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Jennifer Bailey Joins Cognosante as Chief People Officer

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Jennifer Bailey, an industry veteran with more than 20 years of experience, spearheads all HR functions as Chief People Officer at Cognosante.

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (PRWEB) September 19, 2018

Cognosante, a leader in health information technology solutions and services for Federal and state public health agencies, today announced the appointment of Jennifer Bailey as Chief People Officer. Bailey, an industry veteran with more than 20 years of experience, will spearhead all Human Resources (HR) functions, including acquiring, developing, and retaining talent; building and advancing organizational capabilities, and driving employee engagement.

“We are thrilled to welcome Jennifer to the team,” said Cognosante founder and CEO Michele Kang. “She recognizes the unique challenges and tremendous opportunities associated with a rapidly growing, fast-paced environment, and understands how establishing the right people strategy is critical to the success of our organization. Jennifer’s proven ability to provide strategic direction, leadership, coordination, and management of all facets of HR operations will support Cognosante’s strategic direction, creating alignment with the mission, vision, values, goals, and overall culture of the company.”

Bailey joins Cognosante from Perspecta, where she served as Vice President of Human Resources for the past four years. In this role, she was responsible for all aspects of HR including talent acquisition, talent management, total rewards, and HR business partnerships. Prior to Perspecta, Bailey spent 13 years at Vangent Inc. which was later acquired by General Dynamics Information Technology. As Vice President of HR for the Health and Civilian Solutions Division, she served as a trusted advisor to senior business leaders and drove the implementation of workforce strategies.

“I look forward to contributing and providing insights that are meaningful to both business and people,” said Bailey. “This opportunity strikes a perfect balance for me—one that allows me to apply government contracting industry knowledge to human capital strategy while also participating as a member of the executive team. I believe business growth comes from a happy and thriving workforce, and from what I’ve heard, that exceptional talent already exists at Cognosante.”

About Cognosante
Cognosante provides technology solutions, business process outsourcing, and consulting services to Federal, state, and local government health agencies. The company has nearly three decades of experience working with 48 states and the Federal government, developing, managing, and executing large, complex health information programs. Its expertise includes Medicaid; Medicare; military and Veterans’ health; the health insurance marketplace; data standards and analytics; modular system development and integration; and fraud, waste, and abuse detection and prevention. Visit cognosante.com for more information.

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Media Contact
Heidi Gerarde
Communications Manager, Cognosante
(703) 658-8414
communications@cognosante.com
http://www.twitter.com/cognosante
http://www.facebook.com/Cognosante
http://www.linkedin.com/company/cognosante/ Reported by PRWeb 17 hours ago.

Hero Receives Broking License from IRDAI

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The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority has issued a three-year license in the “*Direct – Life & General*” category to *Hero Insurance Broking India Private Limited* to conduct all types of General Insurance Business, including Health and Life Insurance.

 

The robust insurance business of Sunil Kant Munjal-promoted Hero Enterprise, which is currently carried out by Hero Corporate Service Pvt. Ltd., will migrate to Hero Broking.

 

“Our insurance vertical has grown new wings. This license gives us the capability to expand our physical footprint and grow our branch network on a sustainable basis. We will also be able to expand beyond automobile insurance and create fresh momentum in the new decade,’’ *Shefali Munjal, Executive Director, Hero Corporate Service* said.

 

To grow the broking platform, Hero is strengthening its client servicing teams across India. The company’s IT backbone is  also being strengthened to meet the customised needs of large corporates, SMEs, MME’s & other niche customer segments.

 

The broking license will bring new synergies to Hero’s strong insurance distribution ecosystem and help it offer a wider choice of insurance partners and products to its base of customers. It will also the company’s distribution touch points to become “*One Stop Shops*” for all basic insurance needs of the customer.

 

“Our relationship with channel partners are based on the principle of win-win, and we’ve always sought to create a distinct and sustainable revenue model for them, while being compliant at the same time, ’’ *Ms. Munjal* said.

 

She said the broking license would also help Hero offer certain super-specialised insurance products that are making their way into India. “Hero has regularly collaborated with its insurance partners to develop customised products over the years, and this practice will be further strengthened, given the wider portfolio on offer,’’ *Ms. Munjal* added.

 

Hero is also keen to partner and support the government in its efforts to increase insurance penetration, especially through digitisation.

 

“We pioneered instant online paperless policy issuance in India; continuous investments both at the front and back ends have meant that even as volumes have expanded, policy processing time has come down from 20 minutes to under three minutes. We are now adding new layers to our technology platform in our efforts to become torchbearers of Digital India,’’ *Ms. Munjal* said.

 

Hero currently offers its general insurance services to the manufacturing, hospitality, education, health, travel and aviation sectors, in addition to the entire automobile segment. It recently entered the life insurance segment, and is now aggressively looking at expanding its footprint in the health insurance space.

 

“Our distribution strengths lie across Tier 2, 3 and 4 cities and the trust that customers already have for the Hero brand, place us at the frontline in the battle to increase health penetration in India,’’ *Ms. Munjal* added.

 

Since its inception 13 years ago, Hero has partnered with the best and most progressive insurance companies in the industry and has crossed several milestones. It will further augment this initiative through the broking platform with a need based approach.

 

The company (under the erstwhile Corporate Agency Platform) has clocked a CAGR of 26.4 per cent in the 2004-2017 period, with policies issued jumping from 6 lakh to 10 million policies annually, and the number of renewals has gone up from 20,000 a year to 4 million a year. The premium handling capacity has increased from Rs. 4.5 crore to Rs. 2000 crores, while average monthly policy issuance has gone up from 5000 to 8 lakh.

 

*About Hero Insurance Broking India Pvt. Ltd.*

Hero Insurance Broking India Pvt. Ltd. (HIBIPL) is part of Hero Enterprise and is India’s leading Insurance Broker with a unique vision to sell insurance products. Hero Insurance Broking is having all systems and processes in place as per regulatory requirement, using state-of-the-art technology. The Insurance Broking Portal is a web-based interface that allows the distributor to sell insurance products to its customers. Its unique feature is the choice it gives to the distributor, both in terms of products, service provider and customer retention strategies. It manages over 4000 distributors active in over 2500 locations in India.

