ST. LOUIS When federal lawmakers agreed in 2010 to pass the Affordable Care Act, they recognized that the U.S. health care system was in desperate straits.

Not only was the cost of health care significantly higher than in other industrialized nations, but Americans were among the unhealthiest populations in the Western world.

Nearly four years later, the system remains in crisis. While the growth of health care spending has slowed, it is still climbing. And despite higher costs, Americans health outcomes have not significantly improved.

Other wealthy nations achieve longer lives, lower infant mortality, better access to care, and higher care quality while spending far less, states a January 2013 report by the nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund.

The Affordable Care Act was never intended to immediately halt these basic trends; improving health outcomes and quality of life while cutting costs is a tall order. But the nations volatile, partisan debate over what is popularly known as Obamacare seems to have missed that point.

The tech-savvy Obama administration was expected to deliver a user-friendly website that would increase Americans access to health care by subsidizing insurance coverage. But HealthCare.gov was a bug-ridden disaster. And many consumers have voiced sticker shock over the higher monthly premiums and higher deductibles of insurance plans for 2014 both on and off the online marketplaces, also known as health exchanges.

The stalled rollout has bolstered the new laws opponents, including Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, whose quasi-filibuster helped trigger a federal government shutdown last fall. Cruz has blasted the federal mandates on health insurance policies and vowed to repeal every syllable of every word of Obamacare.

The most simple rule of economics is there aint no such thing as a free lunch, Cruz told the Texas Tribune in 2012 when he was running for Senate. Everything you mandate that an insurance policy cover drives up cost, which means there are more and more people that cant afford to get insurance.

But where does that leave us? Regardless of how you view the overall merits, regulatory strictures, or societal costs of Obamacare, consider these facts:

In the United States, health care spending eats up nearly 18 percent of the gross domestic product, which is the sum of all goods and services produced in the country. This figure could reach 21 percent by 2023.

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Four years after passage of Obamacare, health care system remains in crisis

MIAMI (CBSMiami) People who have tried to sign up for insurance on the Spanish version of the federal health care website have run into their own set of difficulties.

First off the site, CuidadoDeSalud.gov, launched more than two months late.

Another problem, a Web page with Spanish instructions linked users to an English form. Also, translations were so clunky and full of grammatical mistakes that critics say they must have been computer-generated the name of the site itself can literally be read for the caution of health.

When you get into the details of the plans, its not all written in Spanish. Its written in Spanglish, so we end up having to translate it for them, said Adrian Madriz, a health care navigator who helps with enrollment in Miami.

The issues with the site underscore the halting efforts across the nation to get Spanish-speakers enrolled under the federal health care law. Critics say that as a result of various problems, including those related to the website, many people whom the law was designed to help have been left out of the first wave of coverage.

Federal officials say they have been working to make the site better and plan further improvements soon. Also, administrators say they welcome feedback and try to fix typos or other errors quickly.

We launched consumer-friendly Spanish online enrollment tools on CuidadoDeSalud.gov in December which represents one more way for Latinos to enroll in Marketplace plans, said Health and Human Services Department spokesman Richard Olague in an email. Since the soft-launch, we continue to work closely with key stakeholders to get feedback in order to improve the experience for those consumers that use the website.

Still, efforts to enroll Spanish-speakers have fallen short in several states with large Hispanic populations, and critics say the translated version of HealthCare.gov could have helped boost those numbers.

In Florida, federal health officials have not said how many of the states nearly 18,000 enrollees for October and November were Latino, but that group accounts for about one-third of the roughly 3.5 million uninsured people in the state. About 1.2 million people in the state speak only Spanish.

Across the U.S., about 12 percent of the 317 million people in the country speak only Spanish, but federal officials have said less than 4 percent of calls to a national hotline were Spanish-only as of last month.

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Spanish Speakers Frustrated By Federal Health Care Website

By RUSSELL CONTRERAS and KELLI KENNEDY Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Mirroring problems with the federal health care website, people around the nation attempting to navigate the Spanish version have discovered their own set of difficulties.

The site, CuidadoDeSalud.gov, launched more than two months late.

A Web page with Spanish instructions linked users to an English form.

And the translations were so clunky and full of grammatical mistakes that critics say they must have been computer-generated - the name of the site itself can literally be read "for the caution of health."

"When you get into the details of the plans, it's not all written in Spanish. It's written in Spanglish, so we end up having to translate it for them," said Adrian Madriz, a health care navigator who helps with enrollment in Miami.

The issues with the site underscore the halting efforts across the nation to get Spanish-speakers enrolled under the federal health care law. Critics say that as a result of various problems, including those related to the website, many people whom the law was designed to help have been left out of the first wave of coverage.

Federal officials say they have been working to make the site better and plan further improvements soon. Also, administrators say they welcome feedback and try to fix typos or other errors quickly.

