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Cambia spinoff HealthSparq acquires another health site

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HealthSparq, a Cambia Health Solutions spinoff, has acquired ClarusHealth Solutions, a health care provider search vendor. Portland-based HealthSparq, which enables consumers to comparison shop for health services online, said the combined companies will extend their current transparency and health care shopping offerings. The unified entity has 60 health insurance company customers that together cover more than 60 million consumers. ClarusHealth, based in Lewisville, Texas, integrates provider… Reported by bizjournals 7 hours ago.

Now for the Next Part of Reform: Controlling Health Care Costs

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A valid criticism of the Affordable Care Act is that it doesn't do enough to control health care costs. While there are a number of the law's provisions that should help -- such as the requirement that Medicare reduce payments to hospitals that have a high rate of readmissions -- the major focus of the ACA was reducing the number of uninsured Americans by establishing new guidelines for how health insurance companies operate.

That was the same focus of the bill former governor Mitt Romney signed into law in Massachusetts in 2006, which is why there are so many similarities between "Romneycare" and "Obamacare." Both, for example, sought to increase coverage by expanding Medicaid for low-income individuals and families, by prohibiting insurers from using health status when pricing policies, and by offering tax credits to help moderate income people buy insurance. Both also include an "individual mandate" -- a requirement that most folks must enroll in a health plan or pay a penalty.

Lawmakers in both Massachusetts and Washington came to the conclusion that expanding coverage and attacking health care costs could not be done in a single piece of legislation. Bill and Hillary Clinton tried unsuccessfully to do it in the early 1990s. What happened then was that all of health care's special interests -- insurers, doctors, hospitals, drug companies and medical device makers -- teamed up to kill the Clinton plan.

The lesson learned: sweeping reform was not politically feasible because of the political power of the entrenched special interests. Reform would have to be at least a two-step process, with the first step being to reduce the number of uninsured.

Both Romney and Obama adopted what was essentially a divide and begin-to-conquer strategy. Both were able to get their reform bills passed in large part by deferring action on addressing what my former insurance industry colleagues refer to as the "true drivers of health care costs."

The problem is that the current political environment in Washington makes it unlikely that more reforms can be enacted anytime soon. As long as Republicans remained determined to gut the Affordable Care Act, Democrats won't give them an opening by even allowing amendments to the law. And trying to find bipartisan support for any new proposals to reduce health care costs would be a fool's errand.

But all is not lost. Progress can be made to control health care costs. And once again, Massachusetts might be able to lead the way, although a few other states are also setting their sights on ways to rein in medical spending.

But first, the bad news.

A report released last week by the Massachusetts' Health Policy Commission said health care costs are higher in the Bay State than anywhere else and that more than one-third of what residents spend may be wasteful.

The good news: Massachusetts lawmakers at least had the foresight in 2012 to establish the Commission and to try to get a handle on costs. The law set targets for spending growth and establishes penalties on health care providers that exceed them.

Last week's report found some relatively low-hanging fruit that could be picked to reduce spending. Among those steps: reducing unnecessary hospital readmissions and visits to the emergency room when a visit to a clinic or a primary care physician would be more effective.

The report also suggests improvements that could be undertaken to achieve the commission's goals, ranging from making the cost and quality of care more transparent to changing how providers are paid to reward more efficient care.

As happened when Romneycare was passed in 2006, the eyes of policymakers in other states will be on Massachusetts in the coming years to see how the state's cost-control efforts turn out.

On the heels of the Massachusetts report came another one last week suggesting actions all states should consider to reduce health care spending. That work, by the bipartisan State Health Care Cost Containment Commission (organized by the University of Virginia's Miller Center) examines how the governors and legislators "can transform the current health-care system into one that is more integrated, coordinated, patient-centered and cost-effective."

In the coming weeks, I will be looking at what the states are actually doing to begin implementing the commission's recommendations. I'll start with Massachusetts, where numerous promising efforts already are underway.

If we finally can figure out how to reduce health care spending, it will be in the state capitals and private sector where the work just might get done, not Washington. Reported by Huffington Post 6 hours ago.

Next wave of health plan cancellations looming this fall for small businesses

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A number of small business owners and employees have already seen their health insurance plans canceled as a result of the health care law.

But is that just the beginning?

Our colleague Ariana Cha reports that a second wave of cancellations is looming this fall for small employers whose plans fail to meet new minimum coverage standards in the legislation. Many firms bought themselves extra time by renewing their plans this past fall, she says, extending coverage through the end of next year. Reported by Washington Post 6 hours ago.

