Topic: Insurance
The emergency rooms of America are increasingly serving as backup for acute-care doctors.While general practitioners historically were the first point of contact for acute care, that's less the case n ... moreNearly four in every 10 uninsured children who are eligible for public children's insurance live in just three states--California, Texas and Florida--according to a newly released article from Health ... more
A nationally representative sample of 12,280 physicians was selected to investigate physician practices in 60 randomly selected communities. Multivariate analyses demonstrate that the more the physici ... more
Wall St. firm behind slow solar pace on federal lands? - Goldman Sachs subsidiary bought lots of leases but hasn't used them ROACH DRY LAKE, Nev. Not a light bulb's worth of solar electricity ... more
Uninsured minority pedestrians hit by cars are at a significantly higher risk of death than their insured white counterparts, even if the injuries sustained are similar, new research suggests. ... more
Oil Price Ignores Long-Term Supply Worries You could be excused for seeing a grim metaphor for the death of the oil age in the scenes of destruction visited on the U.S. Gulf coast this summer. Howeve ... more
Although the results of the health-insurance reform passed earlier this year will take years to fully work out, there #8217;s one way your small business might be able to save on health insurance righ ... more
Summary: Rick Scott, the former hospital executive who is now a candidate to become Governor of Florida epitomizes the power that concentrated wealth now has to influence American politics and, perh ... more
The news on Monday that one in six Americans are now enrolled in government poverty programs (Medicaid, food stamps, unemployment insurance and welfare) was an unsettling reminder of the economic fix ... more
Some states are taking a two-faced approach to the healthcare overhaul law.Seven states are suing to overturn the healthcare reform law, saying it's unconstitutional, the Associated Press reports. Bu ... more
Cambridge Hospital nurses won a fight against the Cambridge Health Alliance when the Commonwealth Employment Relations Board ruled Friday that a unilateral cut in retiree health benefits was not warra ... more
The Peak Oil Crisis: Prospects for China The key question in all this is how much longer China's economic miracle can continue before the realities of finite mineral resources force a slowdown? Anoth ... more
Despite efforts by the Obama administration to educate the public on the new healthcare law, support for reform fell to 43 percent in August from 50 percent in July, a new Kaiser Family Foundation pol ... more
Eight Baltimore-area nonprofit hospitals gave their top executives hefty seven-figure salaries, club memberships and financial planning as part of pay packages in 2009, reports the Baltimore Sun. The ... more
In the Darwinian world of healthcare today, public hospitals may not be fit enough to survive. As standalone hospitals, they don't have the resources to upgrade and meet new requirements, the Wall Str ... more
The most recent Health Wonk Review, hosted by Joe Paduda at Managed Care Matters, raises provocative questions about making health care reform a reality. You ll find Paduda s round-up of some of t ... more
Summer vacation time is winding down, but there are lots of great upcoming events to help you learn, connect and jump into Fall. This list of small business webinars, events and conferences is brought ... more
This is a presentation by Dr. David Korowicz from Feasta, given at the Oil Drum/ASPO Conference at Alcatraz, Italy in June 2009. It can be downloaded here: Things fall apart: Some thoughts on complexi ... more
Wind Turbine Projects Run Into Resistance BARSTOW, Calif. The United States military has found a new menace hiding here in the vast emptiness of the Mojave Desert in California: wind turbines. Mo ... more
Good Intentions, Bad Policy Perhaps the single most important policy-related insight in economics is that changes in policies lead to behavioral responses. More generous unemployment insurance leads t ... more
Traumatic brain injury, currently considered a singular event by the insurance industry and many health care providers, is instead the beginning of an ongoing process that impacts multiple organ syste ... more
This is a presentation by Dr. David Korowicz from Feasta, given at the Oil Drum/ASPO Conference at Alcatraz, Italy in June 2009. It can be downloaded here: Things fall apart: Some thoughts on complexi ... more
Cryonics isn't a service you can just sign up for and forget, hoping it works out if you need it. That cryonics requires preparation, thought, and a modest ongoing investment of time in order to work ... more
The Allstate Insurance ad #39;Bikes Never Crash Alone #39; features a slew of damaged bicycles flying into various dangerous walls and bus stops. The idea is that motorcycles are impossible to cra ... more
Had North Carolina billed Medicaid upon prisoners receiving inpatient treatment from hospitals and other healthcare providers, the state could have saved about $11.5 million a year, an audit found, ac ... more
