 release of 2013 American Community Survey 1-year statistics. The...
Reported by PR Newswire 21 hours ago.
Census Bureau to Host Webinar on American Community Survey Statistics and Health Insurance Measures (resend)
↧
↧
Average Health Insurance Premiums Rise Slightly
Insurance companies raised their rates for premiums by about 3 percent this year for people covered by employer insurance, according to a new report.
Reported by msnbc.com 19 hours ago.
↧
Average Health Insurance Premiums Rise More Slowly
Insurance companies raised their rates for premiums by about 3 percent this year for people covered by employer insurance, according to a new report.
Reported by msnbc.com 19 hours ago.
↧
Are Those Responsible for Employee Health Appropriately Trained to Make the Right Decisions?
The cost of health insurance in the U.S. is clearly a concern for employers. In 2010, American employers spent a total of $560.9 billion for group health insurance, an increase of approximately 67 percent over the past 10 years. For the third consecutive year, nearly 60 percent of chief financial officers cited health care costs as their main financial concern for their companies, above revenue growth, cash flow and corporate tax rates. Business leaders are aware of the significant contribution of chronic disease, also known as non-communicable diseases (NCDs) (including mental illnesses) to this cost, with half of all business leaders worrying that at least one NCD will hurt their company's bottom line in the next five years.
There is strong evidence that effective workplace health promotion and disease prevention aimed at tackling the NCD burden has compelling benefits to businesses, including:
• medical cost reductions
• productivity gains
• Improved job satisfaction
• enhanced recruitment and retention
• greater return to investors
Despite this, employers continually underinvest in prevention, allocating less than two percent of their total health care expenditures to this vital issue. One of the key causes of this is limited leadership within businesses for health promotion and disease prevention.
Visible and sustained senior leadership commitment to prevention is critical to its success. Most organizations that have won the annual C. Everett Koop National Health Awards have been led by CEOs who have taken a strong public as well as intra-company stand on the value of health and the importance of prevention. These include L.L. Bean Inc. Chairman Leon Gorman, Eastman Chemical Chairman and CEO Jim Rogers, and Prudential Financial Chairman and CEO John Strangfeld. Despite these exemplars, the cadre remains small. The Towers Watson Global Workforce Survey revealed that less than 50 percent of employees think that the senior leadership in their organizations have a sincere interest in employee well-being.
Operational responsibility both for the delivering of health promotion and disease prevention programs, and articulating the case for prevention to the senior leadership often lies in the hands of the chief medical officer, an individual responsible for human resources, or sometimes the corporate social responsibility team. Most of these leaders receive varying levels of training on occupational safety and environmental health (OSH), but few have received the necessary training to champion, design, implement and evaluate prevention programs to reduce major NCD risks such as tobacco use, unhealthy diets, lack of physical activity, and excessive alcohol consumption. Although a few courses have been developed for workplace prevention practitioners, their use is not widespread.
Improved training of professionals to build senior leadership support and implement effective programs within organizations is critical for the workplace to become a major site for addressing the ever increasing burden of NCDs not just to U.S. businesses but to the U.S. as a whole.
To enhance the impact on employee and community health, the Vitality Institute is invested in training current and future leaders in health prevention science through the following two initiatives:
1. A 10-module complimentary webinar series for HR and benefit professionals from small, medium and large businesses, which launched this Wednesday September 10, 2014, and3. a collaboration with the Young Professionals Chronic Disease Network (YP-CDN), Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, and the Peter C. Alderman Foundation on training and mentoring future leaders in prevention science.
Paul Drucker and Lincoln are both credited for saying that "the best way to predict the future is to create it." The Institute aim is to build a culture of health, aligning its efforts with the vision of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
We call on workplace health and human resources professionals at all company levels to join us for this enlightening webinar series and to contribute to the conversations and actions on building healthy and vibrant workplaces nationwide.
Follow the Vitality Institute on Twitter, at @VitalityInst. Reported by Huffington Post 20 hours ago.
There is strong evidence that effective workplace health promotion and disease prevention aimed at tackling the NCD burden has compelling benefits to businesses, including:
• medical cost reductions
• productivity gains
• Improved job satisfaction
• enhanced recruitment and retention
• greater return to investors
Despite this, employers continually underinvest in prevention, allocating less than two percent of their total health care expenditures to this vital issue. One of the key causes of this is limited leadership within businesses for health promotion and disease prevention.
Visible and sustained senior leadership commitment to prevention is critical to its success. Most organizations that have won the annual C. Everett Koop National Health Awards have been led by CEOs who have taken a strong public as well as intra-company stand on the value of health and the importance of prevention. These include L.L. Bean Inc. Chairman Leon Gorman, Eastman Chemical Chairman and CEO Jim Rogers, and Prudential Financial Chairman and CEO John Strangfeld. Despite these exemplars, the cadre remains small. The Towers Watson Global Workforce Survey revealed that less than 50 percent of employees think that the senior leadership in their organizations have a sincere interest in employee well-being.
Operational responsibility both for the delivering of health promotion and disease prevention programs, and articulating the case for prevention to the senior leadership often lies in the hands of the chief medical officer, an individual responsible for human resources, or sometimes the corporate social responsibility team. Most of these leaders receive varying levels of training on occupational safety and environmental health (OSH), but few have received the necessary training to champion, design, implement and evaluate prevention programs to reduce major NCD risks such as tobacco use, unhealthy diets, lack of physical activity, and excessive alcohol consumption. Although a few courses have been developed for workplace prevention practitioners, their use is not widespread.
