Report: Obamacare family ‘glitch’ could price millions out of healthcare coverage

This Week's Healthcare Online News
Modern Healthcare.com
Doctor-approved:As health apps flourish, hospitals are beginning to sanction some for patients
Mar,23,2013
by+Jaimy Lee
Some hospitals are beginning to develop formulary-like lists of smartphone and tablet applications acceptable for use in clinical settings as more patients and physicians incorporate medical apps into their care regimens.
Carolinas HealthCare System, which owns, leases or manages 23 hospitals in North and South Carolina, and St. Luke's Episcopal Health System, a six-hospital system based in Houston, are both forming “app formularies” that will utilize an app certification program. The program was created by Happtique, a mobile health apps marketplace owned by GNYHA Ventures, the for-profit arm of the Greater New York Hospital Association.
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iHealthBeat
Report: Remote Patient Monitoring Market To See Continued Growth
Mar,25,2013
by:+Staff
The remote patient monitoring market grew by nearly 20% from 2011 to 2012, and the market is expected to continue growing over the next several years, according to a report by Kalorama Information, Clinical Innovation & Technology reports.
Details of the Report
For the report, researchers analyzed the market for remote patient monitoring-related technology, which includes:
Applications and equipment for data processing;
Applications and equipment for transferring patient monitoring data into electronic health records;
Wireless and remote patient monitoring systems.
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Med City News
Report: Obamacare family ‘glitch’ could price millions out of healthcare coverage
Mar,26,2013
By:+Tom Brown
MIAMI (Reuters) - Millions of Americans will be priced out of health insurance under President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul because of a glitch in the law that adversely affects people with modest incomes who cannot afford family coverage offered by their employers, a leading healthcare advocacy group said on Tuesday.
Tax credits are a key component of the law and the White House has said the credits, averaging about $4,000 apiece, will help about 18 million individuals and families pay for health insurance once the Affordable Care Act takes full effect, beginning in January 2014.
The tax credits are geared toward low and middle-income Americans who do not have access to affordable health insurance coverage through an employer. The law specifies that employer-sponsored insurance is affordable so long as a worker's share of the premium does not exceed 9.5 percent of the worker's household income.
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Modern Healthcare AM
Value-based insurance plans gain momentum
Mar,26,2013
by:+Jonathan Block
The movement among employers to push insurers to adopt health plan benefit designs that improve medical outcomes without raising costs is slowly gathering steam, according to an employer coalition pushing payment reform.
While only 11% of payments that commercial insurers made to in-network providers in 2012 were “value-oriented,” according to a survey from Catalyst for Payment Reform, that's more than halfway to its goal of 20%, which the group hopes to attain by 2020.
The numbers suggest there is reason to believe the insurance industry and providers can achieve the coalition's goal, said Suzanne Delbanco, executive director of the not-for-profit coalition of employer groups, which issued its first-ever National Scorecard on Payment Reform.
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What Type of EHR Data Do U.S. Physicians Believe Patients Should Be Able To Update?

This Week's Healthcare Online News
iHealthbeat
What Type of EHR Data Do U.S. Physicians Believe Patients Should Be Able To Update?
Mar,20,2013
by+Staff
Seventy-nine percent of surveyed U.S. doctors say that patients should be able to update all demographic information in their electronic health record, according to a recent report from Accenture. The report found that 16% of surveyed U.S. doctors say that patients should be able to update some demographic information in their EHR and 5% say that patients should not have the ability to update any demographic data.
Sixty-seven percent of surveyed U.S. doctors say that patients should be able to update all family history information in their EHR, while 21% say that patients should be able update some family history data and 12% say that patients should not have the ability to update any family history information.
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Fierce Health Payer
Less than 1% of premiums go toward quality improvement
Mar,22,2013
by:+Dina Overland
Insurers spent less than 1 percent of premiums, amounting to only $29 per member, to improve healthcare quality in 2011 under the reform law's medical-loss ratio provision, according to a new study. Based on MLRs, consumer rebates and quality improvement expenses, the Commonwealth Fund study determined insurers spent a total of $2.3 billion to directly improve quality. Of that amount, 17 percent went to health information technology, 51 percent to improving health outcomes, 13 percent to wellness, 10 percent to patient safety and 9 percent to preventing hospital readmissions.
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Med City News
From Florida to Minnesota to Colorado: Views of the Affordable Care Act at age 3
Mar,24,2013
By:+Kaiser Health News
As the health law marks its third anniversary, much of the action surrounding its implementation has shifted to the states. Hot topics include creation of health exchanges, the on-line marketplaces where consumers will be able to shop for insurance coverage, and the law’s Medicaid expansion, a key mechanism by which the overhaul will extend health care to millions of people who currently lack health insurance. We checked in with reporters on the ground in Colorado, Florida and Minnesota to find out what they view as the most significant developments to happen in their states since the law’s passage and what future challenges they see ahead.
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Modern Healthcare.com
Cutting out the middleman Systems buying and developing insurance plans
Mar,23,2013
by:+Melanie Evans
One of the nation's largest not-for-profit hospital operators is building its own insurance arm to sell health plans directly to employers. Catholic Health Initiatives, which operates more than six dozen hospitals in 17 states, has hired a half-dozen former insurance executives and acquired the majority stake in a Washington insurer under a push to prepare for coming changes to hospital and physician reimbursement structures. The changes will increase providers' financial risk in ways that policymakers hope will create new incentives to eliminate waste and improve overall healthcare quality.
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Being healthy should be a natural right that everyone is entitled to. Lack of access and information or financial limitations should never be allowed to further fuel the fear and uncertainty that prevents one from achieving their highest levels of health.
WebDocsNetwork was created to make life easier, better, and most importantly, healthier. To re-distribute healthcare and improve quality and access for everyone. Our vision and mission is to provide people from all over the globe, access to U.S.
licensed, board-certified physicians. Healthcare when you need it, where you need it. We provide individuals unlimited real-time, immediate interaction with a national network of physicians via web-cam. phone or secure e-mail. Access 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.