  Reported by NewsVoir 12 hours ago.

InsurTech transactions reach new peak in Q2; 5-year Life & Health InsurTech investment exceeds $5 billion

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LONDON, Sept. 20, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A total of 71 InsurTech funding transactions during the second quarter of 2018 marks a record high; however, the total of $579 million invested is down 20% against the prior quarter, according to the new Quarterly InsurTech Briefing from Willis Towers Watson, the leading global advisory, broking and solutions company, (NASDAQ:WLTW). Q2 also set a new record for the volume of incumbent participation in InsurTech investments.The latest briefing, produced in collaboration with CB Insights focuses on InsurTech for the Life & Health insurance industry and how the complexity of change occurring within the value chain is much greater than in other insurance subsectors, and the potential positive impact on the quality of life for the customer is substantially more profound. The briefing focuses on three key areas of Life & Health value chain disruption: data, customer and product.

New forms of underwriting data are expanding exponentially as a result of advances in the understanding of the human body and the proliferation of wearable sensors that track activity and monitor behaviours. InsurTech companies are developing tools to harness this data in order to create insightful information that can be used to enhance Life & Health products. As the ecosystem for data and analytics continues to develop, one potential outcome may be greater convergence between Health insurers and Life insurers.

InsurTech firms are also creating more customer-centric life & health insurance products that alleviate the confusion and complexity of the purchasing process while also developing solutions that are tailored to an individual’s changing insurance needs. Emerging technology enables the development of customized insurance offerings that better align sales incentives and help to resolve compliance issues. It also creates a more effective distribution channel and can better address the protection gap that results from one size fits all products and rising healthcare costs.

Finally, InsurTech companies are providing access to around-the-clock services using artificial intelligence, machine learning, and chat-bots, all in an effort to place greater emphasis on risk mitigation and prevention. For Life & Health underwriters, they provide increasingly better tools to predict life expectancy and the probability of illness while also providing insurers with an opportunity to develop real time dialogues with their customers to increase engagement and to deliver a value proposition designed to help customers live longer and healthier lives.

“While P&C insurers certainly have a chance to develop real time dialogues with their customers, the opportunity hardly compares with that for Life & Health insurers,” says Rafal Walkiewicz, Chief Executive Officer of Willis Towers Watson Securities. “We believe that the eventual winners in the Life & Health industry will be the ones who shift their attention from primarily offering death benefits, investment support and coverage for protection gaps to offering customers a true partnership to live longer and healthier lives.”

Greg Solomon, Head of Life & Health Reinsurance at Willis Re International, says: “The application of InsurTech in the Life & Health sector ranges from the explicit use of new technologies to distribute and underwrite insurance policies, to more indirect usage such as wellness, where technology is deployed simply to make policyholders healthier and happier. But everything overlaps. Innovations are either driven by (re)insurers or used by them, or engaged by prospects and policyholders, which affects (re)insurers’ experiences. The change will be profound, but many incumbent carriers have some way to travel yet.” 

*About Willis Towers Watson*

Willis Towers Watson (NASDAQ:WLTW) is a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company that helps clients around the world turn risk into a path for growth. With roots dating to 1828, Willis Towers Watson has over 40,000 employees serving more than 140 countries. We design and deliver solutions that manage risk, optimize benefits, cultivate talent, and expand the power of capital to protect and strengthen institutions and individuals. Our unique perspective allows us to see the critical intersections between talent, assets and ideas – the dynamic formula that drives business performance. Together, we unlock potential. Learn more at willistowerswatson.com

*About Willis Towers Watson Securities *

Willis Towers Watson Securities, with offices in New York, London, Hong Kong and Sydney, provides advice to companies involved in the insurance and reinsurance industry on a broad array of mergers and acquisition transactions as well as capital markets products, including acting as underwriter or agent for primary issuances, operating a secondary insurance-linked securities trading desk and engaging in general capital markets and strategic advisory work. Willis Towers Watson Securities is a trade name used by Willis Securities, Inc., a licensed broker dealer authorized and regulated by FINRA and a member of SIPC (“WSI”), Willis Towers Watson Securities Europe Limited (Registered number 2908053 and ARBN number 604 264 557), an investment business authorized and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (“WTW Securities Europe”) and Willis Towers Watson Securities (Hong Kong) Limited, a corporation licensed and regulated by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (“WTW Securities (HK)”).

*About Willis Re*

One of the world's leading reinsurance brokers, Willis Re is known for its world-class analytics capabilities, which it combines with its reinsurance expertise in a seamless, integrated offering that can help clients increase the value of their businesses. Willis Re serves the risk management and risk transfer needs of a diverse, global client base that includes all of the world's top insurance and reinsurance carriers as well as national catastrophe schemes in many countries around the world. The broker's global team of experts offers services and advice that can help clients make better reinsurance decisions and negotiate optimum terms. For more information, visit willisre.com.

*About CB Insights *

CB Insights is a Pilot Growth and National Science Foundation backed software company that uses data science, machine learning and predictive analytics to help customers predict what’s next. CB Insights has built a tech market intelligence platform that analyzes millions of data points on venture capital, startups, patents, partnerships and news media to predict technology trends.

*Contacts:*

*Media*

Annie Roberts: +44 20 3124 7080 | Annie.Roberts@willistowerswatson.com

*Investors*

Rich Keefe: +1 215 246 3961 | Rich.Keefe@willistowerswatson.com Reported by GlobeNewswire 11 hours ago.