Improved training of professionals to build senior leadership support and implement effective programs within organizations is critical for the workplace to become a major site for addressing the ever increasing burden of NCDs not just to U.S. businesses but to the U.S. as a whole.
To enhance the impact on employee and community health, the Vitality Institute is invested in training current and future leaders in health prevention science through the following two initiatives:
1. A 10-module complimentary webinar series for HR and benefit professionals from small, medium and large businesses, which launched this Wednesday September 10, 2014, and3. a collaboration with the Young Professionals Chronic Disease Network (YP-CDN), Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, and the Peter C. Alderman Foundation on training and mentoring future leaders in prevention science.
Paul Drucker and Lincoln are both credited for saying that "the best way to predict the future is to create it." The Institute aim is to build a culture of health, aligning its efforts with the vision of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
We call on workplace health and human resources professionals at all company levels to join us for this enlightening webinar series and to contribute to the conversations and actions on building healthy and vibrant workplaces nationwide.
Follow the Vitality Institute on Twitter, at @VitalityInst. Reported by Huffington Post 20 hours ago.
↧
Good news on employer premiums is more evidence of a dramatic economic change for the better
A decade ago, it was widely agreed that rapidly rising health care costs were a threat to America's economic future. Pundits, business leaders, and government officials lined up to warn that skyrocketing health care costs were seriously damaging the United States' economy and jeopardizing its long-term fiscal health.
The then-head of the Business Roundtable warned "There's no question that rising health care costs are one of the biggest threats to families, businesses and U.S. competitiveness," and the then-CEO of General Motors said "Failing to address the health care crisis would be the worst kind of procrastination, the kind that places our children and our grandchildren at risk and threatens the health and global competitiveness of our nation's economy."
A decade later, the United States is in the midst of a historic slowdown in health care cost growth that is helping to increase workers' take-home pay, cutting businesses' costs, and forcing budget analysts to recalibrate earlier, more pessimistic projections. This slowdown in health care cost growth ranks as one of the most important recent developments in our economy, yet it has received comparatively little attention outside of health policy circles, and the broader media coverage has often missed the overwhelmingly clear positive story, focusing instead on the occasional, isolated contrary data points.
Consider:
· The average premium for family coverage grew by just 3.0 percent (or 1.2 percent adjusted for inflation) in 2014, tying 2010 for the slowest rate on record, according to survey results released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust. This survey has been conducted annually since 1999 and just more than a decade ago was frequently registering double-digit premium increases.· From 2010 through 2013, Medicare spending fell in real per capita terms. Data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) show that that trend has continued through the first eleven months of fiscal year 2014, with spending per beneficiary falling in nominal terms relative to the same period in the last fiscal year.· Across 16 large markets, the premium for the second-lowest-cost silver plan on the Affordable Care Act's Health Insurance Marketplaces will fall by 0.8 percent on average from 2014 to 2015, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report released last week. And the 2014 premiums themselves were 15 percent below the original CBO projections.· Health care prices are up just 1.6 percent on a year-over-year basis, slightly below the 1.8 percent rate recorded since early 2010, itself the slowest rate for such a period in almost 50 years.· The three slowest years of growth in real per capital total national health expenditures on record were 2011, 2012 and 2013, according to official estimates released last week going back to 1960. Real per capita health expenditures grew by an average annual rate of 1.1 percent in these years, less than one-third of the 3.4 percent annual rate from 2000 to 2010.
While growth in aggregate health care spending will temporarily pick up over the next few years as millions of Americans gain coverage and can finally get the care they need, the data catalogued above show that the underlying trends in health care prices, premiums, and per-enrollee costs that gave rise to these record-breaking years are continuing.
The economic implications of the health care cost slowdown are immense. Take today's news on employer premiums. If instead of the slow employer premium growth we have seen since 2010, premium growth had continued at the rate witnessed over the prior decade, then average premium for employer coverage would be $1,800 higher in 2014. These savings make it easier for employers to add jobs today and will ultimately translate to bigger paychecks for workers.
Recent trends have also sharply improved our nation's fiscal outlook. Since August 2010, CBO has reduced its projection of Medicare and Medicaid spending in 2020 by $188 billion, due largely to recent health care cost trends. These savings are on top of the direct effects of the Affordable Care Act, which the agency previously estimated would shave more than $100 billion from deficits over ten years and reduce deficits by an average of 0.5 percent of GDP per year over the following ten years. These savings total $1.7 trillion over the law's first two decades.
Exactly what caused the slowdown in health care costs and whether the slowdown will persist is the subject of a vigorous ongoing debate among academics and other observers. The deep recession, which squeezed families' and businesses' budgets and caused many to lose employer coverage, almost certainly played some role. As the economy recovers, any effects of the recession in reducing health care cost growth will continue to recede.
But, as the Council of Economic Advisers discussed in detail in this year's Economic Report of the President, the recession is far from the whole story. The slowdown has been dramatic even in Medicare, where beneficiaries are largely insulated from changes in the labor market, not just private insurance. Moreover, the latest slow growth in employer premiums coincided with a year in which the economy was five years past the end of the recession and added 2.4 million jobs, cutting the unemployment rate by 1.2 percentage points.
