The Daily Dose prescribes an enriched mix of news, features, consumer issues and in-depth followups to The Denver Post's coverage of medicine and health care.

Still a little hazy about the health care overhaul? You have plenty of company. About half the people surveyed earlier this spring by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation felt they didn't have enough information to understand how the law will affect their family. Among those with an annual household income of less than $30,000, about 30 percent thought the law had been repealed by Congress or the Supreme Court.

That's the low-income demographic the law is designed to help the most as it extends insurance coverage to millions of uninsured people.

With those results in mind, here are five key points everyone should know about the overhaul, heading into this fall and 2014, when major changes start to unfold.

1. THE LAW IS IN EFFECT

Congress passed President Barack Obama's health care law in March 2010, and the overhaul has since survived 37 attempts by Republicans in the House of Representatives to eliminate, defund or partly scale it back.

The law, known as the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, also survived a more substantial test last year when the Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality. However, the court's ruling gave states the right to decide whether to expand Medicaid, the state and federally funded program that covers the needy and disabled people. Medicaid plays a key role in the ACA's plan to provide insurance coverage to more Americans.

2. YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO HAVE COVERAGE

The overhaul mandates that, starting next year, most U.S. citizens and legal residents obtain coverage or pay a penalty. Some exemptions have been carved out for groups that include Indian tribe members, prisoners and individuals who belong to health care sharing ministries.

The annual penalty starts at $95 per adult, or 1 percent of family income whichever is greater and then rises over the next few years.

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Five key points in understanding the health care overhaul

Dentist David Tefu Kuo performs a tooth extraction on Kevin Perry, 42, of Adelanto. (Gabriel Luis Acosta/Staff Photographer)

That's what brought him to the National Orange Show Events Center at 4:30 a.m. Saturday for the Care 4 a Health IE clinic.

"Tomorrow, I will be here at 4 a.m.," he said.

Officials with Molina Healthcare say about 4,000 people will receive free medical, dental, vision and other services during the three-day event, which ends today. That's an increase of 1,500 from the 2012 event, said Dr. Martha Molina Bernadette, daughter of Molina Healthcare's founder, the late Dr. C. David Molina.

"I know (my father) would be so proud of this event today, because access is what it's all about," Molina Bernadette said.

The patients came amid a changing health-care landscape -- one with a shortfall of primary care physicians despite the rising number of people who will have access to health care under the Affordable Health Care Act for America.

But, Molina Bernadette says, that's an issue that medical professionals anticipated long before the legislation was introduced. The issue is more evident now because the need has increased dramatically.

a"The country has not produced enough primary care physicians for decades," she said.

She says with the new laws in place, existing doctors will have to adapt to the influx until hospitals can hire more.

"The shortage may create the need for them to work more and longer hours and more days in order to meet that need," Molina Bernadette said.

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Free health care clinic in San Bernardino draws thousands

Still a little hazy about the health- care overhaul? You have plenty of company.

About half the people surveyed earlier this spring by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation thought they didnt have enough information to understand how the law will affect their family.

Among those with an annual household income of less than $30,000, about 30 percent thought the law had been repealed by Congress or the Supreme Court. Thats the low-income demographic the law is designed to help the most as it extends insurance coverage to millions of uninsured people.

Five key points everyone should know about the overhaul, heading into the fall and 2014, when major changes start to unfold:

1. The law is in effect. Congress enacted President Barack Obamas health-care law in March 2010, and the overhaul has since survived 37 attempts by Republicans in the House of Representatives to eliminate, defund or partly scale it back.

The law, the Affordable Care Act, also survived a more substantial test last year when the Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality. The courts ruling, however, gave states the right to decide whether to expand Medicaid, the state- and federally funded program that covers the needy and disabled people. Medicaid plays a key role in the ACAs plan to provide insurance coverage to more Americans.