Medical Price Gouging and Waste Are Skyrocketing

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An epidemic of sky-rocketing medical costs has afflicted our country and grown to obscene proportions. Medical bills are bloated with waste, redundancy, profiteering, fraud and outrageous over-billing. Much is wrong with the process of pricing and providing health care.The latest in this medical cost saga comes from new data released last week by National Nurses United (NNU), the nation's largest nurse's organization. In a news release, NNU revealed that fourteen hospitals in the United States are charging more than ten times their costs for treatment. Specifically, for every $100 one of these hospitals spends, the charge on the corresponding bill is nearly $1,200.NNU's key findings note that the top 100 most expensive U.S. hospitals have "a charge to cost ratio of 765 percent and higher -- more than double the national average of 331 percent." They found that despite the enactment of "Obamacare" -- the Affordable Care Act -- overall hospital charges experienced their largest increase in 16 years. For-profit hospitals continue to be the worst offenders with average charges of 503 percent of their costs compared to publically-run hospitals ("...including federal, state, county, city, or district operated hospitals, with public budgets and boards that meet in public...") which show more restraint in pricing. The average charge ratios for these hospitals are 235 percent of their costs.According to NNU's data, the*top 10 Most Expensive Hospitals in the U.S. listed according to the huge percentage of their charges relative to their costs are:*1. Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center, Secaucus, NJ - 1192%

2. Paul B. Hall Regional Medical Center, Painsville, KY - 1186%

3. Orange Park Medical Center, Orange Park, FL - 1139%

4. North Okaloosa Medical Center, Crestview, FL - 1137%

5. Gadsden Regional Medical Center, Gadsden, AL - 1128%

6. Bayonne Medical Center, Bayonne, NJ - 1084%

7. Brooksville Regional Hospital, Brooksville, FL - 1083%

8. Heart of Florida Regional Medical Center, Davenport, FL - 1058%

9. Chestnut Hill Hospital, Philadelphia, PA - 1058%

10. Oak Hill Hospital, Spring Hill, FL - 1052%The needless complications of the vast medical marketplace have provided far too many opportunities for profiteering. Numerous examples of hospital visit bills feature enormous overcharges on simple supplies such as over-the-counter painkillers, gauze, bandages and even the markers used to prep patients for surgery. That's not to mention the cost of more advanced procedures and the use of advanced medical equipment which are billed at several times their actual cost. These charges have resulted in many hundreds of millions of dollars in overcharges.When pressed for answers, many hospital representatives are quick to defer to factors out of their control. It's the cost of providing care they might say, or perhaps infer that other vague aspects of running the business of medical treatment add up and are factored into these massive charges. Cost allocations mix treatment costs with research budgets, cash reserves, and just plain accounting gimmicks. These excuses shouldn't fly in the United States.Few in the medical industry will acknowledge the troubling trend. One thing is undeniably certain however -- the medical marketplace is not suffering for profits. Health-care in the United States is a nearly 3 trillion dollar a year industry replete with excessive profits for many hospitals, medical supply companies, pharmaceutical companies, labs and health insurance vendors.Americans spend more on health care than anywhere else in the world. One would hope and wish, at the least, that this enormous expenditure would provide a quality of healthcare above and beyond that found in the rest of the western world. The reality is that the results on average are no better than in France, Germany, Canada and elsewhere, which manage to provide their quality treatment without all the overcharges.Much like our similarly wasteful, bloated military budget, the U.S. spends more on health care than the next ten countries combined -- most of which cover almost all of their citizens.The United States spends $8,233 per person, per year according to a 2012 figure from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The average expenditure of the thirty three other developed nations OECD tracked is just $3,268 per person.It gets worse. Harvard's Malcolm Sparrow, the leading expert on health care billing fraud and abuse, conservatively estimates that 10 percent of all health care expenditure in the United States is lost to computerized billing fraud. That's $270 billion dollars a year!And unlike other commercial markets, where the advance of technology routinely makes costs lower, the reverse trend is in effect when providing medical care -- the prices just keep soaring higher and higher. The flawed, messy Obamacare system will do little to help this worsening profit-grab crisis, which is often downright criminal in the way it exploits tragedy-stricken people and saddles them with mountains of debt.Steven Brill's TIME magazine cover story from February 2013 titled "Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us" gives an in-depth and highly-researched rundown of the severity of the medical cost problem and provides some of the worst, most astonishing examples of profiteering off of the plight of the sick or injured.Here's a fact that puts the full scope of this troubling trend into perspective -- Brill writes: "The health-care industrial complex spends more than three times what the military industrial complex spends in Washington". Specifically, the medical industry has spent $5.36 billion on lobbying in Washington D.C. since 1998. Compare that expenditure to the $1.53 billion spent lobbying by the also-bloated defense and aerospace sector.One line summarizes the breadth of Brill's enormous piece: "If you are confused by the notion that those least able to pay are the ones singled out to pay the highest rates, welcome to the American medical marketplace."Americans who can't pay and therefore delay diagnosis and treatment are casualties. About 45,000 Americans die every year because they cannot afford health insurance according to a peer-reviewed report by Harvard Medical School researchers. No one dies in Canada, Germany, France or Britain because they do not have health insurance. They are all insured from the time they are born.Obamacare, which has already confused and infuriated many Americans -- and even some experts -- with its complexity made up of thousands of pages of legislation and regulations is clearly not the answer to the problem. Long before the internet, President Lyndon Johnson enrolled 20 million elderly Americans into Medicare in six months using index cards. Canada's single-payer system was enacted with only a thirteen page bill -- and it covers everyone for less than half of the cost per capita compared to the U.S.'s system. (Check out 21 Ways the Canadian Health Care System is Better Than Obamacare)Enacting a single payer, full Medicare-for-all system is the only chance the United States has of unwinding itself from the spider web of waste, harm, and bloat that currently comprise its highly flawed health insurance and health care systems. It's time to cut out the corporate profiteers and purveyors of waste and fraud and introduce a system that works for everybody.(Autographed copies of my book Told You So: The Big Book of Weekly Columnsare available from Politics and Prose, an independent book store in Washington D.C.) Reported by Huffington Post 5 hours ago.