PHARMAGEST INTERACTIVE : eNephro reimbursement & new Hospital partnership

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Villers-lès-Nancy, 18 September 2018 - 6:00 p.m. (CET)
PRESS RELEASE

*eNephro telemonitoring *

*eligibility for reimbursement by French national health insurance and partnership with Nancy Regional and University Hospital (CHRU)*

*PHARMAGEST Group (Euronext Paris - B - FR0012882389)* *announces that eNephro, its home telemonitoring solution for chronic kidney disease patients developed since 2013, has qualified for the French ETAPES programme (experimental telemedicine solutions for improving health care pathways) and will be eligible for reimbursement French health insurance for the monitoring modules for patients in certain dialysis units (UAD / autonomous dialysis units), (UDM - medical supervised dialysis) and for post-transplantation monitoring. The Group also announced a partnership with the Nancy Regional and University Hospital (CHRU) focusing on this innovative technological solution.*

· *eNephro* becomes the first solution for patients with chronic renal failure at different stages of their illness covered by the French health insurance system for monitoring dialysis in autonomous and medically supervised dialysis units and for post-transplantation monitoring.
· As the culmination of a study initiated in 2013 in connection with a call for proposals for the "e-Health 2 Project" spearheaded by Diatelic, the Pharmagest Group e-Health subsidiary, it covered the Regional and University Hospitals (CHRU) of Nancy, Bordeaux and Lille and the not-for-profits for the treatment of persons with renal failure or kidney machine patients, ALTIR (Association Lorraine Traitement Insuffisance Rénale) and AURAD Aquitaine (Association pour l'Utilisation du Rein Artificiel à Domicile en Aquitaine).
· With an active list of more than 1,200 transplant patients, the nephrology department of the hospital in Nancy has adopted remote monitoring for its patients using the *eNephro* solution developed by Pharmagest Group.
· A development which strengthens the growth strategy based on innovation Pharmagest Group has been developing for more than 10 years.
· The Group has in this way demonstrated the efficacy of its telemedicine solution when applied to a chronic illness such as renal failure in comparison to the traditional method of care.

*eNephro**: an innovative solution proposing a new organisational model*
The originality and innovation of the *eNephro* solution is based on its optimised organisational model integrating all parties participating in the care pathway (general practitioner, nephrologists and dialysis teams, pharmacists, transplant physicians, nursing aides) within a comprehensive patient-centred programme.
The implementation of new organisational practices based on innovative information and communication technologies, and the sharing of patient medical data (personal medical records, secure messaging) represent an enormous opportunity to provide patients with chronic illnesses a collaborative-based and quality approach to care.

*eNephro**: a comprehensive platform reimbursed by the French health insurance system for monitoring transplant and dialysis patients.*
The development of telemedicine is currently a major political priority as highlighted by article 54 of the 2018 French Social Security Financing Act.

The objective of the ETAPES programme (experimental telemedicine solutions for improving health care pathways) spearheaded by the French Directorate-General for Healthcare Services (Direction Générale de l'Offre de Soins or DGOS) is to promote the development of telemedicine and its financing. The telemonitoring component of this programme covers monitoring of five chronic illnesses (heart , kidney and respiratory failure, diabetes and cardiac arrhythmia).

The *eNephro* solution, developed by Diatelic (a Pharmagest subsidiary), has been DGOS approved since May 2018 as a solution for chronic kidney failure, with CE marking.
*eNephro* is also the only solution to date proposing a platform providing support for all replacement therapies.

Within the framework of the financial support provided to *eNephro* by the ETAPES programme , only post-transplant and dialysis patients in basic care dialysis units are eligible for reimbursement. The number of patients with chronic renal failure who will be able to benefit from telemonitoring, covered within the framework of the ETAPES programme, represents approximately 38,000 transplant patients and 20,000 dialysis patients.
With medical telemonitoring remaining within the ETAPES experimental framework for a four-year period, Pharmagest Group is working to integrate more parameters within the scope of health insurance reimbursement.

*Partnership with the Nancy Regional and University Hospital (CHRU)*
With an active list of more than 1,200 transplant patients, the nephrology department the hospital in Nancy, under the responsibility of Prof. Luc Frimat, has undertaken to adopt remote monitoring for patients at home in order to secure and optimise their care. The ETAPES programme offers patients monitored continuity within the framework of the e-nephro study and a new service for those (meeting the criteria) who so wish. The medical monitoring will be performed by healthcare professionals of the Nancy Regional and University Hospital in coordination with the remotely monitored patients and their designated general practitioners.

As a participant in telemedicine projects for several years in different sectors (telestroke services, remote neuro-radiological exams, remote medical coordination, teleconsulting for geriatrics, anaesthetics, dermatologists.), the Nancy hospital centre is involved in the home monitoring of patients through remote monitoring mechanisms and notably the *eNephro* solution developed by the Pharmagest Group for kidney failure.

*Disease Management and e-Health: promising prospects for the Pharmagest Group*
In response to changing social, demographic and epidemiological trends, disease management should  experience significant development in the coming years throughout Europe, especially given his potential for improving the monitoring of persons with chronic diseases and addressing the needs for the rationalisation and standardisation of healthcare within a restricted  financial framework.

Like *eNephro*, a valuable tool for optimising the Disease Management Programme, the different innovative solutions developed by Pharmagest Group and the experiments conducted are destined to demonstrate the medical and economic relevance of these telemedicine and remote monitoring solutions (such as expert systems to predict the evolution of chronic illnesses or monitoring medication compliance and securing the medication pathway).

*Pharmagest Interactive's upcoming financial publications and events:*
- Publication of H1 2018 results: 21 September 2018 (after the close of trading).
-  SFAF analysts meeting: 24 September 2018 - 11:30 a.m.
- Publication of Q3 2018 sales: 14 November 2018

*About Pharmagest Group - *Pharmagest Group is *the French pharmacy information technology leader,* with a market share of more than 42% and more than 1,000 employees. The Group's strategy is based on a core business of improving healthcare through information technology innovation and developing two priority areas: 1/ Services and technologies for patients and healthcare professionals, with a focus on assisting pharmacies in patient medication compliance; and 2/ technologies for improving the efficacy of healthcare systems.
This strategy is executed through specialised business lines developed by Pharmagest Group: pharmacy IT solutions, e-Health solutions, solutions for healthcare professionals, solutions for pharmaceutical laboratories, connected health devices and apps, and a sales financing marketplace....
These businesses are grouped within four divisions: Pharmacy - Europe Solutions; Health and Social Care Facilities Solutions; e-Health Solutions and Fintech.