The full list of non-recession "structural" factors driving the slowdown is not yet known, and some of them pre-dated both the Great Recession and the Affordable Care Act. But since 2010, the slowdown has not just continued, it has deepened, thanks, in part, to some key policy changes made in the Affordable Care Act:
· The law reduced excessive payments to medical providers and insurers in Medicare, reforms that are currently saving the Federal government billions of dollars each year.· The law included many measures that are shifting Medicare toward rewarding efficient, high-quality care rather than simply paying more for a higher quantity of services. For example, financial incentives to hospitals to reduce "readmissions"--instances in which a patient is discharged from the hospital, but returns soon thereafter--have already shown promising results. The readmission rate in Medicare has fallen precipitously since the program's rules were finalized, a decline that corresponds to 150,000 avoided readmissions in 2012 and 2013.· Similarly, the law created Accountable Care Organizations, a new health care payment model in Medicare in which providers share the savings generated when they provide high-quality care, but do so more efficiently. Thousands of Medicare providers have now joined together in 360 such organizations. Research on a similar model used by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts found that this model reduced costs and improved quality, and the first outside evaluation of one of the Federal government's Accountable Care Organization programs found promising results in the program's first year.
A growing research literature suggests that the benefits of these reforms will not be limited to Medicare. Rather, this research finds that changes in the level and structure of Medicare payments are frequently adopted, at least in part, by private insurers as well, generating savings throughout the health care system.
Looking ahead, it is impossible to know with certainty what the future will bring for health care costs, which have historically been difficult to predict. But it is striking to note that if even as little as one-third of the recent slowdown persists, then, by 2023, national health expenditures would be $1,200 per person lower than if cost growth returned to the prior trend. Savings of that magnitude, on top of the dramatic savings that have already been achieved, would be transformative for families, businesses, the Federal budget, and our economy. In the years ahead, the President will remain focused on creating a health care system that delivers efficient, high-quality care in order to make these savings a reality. Reported by Huffington Post 19 hours ago.
The then-head of the Business Roundtable warned "There's no question that rising health care costs are one of the biggest threats to families, businesses and U.S. competitiveness," and the then-CEO of General Motors said "Failing to address the health care crisis would be the worst kind of procrastination, the kind that places our children and our grandchildren at risk and threatens the health and global competitiveness of our nation's economy."
A decade later, the United States is in the midst of a historic slowdown in health care cost growth that is helping to increase workers' take-home pay, cutting businesses' costs, and forcing budget analysts to recalibrate earlier, more pessimistic projections. This slowdown in health care cost growth ranks as one of the most important recent developments in our economy, yet it has received comparatively little attention outside of health policy circles, and the broader media coverage has often missed the overwhelmingly clear positive story, focusing instead on the occasional, isolated contrary data points.
Consider:
· The average premium for family coverage grew by just 3.0 percent (or 1.2 percent adjusted for inflation) in 2014, tying 2010 for the slowest rate on record, according to survey results released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust. This survey has been conducted annually since 1999 and just more than a decade ago was frequently registering double-digit premium increases.· From 2010 through 2013, Medicare spending fell in real per capita terms. Data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) show that that trend has continued through the first eleven months of fiscal year 2014, with spending per beneficiary falling in nominal terms relative to the same period in the last fiscal year.· Across 16 large markets, the premium for the second-lowest-cost silver plan on the Affordable Care Act's Health Insurance Marketplaces will fall by 0.8 percent on average from 2014 to 2015, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report released last week. And the 2014 premiums themselves were 15 percent below the original CBO projections.· Health care prices are up just 1.6 percent on a year-over-year basis, slightly below the 1.8 percent rate recorded since early 2010, itself the slowest rate for such a period in almost 50 years.· The three slowest years of growth in real per capital total national health expenditures on record were 2011, 2012 and 2013, according to official estimates released last week going back to 1960. Real per capita health expenditures grew by an average annual rate of 1.1 percent in these years, less than one-third of the 3.4 percent annual rate from 2000 to 2010.
While growth in aggregate health care spending will temporarily pick up over the next few years as millions of Americans gain coverage and can finally get the care they need, the data catalogued above show that the underlying trends in health care prices, premiums, and per-enrollee costs that gave rise to these record-breaking years are continuing.
The economic implications of the health care cost slowdown are immense. Take today's news on employer premiums. If instead of the slow employer premium growth we have seen since 2010, premium growth had continued at the rate witnessed over the prior decade, then average premium for employer coverage would be $1,800 higher in 2014. These savings make it easier for employers to add jobs today and will ultimately translate to bigger paychecks for workers.
Recent trends have also sharply improved our nation's fiscal outlook. Since August 2010, CBO has reduced its projection of Medicare and Medicaid spending in 2020 by $188 billion, due largely to recent health care cost trends. These savings are on top of the direct effects of the Affordable Care Act, which the agency previously estimated would shave more than $100 billion from deficits over ten years and reduce deficits by an average of 0.5 percent of GDP per year over the following ten years. These savings total $1.7 trillion over the law's first two decades.
Exactly what caused the slowdown in health care costs and whether the slowdown will persist is the subject of a vigorous ongoing debate among academics and other observers. The deep recession, which squeezed families' and businesses' budgets and caused many to lose employer coverage, almost certainly played some role. As the economy recovers, any effects of the recession in reducing health care cost growth will continue to recede.
But, as the Council of Economic Advisers discussed in detail in this year's Economic Report of the President, the recession is far from the whole story. The slowdown has been dramatic even in Medicare, where beneficiaries are largely insulated from changes in the labor market, not just private insurance. Moreover, the latest slow growth in employer premiums coincided with a year in which the economy was five years past the end of the recession and added 2.4 million jobs, cutting the unemployment rate by 1.2 percentage points.