Fire Departments Relieved By Obamacare

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Regulators have put to rest fears that the new federal health care law would decimate local fire departments that rely on volunteer or on-call firefighters.

In a blog post on Friday, U.S. Treasury Department Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy Mark Mazur wrote that final regulations for the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, would not require volunteer hours to be counted when determining full-time employees.

"This is great and should give us a brief renewal of faith in our federal government," West Barnstable Fire Chief Joseph Maruca said Sunday about the announcement. "It happened a little quicker than I would have expected."

The West Barnstable Fire Department was among a handful of departments on the Cape and Islands that were concerned about the prospect of being required to pay for insurance for volunteer or on-call firefighters.

A provision in the new federal health care law that requires employers with 50 or more employees working at least 30 hours a week to provide health insurance for them could have pushed costs up for several departments and towns in the region. While many departments rely more than ever on career firefighters, some local departments, such as West Barnstable, Brewster, Provincetown and Truro, still depend heavily on on-call or volunteer personnel.

Several local fire officials contacted by the Times last week said a requirement to buy health insurance for volunteers or on-call firefighters would be devastating financially.

In his blog posting, Mazur wrote that comments submitted to the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service on the proposed new regulations suggested that "the employer responsibility rules should not count volunteer hours of nominally compensated volunteer firefighters and emergency medical personnel in determining full-time employees" or full-time equivalents.

It appears regulators got the message that was delivered by many rural and suburban fire chiefs, Maruca said, adding that 70 percent of the fire departments in the U.S. use volunteers.

"This wasn't some small special-interest group in the corner," he said.

While there still may be a question about the status of so-called volunteer firefighters who make upward of $20,000 or $30,000 a year, for departments where the income of volunteer firefighters from stipends is several hundred or several thousand dollars annually, the Treasury Department's decision will be a relief, Maruca said.

The West Barnstable department has 45 on-call firefighters who typically make between $1,000 and $3,000 a year in stipends, Maruca said.

"We think this guidance strikes the appropriate balance in the treatment provided to traditional full-time emergency responder employees, bona fide volunteers, and to our Nation's fire responder units, many of which rely heavily on volunteers," Mazur wrote in his blog posting. ___

(c)2014 the Cape Cod Times (Hyannis, Mass.)

Visit the Cape Cod Times (Hyannis, Mass.) at www.capecodonline.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services Reported by Huffington Post 3 hours ago.

