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Category Archives: Health Care

Houston City Council debates contract with Cigna for health care benefits program – Video

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Houston City Council debates contract with Cigna for health care benefits program
Houston City Council debates ordinance for 3 year contract with Cigna as 3rd party administrator of City #39;s self-insured Employee health care benefits program...

By: Marc Pembroke

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Houston City Council debates contract with Cigna for health care benefits program - Video

Health Care Jobs – Healthcare Jobs Career Center for Medical …

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HEALTH CARE JOBSHealth Care Jobs, Medical Jobs, Hospital Jobs, Nursing Jobs

CAREER CENTER

Health Care Jobs Career Center will help you locate healthcare jobs and explore medical jobs, hospital jobs, and nursing jobs. Use this site to find health care jobs including jobs with the Veterans Administration and to explore healthcare careers and medical jobs.

You will find valuable health care job hunting information and resources that you can use to explore the lucrative and fast growing allied healthcare industry. The information provided on this service is excerpted from the new fourth edition of Health Care Job Explosion! High Growth Health Care Careers and Health Care JOB LOCATOR by Dennis V. Damp.

The U.S. Department of Labor projects a 30.3% increase in the number of health care jobs between now and 2014. That's 4,700,000 NEW HEALTH CARE JOBS. Health care jobs and careers are the rising stars of the employment outlook.

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Health Care Jobs - Healthcare Jobs Career Center for Medical ...

Invest in children to aid U.S. health care

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The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation weighed in this week on health care with a welcome twist. Its panel of experts focused not on the Affordable Care Act Obamacare to some and problems with its roll out and health care exchanges. Instead, the foundations Commission to Build a Healthier America called for a seismic shift in this countrys approach to health care by laying a foundation for better health outcomes early in life to reduce costs and sicknesses later on.

Titled Time to Act: Investing in the Health of Our Children and Communities, a 120-page report calls for a revolution in the mindset of individuals, community planners and leaders, and health professionals by expanding the U.S. focus on how to stay healthy in the first place.

The commission, which included medical professionals, economists, academics and community advocates from diverse backgrounds, spent many months assessing data and programs and reached the vital conclusion that improving Americas health must reach beyond medical care. Indeed, they conclude that this country cannot get health care costs under control or significantly improve the health outcomes of most Americans without addressing socioeconomic and other factors that play a key role in those matters.

The report bluntly takes note of this countrys poor and dropping health care status worldwide. In 1980, the U.S. ranked 15th among affluent countries in life expectancy. In 2009, it stood at 27th, below places like Slovenia, Chile and Korea and just above places like the Czech Republic, Poland and Mexico. Thirty countries have infant mortality rates lower than ours.

And that health care status comes in no small part because too many Americans grow up in environments and have childhood experiences that are detrimental to their health. Said Dr. David Williams, a professor at Harvards School of Public Health and a staff director for the commission, to the PBS Newshour this week: What we know is that the foundations of health in adulthood are laid in childhood. And the opportunities and the experiences that children have even before they go to school shape their risk of chronic disease 30, 40 years later, so that everything that we can do to prepare those children and give them the optimal health and optimal developmental opportunities in the preschool area, then theyre ready for school, and they have high levels of education, and they will have better health for the rest of their life.

With that perspective, its no surprise that the first of three strategies the commission recommended for improving the health care of Americans focuses squarely on the young. The report notes that research clearly tells us that children have a greater chance of achieving good health throughout life if they are raised in families that provide a well-regulated and responsive home environment, benefit from early supports that build resilience by mitigating the effects of significant adversity (such as chronic poverty, violence and neglect), and participate in high-quality early childhood programs.

Critics who deride the value of prekindergarten programs might want to take a moment to absorb these findings. Though the evidence is mixed on test score gains associated with preschool programs, there is strong evidence from studies that preschool yields more important and long-lasting benefits self-sufficiency, higher education, home ownership, more stable marriages and staying out of trouble with the law. Now this report says preschool and other investments early in a childs life are key to lifelong physical and mental health. With the health cost savings associated with that, it should be a powerful incentive for policymakers to make that investment in the well-being of young children especially children growing up in chronic poverty.

With growing numbers of N.C. children living in poverty (26 percent do), Laila Bell, head of Action for Children North Carolina (which recently merged with Covenant with NC's Children to become NC Child) took note last month of povertys impact: Poverty impairs cognitive development, making it difficult for children to start school ready to learn.

Enhanced learning environments and preventative health care can overcome those deficits, she said.

Many others are recognizing those benefits as well. President Obama has proposed a plan to support universal prekindergarten, and late last year a bipartisan group of House and Senate members offered similar legislation to create federal-state partnerships to expand voluntary pre-K programs for 4-year-olds near or at the poverty line.

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Invest in children to aid U.S. health care

Health care providers support Medicaid changes that stop short of managed care

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State hospitals, doctors and pharmacies united Wednesday in support of Medicaid changes that stop short of full managed care but would reward them for quality, cost-conscious care.

An advisory committee on state Medicaid changes heard from nearly 50 speakers Wednesday as it gathered more information on potential changes to the government health insurance program for low-income children and their parents, the elderly and disabled.

