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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Featured Report: Most states earn 'F' in price transparency

This Week's Healthcare News
HealthDataManagement
Payers Work to Ease Coordination of Benefits Determinations
Mar,13,2013
by+Joseph Goedert

All 12 health insurer members of CAQH have pledged to adopt the new COB process when it’s complete, which should happen later this year. Covering a combined 165 million members, the members are Aetna, AultCare, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, Cigna, Health Net, Horizon Healthcare Services, Kaiser Permanente, UnitedHealth Group, and WellPoint and its affiliated plans.
The payers are building a shared repository of patient demographic data to match and compare records from different health plans to identify patients with overlapping coverage from more than one insurer. The goal is to electronically identify and assess payer responsibilities, a primarily manual and often inaccurate process, when a patient has coverage from more than one insurer.
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Fierce EMR
IRS unlawfully seized 60M medical records
Mar,
by:+Susan D. Hall18,2013
An unnamed HIPAA-covered entity in Southern California is suing the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, alleging that agents executing a warrant stole medical records for 10 million Americans. Those affected could include every state judge in California, as well as "prominent citizens in the world of entertainment, business and government, from all walks of life," according to the complaint.
Fifteen IRS agents executed a search warrant on March 11, 2011, for financial data pertaining to a former employee of the company, however, "it did not authorize any seizure of any healthcare or medical record of any persons, least of all third parties completely unrelated to the matter."
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Fierce Health Payer
73% of consumers likely to use health exchanges
Mar,15,2013
By:+Dina Overland
Awareness of and interest in health insurance exchanges has been increasing, especially among consumers who purchase coverage on their own, according to a survey from J.D. Power and Associates.
In its 2013 Member Health Plan Study, J.D. Power analyzed responses from 33,000 members of 136 commercial health plans and found that 73 percent of consumers who don't have employer-based insurance say they "definitely will" or "probably will" shop for coverage using a state exchange.
That's well above J.D. Power's survey results from 2012 showing that 55 percent of health plan members with individual coverage likely would use a state-run exchange, Fierce Health Payer previously reported.
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Modern Healthcare.com
Featured Report:Most states earn 'F' in price transparency
Mar,18,2013
by:+Melanie Evans
Most states have limited laws or no laws at all to guarantee patient access to information on hospital and clinic prices, according a newly released report that found poor disclosure and incomplete information in three dozen states.
The report, released by the Catalyst for Payment Reform and the Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute, awarded an F to 29 states—including seven without any price laws whatsoever—and gave another seven states a D. State laws were graded on how easily disclosed prices could be seen by the public; whether laws required disclosure of prices or discounts paid by insurers; and how many providers and procedures were included.
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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

Featured Report:The 6 stages of social media dominance (that actually makes money)

This Week's Home/Small Business News



Med City News
Mar,13,2013
by+Brian Solis
In business, social media is becoming a lot like email: every company has it. 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.
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Small Business Trends
M-Commerce: Why Your Website Needs to Be Mobile
Mar,13,2013
by:+Sramana Mitra
Mobile commerce, also known as m-commerce, is evolving – and small businesses must evolve with it.
A 2010 survey by Internet Retailer of 149 chain sellers, chain retailers, web-only merchants, catalog companies and consumer brand manufacturers found only 8.8 percent of these companies operated an m-commerce site.
However, the same survey suggested 75.9 percent of these retailers already had plans to launch a mobile site with 31.9 percent expecting to be selling through mobile devices in the next six months.
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Inside Facebook
Facebook ‘focused on basics’ for News Feed and mobile ads
Mar,11,2013
By:+Brittany Darwell
There’s a vision many people have when they think about mobile advertising. Hyperlocal, real-time, something that incorporates features like text, push notifications, QR codes and GPS.
Facebook News Feed product manager Jeff Kanter says that idea is interesting, but for now, mobile ads can be much simpler and still be effective.
“A lot of people will talk about the holy grail of advertising where you’re walking down the street and your phone is buzzing with alerts about deals around you and a movie’s playing nearby,” he says. “I think it’s an awesome vision and the world will get there, but at this point in time, mobile advertising is working really well because it’s where people are spending their time and it can achieve the same brand objectives that advertisers are trying to do elsewhere.”
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Small Business Newz
Nobody Talks About Boring Businesses
Mar,14,2013
by:+John Jantsch
Perhaps one of the most primary objectives of marketing is to get people talking about your business. Sure, you actually want them to buy from you, but when there’s buzz, when people think what you’re doing matters, there will be sales.
To me there is no more important job than building your business in a way that allows you to stand out from everyone else.
But, how do you create something that will get people talking? How do you build a story that people want to share and become a part of? How do you not be boring?
Not being boring doesn’t mean you have to create controversy or fanfare, it means you have to do something in a way that others don’t. It means you have to do something better, faster or with more soul.
There are two parts to beating the boring equation – first you need a value proposition that allows you to both stand out and deliver something that no one else is. And then you need a story to carry your value proposition.
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Featured Healthcare Program: Web Docs NetWork.com