Three years ago, I discussed early reports that bariatric surgery can cure adult-onset diabetes through a mechanism not solely related to weight loss (see: "Curing " Diabetes with Bariatric Surgery). ... more
A new analysis of data on patients covered by a single insurance company reports that risks of heart disease events and death were no different between patients who took the diabetes drugs rosiglitazo ... more
Last week I had my first visit with my new primary care doctor. I picked him based on recommendations (plus he s one of the few that accepts my insurance), and also because he seemed to be an eager ... more
Consumer advocates, including Democratic lawmakers and a few Republicans, have won the battle over whether the Department of Health and Human Services should tighten up its standard for notifying pati ... more
First of all, let me dismiss the idea that there is much room for debate about whether patients should be allowed to review their own medical records. HIPAA gave them the right to read, and even amend ... more
Summary: #0160; Could we bring our nation s health care bill down from 17% of GDP to 12%? An intriguing study from Milliman, the independent consulting and actuarial firm, says yes. Looking at ... more
Telehealth, which can shrink the distance between patients and specialists and cut costs while improving patient outcomes, got a big boost when California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger launched what will ... more
Ah ¦ the joys of summer. That time of the year when people gather for backyard barbecues, children sign up to play in baseball leagues, and families turn their attention to summer vacation plans. Sum ... more
Over at the New Republic, Jon Cohn reports that the Affordable Care Act gives Kathleen Sebelius great latitude in regulating insurers. And Cohn thinks that she is likely to use it. It #39;s not imp ... more
(TrendHunter.com) If you're looking for a unique and dubious wedding gift, why not consider divorce insurance? Startup SafeGuard Guaranty Corp. offers divorce insurance designed to provide cash to co ... more
I have always been a big promoter of social media as a way to increase business. I #8217;ve talked about it, read about it, and written more than I can tell you. But in all my years online, I had neve ... more
If you caught FierceHealthPayer or FierceEMR last week, you would know that four major health insurance companies will offer their own financial incentives to providers to adopt and use EMRs and alig ... more
U.S. hospitals spent $83 billion caring for people with diabetes in 2008, according to a statistical brief issued by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. That year, roughly one out of every ... more
Roughly $300 billion is spent each year on emergency and hospital care for patients who don't take their medications as prescribed. To help keep those patients on the right track, more pharmacies thro ... more
Summary: #0160; Some optimistic liberals have begun to suggest that if conservatives manage to block the Affordable Care Act (ACA) , this #0160; could open the door to better reform legislation.Why th ... more
The issues of cycle time management and cost reduction in the service industry are the concerns of the empirical study presented in this paper. In specific, we study the claims handling process which ... more
Oil industry's deep well of fear There is an open secret in the oil industry that dare not speak its name: peak oil. Well, two did speak its name and gained no acclaim for it. One, M. King Hubbert, d ... more
How do you go about marketing your small business? Chances are these days much of your marketing is done online. So an important part of marketing your small business is to be sure your marketing site ... more
The use of antibiotics increased in response to cuts in out-of-pocket prices after Medicare Part D went into effect, according to a study published in the latest edition of the Archives of Internal Me ... more
As if growing concern about medical identity theft due to the online storage of records wasn't bad enough, thousands of Boston-area patients now apparently need to worry about their paper records fall ... more
Russia: Iran's nuclear plant to start next week MOSCOW (AP) Russia's nuclear agency said Friday that it will load fuel into Iran's first nuclear power plant next week, defying U.S. calls to hold o ... more
Much of the focus of recent efforts at the Deepwater Horizon well site have been focussed on getting the relief well down to do a bottom kill of the well. However, in recent remarks the possibility h ... more
A Chicago-area cardiologist was sentenced to five years in federal prison for stealing $13 million from Medicare and more than 30 other public and private healthcare insurance programs over the course ... more
Most people assume that with healthcare reform, everyone will opt to have insurance and therefore seek care routinely, Anthony Cirillo writes in Hospital Impact. But little is being said of the option ... more
This is a second copy of http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6838. Both Admiral Allen and Kent Wells (audio only no transcript yet) held press conferences Tuesday. The primary focus in both cases was the ... more