"We launched consumer-friendly Spanish online enrollment tools on CuidadoDeSalud.gov in December which represents one more way for Latinos to enroll in Marketplace plans," said Health and Human Services Department spokesman Richard Olague in an email to The Associated Press. "Since the soft-launch, we continue to work closely with key stakeholders to get feedback in order to improve the experience for those consumers that use the website."

Still, efforts to enroll Spanish-speakers have fallen short in several states with large Hispanic populations, and critics say the translated version of HealthCare.gov could have helped boost those numbers.

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Health care website frustrates Spanish speakers - Quincy Herald-Whig | Illinois & Missouri News, Sports

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The health care sector lost jobs for the first time since July 2003.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Health care companies shed 6,000 positions in December, the first down month since July 2003, according to the government's monthly jobs report. This comes after a yearlong slowdown in hiring.

The hardest hit areas were nursing homes, which jettisoned 3,900 jobs, and home health care, which lost 3,700 positions. Hospitals got rid of 2,400 jobs, while physicians' offices reduced staff by 1,200.

For the year, health care added only 207,600 jobs, down from 320,600 a year earlier. It was the slowest year of growth since 1999.

Several notable hospitals, including the Cleveland Clinic, reported layoffs last year as the federal government cut reimbursement rates and patient care shifts more to outpatient and urgent care clinics. In fact, outpatient care centers were the only part of the health care sector to boost jobs last month, adding 3,600 positions.

Share your story: Have you lost a job in health care recently?

It's not so surprising that the health care sector, which had reliably added jobs even through the Great Recession, is finally taking a breather, experts said. The industry is in the midst of a restructuring aimed at slowing the growth in costs and improving quality.

"There needs to be a pause, which may lead to a reduction of jobs," said Stuart Altman, a health policy professor at Brandeis University.

Friday's dour news comes on the heels of another federal report released this week that showed health care spending growth remained low for the fourth year in a row. Spending on health care grew by only 3.7% in 2012, according to data released Monday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

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Health care job losses: First time in decade

The health care sector lost jobs for the first time since July 2003.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Health care companies shed 6,000 positions in December, the first down month since July 2003, according to the government's monthly jobs report. This comes after a yearlong slowdown in hiring.

The hardest hit areas were nursing homes, which jettisoned 3,900 jobs, and home health care, which lost 3,700 positions. Hospitals got rid of 2,400 jobs, while physicians' offices reduced staff by 1,200.

For the year, health care added only 207,600 jobs, down from 320,600 a year earlier. It was the slowest year of growth since 1999.

Several notable hospitals, including the Cleveland Clinic, reported layoffs last year as the federal government cut reimbursement rates and patient care shifts more to outpatient and urgent care clinics. In fact, outpatient care centers were the only part of the health care sector to boost jobs last month, adding 3,600 positions.

Share your story: Have you lost a job in health care recently?

It's not so surprising that the health care sector, which had reliably added jobs even through the Great Recession, is finally taking a breather, experts said. The industry is in the midst of a restructuring aimed at slowing the growth in costs and improving quality.

"There needs to be a pause, which may lead to a reduction of jobs," said Stuart Altman, a health policy professor at Brandeis University.

Friday's dour news comes on the heels of another federal report released this week that showed health care spending growth remained low for the fourth year in a row. Spending on health care grew by only 3.7% in 2012, according to data released Monday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The rest is here:

Health care job losses for first time in decade

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -

The health care jobs engine shifted into reverse last month, with the sector losing jobs for the first time in more than a decade.

Health care companies shed 6,000 positions in December, the first down month since July 2003, according to the government's monthly jobs report. This comes after a yearlong slowdown in hiring.

The hardest hit areas were nursing homes, which jettisoned 3,900 jobs, and home health care, which lost 3,700 positions. Hospitals got rid of 2,400 jobs, while physicians' offices reduced staff by 1,200.

For the year, health care added only 207,600 jobs, down from 320,600 a year earlier. It was the slowest year of growth since 1999.

Several notable hospitals, including the Cleveland Clinic, reported layoffs last year as the federal government cut reimbursement rates and patient care shifts more to outpatient and urgent care clinics. In fact, outpatient care centers were the only part of the health care sector to boost jobs last month, adding 3,600 positions.

It's not so surprising that the health care sector, which had reliably added jobs even through the Great Recession, is finally taking a breather, experts said. The industry is in the midst of a restructuring aimed at slowing the growth in costs and improving quality.

"There needs to be a pause, which may lead to a reduction of jobs," said Stuart Altman, a health policy professor at Brandeis University.