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

Who manages social media at hospitals? Survey says it’s still a part-time effort for most

This Week's Healthcare Online News



Med City News
Who manages social media at hospitals? Survey says it’s still a part-time effort for most (infographic)
Mar,11,2013
by:+Deanna Pogorelc
While as many as 90 percent of hospitals use social media, it’s still a part-time effort for most of them, according to a survey of small and large hospitals, and health systems in Ohio. The Ohio Hospital Association and social media agency Mindset Digital conducted an email survey among OHA-member organizations last fall. Of the 84 hospitals that responded, only 15 percent said they had full-time personnel to manage their social media channels, and those tended to be large health systems. The Cleveland Clinic, for one, last year made some of its part-time social media staff full time. But most of the people doing this job at other hospitals are full-time employees with other duties. Six percent of hospitals said their social media manager was an intern and 4 percent said it was a part-time employee.
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Modern Healthcare.com
Half of states have chosen benchmark insurance plan: report
Mar, 13,2013
by+ Jessica Zigmond
A little more than six months before open enrollment begins, 24 states and Washington, D.C., have chosen a benchmark plan that will determine what health insurers must cover in health plans sold in the state exchanges and individual and small-group markets, according to a new study from the Commonwealth Fund.
In the rest of the country, the snapshot suggests, the federal government will model the minimum benefits on the largest small-group plan sold in the state.
Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, individual and small-group plans must offer an “essential health benefits” package. The core set of benefits must cover 10 broad categories, such as emergency services, maternity and pediatric care, prescription drugs, and mental health and substance-abuse services. HHS issued a final rule in February on essential benefits for 2014 and 2015 and will revisit the provisions for the 2016 benefit year.
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Government Health IT
Patient engagement pilots find success, face challenges
Mar,11,2013
by:+Anthony Brino
Expanding Americans’ access to their health information in digital form is one of the Office of the National Coordinator’s main goals, and last year, HIE cooperative programs in Georgia, Indiana, Montana and Nebraska began pilot projects aimed at finding successful patient engagement models.
In a report on the pilots, the ONC has found some success and potential for expansion and improvement, amid several legal, technical and financial challenges.
In southeastern Georgia, the HIE ChathamHealthLink developed Chatham Connect to bring personal health records to mostly low-income or uninsured patients served at two federally qualified health clinics and three Volunteers in Medicine clinics.
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Med City News
The mobile phone as the ultimate medical tool: Hacked iPhone saves lives in Africa
Mar,
By:+John Koetsier
Scientists have hacked together a microscope out of an iPhone, a piece of glass, double-sided tape, and a cheap flashlight that is good enough to detect intestinal worm infections with 70 percent accuracy.
MacGyver, you’re out of a job. According to a study published today in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, scientists used the hacked-together microscope to examine almost 200 stool samples taken from children in Pemba Island in Tanzania. Each glass slide with the sample was covered in cellophane, taped to the iPhone, and lit from behind with the flashlight. Then the researchers took a picture with the phone’s camera, and examined the image on the iPhone’s screen.
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Featured Healthcare Program: Web Docs NetWork.com



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