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Mylan Caves, Announces EpiPen Cost Cuts Up To 50%

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Mylan Caves, Announces EpiPen Cost Cuts Up To 50% Following a blitz campaign by Congress, one which saw Hillary Clinton announce yesterday that the Epipen price increases were "outrageous", moments ago Mylan caved and announced it would take immediate action to cut the cost of its EpiPen allergy treatment. In a press release issued moments ago, Mylan said it would expand already existing programs to help people with high out-of-pocket expenses, effectively reducing costs by 50 percent for some patients while doubling the eligibility of its patient assistance program which will "eliminate out-of-pocket costs for uninsured and under-insured patients and families as well."

Yet even as it caved, Mylan could not resist taking a shot at Obamacare: "as the health insurance environment has evolved, *driven by the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, *patients and families enrolled in high deductible health insurance plans, who are uninsured, or who pay cash at the pharmacy, have faced higher costs for their medicine."

In any event, it appears that as of this moment, the threat of a congressional hearing crisis involving the company's CEO, and daughter of a senator, has passed, with the market cheering the announcement, pushing the stock higher by 4% in the premarket.

From the press release:

*Mylan Taking Immediate Action to Further Enhance Access to EpiPen Auto-Injector*Mylan N.V. (NASDAQ, TASE: MYL) today announced it is taking immediate action to further enhance access to EpiPen® (epinephrine injection, USP) Auto-Injector by expanding already existing programs in recognition of those patients who are facing the burden of higher out-of-pocket costs. The company is reducing the patient cost of EpiPen® Auto-Injector through the use of a savings card which will cover up to $300 for their EpiPen 2-Pak®. For patients who were previously paying the full amount of the company's list price for EpiPen®, *this effectively reduces their out-of-pocket cost exposure by 50%. *Mylan also is *doubling the eligibility for its patient assistance program, which will eliminate out-of-pocket costs for uninsured and under-insured patients and families as well.  *

Mylan CEO Heather Bresch said, "We have been a long-term, committed partner to the allergy community and are taking immediate action to help ensure that everyone who needs an EpiPen® Auto-Injector gets one. We recognize the significant burden on patients from continued, rising insurance premiums and being forced increasingly to pay the full list price for medicines at the pharmacy counter. Patients deserve increased price transparency and affordable care, particularly as the system shifts significant costs to them. However, price is only one part of the problem that we are addressing with today's actions. All involved must also take steps to help meaningfully address the U.S. healthcare crisis, and we are committed to do our part to drive change in collaboration with policymakers, payors, patients and healthcare professionals."

Mylan has worked to help patients with commercial insurance pay as little as $0 for EpiPen® Auto-Injector using the My EpiPen Savings Card®. In 2015, this resulted in nearly 80% of these patients paying nothing out of pocket for their EpiPen® Auto-Injector. However, as the health insurance environment has evolved, *driven by the implementation of the Affordable Care *Act, patients and families enrolled in high deductible health insurance plans, who are uninsured, or who pay cash at the pharmacy, have faced higher costs for their medicine.

Mylan is taking the following immediate actions to help further address the needs of patients and families:

· *For patients in health plans who face higher out-of-pocket costs, the company is providing immediate relief by offering a savings card for up to $300. This will effectively reduce by 50% the cost exposure for patients who would have otherwise paid the full list price for EpiPen® Auto-Injector.*
· Mylan also is doubling eligibility for our patient assistance program to 400% of the federal poverty level. This means a family of four making up to $97,200 would pay nothing out of pocket for their EpiPen® Auto-Injector.
· Further, Mylan will continue to offer the EpiPen4Schools® program. The program, launched in August 2012, has provided more than 700,000 free epinephrine auto-injectors and educational resources to more than 65,000 schools nationwide to help them be prepared for anaphylaxis events among students.
· Mylan also is opening a pathway so that patients can order EpiPen® Auto-Injector directly from the company, thereby reducing the cost.

These programs will apply to EpiPen® and EpiPen Jr® (epinephrine injection, USP) Auto-Injectors.

In the interest of fostering greater price transparency in the healthcare system, Mylan is providing the entire economic story of the EpiPen® supply chain on our website. Reported by Zero Hedge 18 hours ago.

U.S. Farmers Risk Losing Everything Because Of Absurd Immigration Rule

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Three years ago, Fishkill Farms owner and operator Joshua Morgenthau found himself facing a situation that is every farmer’s nightmare.

It was time to prepare his 100-acre fruit and vegetable farm’s cherries and strawberries for harvest, but the workers he’d hired for the job weren’t there to help. His employees were many miles away in Mexico, waiting for the green light to enter the U.S. and get to work.

Without enough hands to weed and prune the delicate crop, Morgenthau’s berries were at risk of rotting on the vine. Worse, he knew there was little he could do but wait and hope he didn’t lose his whole crop in the meantime.

Each year, Morgenthau employs eight seasonal migrant workers who travel to his farm in New York’s Hudson Valley through the labor department’s H-2A temporary agricultural worker program. The process of obtaining their H-2A visas had been relatively painless for the previous five years. But this time, he says the department changed the file number of his application without any warning. 

That meant he had to refile all the applications, creating “hours and hours and hours of more paperwork and hassle for us” and delaying the workers’ arrival by more than a month.

As a result, the farm’s cherry and strawberry production took a hit that season. His team of migrant and domestic workers were unable to make up for the decreased harvest preparation time.

“We managed to get it picked, but it was still kind of a mess,” he told The Huffington Post.

Despite setbacks like this one, the visa program is essential to Morgenthau’s farm. He works with the same employees each year and described them as “part of the farm family.” He credits them with being experts at operating the machinery specific to the crops he grows.

The H-2A program was created in the 1990s to help agricultural employers bring temporary foreign workers into the U.S. to do seasonal work that domestic workers cannot or are not willing to do. As part of the program, employers are required to offer certain wages, plus transportation and housing when necessary. The H-2A visa holders live and work in the U.S. for several months at a time but are not considered immigrants, and the program is not seen as a pathway to citizenship.

This so-called guest farm worker program is far from perfect. It has been criticized for being easy to abuse, with some employers neglecting worker safety and stealing wages while facing little recourse. However, those familiar with the visa program describe it as the industry’s sole legal option for getting temporary farm work done. 

The farming industry still relies heavily on undocumented workers, who are estimated to make up about half of the country’s 2.5 million hired farm hands, according to the Labor Department. The temporary visa program is responsible for just a fraction of the overall agricultural workforce.

Yet the program is growing increasingly popular ― due to the domestic labor shortages ― forcing more farmers to contend with a chaotic and heavily bureaucratic system that puts their crops in jeopardy. At the same time, calls to improve the program are being sounded by farmers and immigration reform advocates alike.The U.S. has cracked down on the use of undocumented laborers coming into the country, resulting in a widespread labor shortage in agriculture and ballooning demand for H-2A visas. This has also meant more administrative delays in processing visa applications.

Delays of even a week can result in major crop losses for farmers. Delays of a month or more can be devastating. 

Morgenthau was able to save his harvest in 2013, the year his workers were delayed, but he knows just how easily things can fall apart. “We’re lucky to have never lost an entire crop,” he said.

Others aren’t so fortunate.

A number of farmers in Georgia reported six-digit losses this year due to delays in visa processing. Another farmer, in California, watched as one-third of his Napa cabbage rotted in the field while he waited for the H-2A workers to arrive.

Last year, a State Department computer glitch delayed workers on the West Coast, causing millions of dollars of lost revenue. Elise Bauman, executive director at Salem Harvest, a food recovery group that partners with dozens of farms in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, saw the fallout of this glitch firsthand. She and her team worked with just three strawberry farms in 2015, but she estimated seeing some 100 acres of the wasted berries with her own eyes.

“They have to be handled and harvested at exactly the right time, otherwise you get a pile of mush,” Bauman said. “Very delicious-tasting mush, but it’s not attractive.”

These issues will only compound as the visa program continues to grow. Visa applications increased by 40 percent over the past five years, according to NPR. Last year, 140,000 H-2A visas were granted. In the first half of this year, visa issuance is up another 17 percent over 2015.type=type=RelatedArticlesblockTitle=Related + articlesList=571e58fae4b0d912d5ff48d0,5798d388e4b02d5d5ed3b695,5609a0ebe4b0af3706dd66d9,576be8c4e4b065534f490c1fThe H-2A program’s issues have sent the farming industry into crisis mode, vocally criticizing the program’s backlog of visa applications and emerging as a somewhat surprising proponent of immigration reform.

