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Category Archives: Health Care

Health care pressures grow

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The National Health Service (NHS) in Britain was described by former Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson as the closest thing Britain has to a national religion. This was an exaggeration, but the state of the NHS will probably be the biggest political issue at the next election in Britain, due in May.

Ed Miliband, leader of the Labour Party opposition, is alleged to have said that he wanted to weaponize the NHS. This was a clumsy and unfortunate phrase suggesting that he would use the state of the NHS as a major theme in criticizing the governments record over health issues.

Both the government and the opposition agree on the electoral importance of the NHS and on the need to ring-fence the NHS budget. The differences are mainly over management and recruitment issues and the source of extra funds for the NHS.

The pressures in recent weeks on accident and emergency (A&E) departments of British hospitals have been so great that some hospitals have had to declare emergencies and postpone routine operations. There are multiple causes for the current pressures on the NHS. One is Britains population is growing as the proportion of elderly people increases.

Thanks to modern medicine the elderly are living longer. But the new drugs and procedures to treat them are expensive and the costs have had to be capped. This has led to accusations of rationing of care.

Funds for care of the elderly within the community have been stretched. As a result, hospitals have been unable to discharge patients who have nowhere suitable to go and hospital beds have been blocked. Health and care services need to be better coordinated.

Another factor increasing the pressures on A&E has been the difficulty some patients have had in fixing appointments with their general practitioners. Most general practitioner (GP) surgeries dont operate in the evenings or on Saturdays and Sundays, and GPs no longer must provide care 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Patients unable to get appointments with their GPs are encouraged to ring a general NHS helpline rather than go straight to A&E departments in local hospitals. But the helpline is alleged to have had too few qualified staff able to give expert advice. The NHS, faced with increasing demands, has had to recruit expensive agency staff. More permanent doctors and nurses are needed but recruiting and training them takes time.

The government declared on taking office that it would not undertake a major reorganization of the NHS, but almost immediately proceeded to make organizational changes. This affected moral in the service.

To improve the levels of service, the government imposed a series of targets, which hospitals and other parts of the NHS were obliged to meet. This led to what critics have termed targetitis and to some parts of the organization making the meeting of targets the top priority rather than the provision of proper care. Scandals at a small number of hospitals have been exposed. The NHS has been accused of having too many managers and bureaucrats.

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Health care pressures grow

Health care expected to remain a source of jobs in 2015

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After working as a home health care aide for a half-dozen years, Falanda Stevenson decided she would like to get the training to allow her to work in a hospital or nursing home.

Studying to become a certified nursing assistant can be expensive, and few agencies offer the training for free. But last year, the Buffalo resident completed a grant-funded, three-month program at the New Hope Education Center.

And last month, Stevenson started her new job as a CNA at Ridge View Manor Nursing Home in South Buffalo, where she earns $10.72 per hour tending to the residents basic needs.

Its like a breath of fresh air. You end up making a change in your life, something for the better, something that can better yourself and your children and your home. I love it, she said.

As Stevenson learned, the regions hospitals, nursing homes, health insurance companies, medical practices and biotech companies last year filled thousands of positions in a hiring boomlet that is expected to continue well into 2015.

The health care industry is a key piece of the regional economy, and government and private institutions are amplifying the existing infrastructure with hundreds of millions of dollars meant to boost health care delivery and biomedical research.

The available jobs range from positions accessible to high school graduates to positions that require graduate or post-graduate education.

Experts say hiring in the hottest fields such as medical coding, health analytics and home health care is driven by industry trends and advances in technology. And nonprofit agencies and colleges are adjusting their programs to meet the need.

With 74,400 workers, as of November, the health care sector accounts for 13 percent of the overall workforce in the Buffalo Niagara metro area, according to the state Labor Department. And hiring in health care has outpaced overall hiring going back a decade.

Between November 2004 and November 2014, employment in the health care sector rose by 6.9 percent here, according to the Labor Department, better than the anemic 0.6 percent increase in all employment over the last 10 years.

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Health care expected to remain a source of jobs in 2015

More privacy protection sought for feds' health care website

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WASHINGTON (AP) The Obama administration appears to be making broader changes to protect consumer information on the government's health insurance website, after objections from lawmakers and privacy advocates.