The full list of non-recession "structural" factors driving the slowdown is not yet known, and some of them pre-dated both the Great Recession and the Affordable Care Act. But since 2010, the slowdown has not just continued, it has deepened, thanks, in part, to some key policy changes made in the Affordable Care Act:
· The law reduced excessive payments to medical providers and insurers in Medicare, reforms that are currently saving the Federal government billions of dollars each year.· The law included many measures that are shifting Medicare toward rewarding efficient, high-quality care rather than simply paying more for a higher quantity of services. For example, financial incentives to hospitals to reduce "readmissions"--instances in which a patient is discharged from the hospital, but returns soon thereafter--have already shown promising results. The readmission rate in Medicare has fallen precipitously since the program's rules were finalized, a decline that corresponds to 150,000 avoided readmissions in 2012 and 2013.· Similarly, the law created Accountable Care Organizations, a new health care payment model in Medicare in which providers share the savings generated when they provide high-quality care, but do so more efficiently. Thousands of Medicare providers have now joined together in 360 such organizations. Research on a similar model used by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts found that this model reduced costs and improved quality, and the first outside evaluation of one of the Federal government's Accountable Care Organization programs found promising results in the program's first year.
A growing research literature suggests that the benefits of these reforms will not be limited to Medicare. Rather, this research finds that changes in the level and structure of Medicare payments are frequently adopted, at least in part, by private insurers as well, generating savings throughout the health care system.
Looking ahead, it is impossible to know with certainty what the future will bring for health care costs, which have historically been difficult to predict. But it is striking to note that if even as little as one-third of the recent slowdown persists, then, by 2023, national health expenditures would be $1,200 per person lower than if cost growth returned to the prior trend. Savings of that magnitude, on top of the dramatic savings that have already been achieved, would be transformative for families, businesses, the Federal budget, and our economy. In the years ahead, the President will remain focused on creating a health care system that delivers efficient, high-quality care in order to make these savings a reality. Reported by Huffington Post 19 hours ago.
↧
↧
CareFirst Names Jonathan Blum New Leader of Medical Affairs Division
Former Principal Deputy Administrator of CMS brings national expertise in health care payment and delivery reforms
Baltimore (PRWEB) September 10, 2014
CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield (CareFirst) has named Jonathan Blum, former Principal Deputy Administrator and Director of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as its new Executive Vice President of Medical Affairs.
Blum, who joined the company Sept. 8, brings nearly two decades of government health care policy experience to CareFirst, the mid-Atlantic’s largest health insurer. Blum most recently served as second in command under Marilyn Tavenner at CMS and will, among other responsibilities, oversee the CareFirst Patient-Centered Medical Home program, the company’s signature primary-care coordination initiative that recently reported its third year of positive results. Blum also will be responsible for the company’s extensive provider networks, care management programs, pharmacy operations and medical policies.
During his tenure at CMS from 2009 to 2014, Blum was responsible for the regulation and payment of Medicare’s fee-for-service providers, its prescription drug program and the federal health care program’s privately administered plans.
His accomplishments in the reform of Medicare payment and delivery included the launch of the Medicare Shared Savings Program and Medicare Advantage Quality Bonus Program, and development of new bundled payment initiatives and strategies to reduce waste, fraud and abuse. Blum also served as the central figure in CMS’s approval of the unique Medicare waiver program that regulates hospital reimbursement in Maryland. In doing so, he led the CMS team that worked with industry regulators, hospitals and insurers in Maryland to launch the new all-payer program Jan. 1, 2014.
Before joining CMS, Blum was Vice President for Medicaid and Long-Term Care for Avalere Health in Washington, D.C. Blum also served on the professional staff of the U.S. Finance Committee and as a budget examiner at the Office of Management and Budget.
“Jon brings extremely impressive and extensive background in health care strategy, policy and operations, at the highest levels of government,” said CareFirst CEO Chet Burrell. “His experience with the development and completion of many significant payment and delivery system reforms on a national level will be of great value in our efforts to provide affordable and accessible health care services to our members.”
Blum holds a master’s degree from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania.
About CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield
In its 77th year of service, CareFirst, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, is a not-for-profit health care company which, through its affiliates and subsidiaries, offers a comprehensive portfolio of health insurance products and administrative services to 3.4 million individuals and groups in Maryland, the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia. In 2013, CareFirst contributed $57 million to community programs designed to increase the accessibility, affordability, safety and quality of health care throughout its market areas. To learn more about CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, visit our website at http://www.carefirst.com or follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/CareFirst_News. Reported by PRWeb 19 hours ago.
Baltimore (PRWEB) September 10, 2014
CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield (CareFirst) has named Jonathan Blum, former Principal Deputy Administrator and Director of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as its new Executive Vice President of Medical Affairs.
Blum, who joined the company Sept. 8, brings nearly two decades of government health care policy experience to CareFirst, the mid-Atlantic’s largest health insurer. Blum most recently served as second in command under Marilyn Tavenner at CMS and will, among other responsibilities, oversee the CareFirst Patient-Centered Medical Home program, the company’s signature primary-care coordination initiative that recently reported its third year of positive results. Blum also will be responsible for the company’s extensive provider networks, care management programs, pharmacy operations and medical policies.
During his tenure at CMS from 2009 to 2014, Blum was responsible for the regulation and payment of Medicare’s fee-for-service providers, its prescription drug program and the federal health care program’s privately administered plans.