www.pharmagest.com

Listed on Euronext Paris(TM) - Compartment B ISIN: FR 0012882389 - Reuters: PHA.PA  - Bloomberg: - PMGI FP
Indices: CAC ® SMALL and CAC ® All-Tradable
Eligible for the Long-Only Deferred Settlement Service (SRD)

*CONTACTS*

*Chief Operating Officer, Pharmagest e-Health*
Erwan Salque
Tel: +33 (0)3 83 15 93 27 - erwan.salque@lacooperativewelcoop.com

*Analyst and Investor Relations* :
Chief Administrative and Financial Officer : Jean-Yves Samson
Tel. +33 (0)3 83 15 90 67 - jean-yves.samson@lacooperativewelcoop.com

*Media Relations: *
FIN'EXTENSO - Isabelle APRILE
Tel. +33 (0)1 39 97 61 22 - i.aprile@finextenso.fr

*Attachment*

· PHARMAGEST: eNephro reimbursement & new Hospital partnersh.pdf Reported by GlobeNewswire 10 hours ago.

DFV Deutsche Familienversicherung AG: Digital property insurance

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DFV Deutsche Familienversicherung AG: Digital property insurance *FRANKFURT AM MAIN, GERMANY / ACCESSWIRE / September 20, 2018 /* Deutsche Familienversicherung has been offering a new household insurance policy since 19.09.2018. DFV-HausratSchutz is therefore the first of a total of three new digital property insurance policies that the Frankfurt-based Insurtech will be launching on the market in the coming weeks. "16 Matrix" therefore consists of household contents, liability insurance, motor legal protection and accident insurance. The latter was launched on the market last year and is the first "on demand" accident insurance in Germany, and was awarded a "very good" rating (1.3) by the German consumer organisation, Stiftung Warentest on Wednesday. The structure of "16 Matrix Property" is based on the simple and clear structure of "16 Matrix health" and in terms of costs is available in the variants Basic, Comfort, Premium and Exclusive. Dr. Stefan M. Knoll, CEO and founder of Deutsche Familienversicherung says: "In 2007 we launched the property insurance package Combi-5-plus onto the German insurance market which offered a revolutionary new product solution. So, in 2018 we will be implementing the new 16^th Matrix Property"; a product portfolio that is easy to understand and is based the level of digitisation of our supplementary health insurance.

*Customers want things to be quick and easy - the digital customer journey*

The digital customer journey begins once the customer has chosen one of the insurance products Basic, Comfort, Premium or Exclusive, and Deutsche Familienversicherung offers the mobile payment methods PayPal, AmazonPay and Amazon Login. Once the 2-minute online process is complete, the customer will receive an email with the login data for the DFV customer portal, the link to download the DFV app and an insurance card in wallet format. The digital wallet card has replaced the old plastic card. Customers can use the DFV app and the DFV customer portal to make changes to their contract data which the Java-based IT-system then implements in real time and notifies the customer direct via email. The conclusion and business processing of the new DFV property insurance therefore takes place exclusively online and digitally. Dr. Stefan M. Knoll: "Customers want things to be quick, easy, clear and transparent, convenient is the key. We can guarantee this with our digital customer journey and achieve new standards in terms of customer orientation."

*Claims settlement - the digital 48-hour guarantee*

A claims settlement starts with a scan or image of the invoice which customers can upload to their DFV app or the DFV customer portal. The digital claims settlement process can then begin. With accident insurance, the Insurtech uses ICD-10 codes, an international classification of medical interventions and health conditions that would frequently appear on a medical invoice. The artificial intelligence then compares the data with the codes stipulated in the insurance policy conditions as covered, and the AI uses a fully automated process to decide if the costs will be reimbursed. Deutsche Familienversicherung also uses AI to settle claims relating to other property insurance cases. However, the Insurtech is only in the early stages of the application; Dr. Stefan M. Knoll adds: "The vulnerability to fraud in household contents and liability insurance is much higher than in accident insurance or supplementary health insurance, and this is why we have already incorporated AI into our systems to learn from employee judgments and decisions. But it will be some time until the settlement processing of claims for legal expenses, household and liability insurance is fully automated."

*About Deutsche Familienversicherung*

Deutsche Familienversicherung is based in Frankfurt am Main. It is an Insurtech operating on the German market and the first digitised insurance company. The 16 Matrix, with its clear, prudent and excellent insurance policies, has set new standards in the industry. Simply enter your age and the process is complete. Simple. Sensible. For more information, please visit: www.deutsche-familienversicherung.de

Contact:

Lutz Kiesewetter
Head of Corporate Communications
Telefon: +49 69 74 30 46 396
Telefax: +49 69 74 30 46 46
E-Mail: lutz.kiesewetter@deutsche-familienversicherung.de*SOURCE:* DFV Deutsche Familienversicherung AG

View source version on accesswire.com:
https://www.accesswire.com/512293/DFV-Deutsche-Familienversicherung-AG-Digital-property-insurance Reported by Accesswire 10 hours ago.

Acarix CADScor®System for early rule-out of Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) gains traction from established German users.

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Press release
Malmö, September 20, 2018

*Acarix CADScor*®*System for early rule-out of Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) gains traction from established German users. *

*Acarix AB (publ) ("Acarix"), today reported positive feedback from German users of its handheld CADScor®System for ruling out CAD.  Germany is an important market and Acarix offers a reimbursement code for private patients and is continuing the reimbursement process for statutory health insurance patients with the aim of providing physicians with more opportunities to use the CADScor®System for their patients.*

Dr. Klaus Remde of the Internistische Privatpraxis in Heidelberg, one of the early adopters says, "We have used the CADScor®System with more than 70 patients over the last few months, and we have noted tremendous added value in terms of decision making at an early stage of the diagnostic pathway and in our ability to determine next steps for patients with potential CAD. With the support of the CADScor®System, we can ensure efficient use of our resources for each individual patient." 