Massachusetts health officials approved a plan to crack down on drug addicts who travel from doctor to doctor in search of powerful prescription medications in an attempt to make it easier to detect s ... more
This is a guest post by David Fridley, Staff Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). David posts under the name Sparaxis. Everyone knows that it takes energy to produce anything. The ... more
If you re like most small business owners, you could really use some extra help around the office right now. But are you ready to hire full-time employees? With all the uncertainty about tax issues, ... more
Both Admiral Allen and Kent Wells (audio only no transcript yet) held press conferences Tuesday. The primary focus in both cases was the weather, with the currently approaching storm producing waves t ... more
Atlantic Hotter Than Before Katrina, Boosting Storm Forecasts William Gray, who pioneered seasonal hurricane forecasting at Colorado State University 26 years ago, rings a bell each Aug. 20 and tells ... more
Kidney disease patients insured by some federally sponsored national health care organizations are more likely to undergo an important predialysis procedure than patients with other types of insurance ... more
The world of insurance is changing. Reform is spurring on innovation in new products, new types of incentive models and new types of care models. But what might that mean for payers? FierceHealthPayer ... more
Global warming heats up a nuclear energy renaissance: Global warming and the BP oil spill have helped rehabilitate nuclear energy in the eyes of the public and some environmentalists. Public and p ... more
(TrendHunter.com) When a company only has 30 seconds or so to catch your attention, they ve got to be creative and come up with something memorable. Small, local businesses don t have the big bud ... more
The purpose of the present study is to find out the historical volatility of the CNX S P Nifty and Nikkie225 stock exchanges of India and Japan, respectively. The researchers have also tried to find o ... more
If employers save money on health insurance because of the new healthcare law, they will give their workers a raise, according to a new report by the trustees of Social Security. The theory is that th ... more
For the first half of 2010, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Civil Rights has reported 119 instances of medical record breaches which have put at risk some 5 million patient ... more
Health Wonk Review offers a summary of some of the most provocative health care posts of the preceding two weeks. The newest edition went up today, and it s hosted by the Disease Management Care ... more
This paper evaluates the challenges and opportunities confronted by five major members of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN-5). The structural transformation of ASEAN-5 is being assessed b ... more
> After Jerry Douthett of Rockford, Ill. passed out drunk and his dog chewed part of his big toe off, he learned he had diabetes. The dog, Kiko, was probably drawn to the sweet smell of decaying flesh ... more
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo launched a probe of CareCredit, a division of General Electric Co.'s GE consumer finance unit for misleading users on the terms of its healthcare credit card, th ... more
Florida has warned Floridians not to by bogus health insurance plans sold by the Association of Independent Managers (AIM). As many as 1,800 consumers may have already purchased the fake health plans, ... more
This is a guest post by George Mobus. George is an Associate Professor of Computing and Software Systems at the University of Washington, Tacoma. His blog is Question Everything. There seems to be an ... more
In a ruling against the Obama administration, a federal judge in Virginia issued a procedural decision to allow a suit filed by Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cucinelli against the Affordable Care ... more
That Republicans don t support health care reform.Opponents of health care reform have been touting the results of yesterday s primary in Missouri as if it were a national referendum on the wil ... more
Ingenix, the health information technology branch of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), announced that it will acquire Executive Health Resources, a Newtown Square, Pa. company that provides medical nece ... more
Hospital leaders, take note. Your older, male physicians pose greater malpractice risks than your younger or female doctors, according to a report released yesterday by the American Medical Associatio ... more
In a mostly symbolic swipe at the Obama administration's healthcare reform law, Missouri voters overwhelmingly opposed the provision that requires people to buy health insurance, the New York Times re ... more
This is the second copy of this thread. The first copy can be found at http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6806. Progress on the relief well at the Deepwater Horizon well has now reached the point that BP ... more
Missouri voters vote today on a ballot measure that would ban laws requiring people to have health insurance, Associated Press/Columbia Missourian reports.The vote presents the first time that voters ... more