Bernie Sanders Accuses GOP Of Hypocrisy Over Extending Unemployent Insurance

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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) criticized congressional Republicans on MSNBC's “The Ed Show” Friday, calling them hypocritical for refusing to extend emergency unemployment benefits, even though they did so five times during the Bush administration.

“I think there’s just an enormous amount of politics here,” Sanders told host Ed Schultz. “When Bush was president, Republicans voted for five extensions of emergency unemployment without any offsets. That was when Bush was president. Obama is president, it becomes a different story.”

Sanders also accused the GOP of legislating without empathy for the 1.3 million American workers who lost their long-term unemployment insurance in December.

“What these guys want to do is pretend, I believe, that they’re concerned about these 1.3 million workers,” Sanders said. “What it means in terms of rent, or a cell phone, or your ability to get a job. That is something our Republican colleagues are not thinking about at all.”

"So what they are talking about now are quote unquote offsets," he continued. "Not under Bush, but now they want it under Obama, and what these offsets will be is taking money from Peter to help pay Paul. What they want to do is cut the Affordable Care Act. They want to cut health insurance. These guys have been vicious about cutting food stamps. They want to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They want to cut any and all programs which benefit the working families of our country. That’s what they want to do now. That’s what they’ve always wanted to do."

Gene Sperling, director of the National Economic Council, echoed these sentiments at last Tuesday’s White House press conference, saying there was no precedent for House Republicans’ demand that an extension in unemployment insurance be paid for by spending cuts.

“Fourteen of the last 17 times in 20 years that it’s been extended, there’s been no strings attached,” Sperling told reporters. “All five times -- all five times that the previous President Bush extended emergency unemployment benefits, there was no pay-for strings attached and the unemployment rate was lower each of those five times than it is today.”

A staunch advocate for expanding government programs like Social Security and Medicare, Sanders proposed raising revenue by closing tax loopholes for American corporations instead of stifling existing social programs.

“When one out of four corporations in this country, including some very very wealthy ones, and profitable ones, don’t pay a nickel in federal income taxes, you think we can raise some revenue there?” Sanders asked Schultz. “Do you think we can raise revenue when we’re losing a hundred billion every year because corporate America is stashing their money in the Cayman Islands?”

Sanders warned congressional Republicans that “they’re going to be hurt politically ... if they don’t help these 1.3 million Americans.” Reported by Huffington Post 3 hours ago.

Fitch: Rocky Roll-Out of ACA Insurance Expansion Could Dampen For-Profit Hospital Sector Benefits

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NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A successful roll-out of the health insurance expansion elements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would help offset the effect of headwinds to growth and profitability in the for-profit hospital sector in 2014, according to Fitch Ratings. In its early stages, however, the implementation has been fraught with difficulties. There have been technical issues with the federal health insurance marketplace website and confusion about whether health insurers can reinstate cov Reported by Business Wire 2 hours ago.

New Obamacare Numbers Released

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WASHINGTON (AP) — It's an older, costlier crowd that's signing up for health insurance under President Barack Obama's law.

At least that's how it looks for now.

Administration officials released age and gender breakdowns on Monday for more than 2 million Americans who had enrolled for government-subsidized private insurance by the end of December.

Adults from 55-64 were 33 percent of the total. Medicare starts at 65.

Young adults from 18-34 were only 24 percent. Not a bad start, say independent experts, but it should be more like 40 percent to help control premiums.

Officials say they expect a surge of younger people toward the end of open enrollment March 31.

Women were 54 percent of those signing up.

Of the total so far, nearly four out of five have gotten financial help. Reported by Huffington Post 1 hour ago.

75,000 Mich. residents choose health insurance

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About 75,000 Michigan residents chose a health insurance plan from a government website during the first three months of enrollment under the federal health care law. Reported by Miami Herald 1 hour ago.

More than 11,000 in NH select ACA health plans

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CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The number of New Hampshire residents selecting a health plan through the new federal health insurance market increased significantly in December compared to the first two months of open enrollment.
 
 
 
  Reported by Boston.com 1 hour ago.

Middle-aged Americans first in line for health insurance, new numbers show

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Government officials confirmed on Monday that more than 2 million people have signed up for private health insurance on the new government websites, but just under a quarter of them are the presumably healthy young adults needed to make the plans profitable. Reported by msnbc.com 33 minutes ago.

Health insurance enrollment takes off in Michigan, nation for coverage under ACA

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Enrollment for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act took off in Michigan and across the nation in December though it remained somwhat below Obama adminstration targets. Reported by Freep 1 hour ago.