His accomplishments in the reform of Medicare payment and delivery included the launch of the Medicare Shared Savings Program and Medicare Advantage Quality Bonus Program, and development of new bundled payment initiatives and strategies to reduce waste, fraud and abuse. Blum also served as the central figure in CMS’s approval of the unique Medicare waiver program that regulates hospital reimbursement in Maryland. In doing so, he led the CMS team that worked with industry regulators, hospitals and insurers in Maryland to launch the new all-payer program Jan. 1, 2014.
Before joining CMS, Blum was Vice President for Medicaid and Long-Term Care for Avalere Health in Washington, D.C. Blum also served on the professional staff of the U.S. Finance Committee and as a budget examiner at the Office of Management and Budget.
“Jon brings extremely impressive and extensive background in health care strategy, policy and operations, at the highest levels of government,” said CareFirst CEO Chet Burrell. “His experience with the development and completion of many significant payment and delivery system reforms on a national level will be of great value in our efforts to provide affordable and accessible health care services to our members.”
Blum holds a master’s degree from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania.
About CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield
In its 77th year of service, CareFirst, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, is a not-for-profit health care company which, through its affiliates and subsidiaries, offers a comprehensive portfolio of health insurance products and administrative services to 3.4 million individuals and groups in Maryland, the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia. In 2013, CareFirst contributed $57 million to community programs designed to increase the accessibility, affordability, safety and quality of health care throughout its market areas. To learn more about CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, visit our website at http://www.carefirst.com or follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/CareFirst_News. Reported by PRWeb 19 hours ago.
↧
Employer health insurance up moderately this year, survey finds
The average annual cost of employer-sponsored health insurance for a family rose three percent this year to $16,834, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported in its 2014 survey of employer health benefits released Wednesday.
Reported by ajc.com 19 hours ago.
↧
Bengals injured player on practice squad, daughter can get health insurance
The Bengals signed him to the practice squad, which allows him to keep his medical insurance.
Reported by Deseret News 6 hours ago.
↧
Dem Rep: ObamaCare Doubled My Insurance Costs
Rep. Gene Green (D-TX) reported that his insurance and deductible have doubled since he signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act during a hearing by the House Committee on Rules on Tuesday.After Chairman Pete Sessions (R-TX) stated “I’m on ObamaCare ... my plan is twice as expensive, and the deductible is twice as much,” Green responded, “That’s my experience also.”
In 2013, Green criticized Republican attempts to repeal ObamaCare, saying the ACA “will help not only the millions of uninsured but also everyone with health insurance because the ACA improves coverage.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett Reported by Breitbart 16 hours ago.
↧
↧
HHS Hands out $500K to Planned Parenthood to Boost ObamaCare Enrollment
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Monday that two Planned Parenthood chapters, two United Way organizations and Ascension Health, the nation’s largest Catholic hospital system, are among the 90 nonprofit groups serving as “navigators” that will receive a total of $60 million to help Americans sign up for ObamaCare, says Kaiser Health News.The taxpayer funds will be allocated in 34 states that depend on the federal government for their ObamaCare online exchanges, where people can purchase ObamaCare policies.
The role of the “navigators” is to push President Barack Obama’s health law’s new benefits and help people evaluate health plans for sale in the exchanges.
Open enrollment this year will run from November 15 to February 15. The Obama administration states that over 8 million people signed up for private insurance during the first year of ObamaCare’s rollout, though that number has been hotly contested.
As Breitbart News’ Chriss Street reported in June, over 6 million people have signed up for Medicaid since the ObamaCare rollout.
“In-person assisters have an impact on the lives of so many Americans, helping individuals and families across the country access quality, affordable health coverage,” Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell wrote in a statement. “We are committed to helping Americans get covered and stay covered with in-person assistance in their own communities.”
Planned Parenthood chapters in Montana and Iowa received grants totaling approximately $500,000.
Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, in particular, is expected to receive $218,940. HHS states that, this year, "PPHeartland plans to have Navigators cover 69 counties and will work with community organizations to identify the best avenues to reach the target population and strategically base Navigators in regions across Iowa.”
Planned Parenthood of the Heartland receives more federal funding just several weeks after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8^th Circuit reinstated a case brought against the Iowa chapter by one of its former employees who alleged the abortion giant defrauded and abused taxpayer funds.
As Breitbart News reported, the lawsuit, brought by Alliance Defending Freedom on behalf of Susan Thayer, a former facility director of Planned Parenthood, charges that her former employer “repeated false, fraudulent, and/or ineligible claims for reimbursements” to Medicaid and failed to meet adequate medical standards.
The lawsuit had been dismissed by a district court judge, but the federal appeals court panel reinstated the case, concluding, “Thayer has pled sufficiently particularized facts to support her allegations that Planned Parenthood violated the FCA [False Claims Act].”
Despite the fact that the U.S. Catholic bishops have fought ObamaCare’s HHS mandate, in Kansas, the Catholic Ascension Health system will receive $241,749 to “continue to assist consumers (individuals and small employers) in understanding the new health insurance programs, taking advantage of consumer protections, and navigating the health insurance system to find the most affordable coverage that meets their needs.”
In August, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) said the latest “accommodation” by the Obama administration regarding the ObamaCare mandate that requires many employers to provide free contraception, sterilization procedures, and abortifacient drugs to its workers through health insurance plans, was met with “disappointment.”
Kurtz said the “regulations would not broaden the ‘religious exemption to encompass all employers with sincerely held religious objections to the mandate.”
“Instead, the regulations would only modify the ‘accommodation,’ under which the mandate still applies and still requires provision of the objectionable coverage,” he added. “Also, by proposing to extend the ‘accommodation’ to the closely held for-profit employers that were wholly exempted by the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Hobby Lobby, the proposed regulations would effectively reduce, rather than expand, the scope of religious freedom.”