In a ruling against the Obama administration, a federal judge in Virginia issued a procedural decision to allow a suit filed by Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cucinelli against the Affordable Care ... more
Progress on the relief well at the Deepwater Horizon well has now reached the point that BP have started the procedures for the top static kill of the well. There was a little delay in the installati ... more
The U.S. Census Bureau released a report last week that includes the latest figures on the number of uninsured in each county, of each state. It s an exhaustive breakdown that highlights the wide fl ... more
The administration has trotted out Andy Griffith, who starred in classic TV shows "Matlock" and "The Andy Griffith Show," to sell senior citizens on President Obama's new healthcare law in a new TV co ... more
In much of the US, we have been living through a time of high unemployment. Among those working, many are taking part time jobs, when they really want full-time jobs. Some are in school (yet again), h ... more
Buying gas to fuel Gulf oil sales Maximising oil exports from the GCC will hinge on the region importing more gas, the Scottish consultancy Wood Mackenzie says. Wood Mackenzie has belatedly realised ... more
Friday evening, the US House of Representatives passed legislation that would remove the $75 million liability cap on economic damages incurred by offshore drilling activities by oil companies. The U ... more
In Bad Medicine the Cato Institute white paper exploring The Real Costs and Consequences of the New Health Care Law, Cato senior fellow Michael Tanner declares the individual mandate, ... more
Friday evening, the US House of Representatives passed legislation that would remove the $75 million liability cap on economic damages incurred by offshore drilling activities by oil companies. The U ... more
Summary: As regular readers know, not long ago Cato Institute senior fellow Michael Tanner published a 52-page critique of the new health care legislation titled Bad Medicine, and I decided to write ... more
In much of the US, we have been living through a time of high unemployment. Among those working, many are taking part time jobs, when they really want full-time jobs. Some are in school (yet again), h ... more
Elective abortions will not be covered by the temporary high-risk health insurance pool program, according to an interim final rule released by the Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday. ... more
Is your small business insured? Are you carrying the right kind of insurance to protect you, your company, your employees and your customers? These are the questions we faced as we were working to lau ... more
A Florida judge knocked a GOP-backed healthcare amendment off the November ballot, calling its wording "manifestly misleading," the Associated Press reports. The proposed constitutional amendment woul ... more
If you don't know much about the healthcare reform bill passed in March, you're not alone. When 2,100 adults were given a list of 18 reform items and asked to identify which were part of the law and w ... more
Insurers are pursuing new ways to reduce the cost of hospitalization and readmissions, the Wall Street Journal reports. And it involves giving heart patients remote monitoring technology to take readi ... more
The trend of Americans cutting back on healthcare use during tough economic times is nothing new, considering that many lose their jobs and, in turn, their health insurance. However, according to stat ... more
Texas has earned the dubious distinction as the state with the highest share (26.8 percent) of uninsured people, according to the Washington Post's analysis of recently released census data. It is fol ... more
Summary: In the August 2 issue of the New Yorker, Boston surgeon Atul Gawande writes about the ambiguities that plague end-of-life care. #0160; With the candor that makes his writing both so cre ... more
As government and private payers look to pay-for-performance (P4P)--also called value-based purchasing--as the payment model that will push providers to produce higher-quality patient care at a lower ... more
Michael Stanzione got into a hospital, but he can't get out.Insurance woes have kept Stanzione cooped up in a hospital for three years, the Bergen Record reports. But it's not like he's bedridden. In ... more
Several factors--most notably an anticipated stabilization of Medicare payments to physicians and the new healthcare reform law--are contributing to many experts' opinions that more jobs at both docto ... more
University Hospital, a HealthAlliance hospital in Cincinnati, and some 1,000 former medical residents who trained there expect the Internal Revenue Service to pay them $20 million in refunds plus inte ... more
The healthcare overhaul law, which was supposed to increase access to healthcare, may have exactly the opposite effect for some children.Later this year, the law requires insurers to accept all childr ... more
Summary: Once again, Health Wonk Review offers a round-up of many of the most intriguing and informative health care posts that appeared during the preceding two weeks. Julie Ferguson, of Workers Comp ... more