In an April news release, the American Farm Bureau Federation warned of rotting fields of crops resulting from H-2A delays. Those delays, the organization says, could be avoided if the program were revamped.

So far, there hasn’t been much action on that advice.

In June, a bipartisan group of Congress members calling for H-2A reform sent a letter to the Labor Department and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services leaders, asking them to streamline the guest worker visa process. Their effort has yet to gain traction.  

In a media call organized by the pro-immigration reform Partnership for a New American Economy earlier this month, AFB president Zippy Duvall called for a more flexible and efficient visa program for migrant farmworkers. One solution Duvall has offered would be filing paperwork for the program electronically. Currently, paperwork must be processed through standard mail.

Failure to act, Duvall warned, would threaten the nation’s food supply.

“We’re coming to a point where the American people need to make up their mind if they want to import their food or import their labor,” Duvall said.

Other voices are calling for bigger changes. 

Tom Nassif, president and CEO of Western Growers, which represents farmers in California, Arizona and Colorado, took his call for reform a step further. Beyond streamlining the H-2A program, he would like to find a way to keep some of these temporary farm workers in the U.S., instead of sending them back to their home countries when their visas expire.

“We want to take care of the workers who are with us,” Nassif said. “They have experience, families and roots here. We want to keep those people [here] and protect them. We want some sort of legal status for them.”

In 2013, Nassif backed legislation sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that proposed a new “blue card” program that would make temporary workers in good legal standing eligible for a legal status, allowing them to stay in the country and granting them a path to citizenship. The bill passed in the Senate but did not come up for a vote in the House after being blocked by Speaker John Boehner.  

In the absence of action in Washington, some believe employers in the industry should be doing more to offer better wages and conditions to their farmworkers, Bruce Goldstein, president of the Farmworker Justice advocacy group, argues.

“If employers want to retain their workforce and attract workers to their jobs, they collectively need to improve their reputation,” Goldstein told HuffPost.

Due to many farmworkers’ undocumented status, Goldstein argues, they silently endure subpar working conditions and pay, fearing that they’ll be reported or fired if they complain. 

The average seasonal migrant farmworker is paid between $12,500 and $14,999 a year. Most lack health insurance and many work far more than 40 hours a week. (By contrast, someone working full time for the federal minimum wage earns $15,080 a year.)

Guest farm workers are supposed to earn more under the temporary work program. H-2A wages are set by the Labor Department and vary from state to state ― between $10.59 and $13.80 an hour ― based on state minimums and typical wages for domestic farm workers in the region. In Washington state, for example, the minimum wage for H-2A workers is $12.69 an hour. That’s significantly more than the state’s minimum wage of $9.47.

Some research has raised questions about whether visa-holding guest workers fare much better than unauthorized workers, however. An Economic Policy Institute study released last year found no significant difference in pay or conditions between the two groups.

As of now, farmers are able to get away with this. While advocates like Goldstein believe some employers are treating their workers fairly, the ones who aren’t continue to hinder their progress. And they need to be held accountable.

“There are many employers that comply with the law, but they are being undermined by the companies that want to reduce their cost and increase their profitability by cheating workers,” Goldstein said. “We need to create a law-abiding agricultural sector to benefit both the farmworkers and the employers that comply with the law.”
BuzzFeed has reported that the H-2A visa program and its sister program for short-term non-farm workers (H-2B) suffer from a host of other abuse problems. The Labor Department found that between 2010 and 2014 almost 1,000 companies had violated H-2 laws; however, fewer than 150 employers were banned from hiring guest workers through the program.

Still, some farmers believe the H-2A program is overburdened with regulations and expenses.

Dan Fazio, president of the Washington Farm Labor Association, connects farmers with migrant workers. He, too, described the H-2A program as flawed, but said he’s seen its popularity with participating farmworkers firsthand.

“Is it ideal to take a person from one country and bring them to another country to work? I don’t know,” Fazio said. “But I do know that the people coming to Washington state love the program and when their six months here are done and they go back, they make sure they’re on the list to come back next year.”

A lack of alternatives might have something to do with this popularity — and there’s no sign of that changing anytime soon.

But the lack of progress doesn’t mean the industry has to start from scratch to arrive at a solution, said Luawanna Halstrom, an agriculture consultant who previously served as president of the National Council of Agricultural Employers and has worked with a number of national and state organizations.

She’s hopeful that a fix is on the horizon — and it may not be as complex as it might initially seem.

“People are working with this old horse because it’s all they’ve got,” Halstrom said. “It can be a good program if we could reformulate it and figure out how to make it work.”

A revamped program would be welcomed by Morgenthau, too. Another delay like 2013’s might not turn out as well next time.

“The system should be streamlined,” he said. “When you have the whims of a bureaucracy and a heated political debate that could determine pretty quickly a positive or negative outcome in terms of being able to work with the qualified employees you have been working with, it’s just one too many variables to stomach.”

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Joseph Erbentraut covers promising innovations and challenges in the areas of food and water. In addition, Erbentraut explores the evolving ways Americans are identifying and defining themselves. Follow Erbentraut on Twitter at @robojojo. Tips? Email joseph.erbentraut@huffingtonpost.com.

*More stories like this:*
· Restaurants Officially Have No Excuse Not To Donate Leftover Food· A Whole New Kind Of Grocery Store Is Coming To The U.S.· This Guy Spends $2.75 A Year On Food And Eats Like A King· Genius Solid Shampoos Use No Plastic Packaging By Leaving Out Water · Meat Eaters Should Have Been Listening To Vegetarians All Along· Farmer Forced To Dump Insane Amount Of Gorgeous Cherries· Al Capone’s Brother May Have Invented Date Labels For Milk
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 19 hours ago.

Delta Dental promotes Joe Ruiz to group vice president of government programs

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More than 15 million people are enrolled in Delta Dental’s state and federal government programs.

SAN FRANCISCO (PRWEB) August 25, 2016

Delta Dental of California and its affiliates today announced the promotion of Joe Ruiz to group vice president of government programs.

Since 2013, Ruiz has served as vice president of state government programs for Delta Dental of California and affiliates. He is now responsible for the general management of both the company’s state government and federal government programs, which cover nearly 15.5 million people.

Ruiz brings with him more than 25 years of health insurance industry experience, including numerous executive-level positions as well as president of his own consulting firm. Prior to joining Delta Dental, Ruiz served as vice president and general manager of group business for Anthem Blue Cross. He received both his undergraduate degree and Master of Business Administration degree in finance from California Lutheran University.

About Delta Dental of California
Delta Dental of California, Delta Dental of New York, Inc., Delta Dental of Pennsylvania and Delta Dental Insurance Company, along with their affiliated companies, together provide dental benefits to 34.5 million people in 15 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. All are part of the Delta Dental Plans Association, whose member companies collectively cover more than 73 million people nationwide.

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Follow Delta Dental on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn Reported by PRWeb 17 hours ago.

The maker of EpiPen is partly blaming Obamacare for their price increases

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The maker of EpiPen is partly blaming Obamacare for their price increases Mylan, the maker of the EpiPen, is currently embroiled in a controversy over the pricing of the allergy treatment medicine.

In response to criticism from lawmakers and even Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, the company released an announcement defending their business practices.

In the release, the company also laid part of the blame at the feet of President Obama and his Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Here is Mylan from the release (emphasis ours):

"Mylan has worked to help patients with commercial insurance pay as little as $0 for EpiPen Auto-Injector using the My EpiPen Savings Card. In 2015, this resulted in nearly 80% of these patients paying nothing out of pocket for their EpiPen Auto-Injector. *However, as the health insurance environment has evolved, driven by the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, patients and families enrolled in high deductible health insurance plans, who are uninsured, or who pay cash at the pharmacy, have faced higher costs for their medicine."*

On the firm's quarterly earnings call on August 9, Mylan CEO Heather Bresch also noted the impact of Obamacare on the payment model for EpiPen. Here's Bresch's comments (emphasis again ours):

"But this point, I think there has been a lot of discussion and some headlines around patients going from paying a copay to now paying the entire cost of a product. And where EpiPen falls, because if you look on an annual basis, as a life-saving drug, to have a WAC [Wholesaler Acquisition Cost] price at just under $600, I think that you can see it falls as not an expensive product.