"We are delighted with this positive feedback from our German customers," says Per Persson, Chief Commercial Officer at Acarix. "This is the result of a sustained effort in what is a demanding market. First adopters, such as Dr. Remde, have been key to our success and we are now noting increasing interest in the CADScor®System across the German and Austrian markets."The CADScor®System combines ultra-sensitive acoustic detection of turbulent arterial flows and myocardial movements together with advanced algorithms in a portable device, to provide a patient-specific score enabling the non-invasive assessment of the risk of CAD in less than 8 minutes. This provides physicians with a rapid, front line tool for early assessment before moving on to more expensive and invasive methods.

*Contacts:*
Christian Lindholm, interim CEO, E-mail: secli@acarix.com, Phone: +46 705 118 333

*Notes to editors:*
Acarix, CADScor®System and cardiac sound measurement
Acarix was established in 2009 and is listed on Nasdaq First North Premier. Acarix's CADScor®System uses an advanced sensor placed on the skin above the heart to listen to the sounds of cardiac contraction movement and turbulent flow. It has been designed to be an all-in-one system in the sense that the heart signal will be recorded, processed and displayed as a patient specific score, the CAD score, on the device screen. Readings are obtained in less than 8 minutes. Safe and suitable for use in both out- and inpatient settings, the CADScor®System thus has the potential to play a major role in patient triage, avoiding the need for many patients to undergo stressful and invasive diagnostic procedures.

See more at www.acarix.com. Press photos: http://www.acarix.com/about-us/press-downloads/press-photos/.

*Attachment*

· Press release Germany ENG Final_ENG.pdf Reported by GlobeNewswire 7 hours ago.

EDAP TMS SA : EDAP announces Installation of First Focal One HIFU device in South Korea

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· Successful HIFU Treatments Performed in Seoul National University Bundang Hospital

LYON, France, September 20, 2018 -- EDAP TMS SA (Nasdaq:EDAP), the global leader in therapeutic ultrasound, today announced the installation of the first Focal One device in South Korea, at the renowned Seoul National University Bundang Hospital ("SNUBH").

Dr. Hakmin Lee, Urologist in SNUBH commented: "We are very happy to adopt the first "Focal One" device in our institution and we also believe that Korean patients will significantly benefit from the upcoming HIFU procedures. From our initial experiences, the Focal One device showed extraordinary performance which was definitely beyond our expectations. We are very excited to provide the new technology to Korean patients using our new device."

Jean-François Bachelard, Asia Business Unit Director commented: "We are delighted to start the first Focal One treatments in Seoul National University Hospital, one of the biggest Urology centers in Korea. This prominent clinical site is set to become our HIFU reference center in South Korea to promote prostate cancer treatment using our HIFU technology."

Marc Oczachowski, Chief Executive Officer of EDAP TMS, concluded: "We are thrilled to have the first Korean Focal One installation in such a renowned center of excellence as the Seoul National University Bundang Hospital. After Korean FDA clearance of Focal One in 2016, this installation and first cases performed successfully are a clear and strong milestone in the EDAP HIFU expansion program in South Korea, one of the most important medical device markets in Asia. We look forward to continuing HIFU development with our EDAP local team in South Korea as well as in key Asian markets, where we already benefit from a strong and established position with our ESWL technologies".

*About EDAP TMS SA*

A recognized leader in the global therapeutic ultrasound market for almost 40 years, EDAP TMS develops, manufactures, promotes and distributes worldwide minimally invasive medical devices for urology using ultrasound technology. By combining the latest technologies in imaging and treatment modalities in its complete range of Robotic HIFU devices, EDAP TMS introduced the Focal One® in 2013 in Europe and in 2018 in the US as the answer to all requirements for ideal prostate tissue ablation as a complement to the existing FDA-cleared Ablatherm® Robotic HIFU and Ablatherm® Fusion. As a pioneer and key player in the field of extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL), EDAP TMS exclusively utilizes the latest generation of shock wave source in its Sonolith® range of ESWL systems. For more information on the Company, please visit http://www.edap-tms.com, and us.hifu-prostate.com.

*About Seoul National University **Bundang **Hospital (SNUBH)*

SNUBH has been consistently ranked first in the category of quality measurements of general hospitals for thirteen consecutive years and Korea Brand Power Index. In 2012, SNUBH was given the title of "1st Class in all categories" of quality measurements based on outcomes, patient safety, and customer satisfaction, the recognition from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, which is a subsidiary of the National Insurance Company of Korea. Our 1,360-bed medical center, located at the Southern suburb of Seoul, offers sophisticated cutting edge diagnostic and therapeutic care in virtually every specialty and subspecialty of medicine and surgery. Our nine multidisciplinary specialty care centers, comprising of SNUBH medical staff from all different lines of specialties provide comprehensive one stop medical care to the patients with various medical conditions and different medical needs. Bringing cutting edge technology and traditional humanity together, the quality of our medical care has been consistently proved to be of the highest class in this country, based on all of the quality measurement criteria.  For more information on Seoul National University Hospital, please visit http://www.snubh.org.

*Forward-Looking Statements*

In addition to historical information, this press release may contain forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including matters not yet known to us or not currently considered material by us, and there can be no assurance that anticipated events will occur or that the objectives set out will actually be achieved. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results anticipated in the forward-looking statements include, among others, the clinical status and market acceptance of our HIFU devices and the continued market potential for our lithotripsy device. Factors that may cause such a difference also may include, but are not limited to, those described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and in particular, in the sections "Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information" and "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 20-F.

*Company Contact*
Blandine Confort
Investor Relations / Legal Affairs
EDAP TMS SA
+33 4 72 15 31 50
bconfort@edap-tms.com

*Investor Contact*
Jeremy Feffer
LifeSci Advisors, LLC
212-915-2568
jeremy@lifesciadvisors.com Reported by GlobeNewswire 7 hours ago.

Apple Watch or similar device required for all John Hancock life insurance policies

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Venerable health insurance company John Hancock is pivoting towards "interactive life insurance," with the provider now requiring all policy holders to track their fitness with wearables and apps. Reported by AppleInsider 6 hours ago.