Title: Insurance Woes Can Add to Burden of PsoriasisCategory: Health NewsCreated: 7/22/2010 2:10:00 PMLast Editorial Review: 7/23/2010 ... more
Maine, Maryland, Wyoming, South Carolina and the District of Columbia showed the greatest improvement in healthcare quality indicators that the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has added to ... more
A recent questionnaire submitted to a group of patients at one of the nation's largest general hospitals suggests that a significant number of patients, who have previously refused colorectal cancer s ... more
When we create products for our Zipsters, when we create a user experience, we do it as if we re Zipsters and we re going to use it every day. We do it through their eyes. We do what s right ... more
Dr. John Docherty is an Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the Weill Medical College, Cornell University, Director of Post Graduate Education there, and Chief Medical Officer of Brain Resource. Traine ... more
During certain kinds of emergencies, your hospital may be able to expect a relaxation of Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) rules based on new language that CMS has added to the State ... more
The main reason some state-level health insurance exchanges have failed is that they became victims of adverse selection, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report. "In effect, these exchanges attem ... more
Lloyd's hired Chatham House to prepare a white paper on the risks of peak oil called Sustainable Energy Security: Strategic risks and opportunities for business. It seems to me that this new report ge ... more
Fires rage for 15 hours after oil pipeline in China explodes BEIJING An oil pipeline at a busy Chinese port exploded, causing a massive fire that burned for 15 hours before being put out Saturday ... more
(TrendHunter.com) This Scanaroo app will help you declutter your wallet with a simple click of a button. By taking a picture of your royalty cards, insurance cards and rewards cards and inputting the ... more
As citizens find healthcare issues to be the most important for companies to address, cause-branding as a suitable analysis for competitive comparison of any healthcare insurance firm's CSR would be i ... more
Goal-oriented requirements engineering uses modelling to improve domain understanding and requirements quality. Regulations and laws impose additional context and constraints on goals and can limit th ... more
This week, the Cato Institute released a 52-page report on health care reform titled: Bad Medicine: A Guide to the Real Costs and Consequences of the New Health Care Law. The tract was written by Mich ... more
o" style="display: block; margin: 0 auto;"> #0160;(via #0160;IBMLabs)IBM is enlisting some of the company s leading scientists and technologists to help medical practitioners and insurance companies ... more
This week the White House unveiled its new national plan to cut HIV infections and curb the AIDS epidemic. The plan, the first ever since AIDS emerged on the scene some 30 years ago, has the goal of # ... more
Today the Department of Health and Human Services announced what criteria doctors and hospitals will be required to meet if they want to receive payments to help buy the Health IT #0160;needed to comp ... more
The individual health market "is an important and growing market for health plans," says analyst Debra Donahue in Mark Farrah Associates' June 24 Healthcare Business Strategy. "It is emerging as a div ... more
In the short term, the recession has put pressure on nurses to stay put and delay retirement, making it hard for newly graduated nurses to find jobs, according to USA Today. Those lucky enough to find ... more
Lesser-known provisions of the new healthcare reform law could help build support in the run-up to the contentious mid-term elections, according to Kaiser Health News. Here are some of the changes you ... more
(Intro: In talks with friends (not of the PO cloth), I've recently sensed more consideration of the possibility that economic growth may not return and what that might imply. As such yet I think ther ... more
Despite price hikes for hospital stays in Maryland that likely will lead to increased insurance premiums for patients, both hospitals and insurers say they're still going to need more money to stay af ... more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed a new federal healthcare information privacy rule yesterday that would expand patients' rights to access their information and restrict ... more
Lloyd's says won't cover Iran petroleum shipments LONDON (Reuters) - Lloyd's of London will not insure or reinsure petroleum shipments going into Iran, the insurance market said on Friday. U.S. Presi ... more
Let me now share what the Judging Panel and the SharpBrains team found most impressive from each Winner and Finalist of the 2010 Brain Fitness Innovation Awards, accompanied by some additionalΓΒ info ... more
Last November, talking with some Japanese colleagues at the World Economic ForumΓΒ΄s Council on the Aging Society, I discovered that it is common there to organize research-driven consortia/ learning ... more