Gov. Pat McCrorys administration wants to control Medicaid spending with a switch to managed care. Medicaid spending has dented the budget in recent years. Some of the overruns were due to inaccurate budget forecasts. Under managed care, providers would be given a set amount to treat patients and would be responsible for costs if they overspend.

Managed care would represent a major switch from the current system where doctors, hospitals and other health care providers are paid for each procedure.

Most say Medicaid can improve, but theres no agreement how to do it.

The message from doctors groups, hospitals and retail pharmacies is that they support change but dont want full managed care.

What theyve proposed is a type of health care and payment system that can be run by providers. These accountable care organizations would be responsible for reaching health care goals and controlling costs. They would share in any cost savings. National managed care insurance companies would not necessarily be involved.

Reform must keep scarce health care dollars in North Carolina, providing the care our patients need, not paying for additional administrative overhead that is funneled to multiple out-of-state companies, said Dr. Bill Dennis, president of the N.C. Academy of Family Physicians. We simply cannot afford to settle for the failed policies of managed care that have proven to be disastrous in state after state throughout our country.

The federal Affordable Care Act encourages providers to set up accountable care organizations for Medicare, the government insurance program for the elderly. More than 20 are operating in the state.

Several speakers said affordable care organizations could build upon the statewide patient-care management program Community Care of North Carolina. CCNC has Medicaid patients choose a medical home that oversees their care. Patients with chronic illnesses get extra looking-after.

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Health care providers support Medicaid changes that stop short of managed care

Health care website passed recent test

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FILE - In this Dec. 4, 2013, file photo, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., right, confers with the committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., on Capitol Hill in Washington, before the start of the committee's hearing on the implementation of the Affordable Care Acts HealthCare.gov website. The top cybersecurity officer for the federal Health and Human Services department was concerned about potential vulnerabilities ahead of the launch of the Obama administrations health care website. Issa, investigating the chaotic rollout of the website contends the administration risked the personal information of millions of Americans in its zeal to meet a self-imposed Oct. 1 deadline. Cummings says the administration addressed the potential security issues through added vigilance instituted before the site went live. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) Cybersecurity concerns over President Barack Obama's health care website have been cleared up through testing, a government security professional who initially had qualms about the system assured lawmakers Thursday.

But a congressional hearing featuring three senior technology experts from within the Health and Human Services Department also revealed a broader internal debate before the hapless launch of HealthCare.gov last fall.

One of the witnesses, HHS Chief Information Officer Frank Baitman, said he personally brought security issues to the attention of the department's second-in-command, Bill Corr, as well as another senior official. It's unclear what, if anything, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and White House officials were told.

The maddening technical problems that frustrated consumers for weeks as they tried to sign up for health insurance would pale in comparison if a serious security breach compromised the names, Social Security numbers, incomes and other personal information of millions of Americans.

Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are trying to build a case that the administration recklessly ignored security concerns to meet a self-imposed Oct. 1 deadline for flipping the switch. The administration and Democratic lawmakers say all issues were addressed through special vigilance instituted just before the launch. While Republicans have raised questions, they have yet to find a smoking gun.

Officials told the committee no attempted attack by hackers has succeeded, although a shadowy group calling itself "Destroy Obamacare" has tried. There have been 13 known inadvertent exposures or disclosures of information.

The root of the controversy is that the health care site did not get full security testing, as is the usual practice with federal systems before they are put into use. The technology was getting constant tweaks that precluded a final assessment. It also was prone to crashing.

However, Medicare's top cybersecurity official testified Thursday that the revamped website passed full security tests Dec. 18, easing her earlier concerns about vulnerabilities. Teresa Fryer, chief information security officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, had initially balked at the site going live.

She said Thursday she would now recommend full operational and security certification for the site, which currently has what amounts to a six-month permit. The Medicare agency is responsible for expanding coverage to the uninsured under the health care law.

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Health care website passed recent test

Unpaid health care workers plan protest

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NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH)-- A group of home health care workers, who called on News 8 for help after going weeks without a paycheck, will now have to wait it out even longer.

Their employer has now declined to accept money from the state.

As you can imagine, employees of the Newton-Foster Home Care Agency are not happy about this reversal. Founder Patty Newton-Foster initially said she was accepting the $30,000 advanced payment, offered by the CT Department of Social Services but changed her decision later for two reasons.

The amount would only partially cover the four week payroll debt and now the city of New Haven is involved. A spokesperson for The Mayor's office released this statement: "Our office can confirm that the city is working collaboratively with all parties towards a settlement. While we can confirm that the city is working towards a settlement, until negotiations are complete, any further comment would be premature." The agency employs 48 people. It provides much needed care for clients throughout the New Haven area.

Patty Newton-Foster says her problems stem from last July when D-S-S changed its billing and claims system. The DSS spokesperson says they are still willing to help but the agency still owes $91,000 from previous interim payments. We are told upset employees are planning a protest at 9:30 Friday morning in front of the agency.

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Unpaid health care workers plan protest

Reduce Stress – Long Meditation Music with Binaural Beats – Video

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