2. You will be required to have coverage. The overhaul mandates that, starting next year, most U.S. citizens and legal residents obtain coverage or pay a penalty. Some exemptions have been carved out for groups that include Indian tribe members, prisoners and individuals who belong to health care- sharing ministries.

The annual penalty starts at $95 per adult, or 1 percent of family income whichever is greater and then rises over the next few years.

3. Major milestones are looming. Next year, the ACA will take two major steps toward its goal of providing more individuals with insurance coverage.

Medicaid coverage will be expanded in states that allow it, and many people will be able to buy coverage using income-based tax credits. These tax credits, or subsidies, are reserved for people who cant get health insurance through an employer and who dont qualify for Medicaid, Medicare or military-based coverage.

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Health care act: 5 things to know

Related: Newly insured to deepen primary care doctor gap Database: Doctor shortage rankings by state | Map: Physician shortages across the region

Dr. Reed Wilson operates his private practice in a city famous for its extravagance and nip/tuck reputation.

But despite his Beverly Hills, 90210 address and his proximity to specialists who use scalpels and Botox to break the spell of aging, Wilson and other primary care physicians from Los Angeles and beyond are fighting to preserve the heart of their profession. It is a challenge in today's health care landscape for primary care doctors, Wilson and other say.

They are traditionally the first in line to treat a patient and their numbers are declining.

"When we look out at our patients, we wonder who's going to care for them," said Wilson, president of the 200 member group Private Practice Doctors, which helps to support those who run their own business.

"Young people don't want to go into primary care," he said. "Our system rewards those for doing procedures, not thought process."

The nation needs at least 40,000 new primary care doctors in the next seven years to fill in what some say is an anticipated shortage of physicians

In California, 42 of the state's 58 counties have less than 60 to 80 primary care physicians per 100,000 population, according to a report released last year by the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Of all active physicians in the state, 67 percent reported being non-primary care physicians.

About 25 percent of medical school graduates go into primary care, and most of those end up working for large health systems, Wilson and others say.

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New health care plan calls for 40,000 new doctors

Getting face time with the family doctor could soon become even harder.

A shortage of primary care physicians in some parts of the country is expected to worsen as millions of newly insured Americans gain coverage under the federal health care law next year. Doctors could face a backlog, and patients could find it difficult to get quick appointments.

Attempts to address the provider gap have taken on increased urgency ahead of the law's full implementation Jan. 1, but many of the potential solutions face a backlash from influential groups or will take years to bear fruit.

Lobbying groups representing doctors have questioned the safety of some of the proposed changes, argued they would encourage less collaboration among health professionals and suggested they could create a two-tiered health system offering unequal treatment.

Bills seeking to expand the scope of practice of dentists, dental therapists, optometrists, psychologists, nurse practitioners and others have been killed or watered down in numerous states. Other states have proposed expanding student loan reimbursements, but money for doing so is tight.

Find out what doctors think will happen in the Hanover area

As fixes remain elusive, the shortfall of primary care physicians is expected to grow.

Nearly one in five Americans already lives in a region designated as having a shortage of primary care physicians, and the

The national shortfall can be attributed to a number of factors: The population has both aged and become more chronically ill, while doctors and clinicians have migrated to specialty fields such as dermatology or cardiology for higher pay and better hours.

The shortage is especially acute in impoverished inner cities and rural areas, where it already takes many months, years in some cases, to hire doctors, health professionals say.

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Health care reform: Newly insured to deepen primary care doctor gap

Health Care: Medical Monopoly mdash;A Dose of Professional Capital to Remedy Pre-Health Jitters
Several years from now, a patient will be admitted into the hospital with a series of severe and painful symptoms. What role will you play in this patient #39;s ...

By: UChicago

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Health Care: Medical Monopoly—A Dose of Professional Capital to Remedy Pre-Health Jitters - Video

Sarah Wilkinson on Teens Health Care
TeensCare Interview with Sarah Wilkinson.