*And so when employers were incentivized to increase high-deductible plans through Obamacare, as employers shift more cost to employees and everything's got to come out of pocket before you hit your deductible is where you're seeing a lot of noise around EpiPen.*"

Essentially, Mylan and Bresch are arguing that people are noticing the high price of the EpiPen more because they are paying out of pocket through high deductible plans, which have high thresholds of out-of-pocket costs before their coverage kicks in.

It is true that many more Americans are on high-deductible plans. Around a quarter of the population now have such plans versus just 4% in 2006. Additionally, many Obamacare exchange enrollees have high deductible plans.

It is also true that many employers have shifted to high deductible plans because the costs they were bearing, including higher drug prices for things such as EpiPen, were too high. 50% of people in the US receive their insurance through their employer, while 6% buy insurance as individuals, including through Obamacare. Additionally, many employers were shifting to these high deductible plans even before Obamacare.

In response to the backlash, Mylan announced on Thursday that it will increase its savings card for people purchasing two-packs of EpiPens to $300 from $100.

*SEE ALSO: The makers of the EpiPen just made a move to try and put an end to growing fury over the drug's price*

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What abandoned Olympic venues from around the world look like today Reported by Business Insider 16 hours ago.

Mylan CEO: "The US Healthcare System Bubble Is Going To Burst; This Is No Different Than The Subprime Crisis"

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Mylan CEO: The US Healthcare System Bubble Is Going To Burst; This Is No Different Than The Subprime Crisis As noted earlier, following a feverish push by Congress and Hillary Clinton to scapegoat Mylan, and its CEO, Heather Bresch, as "greedy" examples of corporatism (even though it is not Mylan's fault it is a de facto monopoly and thus has unlimited pricing ability), the EpiPen maker on Thursday announced plans to boost access to its EpiPen Auto-Injector by expanding already existing programs for patients who are facing higher out-of-pocket costs. The company is reducing the cost of EpiPens through the use of a savings card which will cover up to $300 for the EpiPen 2-Pak.

"We recognize the significant burden on patients from continued, rising insurance premiums and being forced increasingly to pay the full list price for medicines at the pharmacy counter," Bresch said in a statement. "Patients deserve increased price transparency and affordable care, particularly as the system shifts significant costs to them."

Bresch - whose compensation has increased by 671% from $2.5 million in 2007 to $18.9 million in 2015 - then appeared on CNBC where she took her public defence to the public. Here she correctly noted that while corporate profitability is an issue, and Mylan's price hikes most certainly are not limited only to EpiPen... 

... price is only one part of the problem that Mylan is addressing according to its CEO. "All involved must also take steps to help meaningfully address the U.S. health care crisis," she said, "and we are committed to do our part to drive change in collaboration with policymakers, payors, patients and health care professionals."

Bresch told CNBC that the healthcare system is in crisis, causing the patient to pay for full retail prices at the drug counter and rising premiums on their health insurance, noting that "only in healthcare" you could have paid $25 yesterday at a pharmacy counter one day and up are paying $600, $1000, $2000 the next day.

"No one's more frustrated than me," she said, and then she made a stark warning going to the heart of the problem: stating just how broken the US healthcare system - which allowed Mylan to charge as much as it did in the first place - truly is:

"My frustration is, the list price is $608. There is a system. I laid out that there are four or five hands that the product touches, and companies that it goes through before it ever gets to that patient at the counter. Everyone should be frustrated. I'm hoping that this is an inflection point for this country. *Our healthcare is in a crisis, it's no different than the mortgage financial crisis back in 2007. This bubble is going to burst*."

Which, incidentally, is what we expected yesterday would happen: having been attacked by the same government whose regulations allowed her to charge as much as she does for Mylan drugs, she did the only rational thing possible: take the fight to where it should be waged, namely in Congress.

At the end of the day, the truth is inbetween: there is corporate greed which is ultimately capitalism's fundamental profit motive, and then there is Congress, which is happy to collect hundreds of millions in lobby funding from the pharma industry, which generated unprecedented returns on its bribes to politicians.

 

Today's crackdown on Mylan may have kicked the can, but absolutely nothing has been fixed, which is why Bresch is absolutely right: sooner or later the bubble will burst, but until then it will be covered by the only way the US government knows: with even more debt.

Her full interview with CNBS is below, and the key segment is 3:40 mins in. Reported by Zero Hedge 16 hours ago.

Fewer people, more paperwork: Dry-cleaning business owner grapples with Affordable Care Act

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Tim McCann can precisely quantify the consequences of additional costs from the Affordable Care Act. "We’ve actually had to reduce our employees because of the ACA,” McCann, the co-owner and president of Best Cleaners, said. He said the company eliminated 1 1/2 positions because of additional health insurance costs linked to new rules from the health care law, which has provisions that are still causing repercussions for businesses. The Albany area chain of dry cleaners includes 11 retail locations… Reported by bizjournals 15 hours ago.

Public Health: How Expanding Medicaid Can Lower Insurance Premiums for All

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A new government study finds that middle-class people paid less for health insurance in states that offered Medicaid to the poor. Reported by NYTimes.com 9 hours ago.

CoreSite Realty Corporation Successfully Attains HIPAA Compliance Validation

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CoreSite Realty Corporation Successfully Attains HIPAA Compliance Validation DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CoreSite Realty Corporation (NYSE:COR), a premier provider of secure, reliable, high-performance data center and interconnection solutions across the U.S., today announced that it has successfully obtained Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) validation for its platform of 16 operating multi-tenant data centers. HIPAA requires that covered entities take strong measures to protect the privacy and security of health information. By attaining HIPAA v Reported by Business Wire 10 hours ago.

A Cure For What Ails Health Care

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It comes as no surprise that the discourse among Presidential candidates and political pundits has been dominated lately by national security. After all, anxiety over another possible terrorist attack on our soil is rising in the wake of the recent atrocities in Bangladesh, Iraq, and Istanbul, as well as the mass murder in Orlando.

Interestingly, though, anxiety over their own economic stability continues to be top of mind for many Americans, who are particularly concerned over the increased costs of their health care. In fact, an April 2016 survey from personal finance site GOBankingRates found that roughly one in five Americans -- or 18 percent -- say rising health care costs are their biggest financial burden, beating out taxes, retirement savings and higher education. Earlier this year, a Northwestern Mutual study showed that 45 percent of Americans think health care costs are the leading obstacle to a financially secure retirement.

The fact remains that while increases in health care costs have slowed markedly (a Pricewaterhouse Cooper study estimates out-of-pocket costs rising 6.5 percent this year compared to nearly 12 percent just a decade ago), premiums and out-of-pocket deductibles are hitting people's wallets much harder now. In 2015, the average deductible (the amount one pays before his or her coverage starts) for in-network care at health insurance plans was $1,200 deductible -- almost double the 2007 figure. This means the average amount each person spent out of pocket increased from $738 in 2009 to over $1,000 in 2013, Fortune reported. And in a study published last month in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), researchers found the total amount paid by patients for routine hospital stays and treatment for common conditions shot up by almost 40 percent from 2009 to 2013. Even people with the most comprehensive insurance are paying thousands of dollars for care.

Simply put, Americans are paying far too much for the medical and health attention they need and deserve.

We've grappled with this issue as a nation for years, and have heard many different proposals, ideas and viewpoints on how to counter rising health care costs, especially in the midst of this election year.

Hillary Clinton wants to build on the Affordable Care Act; most significantly, her plan proposes a refundable tax credit to cover costs that are more than five percent of an individual's income. Donald Trump says he'll reduce costs by allowing people to deduct the price of insurance premiums from their taxes and to put more money in a tax-deferred savings account to pay for health care expenses.

While these proposals have potential to offer patients some relief, they don't address the major driver of the cost problem: the "revolving door" of care providers.

Workforce instability, in the form of high rates of staff turnover and lingering vacancy rates, continues to be a major challenge for health care organizations. The average hospital faces employee turnover rates of about 17 percent according to a 2016 Nursing Solutions, Inc. report, and that number can range from five to almost 30 percent. In post-acute care and skilled nursing those numbers can be meaningfully higher.

High caregiver turnover can result in inefficiencies and less productivity, delays and mistakes in delivering patient care, reduced quality of care, longer patient stays, and higher complication and infection rates, to name a few. All of these factors have profound effects on patient safety, and can severely impact an institution's HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) scores, thereby effecting its bottom line. Indeed, hospitals can be financially penalized for low HCAHPS scores -- which, in turn, can translate into higher health care costs.