TAC’s New Client Services Platform Goes Live on FINEOS

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TAC’s New Client Services Platform Goes Live on FINEOS DUBLIN & MELBOURNE, Australia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--FINEOS Corporation, the market-leading provider of core systems for Life, Accident and Health insurance announced today that its customer, the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) in Victoria, Australia has gone live on the FINEOS Platform with its Client Services Platform project (CSP). This marks the final phase of delivering a new Claims Business Model at TAC, a cornerstone of the TAC’s TAC2020 business transformation strategy. The CSP project i Reported by Business Wire 3 hours ago.

Employers, insurers prepare for 2019 health insurance season

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With enrollment for 2019 health insurance just weeks away, businesses are trying to calculate what they’ll pay in the new year. That follows a summer of changes, lawsuits and new regulations from the state and federal government. Reported by bizjournals 2 hours ago.

LISI Partners with BenRevo to Streamline Large Group Quoting

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LISI partners with BenRevo to simplify the entire large group process from RFP through presentation

LOS ANGELES (PRWEB) September 20, 2018

LISI Inc., a prominent general agency, has partnered with BenRevo to simplify the entire large group process from RFP through presentation. BenRevo connects carriers, brokers, and customers on a common platform, slashing the time and work it takes to get a quote.

With advanced quoting and analysis, BenRevo’s online platform streamlines the RFP process and ensures that brokers get the most accurate and competitive quotes. Brokers can effortlessly fill out RFPs and get every proposal in one place. Advanced analysis tools make it easy to compare quotes from multiple carriers.

About BenRevo
The BenRevo team consists of experienced insurance and technology professionals who are dedicated to improving the way benefit policies are quoted, purchased, and implemented. “BenRevo” and the BenRevo Logo are registered trademarks or service marks of BenRevo, Inc.

About LISI
As California’s premier general agency, LISI serves more than 8,000 affiliated brokers who offer Medical, Dental, Vision and Specialty coverage for large and small employers from over two dozen carriers. LISI offers a highly responsive, regional approach with offices throughout California. LISI’s statewide scale leverages their strength in working with carriers on brokers’ behalf. LISI Inc. has served health insurance brokers since 1977. For more information, please visit LISI. Reported by PRWeb 2 hours ago.

N.F.L. Hall of Famers Demand Health Insurance and Share of Revenue

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The group, led by Eric Dickerson, is demanding health insurance coverage and a share of N.F.L. revenues or else those former players will boycott Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. Reported by NYTimes.com 3 days ago.

Kurt Warner says his name incorrectly included in Hall of Fame boycott letter

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Hall of Famers wrote a letter to NFL saying they will skip annual enshrinement ceremony without receiving a salary and health insurance.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  Reported by azcentral.com 3 days ago.

Wasting The Lehman Crisis: What Was Not Saved Was The Economy – OpEd

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Today’s financial malaise for pension funds, state and local budgets and underemployment is largely a result of the 2008 bailout, not the crash. What was saved was not only the banks – or more to the point, as Sheila Bair pointed out, their bondholders – but the financial overhead that continues to burden today’s economy.

Also saved was the idea that the economy needs to keep the financial sector solvent by an exponential growth of new debt – and, when that does not suffice, by government purchase of stocks and bonds to support the balance sheets of the wealthiest layer of society. The internal contradiction in this policy is that debt deflation has become so overbearing and dysfunctional that it prevents the economy from growing and carrying its debt burden.

Trying to save the financial overgrowth of debt service by borrowing one’s way out of debt, or by monetary Quantitative Easing re-inflating real estate, stock and bond prices, enables the creditor One Percent to gain, not the indebted 99 Percent in the economy at large. Therefore, from the economy’s vantage point, instead of asking how the banks are to be saved “next time,” the question should be, how should we best let them go under – along with their stockholders, bondholders and uninsured depositors whose hubris imagined that their loans (other peoples’ debts) could go on rising without impoverishing society and preventing creditors from collecting in any event – except from government by gaining control over it.

A basic principle should be the starting point of any macro analysis: The volume of interest-bearing debt tends to outstrip the economy’s ability to pay. This tendency is inherent in the “magic of compound interest.” The exponential growth of debt expands by its own purely mathematical momentum, independently of the economy’s ability to pay – and faster than the non-financial economy grows.

The higher the debt/income ratio rises, the more interest, amortization payments and late fees are extracted from the economy. The resulting debt burden slows the economy, causing defaults. That is what happened in 2008, and is accelerating today as debt ratios are rising for corporate debt, state and local debt, and student debt.

Neither legislators, academics nor the public at large recognize a corollary Second Principle following from the first: An over-indebted economy cannot be saved unless the banks fail. That means writing down the financial claims by the One to Ten Percent – in other words, the net debts owed by the 99 to 90 Percent. Wiping out bad debts involves writing down the “bad savings” that are the counterpart to these debts on the asset side of the balance sheet. Otherwise the economy will suffer debt deflation and austerity.

“Recovery” since 2008 has been much slower than earlier recoveries because debt deflation is siphoning off more and more personal and corporate income. To make matters worse, the bailout’s policy of Quantitative Easing to re-inflate asset prices has reduced rates of return for pension funds, insurance companies and employee retirement savings. This means that more state and local government income must be diverted to meet retirement commitments.

Something has to give, and it is not likely to be the savings of the donor class at the top of the economic pyramid. As a result, the economy at large is threatened with an exponentially expanding erosion of disposable income and net worth for most people and companies. Investment managers are warning of a financial meltdown, given today’s historically high price/earnings ratios for stocks and also for rental properties.

What is not acknowledged is that such a crisis is a precondition for today’s economy to recover from the rising debt/income and debt/GDP ratios that are burdening the United States, Europe and other regions. At least the United States has been able to monetize its budget deficits and subsidize banks to carry its rising debt overhead with yet new debt. The Eurozone has banned budget deficits of over 3 percent of GDP, imposing austerity that leaves the only response to over-indebtedness to be Greek-style austerity: depopulation, shrinking living standards, wipeouts of retirement income and pensions, mortgage defaults, shortening lifespans, and mass selloffs of public infrastructure to foreign financial appropriators.