Health care signups in Wis., W.Va., skew older

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Nearly half of the Wisconsin and West Virginia residents who signed up for health insurance through the new online exchanges are senior citizens, which could lead to higher insurance rates in those two states. Reported by ajc.com 1 hour ago.

Health care signups: More older Americans so far

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WASHINGTON (AP) — It's an older, costlier crowd that's signing up for health insurance under President Barack Obama's law. Administration officials released age and gender breakdowns on Monday for more than 2 million Americans who had enrolled for government-subsidized private insurance by the end of December. Reported by SeattlePI.com 2 hours ago.

California continues to lead U.S. in numbers of health insurance enrollments

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December's frenzy to sign up for insurance under the nation's new healthcare law accounted for a staggering 83 percent of the new healthcare policies written before the deadline to start coverage this month. Reported by San Jose Mercury News 1 hour ago.

New Obamacare Numbers Deemed "Misleading" and Why That's Not Really What's Important

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New Obamacare Numbers Deemed Misleading and Why That's Not Really What's Important New Obamacare Numbers Deemed "Misleading" and Why That's Not Really What's Important
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President Obama’s signature healthcare initiative never had a chance. From its very inception, political opposition and special-interest lobbyists ginned up their PR machines which led to immediate and frenetic resistance from Republicans, conservative media, and citizens themselves. Since October 1, when healthcare exchanges and other major pieces of the legislation were officially rolled out, stories of how the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare was failing the public were ubiquitous.

Remarkably, considering the dearth of criticism the Obama administration knew was out there, the rollout of the exchanges was almost hopelessly bungled. The website was full of glitches and could not handle the traffic. The networks in the exchanges are narrow, and it is more difficult to hold on to one’s preferred plan—or even their preferred doctors—because of it.

The story was covered as a political one. Individual experiences with the website and health plans were reported in the news, sometimes without even doing due diligence to determine the veracity of the claims, as simple anecdotal evidence to prove political speculation. All that seems to matter is what “side” a person is on, rather than how the system is actually affecting these people.

The latest line from the Obama administration is that 6 million people have signed up for health insurance thanks to the Affordable Care Act. However, CNN Money reports that these figures “are somewhat misleading.” According to their statistics, 2.1 million people were able to sign up for private coverage through the marketplace exchanges found on Healthcare.gov. The other 3.9 million people are those covered under Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program or CHIP. What’s uncertain is how many of those 3.9 million people were already eligible for these programs and reapplied and how many were newly eligible thanks to the new law.

In fact, the Medicaid numbers would be even higher if 24 governors hadn’t refused the federal funds to expand the program for their citizens. According to estimates from the White House in November, they expected the already-approved Medicaid expansions to provide coverage to 4.6 million people, and they fell short of that number.

One could spend days wondering if conservatives would be see the Medicaid numbers being lower than expected as a “victory” because there are less people on the government program than expected or because the White House guessed a number and was wrong again. Yet little concern is given to those in the states without the expansion who need coverage or how those newly on Medicaid are being serviced and its effect on the overall program efficiency, at least unless someone develops a political angle on that story too.

Also being ignored are the real problems with the new law that don’t lend themselves to good political rhetoric. For example, the public option was supposed to serve as market control by giving consumers a low-cost, (supposedly) quality choice. This would (in theory) force hospitals, insurers, and companies that profit from medicine to force ways to cut costs and stay solvent. Without this in place, a provision in the bill meant to provide relief to companies if not enough people signed up has now become (essentially) an insurance company bailout.

Whether or not the law is good or bad policy, inherently flawed or adaptable to perfection, all that seems to matter is the horse race. For President Obama to fail, the law has to fail, and Republicans have seemingly adopted a strategy that his failure is the key to their success. Rather than winning elections by saying “I’m right,” they seem instead to be relying on voters saying “He’s wrong.” The policy and the people it’s meant to help take a backseat to that story.

1 Reported by Opposing Views 44 minutes ago.

Older, costlier Americans signing up for insurance under health care law

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It's an older, costlier crowd that's signing up for health insurance under President Barack Obama's law. Reported by Deseret News 49 minutes ago.

Where are the young? Older, costlier Americans signing up for insurance under health care law

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It's an older, costlier crowd that's signing up for health insurance under President Barack Obama's law. Reported by Deseret News 25 minutes ago.