Though HHS is employing the help of “navigators” to sign Americans up for ObamaCare, Robert Laszewski, writing at Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review, states, “To say this fall’s 2015 Obamacare open-enrollment has the potential to be problematic is an understatement.”
“The HealthCare.gov backroom is not built yet––a year and counting after it should have been,” Laszewski writes. “How many people are enrolled in Obamacare? Without a government to insurance company accounting system yet built, no one knows.”
“The administration says they are going to auto-renew existing Obamacare policyholders,” he adds. “But they don't have a valid baseline census from which to start.”
“The last couple of months have been very quiet for Obamacare,” Laszewski concludes. “That is about to end.” Reported by Breitbart 16 hours ago.
↧
Almost 200,000 have signed up for Arkansas' "private option"
This week, the Arkansas Department of Human Services announced that more than 194,000 people have enrolled in the state's "private option" Medicaid expansion program. The private option uses federal Medicaid dollars to buy private health insurance for low-income residents. Arkansas was the first state to win approval for this type of expansion, and its success so far may influence Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam's expected expansion plans this fall. Arkansas Department of Human Services said the majority…
Reported by bizjournals 17 hours ago.
↧
Cincinnati Bengals sign injured player to practice squad so his daughter can get health insurance
The Bengals signed him to the practice squad, which allows him to keep his medical insurance and get paid even though he...
Reported by Deseret News 16 hours ago.
↧
Uninsured Children Yet To Benefit From New Health Care Law
The Affordable Care Act has yet to make a dent in the number of uninsured children in the country, according to a new report from the Urban Institute.
In its study, conducted in partnership with the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University, the Urban Institute said that the rate of uninsured people under the age of 18 has remained at about 7 percent for the last several years, thanks in part to previous coverage expansions under Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). In contrast, the uninsured rate among U.S. parents dropped to a record low of 14.3 percent between September 2013 and June 2014, the study found.
Unlike the ACA’s broader health care gains, it may take longer for the Affordable Care Act to notably decrease the number of uninsured children because the numbers are already at historic lows, Genevieve Kenney, the co-director of the Urban Institute’s Health Policy Center, explained in a press briefing Tuesday.
“The success of these programs over the last decades makes it harder to move the needle,” Kenney said. “It’s hard to move an uninsured rate that is so low so quickly.”
Despite the stagnation in the number of insured children, the report notes that “several other components of the ACA” could still work to get more children covered. The option for states to expand Medicaid to more low-income adults, for example, seemed to help children get coverage, the report said. More children gained coverage in states that expanded the program than in states that refused to expand it, like Texas and Florida.
The authors also found that the majority of America's roughly 7 million uninsured children are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP but are not yet enrolled.
“New outreach and enrollment investments under the ACA may also increase participation," the report added.
The Urban Institute says its study is the first published report on the ACA’s effects on children's health coverage between September 2013 and June 2014. Reported by Huffington Post 14 hours ago.
In its study, conducted in partnership with the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University, the Urban Institute said that the rate of uninsured people under the age of 18 has remained at about 7 percent for the last several years, thanks in part to previous coverage expansions under Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). In contrast, the uninsured rate among U.S. parents dropped to a record low of 14.3 percent between September 2013 and June 2014, the study found.
Unlike the ACA’s broader health care gains, it may take longer for the Affordable Care Act to notably decrease the number of uninsured children because the numbers are already at historic lows, Genevieve Kenney, the co-director of the Urban Institute’s Health Policy Center, explained in a press briefing Tuesday.
“The success of these programs over the last decades makes it harder to move the needle,” Kenney said. “It’s hard to move an uninsured rate that is so low so quickly.”
Despite the stagnation in the number of insured children, the report notes that “several other components of the ACA” could still work to get more children covered. The option for states to expand Medicaid to more low-income adults, for example, seemed to help children get coverage, the report said. More children gained coverage in states that expanded the program than in states that refused to expand it, like Texas and Florida.
The authors also found that the majority of America's roughly 7 million uninsured children are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP but are not yet enrolled.
“New outreach and enrollment investments under the ACA may also increase participation," the report added.
The Urban Institute says its study is the first published report on the ACA’s effects on children's health coverage between September 2013 and June 2014. Reported by Huffington Post 14 hours ago.
↧
↧
Personal Accident and Health Insurance in Russia, Key Trends and Opportunities to 2018
NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue: Personal Accident and Health Insurance in Russia, Key Trends and Opportunities to 2018...
Reported by PR Newswire 15 hours ago.
↧
Invidasys' Health Plan Solutions Create Efficiencies for Chicago Managed Care Community Health Plan
Family Health Network (FHN) Chooses Invidasys’ Composite-Based Software to Solve Encounter Submission Challenges, Patient Eligibility Data Management and More
MESA, Ariz. (PRWEB) September 10, 2014
Invidasys, a software engineering firm that develops component solutions for health insurance plans, announced today that it has gone live with a number of solutions for Family Health Network (FHN), a not-for-profit managed care community network serving Chicago and Cook County, Ill.
FHN originally engaged Invidasys in March 2014 to utilize the company’s VIDACounter™ software solution, an encounter management system that generates Medicare and Medicaid compliant HIPAA 5010 837 encounter transactions and actually reviews and corrects non-compliant transactions prior to submission. VIDACounter™ automatically fixes errors in claims by reviewing rules set by the state, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the health plan. The solution automatically validates each encounter prior to submission to greatly reduce the likelihood of rejections, which helps avoid pay penalties for late and inaccurate submissions.