None of this was spelled out in the September 15 weekend marking the tenth anniversary of Lehman Brothers’ failure and subsequent rescue of Wall Street. President Obama, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and their fellow financial lobbyists at the Federal Reserve and Justice Department are credited with saving “the economy,” as if their donor class on Wall Street was a good proxy for the economy at large. “Saving the economy from a meltdown” has become the euphemism for saving bondholders and other members of the One Percent from taking losses on their bad loans. The “rescue” is Orwellian doublespeak for expropriating over nine million indebted Americans from their homes, while leaving surviving homeowners saddled with enormous bubble-mortgage payments to the FIRE sector’s owners.

What has been put in place is not a restoration of traditional status quo, but a reversal of over a century of central bank policy. Failed banks have not been taken into the public domain. They have been enriched far beyond their former levels. The perpetrators of the collapse have been rewarded, not penalized for lending more than could possibly be paid by NINJA borrowers and speculators whose mortgage applications were doctored by systemic fraud at Countrywide, Washington Mutual, Bank of America, Citigroup and their cohorts.

The $4.3 trillion that could have been used to save debtors was given to the banks and Wall Street firms whose recklessness and outright fraud caused the crisis. The Federal Reserve “cash for trash” swaps with insolvent banks did not restore normalcy or the status quo ante. What occurred was a financial revolution by stealth, reversing the traditional responsibility of creditors to make prudent loans.

Quantitative Easing saved creditors and the largest stockholders and bondholders by lowering the interest rates by enough to make it profitable for new loans to inflate asset prices on credit. This revived the value of collateral backing bank loans and bondholdings. “Saving” the economy in this way actually sacrificed it. That is why our “recovery” is only “on paper,” a result of calculating GDP to include bank earnings and hypothetical homeowner windfalls as rents are soaring.

Among Democrats, the most extreme tunnel vision denying that debt is a problem comes from Paul Krugman: Writing that “The purely financial aspect of the crisis was basically over by the summer of 2009,”[1]he criticized what he called the “bizarre Beltway consensus that despite high unemployment and record low interest rates, debt, not jobs, was the real problem.”

This misses the point that 2009 was the real beginning for most of the nine million homeowners being foreclosed on and evicted from their homes. Consumers found themselves with less income “freely disposable” after paying their monthly FIRE sector nut off the top of their paycheck – housing charges, credit card charges, medical insurance, student debt, FICA withholding and tax withholding. Krugman says that he would have solved the problem by more deficit spending to pump enough money into the economy to enable debtors to keep paying the banks their exponential growth of interest claims.

We are still living in the destabilized, debt-ridden aftermath of such pro-bank advocacy. In the New Yorker, John Cassidy celebrates a book by Columbia professor Adam Tooze promoting the idea that “the economy” cannot exist without the credit (that is, debt) provided by the financial sector.[2]True enough, but does it follow that rescuing the economy must involve rescuing Wall Street and enriching the banks at the expense of the rest of the economy. That conflation is an Orwellian rhetoric of deception that has been introduced to the discussion of how the economy was “rescued” by locking in today’s Great Debt Deflation.

At the neoliberal/neocon Brookings Institution, Treasury secretaries Hank Paulson and Tim Geithner joined with the Federal Reserve’s Ben Bernanke to explain that the public simply didn’t understand how successful they all were in saving not only the banks, but non-bank financial institutions. Unlike Sheila Bair, they did not point out that behind these institutions were the bondholders, the One Percent of savers who held the rest of the economy in debt. Bernanke wrote a Financial Timespiece producing junk statistics purporting to show that there was no underlying debt or financial problem at all, merely a “panic.”[3] To paraphrase, he said: “The crisis was all in the mind folks. Nothing to see here. Keep moving on.” It is as if, as Margaret Thatcher liked to insist, There Is No Alternative.

Can this bailout without debt writedowns really bring prosperity? Can economies achieve growth by “borrowing their way out of debt,” by creating enough new credit to cover the interest charges out of capital gains from the asset-price inflation fueled by new bank credit. That is the logic that has guided the Federal Reserve’s net $4.3 trillion in Quantitative Easing, and the parallel credit creation by the European Central Bank under Mario “Whatever it takes” Draghi. Ellen Brown recently published a review, “Central Banks Have Gone Rogue, Putting Us All at Risk, noting that the ECB has become a major stock buyer.[4]The beneficiaries are the stockholders who are concentrated in the wealthiest percentiles of the population. Governments are not underwriting homeownership or the solvency of labor’s pension plans, but are underwriting the value of collateral backing the savings of the narrow financial class.

The GDP accounts report the widening gap between low government bond rates and the cost of credit to banks compared to the higher rates paid by mortgage borrowers, credit-card holders and student loan customers as “financial services.” What is extracted from the economy is added to the GDP statistic instead of being treated as a subtrahend. This absurd practice reflects the degree to which Wall Street lobbyists have captured economic statistics. The National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA) have been turned into a vehicle for deception. What is celebrated as growth of the GDP since 2008 has been mainly the growth in financial extraction, along with the health-insurance sector profiting from Obamacare.

Glenn Hubbard, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors under George W. Bush, uses Orwellian doublethink to pretend that “Debt is Wealth.” He concludes a Wall Street Journal op-ed: “An ability to recapitalize banks remains crucial and must be explained to a skeptical Congress and public,”[5] so that wealthy bondholders and speculators will not suffer losses.

On a brighter side, Adair Turner pokes fun at the “Authoritative experts such as the IMF [who] explained how increased securitisation and trading activity made the financial system more efficient and less risky.”[6] It was as if “options” and hedges can get rid of risk entirely, not shift them onto Wall Street victims such as the naïve German Landesbanks.

The aim of this week’s disinformation campaign is to prevent popular anger advocating what was done in classical antiquity. The ancients fought civil wars for land redistribution and debt cancellation. Today the demand should be for mortgage writedowns to bring their carrying charges in line with reasonable rent charges, limited to the former normal 25 percent of homeowner income – while rolling back the FICA wage withholding and allied taxes levied to bail out the creditor class.