A new study reveals that in California, nearly 25 percent of children in the state have never seen a dentist and that disparities exist across race, ethnicity, and type of insurance when it comes to t ... more
Dr. Michael Merzenich, Emeritus Professor at UCSF, is a leading pioneer in brain plasticity research. In the late 1980s, Dr. Merzenich was on the team that invented the cochlear implant. In 1996, he ... more
In this January issue of our eNewsletter, we will first brief you on the enlightening demos that will take place on Wednesday, January 20th, as part of the SharpBrains Summit, and then present the 15 ... more
If domestic medical travel takes off, your biggest competitor might be a hospital hundreds of miles away that offers better-quality and less expensive care. Healthcare dollars may be headed out of tow ... more
Don rsquo;t believe all those media reports that link insurance coverage with decreased use of emergency rooms. Expanding insurance coverage does not reduce the use of emergency rooms. In fact, the nu ... more
Fraud bureaus are reporting an increase in fake health plans, according to the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, an anti-fraud watchdog nonprofit. The plans may sound legitimate, but pay little to no ... more
At one time it might have appeared like the big brands had it all wrapped up. Now the mainstream media would have you believe the economic downturn as reduced small mom and pops to near collapse and c ... more
If it looks like too many sick people are trying to sign up for the high-risk pool plan, they could be turned away, reports The Hill. Richard Popper, deputy director of the Office of Consumer Informat ... more
Iran to stop subsidised petrol sales from September TEHRAN (AFP) Iran is to halt the sale of subsidised petrol from late September as part of plans to phase out subsidies on energy products, ISNA ... more
July offers some excellent small business events and webinars #8211; check out this week #8217;s list. This list of small business webinars, events and conferences is brought to you every two weeks a ... more
Gas taxes give us a break at the pump When drivers hit the road in large numbers for the Fourth of July holiday, they will have something extra to celebrate the lowest gasoline taxes since the ea ... more
A two-hour hearing in Richmond yesterday marked the first courtroom battle over President Obama's healthcare reform law. Virginia is suing the U.S. government over a key provision in the Patient Prote ... more
Gas taxes give us a break at the pump When drivers hit the road in large numbers for the Fourth of July holiday, they will have something extra to celebrate the lowest gasoline taxes since the ea ... more
More transparency between doctors and patients could be "at least somewhat effective in bending the cost curve downward." That's cautious actuary-speak from the Society of Actuaries. Simply put, if co ... more
Analysis: U.S. Shale Gas Could Play Large Role in Future Production U.S. onshore shale natural gas could potentially become a large portion of future U.S. gas production with an assumed 347 Tcf of tec ... more
Even with health insurance, low-income women had lower rates of mammography screening than middle-class women, but a counseling program increased the likelihood of screening. ... more
Medicare Part D added prescription drug coverage to Medicare beginning in January 2006. This has dramatically reshaped the prescription drug insurance market and has had significant effects on insurer ... more
India Frees Gasoline, Diesel Prices to Help Cut Government's Expenditure India decided to free prices of gasoline and diesel, saying they would be market driven in line with a panel s recommendation ... more
Analysis: U.S. Shale Gas Could Play Large Role in Future Production U.S. onshore shale natural gas could potentially become a large portion of future U.S. gas production with an assumed 347 Tcf of tec ... more
Every company I speak with wants to grow. Growth is a sign of vitality and is or should be a source of profit. Perhaps, profitable growth is a better way to describe what everyone aspires to achieve.I ... more
Please join us in congratulating USA Hockey, Allstate, and Nationwide, for reaching the podium of the 2010 Brain Fitness Innovation Awards, unveiled today. The podium #8217;s top position went to USA ... more
Let me now share what the Judging Panel and the SharpBrains team found most impressive from each Winner and Finalist of the 2010 Brain Fitness Innovation Awards, accompanied by some additionalΒ inform ... more
Last November, talking with some Japanese colleagues at the World Economic ForumΒ΄s Council on the Aging Society, I discovered that it is common there to organize research-driven consortia/ learning l ... more
I have been developing a list of of new types of healthcare professionals who interact directly with patients. Here #39;s how it currently stands: coach, counselor, telephone booster, and nurse-inform ... more
Both liberals and conservative critics have charged that the health reform legislation that President Obama signed this spring focuses mainly on insurance coverage, and does little to rein in the spir ... more