Already, people costs consume the largest chunk of the typical hospital's operating revenue. Since 2006, Fitch Rating has reported that personnel costs have absorbed 50 percent of revenue on average, and in 2012 they comprised 54.2 percent of hospital operating revenue, one of the highest figures of the past several years.

That's why hiring the right talent is so important. Today, there are solutions available for decreasing labor costs and making more effective personnel decisions that don't involve new legislation or an agreement between the House and Senate.

For example, Pegged Software, the company I founded, collects, analyzes and incorporates substantial volumes of data and employs predictive analytics to match an institution's needs and desired culture with large amounts of information on applicants. By relying on data from a range of sources to analyze candidates, we are dramatically reducing bias from the hiring process, thereby eliminating one of the costliest mistakes a healthcare institution can make. In fact, we've helped over 400 healthcare organizations achieve a median decrease in turnover of 38 percent, and we have a 100% success rate across every job, department, and facility at reducing turnover.

Of course, ours is not the only way to reduce high turnover, avoid hiring the wrong people, improve patient satisfaction, and enhance productivity and efficiency. Using predictive analytics in concert with robust professional development, an employee feedback and engagement plan, and adapting best "customer service" practices from other industries can provide even stronger benefits. The end result, though, is that by lowering attrition rates and improving hiring, healthcare institutions can increase quality of care and reduce complication errors that often send patients back into the hospital.

During a time when high costs seem to have become part of the fabric of receiving medical care, we need to invest in our care providers, and ensure patients are getting the best care delivered by the best teams.

*Michael Rosenbaum is founder and CEO of Pegged Software, which utilizes algorithms and analytics to enhance recruitment and improve retention at health care systems and institutions across the country. *

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 9 hours ago.

HFCIC Meets with Oscar to Grow Their California Market

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Meeting Discusses Oscar Broker-Friendliness and Future in California

Santa Rosa, CA (PRWEB) August 25, 2016

Oscar California Sales Leader, Dennis Negron, met with Health for California Insurance Center (HFCIC) on Wednesday morning, August 24, to strengthen the partnership between the companies.

Oscar is an up-and-coming technology-driven health insurance company. Health for California is one of the leading agencies for health insurance sales in the state, especially for sales through the Covered California Health Benefits Exchange.

“We didn’t sell much Oscar health insurance during the 2016 Open Enrollment Period, only 31 plans,” said Health for California Insurance Center CEO, John Hansen. “But in 2017, we anticipate Oscar to be very competitive through Covered California, so we expect to sell a lot more Oscar health plans.”

Negron mentioned at the meeting on Wednesday that so far Oscar Health Care has around 5,000 members in California. In 2017, he said that conservatively they expect to double their enrollment by growing their brand awareness and by increasing sales in the on-exchange market, which was very encouraging for HFCIC.

Partnerships with key agencies like Health for California Insurance Center play a role in helping Oscar reach its goal. Mr. Negron assured the agents at Health for California Insurance Center that Oscar realizes how important brokers are, especially in the California market where brokers and agents make about 50% of health insurance sales in the individual and family market.

New York and California Markets
Negron mentioned Oscar’s achievements in New York, and was optimistic about future success in California. He was especially hopeful about the new San Francisco market, where Oscar will be able to reach tech savvy, affluent young people that have tended to gravitate toward Oscar’s technology-driven model.

Hansen and his team of Covered California licensed agents were very happy to see Oscar making inroads to Northern California.

“After the presentation, my agents wanted to sign up for Oscar themselves,” said Hansen. “Their online tools are especially impressive. The fact that they are withdrawing from the New Jersey and Dallas markets was of some concern; however, the reasons for their departure make sense.”

Oscar was profitable last year in California, and they expect to be profitable in New York in the next year, largely due to the legwork that they have done building their own doctor/medical group network in the New York market.

“The leadership at Oscar is making a lot of smart decisions,” said Hansen. “I foresee that they will become a strong player in the densely populated areas of the California market in the next few years.”

About Health for California Insurance Center
Since 2004, Health for California Insurance Center has ranked as one of the top online individual and group health insurance agencies. The company consists of certified Covered California insurance agents who provide personalized insurance services to individuals and businesses needing assistance with enrollment through the Health Marketplace as well as directly with top carriers that provide health insurance in California.

### Reported by PRWeb 6 hours ago.

Live Updates: What You Need to Know about Flooding in Louisiana

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Live Updates: What You Need to Know about Flooding in Louisiana --------------------* *Watch: President Obama Meets with Louisianans Impacted by the Floods**

--------------------

- Learn How You Can Help-

 

President Barack Obama views a flood-damaged neighborhood and talks with residents of the Castle Place subdivision in Zachary, near Baton Rouge, La., Aug. 23, 2016. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

The state of Louisiana continues to deal with a significant level of flooding and one of the worst natural disasters in recent years. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Castro and Administrator Contreras-Sweet of the Small Business Administration visited Louisiana today to meet with elected officials, response officials, and survivors to continue to support Governor Edwards’ priorities on housing and businesses.

Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson traveled to Louisiana last week to assess damages with Governor Edwards, federal and state responders, and the National Guard, meet with survivors in shelters, and receive an update on the response to ongoing flooding in the state. During the press conference with Governor Edwards, Secretary Johnson reiterated the President’s message that the federal government will continue to do everything we can to help the survivors and get people back into homes.

So here's what you should know about the federal response in Louisiana and the resources that you or anyone you know who is impacted by flooding can use:

* Federal Response*



Here’s a look at how the federal family is supporting #LAflood survivors: https://t.co/NyllIngMW6 pic.twitter.com/MKCpU7sZUV

— FEMA (@fema) August 18, 2016


President Obama has declared 20 parishes for a major disaster for severe storms and flooding, a declaration that makes federal funding available to affected people in Acadia, Ascension, Avoyelles, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Evangeline, Iberia, Iberville, Jefferson Davis, Lafayette, Livingston, Pointe Coupee, St. Helena, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Vermilion, Washington and West Feliciana. In addition to the 20 parishes, FEMA is conducting a joint federal and state damage assessment in Assumption and St. Charles.

More than 27,800 NFIP policyholders submitted claims for flood loss, and more than 122,000 individuals and households registered for assistance. FEMA approved more than $205 million in financial support to flood survivors in Louisiana. This total includes more than:

· $155 million to help survivors with temporary rental assistance, essential home repairs, and other disaster-related needs
· $55 million in advanced payments to flood insurance policyholders who sustained damages and have filed a claim

Here's how FEMA is leading the coordination of federal assistance on the ground in Louisiana:

· More than 2,400 federal staff are on the ground in Louisiana supporting flood response activities.
· FEMA provided more than 740,000 liters of water, 635,000 meals, 12,800 cots, and 12,500 blankets to Louisiana for distribution to survivors.
· More than 270 Disaster Survivor Assistance Team members are on the ground and at shelters to address immediate and emerging needs of disaster survivors including: on-site registration, applicant status checks, on-the-spot needs assessments, and access to partners offering survivors services.
· FEMA Mobile Emergency Response Support (MERS) personnel and equipment are deployed to support the state with secure and non-secure voice, video, and information services to support emergency response communications needs. This includes 48 MERS personnel, 19 Mobile Communications Office Vehicles (MCOV), and 51 additional vehicles.
· The U.S. Department of Transportation made $2 million in emergency relief funds immediately available through the Federal Highway Administration to help repair roads and bridges in the affected areas. The funds will also help stabilize structures to prevent further damage and set up detours until permanent repairs are completed.
· The Corporation for National Community Service deployed more than 600 AmeriCorps members, including FEMA Corps and AmeriCorps Disaster Response Teams, to support shelter operations, home clean-up operations, survivor call centers and disaster survivor assistance teams.
· The American Red Cross shelters are housing approximately 2,500 people in 18 community shelters. Since the flooding began last week, ARC provided more than 45,000 overnight stays in shelters and served more than 356,000 meals and snacks, and 126,000 relief items. More than 2,500 ARC personnel, many of whom are volunteers, are supporting the flood response effort.
· The Environmental Protection Agency is assisting both the Louisiana Department of Health and Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality with flood debris removal and ensuring the water systems can provide safe drinking water. The state continues to test 46 water systems that impact more than 15,000 households.
· The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services activated its Emergency Prescription Assistance Program to pay for prescriptions and medical equipment for disaster survivors without health insurance. Louisiana patients may obtain a free 30-day supply of medications or medical supplies at any participating pharmacy here. 