The Associated Press reported last week that details such as consumers' income and tobacco use were going to private companies with a commercial interest in such data.

AP also reported that a number of companies had embedded connections on HealthCare.gov, raising privacy and security issues for some tech experts.

An independent analysis of the health care website, released Saturday, showed that the number of embedded connections to private companies had dropped from 50 to 30.

Those changes accompanied another shift by the administration to curtail the release of specific personal information from the website. The AP reported that change Friday.

After failing to respond to interview requests, the administration posted a statement Saturday evening. HealthCare.gov CEO Kevin Counihan acknowledged that privacy questions have been raised, and added: "We are looking at whether there are additional steps we should take to improve our efforts. While this process is ongoing, we have taken action that we believe helps further increase consumer privacy."

Officials have said the sole purpose of embedded connections to private companies was to monitor HealthCare.gov and improve performance for consumers.

The episode could become a blemish on what's otherwise shaping up as a successful open enrollment season for the second year of expanded coverage under President Barack Obama's health care law.

Lawmakers continue to insist on a full explanation.

HealthCare.gov is used by millions to sign up for subsidized private coverage under the law, or to merely browse for insurance plans in their communities.

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More privacy protection sought for feds' health care website

Ilyse Hogue Discusses H.R.7 on "The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell" – Video

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Ilyse Hogue Discusses H.R.7 on "The Last Word with Lawrence O #39;Donnell"
On the 42nd anniversary of the Supreme Court #39;s decision in Roe v. Wade, anti-choice Republican leaders in the House held a vote on H.R.7. This bill would not only limit women #39;s ability to make...

By: NARAL Pro-Choice America

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Ilyse Hogue Discusses H.R.7 on "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" - Video

HCS 440 Week 3 Individual Assignment Health Care Spending – Fast Delivery – Video

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HCS 440 Week 3 Individual Assignment Health Care Spending - Fast Delivery
Find needed answers here - http://homework-tutorials.com/product/hcs-440-week-3-individual-assignment-health-care-spending/ Write a 1250- to 1750-word paper in which you explain your position...

By: Norman Belcher

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HCS 440 Week 3 Individual Assignment Health Care Spending - Fast Delivery - Video

Health care priority concern in Cornwall pre-budget sessions

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Health care was a hot topic on Friday in Cornwall, when the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs had a pre-budget consultation session at the Best Western Plus Parkway Inn.

"Health care (concerns are) definitely a main topic," said John Fraser, MPP for Ottawa South and one of five Liberals on the eight-person panel.

"We heard some excellent presentations . . . it's a non-partisan committee, a great exercise. It's important because you need to hear directly from the people about what's happening on the ground, it gives you important perspectives no matter whose side you're on."

Jim McDonell, MPP for Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry, and the PC Children and Youth Services Critic, represented the Ontario PC Caucus at the Friday consultation, along with Ontario PC House Leader Steve Clark, MPP for Leeds-Grenville.

"We have a health-care system that's being whittled down, hospital budgets are being cut back," McDonell said after the session, touching on the big issue before noting the importance of hearing from so many in the community.

"It's a chance to listen to the public - it gives government the chance to go to the different regions of the province and I think that's important."

The panel heard submissions from local business and community representatives in advance of the upcoming Liberal budget, including from Elaine MacDonald, co-chair of the Cornwall Chapter of the Ontario Health Coalition.

"Chronic underfunding of public health care destabilizes the system and accelerates the creeping privatization of public health care," MacDonald said in asking government to address three main concerns, including the rise of private clinics and the "threat they present to the principles of medicare and to our public community hospitals."

MacDonald also addressed the issue of underfunding of home care and long-term care, and the "negative impact of long-distance health care. . . as centres of specialization are set up in major centres like Ottawa, local hospitals in small and rural communities like Cornwall lose whole departments and the budgets that go with them," she said.

Afterward, MacDonald was pleased with the proceedings.

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Health care priority concern in Cornwall pre-budget sessions

Workers pick up greater share of health care costs, survey finds

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Health care costs might be rising less sharply than they were a few years ago, but employers continue to make employees take on more of the burden, and that's likely to continue, a new survey shows.

Plans with high deductibles are becoming the norm, and employers are contributing less to the employee health savings accounts tied to those plans, according to an annual survey released last week by benefits advisory organization United Benefit Advisors.