By: TeensCare Transmedia

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Sarah Wilkinson on Teens Health Care - Video

Not every health care investment is a health care investment. How is that possible? Investors can buy shares of a company that benefits from the growth of health care but isn't exclusively in health care itself. 3M (NYSE: MMM) is a great example. The Minnesota-based giant has interests in a variety of business sectors, one of which happens to be health care. Could buying 3M stock still be a smart health care investment choice? Let's examine.

Three MsWhile 3M originally stood for Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, today those Ms today could just as easily mean "medical products, microbiology, and management systems." Net sales for the company's Health Care business segment in 2012 totaled $5.1 billion. This ranks Health Care as 3M's second-largest unit, trailing only Industrial & Transportation.

3M's medical products include a variety of offerings, from adhesive surgical tapes to stethoscopes. On the microbiology front, the company's product line includes pathogen testing, hygiene monitoring tests, and other solutions that address food safety. 3M Health Care's health information management tools span from diagnosis coding software for hospitals and physician offices to revenue cycle management systems.

All of the focus on health care pays off. While the Health Care segment accounts for 17% of total net sales, it contributes 25% of the company's total operating income. And profitability levels for the segment are growing -- by 10.6% in 2012.

Three rivalsHowever, 3M Health Care's sales aren't growing as strongly. Net sales increased by only 2.5% in 2012 compared to the prior year. This low single-digit growth stems partially from stiff competition.

Covidien (NYSE: COV) battles against 3M for market share in the medical devices and supplies arena. Net sales for Covidien's medical devices unit in 2012 were $8.1 billion. The company's medical supplies segment contributed another $1.7 billion in sales. The total of the two business segments nearly doubles that of 3M Health Care.

Additional competition comes from Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB) . The company is more well-known for its consumer products such as diapers, paper towels, and tissues, but it also has a large health care business segment. Last year, Kimberly-Clark generated sales topping $1.6 billion from its medical devices, surgical products, and infection prevention products. While this total represented less than 8% of total sales, the company intends to shift more resources to the health care unit in the future.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) stands as another big rival for 3M Health Care. J&J's scale dwarfs that of the other competitors, though. The company's Medical Devices and Diagnostics business segment generated revenue in 2012 of $27.4 billion -- 6.4% higher than the prior year. This amounted to a little over 40% of J&J's total sales to customers.

From an investor's viewpoint, 3M stock holds its own against the three competitors. It is running neck-and-neck with J&J so far in 2013 and stands well ahead of both Kimberly-Clark and Covidien.

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Is Buying 3M Stock a Smart Health Care Play?

PHOENIX President Barack Obama has championed two sweeping policy changes that could transform how people live in the United States: affordable health care for all and a path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants illegally in the country.

But many immigrants will have to wait more than a decade to qualify for health care benefits under the proposed immigration overhaul being debated by Congress, ensuring a huge swath of people will remain uninsured as the centerpiece of Obama's health care law launches next year.

Lawmakers pushing the immigration bill said adding more recipients to an already costly benefit would make it unaffordable.

Health care analysts and immigration proponents argue that denying coverage will saddle local governments with the burden of uninsured immigrants. They also fear a crisis down the road as immigrants become eligible for coverage, but are older, sicker and require more expensive care. Those placed on provisional status would become the nation's second-largest population of uninsured, or about 25 percent, according to a 2012 study by the Urban Institute.

"All health research shows that the older you get, the sicker you become, so these people will be sicker and will be more expensive on the system," said Matthew O'Brien, who runs a health clinic for immigrants in Philadelphia and researches health trends at Temple University.

The Affordable Care Act will make health insurance accessible for millions of uninsured people starting in January through taxpayer-subsidized private policies for middle-class families and expanded access to Medicaid, the program for low-income people funded by federal and state dollars. The proposed immigration overhaul explicitly states immigrants cannot receive Medicaid or buy coverage in new health care exchanges for more than a decade after they qualify for legal status, and only after certain financial and security requirements have been met.