* Housing Assistance*

The state of Louisiana, with funding support from FEMA, is launching the Shelter at Home program. This allows residents who qualify to safely live in their own homes as temporary shelters while they plan and carry out permanent repairs. Detailed information, guidelines, and online pre-registration for the Shelter at Home program will be available on Monday, Aug. 29, at www.ShelteratHome.Louisiana.gov

In addition to the state’s Shelter at Home program, the Multi Family Lease and Repair Program may provide funds to make rental units livable again in order to lease them to provide temporary housing to eligible disaster survivors. Interested property owners can call 225-382-1464 or email fema-ia-dhops@fema.dhs.gov

FEMA activated its Transitional Sheltering Assistance (TSA) program to make participating hotels or motels available for eligible disaster survivors who are currently residing in a personal vehicle, hotel or motel, shelter, or place of employment. There are more than 1,120 households checked into hotels and motels under the program. 

FEMA completed more than 27,900 home inspections. Additionally, FEMA is also using Geographic Information System (GIS) housing data to determine inaccessibility based on the location of an applicant’s address.

* Open for Business*

The National Business Emergency Operations Center is working in coordination with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce National Foundation Corporate Citizenship Center and nearly 60 national companies engaged in assisting survivors in the Louisiana flooding with donations of time, money, services, and goods to relief organizations. These companies are also deploying teams to help efforts on the ground, waiving fees, reducing costs for clean-up supplies, and many other forms of help.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) has six business recovery centers open, one in Livingston Parish, one in Tangipahoa Parish, one in Ascension Parish, two in East Baton Rouge Parish and one in Lafayette Parish. SBA is providing low-interest loans to Louisiana survivors and businesses to assist with uninsured and underinsured flood-related losses. The SBA received 2,841 applications and approved $14 million in disaster loans.

* Apply for Assistance*

Disaster Recovery Centers (DRC) will continue to open in locations identified by the state to provide information to survivors. Thirteen Disaster Recovery Centers (DRC) are open in Ascension, Baton Rouge, Iberia, St. Helena, St. Martin, Tangipahoa, and West Feliciana parishes where survivors can apply for assistance and meet face-to-face with recovery specialists.

Disaster survivors do not need to go to a DRC in order to receive disaster assistance. To find the nearest Disaster Recovery Center, visit www.fema.gov/DRC, use the FEMA Mobile Application or text DRC and your zip code to 43362 (4FEMA).

If you are a resident or business owner who has sustained losses in the designated parishes, you can apply for assistance from FEMA by registering online at www.DisasterAssistance.gov or by calling 1-800-621-FEMA (3362) or 1-800-462-7585 (TTY) for the hearing and speech impaired. The numbers are toll-free, and will operate from 7am to 10pm (local time) seven days a week until further notice. 

First and foremost, you should return home only when authorities indicate it is safe. 

If you can safely return to your home, and have filed an insurance claim or applied for FEMA assistance: 

· Be ready when an adjuster or housing inspector calls
· Take pictures
· Make a list
· Remove water damaged items to prevent mold
· Don't have damaged items hauled away until adjuster or inspector sees or gives the ok

An important note:* *When cleaning up your home, assume everything touched by flood water is contaminated and will have to be disinfected. Residents who are able to start cleaning up should do so with care. 

If you are a veteran and your home has been impacted by the floods, the VA has provided guidance on how to ensure you receive the assistance you need here. 

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSA) has activated its *Disaster Distress helpline*. This toll-free, multilingual, crisis support service is available 24/7 via telephone (1-800-985-5990) and SMS (text ‘TalkWithUs’ to 66746) to residents in the U.S. and its territories who are experiencing emotional distress.

Apply Now

 

If you're in impacted parishes, you can also download FEMA's app to your smartphone so you can locate and get directions to open shelters across the state, and receive weather alerts from the National Weather Service for up to five different locations anywhere in the United States. 

In addition to FEMA, the state of Louisiana has set up a Resources for Flood Victims page at gov.la.gov/laflood.

Get The App

 

* Helpful Phone Numbers*

Apply for FEMA Individual Assistance via phone 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Central Time seven days a week:

· 1-800-621-FEMA (3362)
· People who have a speech disability or hearing loss and use TTY should call 1-800-462-7585
· For those who use 711 or Video Relay Service (VRS), call 1-800-621-3362

*National Flood Insurance Program: *Call 1-800-621-3362 Monday to Friday 8 a.m.- 6 p.m. and select Option 2

*Pet Rescue/Triage: *225-952-8168

*Register for free home cleanup assistance: *1-800-451-1954

*To find out if your loved one is in a state-run shelter: *225-219-5452

*To find out if your loved one is in a Red Cross shelter: *1-866-438-4636

*Disaster Distress Hotline:* 1-800-985-5990

*All Veterans Benefits Questions: *1-800‐827‐1000

Learn more about what you can do to prepare for, respond to, and address the impacts of flooding in your neighborhood here: Ready.gov 

Be Prepared

 

And if you want to do what you can to help the people of Louisiana get back on their feet, you can visit www.VolunteerLouisiana.gov to see how you can contribute to the response and recovery efforts.

Learn How You Can Help

 

Sean Griffin is the Director for Incident Management Integration Policy in the National Security Council.  Reported by The White House 5 hours ago.

Withdrawl of Major Insurers Contributes to Uneven Obamacare Coverage

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An estimated 20 million Americans have gained health insurance as a result of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), President Barack Obama announced in March. But coverage options are not consistent across the country, with some regions offering a menu of … Reported by Epoch Times 21 hours ago.

New Form Level Help Links Have Been Implemented For Customers Using ez1095 Software

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ez1095 Affordable Care Act software from Halfpricesoft.com now offers improved form level help links with detailed instructions. Download and test drive for compatibility at http://www.halfpricesoft.com.

Dallas, TX (PRWEB) August 26, 2016

New healthcare laws set in motion regarding the latest affordable care act can be scary to both new and seasoned business owners. Developer’s at Halfpricesoft.com have put new form level help links in place to assist Ez1095 ACA software customers. The guides and customer support are all part of the cost in the software. There are never additional fees to potential or current customers for customer support help.

“The latest ez1095 ACA software has implemented new form level help links for customer ease of use and peace of mind.” said Dr. Ge, the founder of Halfpricesoft.com.

How to know if your company needs to file 1095 forms:

1- If you are an employer with 50 or more full-time employees.

2- If you have fewer than 50 employees, but are a member of an ownership group with 50 or more full-time equivalent employees, you are subject to the rules for large employers.

3- If you are a self-insured employer

Priced from just $195 per installation, ($295 for efile version) ez1095 supports unlimited company accounts on the same machine at no additional cost.

Customers that need to efile form 1095 and 1094 can download and try out this ACA software from Halfpricsoft.com before purchasing with no obligation by visiting http://www.halfpricesoft.com/aca-1095/form-1095-software-free-download.asp

The main features include but are not limited to :· Peace of mind offered with new test scenario for efiling 1094 and 1095 ACA forms
· Correction and replacement form filing available
· Print ACA Form 1095-C, 1094-C, 1095-B and 1094-B on white paper for recipients and IRS with inkjet or laser printer.
· PDF print 1095-C and 1095-B recipient copies
· Efile version available at additional cost.
· Support unlimited companies.
· Support unlimited number of recipients.
· Print unlimited number of 1095 and 1094 forms.
· Fast data import feature
· Print Form 1095 C: Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage Insurance
· Print Form 1094 C: Transmittal of Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage Information Returns
· Print Form 1095-B: Health Coverage
· Print Form 1094-B: Transmittal of Health Coverage Information Return

ez1095 software is compatible Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, XP and other Windows systems. Designed with simplicity in mind, ez1095 software is easy to use and flexible. ez1095 software’s graphical interface leads customers step-by-step through setting up company, adding employees, add forms and print forms. Customers can also click form level help links to get more details regarding the software.

To learn more about ez1095 ACA software, customers can visit http://www.halfpricesoft.com/aca-1095/aca-1095-software.asp

About halfpricesoft.com
Founded in 2003, Halfpricesoft.com has established itself as a leader in meeting the software needs of small businesses around the world with its payroll software, employee attendance tracking software, check printing software, W2 software, 1099 software and barcode generating software. It continues to grow with its philosophy that small business owners need affordable, user friendly, super simple, and totally risk-free software. Reported by PRWeb 20 hours ago.