RadSite to Host Complimentary Webinar on Final Omnibus Rule

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Topics to Include Impact of HIPAA, HITECH

Houston, TX and Annapolis, MD (PRWEB) January 14, 2014

RadSite™ is offering a free webinar to explore the impact of the final Omnibus Rule on the health care industry—from providers to payers. RadSite, based in Houston, TX, and Annapolis, MD, is a leading certification organization promoting quality-based imaging practices. This is the second webinar hosted by RadSite focusing on HIPAA, HITECH and the final Omnibus Rule.

The webinar, HIPAA and HITECH: Understanding the Final Omnibus Rule, scheduled for January 21, 2014, at 12:00 p.m. ET, will examine the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) in relation to the final Omnibus Rule. This education-based, conversational webinar will feature noted security professional Angie Singer Keating, CISA, CIPP, CISM, CRISC, as well as RadSite representatives.

To register for the webinar, please click here.

Keating’s extensive background includes her work as CEO and a co-founder of Reclamere, Inc. In this capacity she served as chief architect of the proprietary data destruction system Reclamere uses, which includes the only forensically sound quality control process for 100% of all hard drives. Keating also designed Reclamere’s data recovery and forensic labs for maximum security, outfitting them with state-of-the-industry tools. She does extensive speaking regarding HIPAA and HITECH and serves as adjunct faculty for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute.

“While most health care professionals are familiar with HIPAA, the final Omnibus Rule poses some new challenges when it comes to ensuring business associates are also in compliance,” Keating says. “HIPAA enforcement actions are on the rise and the Office of Civil Rights has made it clear that regardless of size, all health care organizations must comply or face serious sanctions. This webinar will focus on the sweeping changes for Covered Entities and Business Associates, which have been brought on by the final Omnibus Rule.”

As an organization focused on quality and safety, RadSite recognizes the role HIPAA and HITECH play in setting standards within the industry. In fact, understanding is the first step to compliance. This webinar is designed for providers, health plans and other professionals who seek guidance in order to comply with recently enacted legislation, or those simply interested in additional education on these new changes to HIPAA and HITECH.

RadSite offers an array of quality-based, cost-savings assessment, certification and accreditation programs that promote best practices in imaging and other specialty services across the United States and its territories. The comprehensive programs highlight opportunities for imaging facilities to achieve a high level of quality that benefits all members of the health care continuum. RadSite also offers educational and reporting services for health plans, imaging providers, regulators, consumers and others.
# # #

About RadSite™ (http://www.radsitequality.com)
Founded in 2005, RadSite’s mission is to promote quality-based practices for imaging systems across the United States and its territories. RadSite has reviewed over 24,000 imaging facilities covering about 60,000 imaging systems. RadSite’s certification and accreditation programs help assess, track and report imaging trends in an effort to enhance imaging procedures and outcomes. RadSite also offers educational programs, publishes issue briefs, and underwrites research on a complimentary basis to raise awareness of patient safety issues and to promote best practices. The organization is governed by an independent board and committee system, which is open to a wide-range of volunteers to ensure transparency and accountability. RadSite is expanding its activities and resources to serve patients, providers, payers, government agencies, and other stakeholder groups. To learn more about RadSite, please contact us at (855) 440-6001 or info(at)radsitequality(dot)com. Reported by PRWeb 15 hours ago.

Health care signups: More older Americans so far

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Younger people went for President Barack Obama at election time, but will they buy his health insurance? New government figures show it's an older, costlier crowd that's signing up so far for health insurance under Obama's health care law. With the HealthCare.gov website now working, the figures cover the more than 2 million Americans who had signed up for government-subsidized private insurance through the end of December in new federal and state markets. "The dynamic of younger people is that they are going to get educated, they are going to get informed, and they are going to enroll as we get closer to that deadline," said Aaron Smith, founder of Young Invincibles, an advocacy group for young adults. Administration officials said that in the coming weeks they plan to increase outreach to young people in 25 communities located in states served by the federal website. [...] even if the age mix remains tilted toward older adults, "it's nothing of the sort that would trigger instability in the system," said Larry Levitt, an insurance expert with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. Premiums would go up next year for the overhaul, along with taxpayer costs per enrollee, but not enough to push the system into a "death spiral" in which rising premiums discourage healthy people from signing up. "Many people have a preconceived notion that young people are healthy and don't need to go to the doctor," said Sylvain, who suffered a minor injury when she fell and hit her head during an indoor soccer class in 2012. Reported by SeattlePI.com 14 hours ago.
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