Immigrants with provisional status may obtain insurance through employers once they have legal status to work, but many are unskilled and undereducated, and tend to work low-wage jobs at small businesses that don't have to provide the benefit under the health care law. Immigrants illegally in the country also can access community health centers, but the officials who run those clinics said they are overwhelmed by the demand.

"We can't help everybody," said Bethy Mathis, executive director of Wesley Community Center in Phoenix. The clinic serves 7,000 patients a year who seek everything from vaccinations and relief from minor medical problems to care for long-term health conditions such as diabetes.

Debate over whether immigrants illegally in the country should be eligible for federal benefits nearly sank Obama's health care reform before it was passed by Congress in 2010. For lawmakers pushing immigration reform, there was no question that immigrants would continue to be excluded.

"That's one of the privileges of citizenship," said Republican Sen. John McCain, one of the so-called Gang of Eight pushing the immigration bill, during a conference call with reporters. "That's just what it is. I don't know why we would want to provide Obamacare to someone who is not a citizen of this country."

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Health care overhaul excludes some immigrants for decade

Like it or not, our world is constantly changing, as technological advances grow ever more frequent. While some folks may lament the loss of seemingly simpler days past, the fact remains that companies around the globe are working hard to make apositive impact on the the way we live.

To be sure, in few industries are these changes more apparent than health care, where our very lives are often at stake. Here are three disruptive technologies, then, which are in the process of effectively reshaping health care as we know it:

Your health is in the cloud(s)First of all, health care companies are currently taking advantage of cloud computingin ways we could have never dreamed only a few decades ago.

Take athenahealth (NASDAQ: ATHN) , for instance, which focuses entirely on developing cloud-based tools for streamlining medical practice management, electronic health records, patient communications, care coordination, and account collection.

Unsurprisingly, demand for its services is strong, as athenahealth currently boasts nearly 41,000 medical providers on its network, up from around 38,000 in January. As a result, athenahealth ranked fourth on Forbes' list of America's 25 fastest-growing tech companies in 2012, following 13 straight years of achieving at least 30% top-line growth.

Or consider Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) , which published a white paper last year outlining how health-care companies can take advantage of Amazon Web Services "to power information processing systems that facilitate HIPAA and HITECH compliance."

Incidentally, Amazon not only uses AWS to power its own web properties and handle traffic for sites including Netflix, Yelp, reddit, and Pinterest, but also currently counts at least a dozen different health-related organizations among its list of AWS clients. Most notably, these include CloudPrime, Global Data Systems, Nimbus Health, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Pfizer, the Praekelt Foundation, Toshiba Medical, Harvard Medical School, NYU Langone Medical Center, and Sage Bionetworks.

Any time, any placeNext, where would cloud computing be without the meteoric rise of mobile apps?

Remember, in March, athenahealth also finalized its $293 million acquisition of mobile health pioneer Epocrates, whose point-of-care mobile app has been downloaded by more than a million health-care professionals for their iPhones, iPads, Android, or BlackBerrydevices.

Of course, Epocrates isn't without competition:WebMD's (NASDAQ: WBMD) own Medscape app has also been downloaded more than 3 million times and, according to Medscape, is now used by half of all U.S. physicians, and three out of four U.S. medical students.

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3 Disruptive Technologies Reshaping Health Care Today

PHOENIX (AP) -- President Barack Obama has championed two sweeping policy changes that could transform how people live in the United States: affordable health care for all and a path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants illegally in the country.

But many immigrants will have to wait more than a decade to qualify for health care benefits under the proposed immigration overhaul being debated by Congress, ensuring a huge swath of people will remain uninsured as the centerpiece of Obama's health care law launches next year.

Lawmakers pushing the immigration bill said adding more recipients to an already costly benefit would make it unaffordable.