Value of Lifting Up the Most Vulnerable Among Us

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As executive director of the National Health Law Program (NHeLP), I am an advocate for the health rights of individuals struggling to live on insufficient incomes and in underserved communities.

As I wrote here last month, Medicaid, a collective effort of the states and federal government to provide health care coverage to low-income individuals, is one of this country's greatest social safety nets. Nearly 70 million people receive their health care through Medicaid. Without it, our nation's inequalities would be even greater. Not surprising, conservative think tanks, such as the Hoover Institution, remain committed to terminating Medicaid and dumping enrollees into the private market because of their dogged belief in competition and unfettered markets. Earlier this month, the Hoover Institution's Scott W. Atlas took to the op-ed pages of The Wall Street Journal to trash Medicaid - an "inferior, low-value health system" -- and peddle more privatization, which is another way of saying that he would eliminate the essential features that make Medicaid effective in meeting the health needs of the population it is designed to serve.

Most of Atlas' piece was devoted to comparing what the presidential candidates have said about Medicaid, and trumpeting the Republican nominee's stances. But dubbing Medicaid "low-value," is a tired attack, and one far from what evidence tells us. For example, the Kaiser Family Foundation, reporting on findings from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on Consequences of Uninsurance, reveals that over and over again research shows that "people with Medicaid coverage fare much better than their uninsured counterparts on diverse measures of access to care, utilization, and unmet need. A large body of evidence shows that, compared to low-income uninsured children, children enrolled in Medicaid are significantly more likely to have a usual source of care (USOC) and to receive well-child care, and significantly less likely to have unmet or delayed needs for medical care, dental care, and prescription drugs due to costs."

Earlier this month Harvard researchers reported that, two years after Medicaid was expanded pursuant to the Affordable Care Act in Kentucky and Arkansas, low-income adults in both states "received more primary and preventive care, made fewer emergency departments visits, and reported higher quality of care and improved health compared with low-income adults in Texas," which has not expanded Medicaid. The Medicaid expansions in both states, the researchers found, "significantly increased access to primary care, improved affordability of medications, reduced out-of-pocket spending, reduced likelihood of emergency department visits, and increased outpatient visits. Quality of care ratings improved significantly, as did the number of adults reporting excellent health."

And in states like California and Louisiana, where lawmakers have expanded Medicaid, scores are signing up for coverage. Californians are clamoring for that "low-value" health insurance. Since 2014, Kaiser Health News reported in August, nearly 5 million residents enrolled in that state's Medicaid program. Also this month, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities issued a state-by-state examination of the economic impact of Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), concluding that "in every state, programs assisting low-income Americans lift large numbers of people above the poverty line and provide health coverage to a large share of children."

Conservatives should note, moreover, that the benefits of providing health insurance to underserved communities go beyond collective goodwill; they help improve economies. As Families USA has reported, expanding Medicaid injects large numbers of federal dollars into the states, growing their economies in numerous ways -- increasing health care jobs and health care coverage gives residents money to pay for other goods and services, boosting states' economies broadly, and saving states because of declining uncompensated care costs. And a recent report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services showed an additional benefit of Medicaid expansion - it lowered the premiums for individuals purchasing insurance in the Marketplace by about 7 percent in those expansion states.

Much more can and should be done to help make all people healthier. Our country should not be a place where only the elite and privileged are able to thrive. So not only should all states expand Medicaid, the federal and state governments must ramp up support of social services for low income individuals and underserved communities. An August 17 report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that the states spending more on social services, such as supportive housing, nutritional support and case management and outreach programs had more healthy and productive populaces. Also, spending on social services, the report found, "could significantly offset health care costs nationally."

Touting tropes about Medicaid is lazy, misleading, and ultimately focused on protecting the powerful in this country. The truth , is that collective action to lift up our most vulnerable will make our republic a noble, and yes, a prosperous one for all.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 15 hours ago.

Stunning Maps Depict Epic Collapse Of Obamacare "Coverage" In 2017

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Stunning Maps Depict Epic Collapse Of Obamacare Coverage In 2017 Remember when Obama toured around the country telling everyone that Obamacare was going to increase competition and lower premiums?  If not, here is an example to help jog your memory (comments taken from Obama remarks delivered at Prince George's Community College on 9/26/13):



Now, this is real simple.  *It’s a website where you can compare and purchase affordable health insurance plans, side-by-side, the same way you shop for a plane ticket on Kayak -- (laughter)* -- same way you shop for a TV on Amazon.  You just go on and you start looking, and here are all the options.

 

It’s buying insurance on the private market, but because now you’re part of a big group plan -- everybody in Maryland is all logging in and taking a look at the prices -- you’ve got new choices.  *Now you've got new competition, because insurers want your business.  And that means you will have cheaper prices. * (Applause.)



Well, as we've pointed out numerous times things are not really playing out as Obama had hoped with *premiums skyrocketing* (see "Obamacare On "Verge Of Collapse" As Premiums Set To Soar Again In 2017") *and "competition" collapsing* (see "Tennessee Insurance Commissioner Warns Obamacare "Very Near Collapse"").

The two maps below prove that point beautifully by *illustrating the epic collapse of Obamacare coverage in just 1 year.  A collapse that will leave a stunning number of people across the country with only 1 option for health insurance.  *Meanwhile, healthcare shoppers in Pinal
County, Arizona will actually be left with no options in 2017 as all carriers have abandoned service there. (charts per the New York Times)

 

*2016 healthcare insurance carries by county:*

 

*2017 healthcare insurance carries by county:*

 

Meanwhile, the *Obama administration continues to insist that all is well with the Affordable Care Act*.  Per the New York Times:



The Obama administration says it is *too early to evaluate competition in the Obamacare markets for 2017*. Marjorie Connolly, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said: “*A number of steps remain before the full picture of marketplace competition and prices are known*. Regardless, we remain confident that the majority of marketplace consumers will have multiple choices and will be able to select a plan for less than $75 per month when Open Enrollment begins Nov. 1.”



*The first step is admitting you have a problem.* Reported by Zero Hedge 14 hours ago.

Celebrate Women's Equality Day By Calling For The Healthy Families Act

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When my husband and I moved to Milwaukee in the early '80s, one of us needed a job with health insurance. I applied to be a word processor at the phone company. It was a union job with decent pay. But the person who offered me the position made one thing very clear: "You can't be sick for five years," she told me. "This is a public utility and we need everyone here."

Anyone who's worked in a place where being sick means no pay knows the outcome: people come to work sick, get sicker, stay sick longer, and make other people sick. We didn't need scientific studies to tell us that's self-defeating even for the company. No one works well when they're sick and, inevitably, getting sicker will force people to be off the job longer. And as hard as I tried, I couldn't train my young children to wait for the weekend to get an ear infection.

But studies do help influence policymakers, raise awareness among the general public and spark stories in the media. So those of us fighting hard to win policies that guarantee all workers can earn paid sick days were delighted to see a new paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research on their findings that the flu rate "decreases significantly" when employees earn paid sick days.

Among the many things Google compiles is flu data. The researchers used that data from 2003 to 2015 to examine what happened to influenza rates after various locations in the U.S. passed paid sick days laws. Turns out the general flu rate in places where workers earned paid sick days decreased 5.5-6.5 percent. Comprehensive laws in seven major U.S. cities, the researchers found, help prevent about 100 influenza-like infections per week for every 100,000 people.

The authors went on to define and test contagious presenteeism -- that's the formal term for people coming to work sick and spreading infectious diseases to co-workers and customers or clients. Their results match common sense and the experience of everyone who's ever been in my shoes: when workers can follow doctor's orders and stay home when they're sick without risking their paycheck or their job, there's a reduction in contagious presenteeism, fewer infections and lower influenza activity.

The American Academy of Pediatricians -- and many other health care professionals -- agree about the important of a public policy like paid sick days. When we were fighting for paid sick days in Milwaukee, a pediatrician here described how devastated she felt after she told a young mother to keep her sick child home from child care. The woman followed those instructions -- and got fired as a result. That pediatrician was rooting for passage of paid sick days so she never had to be in that situation again.

Thirty-four cities, states or counties across the country have now won such laws, and more are on the horizon. That means over 11 and a half million people can listen to their doctors and stay away from work when they have the flu. And thousands of others will avoid getting the flu as a result.