Summary: #0160; Deficit Hawks want to slash both Medicare and Social Security, and they seem to be in control of the President s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. #0160;Hoveri ... more
Atul Gawande gave the commencement speech at Stanford s School of Medicine this year. Below, the speech, which was published in the New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2010/06/ ... more
One of several health insurers under investigation by both Delaware Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart and the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation for potentially de ... more
Lack of access and equity combined with poor efficiency are primary factors in why the U.S. ranks dead last in healthcare quality when compared with six other industrialized nations in a new report re ... more
CFTC Set to Limit Oil Speculation With Senate Backing (Bloomberg) -- The top U.S. commodity regulator is poised to impose new rules on oil speculators as Congress and the European Commission attempt t ... more
US natgas rig count rises unexpectedly-Baker Hughes NEW YORK (Reuters) - The number of rigs drilling for natural gas in the United States rose unexpectedly this week to a level just shy of the 14-mon ... more
CFTC Set to Limit Oil Speculation With Senate Backing (Bloomberg) -- The top U.S. commodity regulator is poised to impose new rules on oil speculators as Congress and the European Commission attempt t ... more
This January, the number of people enrolled in health savings accounts coupled with high-deductible health plans (HSA/HDHPs) attained new heights, increasing 25 percent over the course of a year to e ... more
In recent years, increasing emphasis has been placed on the need for accounting students to view problems in their organisational and social context and accounting educators have started to use cases ... more
People without insurance were about as likely to use the emergency room as those with private health insurance in 2007, with utilization rates only a few percentage points higher, according to a new d ... more
BP And Goldman Sachs Sued For Oil Fraud Dozens of small oil and gas producers across Oklahoma and the Midwest are suing Goldman Sachs, BP and ConocoPhillips, claiming the defendants conspired to defra ... more
Important reminder: members of the Judging Panel will recognize the Finalists and the 3 Winners in an Awards Ceremony Call on Monday, noon-1pm Pacific Time. In order to participate in the call: Membe ... more
A group of Maryland physicians has asked the state's insurance commissioner to examine the "potentially dangerous" practices among health insurance payers that appear to supercede physicians' care dec ... more
What is the state of small business? Unlike the State of the Union, we need a report more than once a year and here is the latest. A recovery is coming, distinguishing your business remains key and th ... more
Profiles created for physicians based on the cost of the care they provide can vary widely depending upon the methods used by insurance companies to create the profiles, according to a new study. ... more
Much has been said and written about the critical role that discharge planning and care coordination play in preventing rehospitalizations. But a new study by California's Office of Statewide Health P ... more
A new survey by the American College of Emergency Physicians reveals that, despite health reform, 71 percent of emergency physicians believe ER visits will continue to rise and that crowding will inte ... more
A Dallas-area hospital's "Doc Shop," a variation on speed dating in which doctors and potential patients pair up for short meet and greets, helps the hospital market itself not just to health consumer ... more
Adult patients without health insurance admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) in Pennsylvania hospitals are at a 21 percent increased risk of death compared to similar patients with private insuranc ... more
(TrendHunter.com) Stolpern Accident Insurance company's newest ad campaign plays to the everyday person, using shoes as their visual aid targeting all types of audience. Their (in my view) hilarious ... more
After promoting the idea of a national institute on healthcare delivery at Dartmouth College since he arrived on campus nearly a year ago, Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim will use an anonymous $35 mi ... more
The government recovered $2.5 billion in overpayments for the Medicare trust fund last year--up from $1.9 billion in 2008--and says that the stepped-up antifraud measures in health reform will ensure ... more
The Obama administration filed on Tuesday its defense against the first of a growing number of state lawsuits fighting the landmark health overhaul passed in March, specifically the provision that wou ... more
The nursing homes that reject hundreds of debilitated low-income Medicaid patients claim that they are "unable to safely meet the patients' needs," but an ongoing investigation by the Seattle Times in ... more
The federal government's $5 billion plan for creating state-based high-risk insurance pools for uninsured patients could cost five times that amount, according to one healthcare analyst's calculations ... more