Friday's dour news comes on the heels of another federal report released this week that showed health care spending growth remained low for the fourth year in a row. Spending on health care grew by only 3.7 percent in 2012, according to data released Monday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

"Since health spending has slowed down, we should expect at least some layoffs -- though not many," said Uwe E. Reinhardt, an economics professor at Princeton University.

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Health care loses jobs for first time in decade

An advisory committee is calling on the city to streamline its collection of health care data and look at the possibility of joining the Group Insurance Commission.

The Health Care Advisory Committee, a 10-member group of health care experts and Newton residents, filed a report this month with 26 recommendations for ways to improve how the city handles its health care costs, which totaled $47.4 million last year.

The Board of Aldermen and Mayor Setti Warren appointed the committee and the committee presented its findings to the aldermen earlier this month. The group was tasked with reviewing the cost and efficiency of the citys health plan and examining possible alternatives.

The first recommendation called for improving the system of collecting and analyzing data. Committee members said their task was complicated by a difficulty in deciphering the data and comparing it to neighboring communities.

The city, which is self-insured, currently provides three commercial plans and three Medicare plans. The city insures 5,000 employees, retirees and dependants. The committee recommended using a single template and electronic formatting to collect data to allow for easier comparisons.

Maureen Lemieux, the citys chief financial officer, defended the citys record keeping, saying the mix of grandfathered and newer policies is complicated. She said it could be difficult for an outside group to interpret internal data, while noting that the various carriers cant share all of the data because of medical privacy laws.

Still, she said there are areas where improvements can be made in getting better reporting from carriers. She said one of those areas would be asking for reports as spreadsheets instead of PDF, as to avoid the time-consuming task of copying the individual data into a database.

They certainly have some good recommendations, said Lemieux. There are definitely a few things to speak with the carriers about to reformat some of the data.

The committee also recommended that the Warren administration consider moving to the state health insurance system because of potentially significant savings.

The city previously reviewed the possibility of joining the GIC, but decided against joining. The 2011 union contracts negotiated between the unions and the current administration resulted in modified health plans and an agreement to limit total compensation to 2.5 percent growth.

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Newton's health care committee makes recommendations

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) A California lawmaker wants to use a state version of the Affordable Care Act to provide health care access to immigrants who are in the state illegally.

Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, said if the goal of the federal health care law is to provide coverage to the uninsured, then immigration status should be irrelevant.

Lara, the head of the Legislature's Latino caucus, plans to introduce legislation that would allow people who are not legal residents to get coverage, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday (http://lat.ms/1eM4lwo ).

"Immigration status shouldn't bar individuals from health coverage, especially since their taxes contribute to the growth of our economy," he said.

There's a big roadblock, however. Federal law bars those in the country illegally from obtaining coverage through Covered California, the state health insurance exchange.

Lara said he's looking for other options, including expanding Medi-Cal, the state's health program for the poor, or creating a separate program within or outside of Covered California that might provide subsidies from the state but not the federal government.

The senator is also considering modeling his plan on local programs like Healthy Way LA Unmatched, which pays for care for Los Angeles residents who aren't covered by Medi-Cal, including those who don't qualify because of immigration status.

The Times said California has for decades covered legal immigrants not eligible for the federal Medicaid program, such as those who have been in the country less than five years. The state pays all of their Medi-Cal costs instead of splitting the cost with the federal government as it does for most Medi-Cal patients.

"The same logic could apply to other populations" such as noncitizens, said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access, an advocacy group working with Lara to fashion a bill. "There is precedent for California to be a leader. There is precedent for California to piggyback on federal programs but take an extra step to expand to additional folks."

Lara's plan was criticized by some Republican lawmakers, including Assemblyman Tim Donnelly of Twin Peaks, who's running for governor.

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Health care push for those in Calif. illegally

Achieving STEEEP Health Care, Dr. David Ballard (CRC Press) Part 1
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Achieving STEEEP Health Care, Dr. David Ballard (CRC Press) Part 1 - Video

Achieving STEEEP Health Care, Marisa Valdes (CRC Press)
Marisa Valdes discusses the STEEEP model used at Baylor Health Care System Provides the perspectives of senior leaders in the areas of corporate governance...

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The Health Care Decision (full session)
A panel that discusses the Supreme Court #39;s ruling to uphold the Affordable Care Act. The emphasis is on where do things go from here? The ACA can be broken d...

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How to See the Reality of the Health Care System
At http://bergmanchiropractic.com and http://Owners-Guide.com we strive to educate people on natural solutions to health. http://SkypePackage.com for online ...

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How to See the Reality of the Health Care System - Video

JUDY WOODRUFF: It's been just over a week since some Americans first started getting health insurance coverage through the new marketplaces.

The federal website and the government's enrollment efforts seem to be working substantially better, but there are still a fair share of questions and complications, including for some people eligible for Medicaid going online at HealthCare.gov. And there have been troubles for some of the state-created exchanges.