*An Athenian antecedent to today’s financial takeover*

It is an old story, with a striking parallel in classical Athens. After losing the Peloponnesian war to oligarchic Sparta in 404, a Pinochet-style military junta – the Thirty Tyrants – was installed. During its eight months of terror its members killed a reported 1,500 democratic advocates whose land and other property they grabbed. Advocates of democracy took refuge in Thrace and other neighboring regions.

After the exiled democratic leaders reconquered Athens, they sought to restore harmony, going so far as to pay off all the debts that the oligarchic junta had run up to Sparta. To top matters, the subsequent 4^thcentury obliged Athenian jurors and indeed, mayors in some Greek cities to swear an oath: “I will not allow private debts (chreon idiom) to be cancelled, nor lands nor houses of Athenian citizens to be redistributed.”[7]

If no such pledge is needed today by public officials, it is because the financial administrators at the Treasury, Federal Reserve and other regulatory agencies already have shown themselves to be so tunnel-visioned from graduate school through their employment history that they can be trusted to find debt writedowns as unthinkable as enforcing laws against criminal financial fraud to punish individuals rather than their institutions. Academia joins in the deception that financial engineering can sustain a geometric growth in debt ad infinitumwithout imposing austerity.The bailout aftermath has demonstrated that corporations are not really  “persons” if they cannot be given jail time.

The key financial principle is that this self-expansion of interest-bearing debt grows to absorb more and more of the economic surplus. The solution therefore must involve wiping out the excess debt – and savings that have been badly lent. That is what crashes are supposed to do. It was not done in 2008. That is why the status quo was not restored. A vast giveaway to the financial elites occurred, setting the rest of the economy on a road to debt peonage.

It would have been nice to have read an article by Sheila Bair explaining the procedures that the FDIC had in place, ready to take over insolvent Citigroup and other banks in similar straits, saving all the insured depositors by taking over these institutions. No doubt as public institutions they would not have indulged in junk mortgages or, for that matter, takeover loans.

It would have been nice to hear from Hank Paulson and perhaps Barney Frank on how they tried to get incoming President Obama to write down bad mortgages whose carrying charges were as far above the debtor’s ability to pay as they were above the going rental value for similar properties. It would have been nice to hear a mea culpa from Mr. Obama apologizing for representing the interest of his campaign donors by standing between them and his voters with pitchforks. Even an article by Tim Geithner or Eric Holder on how lucky they felt at getting such high-paying jobs after they left office from the financial sector they had overseen and “regulated.”

What is needed now is to follow up the primary policy perception that today’s financially dysfunctional economy cannot be saved without a bank crash. That means rolling back the enormous gains that the FIRE sector has made since 1980 at the expense of the “real” economy.  Banks have ceased to be an “engine of growth.” They are not making loans to create new means of production. They are lending to asset strippers, not asset creators. It is not hard to show this statistically. (I drafted an attempt in Killing the Host, and am now working with Democracy Collaborative to prepare a larger study.)

At stake is whether the U.S. and Western European economies are going to end up looking like those of Greece, Latvia and Argentina – or imperial Rome for that matter. Neoliberals applaud today’s victorious finance capitalism as the “end of history.” One such end has already occurred once, at the close of Roman antiquity. It is remembered as the Dark Age. Progress stopped as the creditor and landowning class lorded it over the rest of society. Trade survived only among the lords at the top of the economic pyramid. Today’s “End of History” dream threatens to unfold along similar lines. It is all about relative power of the One Percent.

*Notes.*

[1] Paul Krugman, “Days of Fear, Years of Obstruction,” The New York Times, September 14, 2018.

[2] John Cassidy, A World of Woes: A global take on a decade of financial crisis,” The New Yorker, September 17, 2018.

[3] “Ben Bernanke pins blame for Great Recession on bank panic,” Financial Times, September 13, 2018.

[4] Ellen Brown recently published a review, Central Banks Have Gone Rogue, Putting Us All at Risk.” Public Banking Institute and Truthdig, September 13, 2018.

[5] Glenn Hubbard, “Bailouts Shouldn’t Be Only for Banks”Wall Street Journal, September 14, 2018. To be sure, Hubbard acknowledges that Republicans had agreed to but incoming President Obama nixed: “The government should have directed a mass refinancing of mortgages for primary homes in which the borrower was current in payments.”

[6] Adair Turner, “Banks are safer but debt remains a danger,” Financial Times, September 12, 2018.

[7] Demosthenes Against Timocrates (xxiv.149). Reported by Eurasia Review 15 hours ago.

UK: NFL Hall Of Famers Demand Health Insurance And Annual Salary - Withers LLP

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The Chairman of the NFL Hall of Fame Board, Eric Dickerson, sent a letter to league commissioner Roger Goodell, NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith, and HOF President David Baker demanding health Reported by Mondaq 9 hours ago.

beWellnm will launch its own exchange platform

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BeWellnm's board of directors voted unanimously Friday for the New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange to become a state-based exchange, which the organization said will streamline operations and save clients money. Cheryl Gardner, the insurance exchange's CEO, said beWellnm is currently operating with a federal technology platform, which had a price tag of $5.5 million as of this year, with estimates of reaching $10.9 million by 2019 and $14 million by 2020. The organization will look at vendors… Reported by bizjournals 20 hours ago.

Odisha: PM Modi asks Patnaik to link people of Odisha with Ayushman health insurance scheme

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday asked Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to link the people of the state with the Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme. Reported by DNA 12 hours ago.

Ayushman Bharat could be India's Big Bang moment in healthcare, but addressal of OPD care issues remains a key

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By giving up to ?5 lakh health insurance coverage to 10.7 crore families, the government is bringing healthcare to the poorest of the country, and if realised, it promises a revolution Reported by Firstpost 11 hours ago.

With Modicare rollout, focus shifts to states

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States are now gearing up to implement the scheme, integrating it with their own public health insurance plans and tying up the loose ends. Reported by Rediff.com 16 hours ago.

Will 'Modicare' be a success in India?

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Will 'Modicare' be a success in India? India has launched its new flagship health insurance scheme, dubbed "Modicare". Reported by BBC News 11 hours ago.
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