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This Week's Home/Small Business Online News
Social Media Examiner
29 Tools to Enhance Your Business Blog
Mar,19,2013
by+Cindy King
Are you looking for cool blogging tools to enhance your business blog? The right mix of blogging plugins and widgets can make it easier to blog and also help you achieve your business goals. To help you keep up with the latest and greatest, we asked a group of blogging pros to share the favorite new tools they’ve recently discovered.
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Fox Small Business Center
4 Steps to Get it Right in Front of VC Investors
Mar,20,2013
by:+Kate Rogers
To be an entrepreneur today, Alexis Ohanian said all you really need is a “laptop and an Internet connection.” And the Reddit co-founder should know, considering he conceived and brought to life a top 100 site, launched Breadpig and hipmunk, and now invests in more than 50 tech startups. And good companies that are worthy of investor attention typically emerge before the venture capital community catches on, Ohanian said. In other words, the investors may give you power, but you should get started without them.
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Site Pro News
Demystifying Facebook’s New Features for Marketers
Mar,22,2013
By:+Tina Courtney-Brown
No one ever accuses Facebook of being a static site – the plethora of major EdgeRank changes in the last twelve months is ample evidence. Recent updates have incited a cacophonous chorus of frustration, as many marketers report lower-than-average reach with the current tools and trends. As a result, businesses feel the social media giant has devalued the audience they worked so hard to build and maintain, and that advertising on Facebook is no longer such a windfall. The truth of the matter? Things are better than ever for marketers using Facebook – one simply has to be informed of the new tools available to them. Facebook has not lessened the impact of the audience you’ve built; they’ve simply provided some new ways of leveraging your reach. Their fatal flaw in the recent rollouts is simply a matter of communication, as marketers aren’t aware of all their new power.
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Small Business Newz
The Gap Between Social Media and Business Impact
Mar,19,2013
by:+Brian Solis
In business, social media is becoming a lot like email. Every company has it. In an Altimeter Group survey of 700 executives and social strategists fielded in late 2012, we found that 100 percent of participating enterprise organizations run to varying extents an active social media strategy. But unlike email, organizations haven’t mastered how to effectively communicate through the likes of Facebook or the tweets of Twitter. Over the last several years, businesses have increased the pace of adopting social media strategies for use in marketing, service and other related capacities. What’s becoming very clear however is that adopting social media and understanding its impact on customer and employee relationships and also the bottom line are not always linked. This disconnect between social media strategies and business value is forcing many executives to rethink their overall approach and the infrastructure they built to support it. The result of this reflective process is motivating organizations to transform everyday social media initiatives into deeper social business strategies.
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WebDocsNetwork

We provide unlimited access to U.S. licensed physicians via web-cam, phone, or secure e-mail. Immediate access available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Being healthy should be a natural right that everyone is entitled to. Lack of access and information or financial limitations should never be allowed to further fuel the fear and uncertainty that prevents one from achieving their highest levels of health.
WebDocsNetwork was created to make life easier, better, and most importantly, healthier. To re-distribute healthcare and improve quality and access for everyone. Our vision and mission is to provide people from all over the globe, access to U.S.
licensed, board-certified physicians. Healthcare when you need it, where you need it. We provide individuals unlimited real-time, immediate interaction with a national network of physicians via web-cam. phone or secure e-mail. Access 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.