According to CMS, in 2013 the Medicare FFS program issued more than $36 billion in improper payments, and the Medicaid program issued more than $14 billion in improper payments.
Invidasys had its solution up and running for FHN in early July, taking less than four months to build, test and release. Typically, making changes to a health plan’s core administrative system means ripping the whole thing apart and replacing it with a new system, costing millions and taking years.
“Prior to working with Invidasys we faced numerous challenges around timely and accurate encounter submissions,” said Bryant Grimes, chief information officer for FHN. “We also were having difficulty because our patient eligibility information was housed in multiple data sources, and we were not able to model real-world provider network hierarchies and relationships.”
Grimes said that since the implementation of Invidasys’ VIDACounter™ solution just over a month ago, FHN is already experiencing reduced provider database maintenance, a quicker turnaround on processing state eligibility files, and significant improvements in the quality and timeliness of encounter processing.
“Our relationship with Invidasys is a partnership in the truest sense,” said Grimes. “They are willing to tackle big challenges and every single person on their project team is dedicated to finding solutions that address our pain points.”
Since implementing the VIDACounter™ solution, FHN decided to also move forward with utilizing other products from Invidasys’ VIDASuite™ of solutions, including VIDAPro™ (provider management), VIDABility™ (insured management), VIDAServe™ (customer service), VIDAFlow™ (workflow management) and VIDAFinance™ (financial management).
“This partnership with FHN is really a perfect example of how we can come into a health insurance plan, identify what the specific challenges and pain points are, and then we can devise a plan and implement our composite-based software solutions to fix the specific problems with the healthcare core administrative platform without replacing the entire system,” said Sherwood Chapman, co-founder and CEO of Invidasys. “This method allows clients to maximize the value of their core administrative system investment but gives them the flexibility to make changes that work specifically for their organization quickly and eliminates the high maintenance costs associated with the use of outdated technology.”
Invidasys can integrate its VIDASuite™ components with most health plan legacy core administration systems.
For more information or to schedule a demo, please visit http://www.invidasys.com. Reported by PRWeb 15 hours ago.
MESA, Ariz. (PRWEB) September 10, 2014
Invidasys, a software engineering firm that develops component solutions for health insurance plans, announced today that it has gone live with a number of solutions for Family Health Network (FHN), a not-for-profit managed care community network serving Chicago and Cook County, Ill.
FHN originally engaged Invidasys in March 2014 to utilize the company’s VIDACounter™ software solution, an encounter management system that generates Medicare and Medicaid compliant HIPAA 5010 837 encounter transactions and actually reviews and corrects non-compliant transactions prior to submission. VIDACounter™ automatically fixes errors in claims by reviewing rules set by the state, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the health plan. The solution automatically validates each encounter prior to submission to greatly reduce the likelihood of rejections, which helps avoid pay penalties for late and inaccurate submissions.
According to CMS, in 2013 the Medicare FFS program issued more than $36 billion in improper payments, and the Medicaid program issued more than $14 billion in improper payments.
Invidasys had its solution up and running for FHN in early July, taking less than four months to build, test and release. Typically, making changes to a health plan’s core administrative system means ripping the whole thing apart and replacing it with a new system, costing millions and taking years.
“Prior to working with Invidasys we faced numerous challenges around timely and accurate encounter submissions,” said Bryant Grimes, chief information officer for FHN. “We also were having difficulty because our patient eligibility information was housed in multiple data sources, and we were not able to model real-world provider network hierarchies and relationships.”
Grimes said that since the implementation of Invidasys’ VIDACounter™ solution just over a month ago, FHN is already experiencing reduced provider database maintenance, a quicker turnaround on processing state eligibility files, and significant improvements in the quality and timeliness of encounter processing.
“Our relationship with Invidasys is a partnership in the truest sense,” said Grimes. “They are willing to tackle big challenges and every single person on their project team is dedicated to finding solutions that address our pain points.”
Since implementing the VIDACounter™ solution, FHN decided to also move forward with utilizing other products from Invidasys’ VIDASuite™ of solutions, including VIDAPro™ (provider management), VIDABility™ (insured management), VIDAServe™ (customer service), VIDAFlow™ (workflow management) and VIDAFinance™ (financial management).
“This partnership with FHN is really a perfect example of how we can come into a health insurance plan, identify what the specific challenges and pain points are, and then we can devise a plan and implement our composite-based software solutions to fix the specific problems with the healthcare core administrative platform without replacing the entire system,” said Sherwood Chapman, co-founder and CEO of Invidasys. “This method allows clients to maximize the value of their core administrative system investment but gives them the flexibility to make changes that work specifically for their organization quickly and eliminates the high maintenance costs associated with the use of outdated technology.”
Invidasys can integrate its VIDASuite™ components with most health plan legacy core administration systems.
For more information or to schedule a demo, please visit http://www.invidasys.com. Reported by PRWeb 15 hours ago.
↧
Obama's Legacy Will Be Better Than Michael Moore Predicts
Obama's Legacy Will Be Better Than Michael Moore PredictsObama's Legacy Will Be Better Than Michael Moore Predicts
Has Been Optimized
Many things about Barack Obama made him the obvious choice for 44th President of the United States. His personality, progressive views, humble roots, and ability to actually articulate a sentence made him the anti-Bush, the man who would lead America into the 21st century. The majority of Americans voted for him, twice in a row.