Sarah Kliff is following all this for The Washington Post.

And it's good to you have back with us.

SARAH KLIFF, The Washington Post: Thank you.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Sarah, let's stipulate that things, as we said, do seem to be generally going better for the sign-up process. That's your understanding?

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SARAH KLIFF: Yes.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But let's talk about, for example, people who are eligible for Medicaid, going on the federal Web site and some of them are having problems. Tell us about that.

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Health care sign up improves, but some states seek workarounds for tech issues

Senior Horse Health Care
Woodrow Friend, DVM, from Rood Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, explains what he looks at when examining a senior horse for health and soundness.

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Kathleen McLaughlin Reports on China #39;s Aid in Africa
Learn more: http://pulitzercenter.org/projects/china-health-aid-africa-developing-world-corruption-anti-malarial-drugs-vaccines While most of the world has been noticing China #39;s aid in Africa,...

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Kathleen McLaughlin Reports on China's Aid in Africa - Video

2013 saw a monumental number of data breaches, and health care was not immune. These breaches collectively compromised millions of individuals' personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI). Within the health care field, many of the reported data breaches were not perpetrated by sophisticated hackers but were the result of individuals making poor choices. Small and medium size businesses within the health care field, including health care providers and business associates, are working to comply with the new Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) reporting requirements. The new HIPAA security rule requires data breach notification and mentions possible financial penalties in the event that PII and PHI are compromised. Poor choices by employees can and do undermine even carefully constructed information security structures designed to be HIPAA compliant.

Forecast for 2014

The 2014 forecast is not good, according to InformationWeek. The size and quantity of health care data breaches are expected to grow as the U.S. Affordable Care Act is implemented. Small and medium practices will discover that data management is an integral part of the business of medical care. IT teams and IT service providers have an opportunity to distinguish themselves during this period of flux and to implement proven security solutions and security awareness programs.

There is a saying that one should treat sensitive information and cash in the same manner: Do not leave it lying about; secure it, and count it regularly. PII and PHI are no exceptions to the axiom. IT solutions may start with ensuring that patient information is an accountable item by using the HIPAA physical and technical safeguards to guarantee compliance and taking client data security even farther beyond compliance. Cyber attacks receive attention and headlines, but human error puts data at risk more often than hacks.

Security Awareness

Security awareness training, specifically surrounding the implementation of IT solutions and the physical handling of data, allows those closest to PII and PHI to understand how their actions can keep data safe or put the organization at risk of a data breach. Security awareness training should include several aspects: The preferred manner for the handling of paper files; the access controls placed on electronic medical records; the proper method to expunge medical data from systems and medical monitoring equipment; best practices for manual and automatic data storage and backup; prescribed channels to use to report an anomalous event.

With attention to detail, the probability of human error is reduced. With a reduction in human error, perhaps the prognostication of 2014 as a banner year for data breaches in health care will prove to be incorrect.

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.

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Health Care Data Breach Growth in 2014

As much as 20 to 40 percent of all health care spending in Massachusetts is wasteful, much of it squandered on unnecessary hospital readmissions and emergency room visits, according to a new state report released yesterday.

The study estimates wasteful spending in 2012 at a staggering $15 billion to $27 billion. The biggest single category $700 million was spent on readmissions of patients recently discharged from hospitals. Unnecessary ER visits tallied up $550 million in waste. Total health spending in the Bay State is estimated at $69 billion.

A lot of it is totally useless, if not harmful, said Stuart Altman, chairman of the Health Policy Commission, a state watchdog group charged with monitoring health care costs, which issued the report. The worst offenders are areas that actually dont add any value, but are destructive, like people going back to the hospital when they dont need to.

The first-of-its-kind report also found that preventable infections acquired in health care settings cost $10 million to $18 million a year.

Massachusetts first in the nation to adopt universal health coverage spends more per capita on health care than any other state, and health care costs here have grown faster than the national average. A 2012 state law aims to curb the growth of health care spending.

The Health Policy Commissions report notes that costs vary widely among the states hospitals.

Some hospitals deliver high-quality care with lower operating expenses, the report said, while many higher-expense hospitals achieve lower quality performance.

Former Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center chief executive Paul Levy said the findings are a good first step but wont spur hospitals into action not unless their names are on the report.

The Massachusetts Hospital Association said the report uses outdated numbers that dont show the progress hospitals are making on tackling costs.

Massachusetts hospitals are working collaboratively ... to improve care while becoming even more costefficient, including in the areas identified in the report as examples of wasteful spending, the MHA said in a prepared statement.

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Watchdog report details waste in Mass. health care

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http://www.newswala.com: Asaduddin Owaisi inaugurated Mahmooda Health care hospital at Mughalpura. Rayees Azam For more information and updated news please l...

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