Discretionary spending related to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act could cost an additional $115 billion over the next 10 years, pushing the total cost of health reform over the $1 trill ... more
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, formed in 2004 as kind of a bully pulpit to rally the troops behind health IT, has widened its responsibilities over time. Now ... more
A new analysis finds that the costs of treating cancer have nearly doubled over the past two decades and that the shares of these costs that are paid for by private health insurance and Medicaid have ... more
We are witnessing the emergence of what a recent article in the New York Times called Big Medicine (see: More Doctors Giving Up Private Practices). Simply put, it consists of the following triad: (1) ... more
Summary-Not long ago, a New York Times editorial repeated a statistic that you may have heard before: one in four Americans are projected to die of cancer. " Not true. For most Americans-including the ... more
Extension of workers' comp 'presumptions' to nurses could cost hospitals up to $500 million annually
President Obama signed the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act on Wednesday, calling the legislation a "major step forward in America's commitment to families and caregivers who tend t ... more
Summary: In Part 3 of Myths Facts about the Impact of Reform on Hospitals and Patients Who Need Hospital Care, #0160; I addressed the fear that #0160; cuts in Medicare spending will threaten t ... more
For me, preventive medicine is one of the key elements in reducing health care costs by avoiding or ameliorating some chronic diseases (see: Seeking Solutions to the Chronic Disease Epidemic; Preventi ... more
Worsened care for minorities, as well as the obese and poorer people, could be an unintended consequence of physician pay-for-performance (P4P) systems unless they're adjusted to account for case comp ... more
Peak Oil. Are the Lights About to Go Out on Western Civilization? Most of the large readily-accessible oil reserves in the world have been discovered and many of them have rapidly declining levels of ... more
Why 'Peak Oil' Will Never Lead To $500/bbl Crude Oil My primary contention is that the peak cheap oil problem is actually far worse than even most experts have come to realize. The realization of peak ... more
Pentagon spending on healthcare has soared from $19 billion in 2001 to a projected $50.7 billion in 2011, a 167 percent increase. Attributed to the surge in physical and mental health problems experie ... more
This week, thousands of patients will gather at the L.A. Sports Arena to receive free medical, dental and vision care provided by Tennessee-based nonprofit Remote Access Medical. The clinic will provi ... more
Increased demand in developing countries, technological advances that lead to personalized medicine, and an influx of aging populations are among the 12 healthcare "megatrends" that dramatically chang ... more
In an experiment modeled after Medicare's bundled payment pilot programs, several California hospitals this summer will begin charging bundled fees for knee and hip replacements. Four insurers, Aetna, ... more
With the recession still hitting many Americans hard, and near-universal healthcare years away, providers continue to seek alternative ways to get paid for their services. For some, it means skipping ... more
Voicing concerns over the new health reform law's stance on abortion coverage, Rhode Island Catholic bishop Thomas Tobin requested that two hospitals sponsored by his diocese--St. Joseph's and Fatima ... more
"I'm at the office late every night taking care of mindless paperwork, just so the insurance companies can deny payment," a physician colleague told New York Times columnist Pauline W. Chen, MD, for a ... more
The financial health of Massachusetts health insurers is a hot topic as they battle with state regulators over proposed premium rate hikes. The verdict: Massachusetts insurers aren't doing too badly, ... more
Fifteen governors throughout the nation--12 Republicans and three Democrats--have ultimately decided against creating temporary high-risk insurance pools for those who are uninsured due to pre-existin ... more
Fifteen governors throughout the nation--12 Republicans and three Democrats--have ultimately decided against creating temporary high-risk insurance pools for those who are uninsured due to pre-existin ... more
The financial health of Massachusetts health insurers is a hot topic as they battle with state regulators over proposed premium rate hikes. The verdict: Massachusetts insurers aren't doing too badly, ... more
Peak Oil. Are the Lights About to Go Out on Western Civilization? Most of the large readily-accessible oil reserves in the world have been discovered and many of them have rapidly declining levels of ... more
A study finds that 92 percent of Medicaid applications were written at or above the fifth-grade reading level, which could lead to gaps in insurance coverage for many children whose families have lowe ... more
Summary: I m crossing posting this piece from Dr. Len s Cancer Blog http://www.cancer.org/aspx/blog/Comments.aspx?id=353 because it seems to me a very wise and balanced assessment of what Proveng ... more