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Tel: 773-758-0007
http://www.webdocsnetwork.com/chicago

Bad news/good news: Americans still hate their health plans, but a little less than before

This Week's Healthcare News
iHealthBeat
Bill Aims To Expand Use of Telehealth To Avert Hospital Readmissions
Mar,20,2013
by+Staff
On Monday, Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and John Thune (R-S.D.) reintroduced a bill (S 596) that aims to expand the use of telehealth technology to reduce hospital readmissions among Medicare beneficiaries in rural and underserved areas, the Alexandria Echo Press reports (Alexandria Echo Press, 3/19).
The measure -- called the Fostering Independence Through Technology Act -- has been introduced in previous years but has never passed (iHealthBeat, 3/9/11).

Details of the Legislation
The latest version of the bill calls for HHS to establish pilot programs that would provide incentives to home health agencies that purchase and use remote patient monitoring and communication technologies.
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HealthDataManagement
HHS Wants Input on Speeding Health Information Exchange Adoption
Mar,6,2013
by:+Joseph Goedert
Comments due by April 21. Adoption of basic electronic health records systems has steadily risen under the meaningful use program. An estimated 40 percent of physicians were using the software in 2012, and HHS expects that to top 50 percent during 2013. Now, the goal is to accelerate health information exchange.
“We seek to build on that work by engaging other policy areas within HHS jurisdiction to promote routine sharing of information among health care providers across settings of care to support care coordination and delivery system reform,” the department notes in the RFI. “We also recognize that economic and regulatory barriers may impair the development of a patient centered, information rich, high performance health care system where persons’ health information follows them wherever they access health care services.”
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Med city News
Bad news/good news: Americans still hate their health plans, but a little less than before
Mar,18,2013
By:+Deanna Pogorelc
Health plans, apparently, could stand to learn a few things from Publix and Trader Joe’s. The grocery chains garnered the top customer experience ratings in a new survey in which health plans as an industry ranked second to last. Although insurers seem to be investing more now than ever in improving the customer experience, the survey implies they still have a long way to go.
The 2013 Temkin Experience Ratings survey asked 10,000 American consumers to rate their recent experiences with hundreds of companies across 19 industries. Only TV service providers received lower ratings than health plans.
Tricare, the health program of U.S. military personnel and retirees, and Kaiser Permanente emerged as the leaders in the health plan category, which included 15 payers including Aetna, Anthem, CIGNA, Highmark, Humana and Medicare. Thirteen of the 15 plans scored average ratings that fell in the “poor” or “very poor” categories, with Empire (BCBS) and Medicaid landing near the bottom.
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Modern Healthcare.com
Providers, insurers must forge new links to manage slower growing payments
Mar,16,2013
by:+ Merrill Goozner
Total healthcare costs have remained in check for three straight years. The sector's share of the overall economy hasn't budged since 2009—a welcome change from the experience of most of the past half century. But no one in Washington has conducted a careful examination of what's behind this trend. Did the recession and still-sluggish economy cause consumers to cut back? Have providers' herculean efforts to improve quality and lower costs borne fruit? Have insurers rediscovered their inner cost-control selves?
Instead, Congress in its infinite nonwisdom decided to pull out its preferred legislative tool for dealing with the nation's deficit problem: the meat ax. Earlier this month, it defaulted on its legislative responsibilities by imposing an across-the-board 2% cut that kicks in April 1.
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WebDocsNetwork

We provide unlimited access to U.S. licensed physicians via web-cam, phone, or secure e-mail. Immediate access available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Being healthy should be a natural right that everyone is entitled to. Lack of access and information or financial limitations should never be allowed to further fuel the fear and uncertainty that prevents one from achieving their highest levels of health.
WebDocsNetwork was created to make life easier, better, and most importantly, healthier. To re-distribute healthcare and improve quality and access for everyone. Our vision and mission is to provide people from all over the globe, access to U.S.
licensed, board-certified physicians. Healthcare when you need it, where you need it. We provide individuals unlimited real-time, immediate interaction with a national network of physicians via web-cam. phone or secure e-mail. Access 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.

Affiliate Program
How would you like to save money on you and your family's Doctor's visit while helping other and make extra income. Then become a Web Docs Network Affiliate.
As an affiliate once you sign up three people your services are FREE
Contact:
Keith Berggren
Tel: 773-758-0007
http://www.webdocsnetwork.com/chicago