A mix of high expectations, bipartisan government and overwhelming global change have led many of Obama’s earliest and/or most passionate supporters to question exactly how things have worked out throughout his six years in the Oval Office. Even Michael Moore has criticized the commander-in-chief, claiming Obama will only be remembered for his role as America’s first black president rather than for any of his actual achievements.
How future generations will remember Obama’s legacy is difficult to predict, although it’s true that public understanding of historical figures is often reduced to superficiality or dramatic events (Taft’s size, Kennedy’s assassination, Obama’s skin, etc.). But eight years as president entails an enormous amount of work, and Obama has been working diligently throughout his tenure.
As is usually the case, the major issues and events of Obama’s legacy are neither good nor bad but a mixture of both. Everything his administration has accomplished, attempted or failed to do has an effect on American society as well as the world at large. His policies on drugs, immigration, and a host of other issues will continue to impact the country. History may remember things differently, but these are the main issues most likely to define Obama’s legacy.
*Health Care Reform*
The biggest, most important aspect of Obama’s legacy is undoubtedly health reform. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — so closely linked to the president that it’s commonly known as “Obamacare” — was passed in 2010. Just two years into his presidency, Obama was able to achieve a major overhaul of the nation’s health laws, one that benefits citizens by making health insurance available and affordable for all. At least in theory. Obamacare was the subject of conservative backlash for years, with lawmakers adamantly fighting against the legislation. The roll-out of online federal health exchange marketplace HealthCare.gov was also a disaster, riddled with technical complications that left many feeling uneasy about the law’s practicality. The ACA’s passage through the various branches of federal government also represented the partisanship that would go on to define the remainder of the Obama era, with tea party Republicans rallying against any progressive measures the commander-in-chief supported. Even many liberals were dissatisfied with the way the law turned out, a far cry from the socialized medicine many had hoped for. As the legislation takes its effect and settles into society over the course of several years, however, Americans will gain a better understanding of how important a step forward the Obama administration made.
Osama Bin Laden
Osama Bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader ultimately responsible for the attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, was killed by the Navy SEAL Team 6 during Obama’s first term as president. The raid on Bin Laden’s compound was viewed as a rare step forward in the war on terror that Bush created, as well as a foreign policy victory for the Obama administration. Obama killed Bin Laden in Pakistan while ending the deadly and costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that the Bush administration had begun. Yet Bin Laden’s role in hiding had been reduced, and the world learned quickly that the American pursuit of al-Qeada was not enough to stop the spread of violent jihad or terror in general. Not only does al-Qaeda live on, but groups like ISIS and al-Shabaab have become threats to the U.S. and citizens worldwide.
*Benghazi*
Unless investigations prove otherwise, Benghazi will likely be discussed less and less after the 2016 presidential election cycle, where it’s sure to be a hot topic. Right-wingers love to use the 2012 attack on the American embassy in Benghazi, Libya as an example of the Democrats — and specifically former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s — foreign policy incompetence. Although the exact details have yet to emerge, critics suggest that the Obama administration received intelligence suggesting that an attack on the embassy was being planned, failing to act accordingly. Investigations into the attack as well as the federal government’s handling of the situation are ongoing by various branches, including Congress and the FBI. Until some semblance of truth is known, it will be tough to determine how Benghazi will be remembered as part of Obama’s legacy.
*U.S. - Russia Relations*
President Obama will be remembered for leading the country into an era in which diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Russia reverted backwards, trending towards Cold War-era tension rather than the other way around. Of course, Obama has not been the aggressor in this relationship.Under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, Russia has grown stricter in terms of censorship and homophobia within its own borders, and more violent in terms of foreign policy. Russian separatists continue to wage war in Ukraine, Putin continues to support al-Asaad in Syria, and the relations with the U.S. grow weaker and weaker. Largely as a result of Obama’s inaction, Russia has re-emerged as a country with undeniable influence over the rest of the world.
*Inconsistent Foreign Policy*
No one wanted another President Bush. John McCain was one step away from being yet another warhawk American president, but the American public made it known that their views had changed. Unfortunately, Obama was less confident in his ability to get things done than he was in his opinion that things had to change. The war in Iraq ended under President Obama, but a new one quickly began. The president balked at his decision to launch airstrikes in Syria, only to begin discussing the possibility again a year later. Foreign policy has been a disaster throughout the past several years, because of great changes in the world but also because of Obama’s own mistakes.
1
Video Piece:
Regular Piece
OV in Depth: Reported by Opposing Views 12 hours ago.
↧
Op-Ed Contributors: Stop the Anti-Obamacare Shenanigans
The courts should reject a perverse new challenge to the law’s health insurance subsidies.
Reported by NYTimes.com 12 hours ago.
↧
↧
HolaDoctor launches Interactive Health Insurance Center, first of its kind in the United States
MIAMI, Sept. 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- HolaDoctor.com, the leading health website in the Hispanic digital market, launched a new Interactive Health Insurance Center which aims to inform and educate Hispanics on how to apply for and acquire health coverage in 2015. According to the...
Reported by PR Newswire 4 hours ago.
↧
Employer-Sponsored Health Costs Rose Modestly In 2014
Health insurance premiums went up only a little more than inflation this year, according to a new survey. The average family plan cost about $16,800. That's a 3 percent increase over last year.
Reported by NPR 3 hours ago.
↧
No Title
A group of South Florida hospitals is working with a foundation to help low-income consumers pay their health insurance premiums in an effort to keep consumers covered and ensure hospitals get paid for treating them. But insurance companies say third-party payers pose a conflict of interests.
Reported by WEAR ABC 3 3 hours ago.
↧
More Pages to Explore .....