"More and more of this is on the back of the employee," said Jonathan Weiner, professor of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "They're paying more up front and more after the fact," and, he said, seeing steeper increases in their share than employers.

Employers are shifting more responsibility and cost to workers through increases in out-of-pocket costs and cutbacks in family benefits, according to the survey of nearly 10,000 small to large employers, billed as the largest benchmarking survey of its kind. Employers use the results to design plans and cost sharing in a way that will keep them competitive while allowing them to attract workers.

Among other findings, the suvery found employer wellness programs have declined slightly and small businesses could be facing sharper cost increases as federal health care reform takes hold.

More than half the employers surveyed by United Benefit Advisors offer one health plan option, and just over a quarter offer two.

Plans last year cost an average of $9,504 per worker, with the employer contributing $6,276 and the employee contributing $3,228, up from $3,184 in 2013, the survey said. Premium rate increases averaged 5.6 percent, ranging from a low of 4.5 percent for "exclusive provider organizations" or EPOs, to a high of 6.3 percent for traditional, point-of-service plans.

Nationwide, deductibles for in-network services last year averaged $1,901 for a single person and $4,256 for a family, roughly the same as the year before, the survey found. Yet out-of-pocket maximums jumped 6 percent to an average $3,900 for a single employee and 3.5 percent to $8,000 for a family.

Costs in Maryland remained below the national average, according to UBA. In-network deductibles averaged $1,511 for a single person and $3,044 for a family, while out-of-pocket maximums averaged $3,178 for a single person and $6,469 for a family.

"The biggest thing in this community right now is high-deductible health plans," said Lawrence W. Ulvila Jr., a founding partner with Annapolis-based Insurance Solutions, an employee benefits design consulting firm. "They're growing across the country, but they have been really strong in Maryland."

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Workers pick up greater share of health care costs, survey finds

ACA Compliance: End the Confusion with ADPs Health Care Solution – Video

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ACA Compliance: End the Confusion with ADPs Health Care Solution
http://bit.ly/1Cnrp2C With ACA reporting beginning in 2016, the time for data recording is now! Section 6056 of the IRC dictates that Applicable Large Employers (ALEs) must now annually report...

By: ADP

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ACA Compliance: End the Confusion with ADPs Health Care Solution - Video

Health-Care Providers Challenge Medicaid Rates at High Court

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U.S. Supreme Court justices weighed whether hospitals and other health-care providers have the right to challenge Medicaid reimbursement rates set by states.

A group of health-care providers argued in an Idaho case Tuesday that the U.S. Constitution allows them to contest their reimbursements under the Medicaid health-insurance program for the poor. The position is backed by hospitals, which say that the low rates arent covering their costs.

Chief Justice John Roberts asked during arguments in Washington whether allowing such lawsuits from hospitals and health-care providers would put state budgetary decisions in the hands of federal judges.

The effect here is that federal judges get to decide what the reimbursement rates are in a particular area, Roberts said. Are you aware of any situation where the federal judges get together and try to balance the state budget?

Medicaid is jointly funded by the federal and state governments and administered by the states under federal requirements. The case pits states against hospitals and health-care providers, which want the right to challenge their reimbursements. A federal appeals court ruled against Idaho and said the health-care providers could sue.

Four justices said in a dissenting opinion in a separate 2012 case from California that health-care providers didnt have a right to sue over reimbursement rates.

During arguments, Justice Sonia Sotomayor pressed Idahos lawyer about what recourse providers have.

Lets assume, as inflation is going up constantly, what happens two years into the plan when providers cant work for what the state is giving, or the state is imposing a tremendous hardship on them, which is happening to a lot of providers who are being underpaid, she said. Where do they go?

The dispute stems from reimbursement rates set by Idaho for services provided to people with developmental disabilities. Health-care providers sued the state, claiming the reimbursement rates were too low to comply with the federal Medicaid law. A federal court agreed and said the rates were unlawful because the state didnt consider provider costs.

The American Hospital Association and the Federation of American Hospitals, in a court brief supporting the Idaho health-care providers, said the cost of providing care to Medicaid beneficiaries in 2012 exceeded reimbursements by $13.7 billion.

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Health-Care Providers Challenge Medicaid Rates at High Court


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