For some people, that's a life-saving outcome. I remember Marianne Bellesorte's testimony before the Philadelphia City Council when they were debating passage of a paid sick days ordinance. Between the first debate on the issue in City Council in 2011 and that hearing in 2015, Marianne, who led the local coalition, had gotten pregnant, gotten cancer, had chemo, had a baby, had surgery, more chemo and radiation.

"Paid time [in my workplace] meant... that when chemotherapy demolished my immune system to the point where I wasn't even allowed near fresh flowers, I didn't have to worry about coworkers bringing their illness to the office," Marianne testified. "But because not everyone has earned sick days, I did have to worry about the cashier at the grocery store, the clerk at the drug store, and the servers at any restaurant I ate at."

Thanks to Marianne and a host of other activists, Philadelphia is now among the locations where our movement has won paid sick days. The National Bureau of Economic Research study and common sense and our own experience tell us it's high time to guarantee access to the entire nation by passing the Healthy Families Act.

Today is Women's Equality Day, commemorating passage of the 19th amendment, which stopped denying women the vote -- a right that continued being denied to Black women and many other women of color for decades and is still under attack today In addition to helping put people in office, voting is about holding them accountable once they're there. The 96th anniversary of women's suffrage is a great occasion to contact your legislator and share your own story of going to work sick or catching germs from someone who did. Tell them it's time to pass the Healthy Families Act.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 12 hours ago.

Cambia's Regence receives ratings upgrade, but negative outlook

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Several Cambia Health Solutions' insurance affiliates received mixed grades from the top insurance rating agency. On the plus side, A.M. Best upgraded the financial strength rating to A from A- and the issuer credit ratings to A from A- for Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon and Utah. On the other hand, A.M. Best downgraded their outlook to negative from stable, reflecting the plans’ underwriting losses and declining enrollment — not an unusual phenomena in the volatile Oregon health insurance… Reported by bizjournals 11 hours ago.

5 Reasons Why North American Retirees Are Flocking To Mexico

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Current estimates put the number of U.S. and Canadian citizens living in various places in Mexico at well over one million. Not all are retired, but hundreds of thousands of them are.

Beach in Cancun, Mexico

This easily makes Mexico the world's most popular overseas retirement destination for U.S. and Canadian citizens.

Remember, this is the country that one U.S. presidential candidate thinks is so bad that it should be walled off from the rest of North America.

What makes so many North Americans disagree? What makes Mexico the world's biggest draw for U.S. and Canadian citizens looking outside their own countries for a quality retirement?

We can think of five reasons off the top of our heads.

*The Weather *-- The only place you'll find snow in Mexico is on the tops of mountains. Otherwise, the weather in the entire country is temperate to hot. Mexico's Pacific, Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf Coast beaches are justifiably famous for their warmth and beauty, and in Mexico's interior highlands, you'll find dozens of communities where North America retirees enjoy warm days and cool nights all year around. No snow to shovel, ever.
Outdoor Cafe in Merida, Mexico

*
Proximity to U.S. and Canada* -- Mexico is the nearest neighbor to the U.S. and one country away from Canada. This makes getting back home for any reason quick, simple, and affordable. There are hundreds of direct flights from major airports in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta, Merida, Cancun, and other Mexican hubs to major U.S. cities every day. (And more are coming. The U.S. and Mexico just signed a treaty to allow even more direct flights between even more cities in the two countries.) And much of Mexico is close enough that many U.S. and Canadian retirees drive to their Mexican winter quarters or second homes.

*Great Medical Care *-- In Mexico's major metropolitan areas, medical facilities are world class, and medical care costs significantly less than in the U.S. And entrepreneurs in Mexico are fully aware of the draw that good medical care has for U.S. and Canadian retirees... New facilities are being built and older facilities upgraded throughout Mexico to cater to foreign retirees.

*Lower Cost of Living* -- It can cost much less to live in Mexico than it does in the U.S. or Canada. Weather has a lot to do with this... If you live somewhere with mild, year-around weather, utility costs naturally go down. But other costs are lower as well, including health insurance and medical care, rents, and the cost of real estate. (Annual property taxes in Mexico are rarely more than $200.) There are certainly some areas of Mexico very popular with U.S. and Canadian tourists and retirees where prices are on par with those up north, but it doesn't take much looking once on the ground to find extremely reasonable rents and real estate prices outside the tourist and "gringo" zones. (By the way, the Mexican peso has been trading at close to 18 pesos to the U.S. dollar for some time now, making this the most affordable time in recent memory to be spending dollars in Mexico.)
Colorful Sidestreet in Tequisquiapan, Mexico

*Wonderful Cultures* -- Mexico has its own brand identity, and even people who have never been anywhere in the country think they know what Mexico is like. But it's a big country, and the difference between the culture in Merida and the culture in Puerto Vallarta is as vast as the difference between Virginia Beach and Portland or Montreal and Vancouver. The music, the food, the clothing, the attitudes ... there is so much cultural variety that thinking of Mexico as nothing but mariachis and tacos is like thinking of the U.S. as nothing but hip hop and burgers or of Canada as nothing but Celine Dion and poutine. Mexicans are proud of their national heritage, but they are just as likely as other North Americans to think of themselves in terms of their city, region, or state as anything else.

So it's no surprise to us that North American retirees have made Mexico their #1 destination. We've lived in three different communities in Mexico and have visited nearly every Mexican state, so the charms of Mexico are obvious to us.

And let us hasten to add that we have rarely felt unsafe or in danger anywhere we've lived or traveled in Mexico.

A number of factors have combined to cause terrible violence in some parts of the country, mostly due to conflicts over control of various aspects of the illegal drug trade. Having the largest and most profitable market on the planet for illegal drugs just across its northern border has not helped Mexico overcome its problems with drug-related crime.

But we are not involved in the production, sale, and distribution of drugs, and neither are the vast majority of expats living and working in Mexico. Statistically, many areas of Mexico are safer than areas of comparable populations in the U.S. and Canada. Those are the areas we've lived in, and those are the areas most U.S. and Canadian retirees live in. Safely.

So we guess there are actually six reasons that Mexico is the top destination for U.S. and Canadian citizens looking for a more affordable, high-quality retirement than they can get back home. And remember, Mexico is part of North America ... No wall will stop us from doing business with, retiring to, or enjoying the cultural richness and opportunities of our southern partner.
Aerial View of Guanajuato, Mexico

This article comes to us courtesy of InternationalLiving.com, the world's leading authority on how to live, work, invest, travel, and retire better overseas.

*Related Articles*
10 Reasons to Move to Mexico
5 Places To Live In Mexico...And 3 To Avoid
10 Best Places in the World to Escape the 2016 Political Season
Earlier on Huff/Post50:-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 19 hours ago.

Here's What Parents Of Kids With Life-Threatening Allergies Think Of The EpiPen Price Increases

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Jennifer DiMercurio’s 7-year-old son, Liam, relies on the EpiPen, an auto injector used to treat anaphylactic shock, to save his life in the case of a severe allergic reaction. The device delivers a dose of epinephrine that’s worth about $1. But over the past nine years, Mylan, the pharmaceutical company which makes the EpiPen, has increased the price of the patented injecting device from $100 to $600.

That increase put the DiMercurios in a bind. In January 2015, DiMercurio’s husband started a new job that didn’t include health insurance. The family turned to the private market, where they found a plan that would cover Liam and Jennifer, who had developed a Latex allergy ― but it had a hefty deductible. So on two occasions, after using up their stash to save each others’ lives, the family had to borrow funds from relatives to replace their EpiPens.

This summer, DiMercurio’s husband started a new job ― one that came with good health insurance. But the family couldn’t afford to buy the year’s EpiPens until the new insurance kicked in.

So for four months, they had to rely on expired models.

“I was scared to take my son out, especially as summer was coming ― even at the grocery store I’d be more worried and more on alert because I’ll be afraid,” DiMercurio said. “Especially having to use them myself I’ve seen now how important it is to use it quickly and how fast it happens, and you don’t know if your pen is going to work because it’s expired.”

Presidential candidates, politicians and the press have spent the past week slamming Mylan for the price increases. Since no rival generic products have Food and Drug Administration approval, Mylan has an almost complete monopoly. Mylan’s CEO Heather Bresch, who is the daughter of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), announced Thursday that the company would not cut the price of the injectors, but would increase the maximum it would offer to families in its copay assistance program from $100 to $300.

Parents of children with life-threatening allergies are still worried.

“So many of us are wondering if we’re going to be able to pay our mortgage if we pay for the pens,” DiMercurio said. “It’s bad enough when kids’ lives are lost just because they didn’t use an EpiPen quickly enough, but to not have it for a financial reason is despicable. It’s all we have and Mylan monopolized the market.”

-*FINANCIAL SACRIFICE*-

Aleasa Word, a working single mom in Atlanta, started saving last September to buy enough EpiPens for her two kids with food allergies to make it through the school year. The packs expire, so they need to be replaced each year, even if they aren’t used. Even with her insurance, a two-pack of EpiPens (they’re only sold in sets of two) costs her about $600, and she needs four packs to cover both her children ― one for each of them to carry, and one for each of them to have at school.

That comes out to a total of $2,400.

“I am willing to sacrifice whatever I need to sacrifice to get my children their medication,” Word said. “EpiPen is not optional in my house. I can’t not have it.”

Joy Velozo, a mother from Massachusetts, said she worries about the impact the price increase has on families that can no longer afford them. Her son, who will be 12 at the end of the month, is allergic to all nuts, eggs and shellfish. He has been home-schooled since last year in part because his local school would not guarantee that he would not be exposed to allergens in the upper classes, where students switch desks and classrooms throughout the day.

“I can’t imagine having to pay full price to have four sets of EpiPens to know he was covered in every situation,” she said.

Julianne DeNicola’s 7-year-old son, Joseph, died after he came into contact with pizza oil that had touched cheese ― enough to set off his extreme dairy allergy. Although his father administered an EpiPen shortly after his reaction, Joseph didn’t get the drug fast enough.“This isn’t just an over-the-counter product,” DeNicola said. “This is Russian Roulette. You can’t put a price tag on life.”

DeNicola said she has talked to other parents who say they have been forced to choose between a mortgage payment, putting aside money for college tuition, or buying a new set of EpiPens.

-*RISING RISKS*-

Other parents told HuffPost they’d heard of families splitting packs ― one EpiPen for home, one to carry ― as the cost of EpiPens has risen. This is dangerous. EpiPens are sold in packs of two in case someone needs more than one dose or the first EpiPen fails to deploy due to user error.

The possibility that more families could end up splitting the EpiPen packs terrifies Georgina Cornago Cipriano. She became an food allergy activist after her 14-year-old son, Giovanni, accidentally ingested something with peanuts and died.

“It’s becoming a luxury to be able to have an EpiPen. There are people that have multiple children with food allergies ― how can you afford them?” Cipriano asked. “You have to have more than one set. And you have to have two everywhere you go ― you never know if the first one could malfunction. You don’t know if the first one is going to be enough.”

When asked about families splitting the packs, DiMercurio said that she once had to use two of the EpiPens at the same time on her own son to get his reaction under control. But she’s had to rely on expired pens herself, so she understands the inclination to cut corners for cost.-*THE NECESSITY FOR ACCESS*-

In September 2013, Josephine Espinosa’s 13-year-old son Cameron was bitten by a swarm of fire ants during a football huddle in Corpus Christi, Texas. He’d had no previous allergy issues ― much like 25 percent of children who suffer their first allergic reaction in school ― but the mix of ant bites and adrenaline caused a severe allergic reaction that killed him.

The school did not have an EpiPen on hand, which Josephine believes could have saved his life.

“Once I found out an EpiPen could have saved my son, I knew I had to do something so that other parents don’t have to go through what we go through every day,” Espinosa said.

Last summer, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed Senate Bill 66, known as the Cameron Espinosa Act, into law, which requires public and charter schools in Texas to stock EpiPens and train staff on how to use them. Last school year was the first the law went into effect.

“It does give me a little peace of mind that [this is the law in Texas],” Espinosa said. “This is a nightmare, every day is a struggle. No parent should have to go through that.”

Eleven states in the country require all schools to carry EpiPens. The law in Texas does not apply to private schools.

Many emergency vehicles do not carry EpiPens or epinephrine on board. And many basic emergency medical technicians do not have access or may not be allowed to administer anything other than the patient’s own EpiPen, according to Food Allergy Research & Education, a nonprofit that advocates for the 15 million Americans who suffer from food allergies.

-*THE FEAR NEVER GOES AWAY*-

Parents of children with food allergies wonder every day if they’re going to get a phone call saying their child is having a life-threatening reaction, Velozo said.

The parents of those who have lost a child “are like the salespeople for EpiPens,” DeNicola said. “We’re the advocates on why they need to have it.”

“We walk on land mines every single day,” said Word, who organizes Love Remembers Day, an annual commemoration for those who have lost a loved one to food-induced anaphylaxis.

“I hate to get the phone call, I hate to get the emails,” she said. “And I don’t want to have a conversation on Love Remembers Day, and it’s because someone couldn’t afford their EpiPen.”

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 15 hours ago.

How Obamacare Destroyed The Middle Class In One Chart

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How Obamacare Destroyed The Middle Class In One Chart Ever wonder how politicians and bureaucrats can go out and deliver the same misleading propaganda to various media outlets each day and keep a straight face while doing it?  Are these folks so detached from the real world that they go back to the "safe space" of their offices in Washington D.C. and pat themselves on the back thinking they've actually duped the American people into believing some alternate set of facts that have no basis in reality?  Or, are they so immersed in the false narratives day in and day out that they actually start to believe their own rhetoric?

No matter the reason, one narrative we've found particularly misleading this week comes to us courtesy of Marjorie Connolly, of the Department of Health and Human Services, who has the brutally difficult job of defending the "success" of Obamacare as it literally on the verge of collapse from soaring premiums and declining insurer participation.  While we certainly don't envy the position of Connolly, we do find some of her comments to the press "slightly" misinformed. 

Just to provide an illustrative sample:



Reuters (8/2/16) - "Consumers coming back to shop for *2017 will continue to have a robust set of choices.*"

 

New York Times (8/19/16) - “A number of steps remain before the full picture of marketplace competition and prices are known. Regardless, we remain confident that the *majority of marketplace consumers will have multiple choices* and *will be able to select a plan for less than $75 per month* when Open Enrollment begins Nov. 1.”

 

The Tennessean (8/25/16) - “*Consumers in Tennessee will continue to have affordable coverage options in 2017*. Last year, the *average monthly premium for people with Marketplace coverage getting tax credits increased just $2, from $102 to $104 per month*, despite headlines suggesting double digit increases.”



As you can see, the chosen narrative of Connolly is to focus on the premiums paid by the overwhelming minority of healthcare consumers that actually receive subsidized rates under Obamacare.  While this may be the only "convenient" fact that Connolly could find to peddle, it ignores the skyrocketing rates that the other 95% of people, mostly middle-class Americans, have to pay.  

*So, here's the real math. * There are roughly 320mm people in the United States.  120mm people are covered under Medicare and Medicaid which leaves 200mm to be covered by "private" health insurance plans.  In 2016, roughly 11.1mm people signed up for "private" health insurance through one of the Obamacare federal or state exchanges.  Of those people, it is estimated that roughly 85%, or ~9.5mm people, received some level of "need-based" subsidy .  *News flash Department of Health and Human Services, 9.5mm people is less than 5% of the 200mm people seeking private health insurance.*  The other 95% is America's middle class and they're getting crushed. 

As for Connolly's suggestion that consumers will continue to have "robust" choices in 2017...we're not sure that people in the majority of the Southeast and Midwest with only 1 "option" for 2017 would agree.  

 

And, as for premiums...*we're not sure that a 21% YoY median increase is necessarily "affordable."*

 

The fact is, the overwhelming majority of the 95% we mention above is comprised of middle-class consumers who are bearing the brunt of the burden of rising health insurance costs.  *In fact, a June Brookings Institution study found that middle-income households now devote the largest share of their spending to health care ever, 8.9%, a rise of more than three percentage points from 1984 to 2014.*  Per the Wall Street Journal, since 2007 middle-class families have been forced to increase the share of their overall spending on healthcare by nearly 25% while cutting back massively on other necessities to cover the difference. 

*So here in one simple chart is why President Obama's Affordable Care Tax is crushing the middle-class more than any other social strata...*

*So, for those wondering why the "recovery" from the "great recession" has been so muted perhaps you need to look no further than the massive healthcare tax imposed on the middle class by Obamacare.* Reported by Zero Hedge 12 hours ago.
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