Health care analysts and immigration proponents argue that denying coverage will saddle local governments with the burden of uninsured immigrants. They also fear a crisis down the road as immigrants become eligible for coverage, but are older, sicker and require more expensive care. Those placed on provisional status would become the nation's second-largest population of uninsured, or about 25 percent, according to a 2012 study by the Urban Institute.

"All health research shows that the older you get, the sicker you become, so these people will be sicker and will be more expensive on the system," said Matthew O'Brien, who runs a health clinic for immigrants in Philadelphia and researches health trends at Temple University.

The Affordable Care Act will make health insurance accessible for millions of uninsured people starting in January through taxpayer-subsidized private policies for middle-class families and expanded access to Medicaid, the program for low-income people funded by federal and state dollars. The proposed immigration overhaul explicitly states immigrants cannot receive Medicaid or receive the health subsidies for more than a decade after they qualify for legal status, and only after certain financial and security requirements have been met.

Immigrants with provisional status may obtain insurance through employers, but many are unskilled and undereducated, and tend to work low-wage jobs at small businesses that don't have to provide the benefit under the health care law. Immigrants illegally in the country also can access community health centers, but the officials who run those clinics said they are overwhelmed by the demand.

"We can't help everybody," said Bethy Mathis, executive director of Wesley Community Center in Phoenix. The clinic serves 7,000 patients a year who seek everything from vaccinations and relief from minor medical problems to care for long-term health conditions such as diabetes.

Debate over whether immigrants illegally in the country should be eligible for federal benefits nearly sank Obama's health care reform before it was passed by Congress in 2010. For lawmakers pushing immigration reform, there was no question that immigrants would continue to be excluded.

"That's one of the privileges of citizenship," said Republican Sen. John McCain, one of the so-called Gang of Eight pushing the immigration bill, during a conference call with reporters. "That's just what it is. I don't know why we would want to provide Obamacare to someone who is not a citizen of this country."

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Some immigrants excluded from health care overhaul

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Answering new allegations against it, Birmingham Health Care denied it misappropriated funds from a Tuskegee community health center, according to its latest court filing.

The Birmingham community health center also reiterated its denials on a series of other allegations and pointed the finger back at the Tuskegee operation, Central Alabama Comprehensive Health (CACH), for any damages incurred in the dispute stemming from a prior business relationship.

CACH's "damages, if any, are the direct result of its own acts, negligence and/or omissions," according to the Birmingham Health Care (BHC) filing this week in Jefferson County Circuit Court.

CACH sued Birmingham Health Care (BHC) Feb. 6, 2012, initially for conversion and breach of contract in a case dating back to 2011 when CACH ended a $225,000 per year management contract with BHC. CACH claimed BHC withheld records CACH says are essential to its financial viability and its ability to comply with federal regulations.

CACH and BHC are both federally qualified health centers which give them the ability to receive higher Medicaid reimbursements and access to other federal funding to serve the poor and homeless.

After a series of audits, which included depositions of past and present BHC officials, CACH added "misappropriation of funds" to the lawsuit.

"BHC and its agents and employees misappropriated CACH's grant funds and other monies for their own use," CACH alleged in its amended complaint filed May 23.

CACH is asking for compensatory and punitive damages and attorney's fees and costs, but did not put a dollar figure on that amount.

Besides denying the misappropriation allegation in the latest filing, BHC also denied all other allegations, including conversion, breach of contract and negligence.

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Birmingham Health Care denies it misappropriated funds

Floridas economy will slump if the state Legislature fails to embrace some version of Medicaid expansion, advocates and business analysts warned Wednesday.

The League of Women Voters in Florida and the Florida Health Care Coalition added to arising wave of summertimedrumbeating by supporters of the Affordable Care Act, warning that not extending health coverage to poor Floridians will darken the states business climate.

Were really working hard to educate everyone that Medicaid is good for individuals, for employersgood for the economy and good for the state budget, said Karen Van Caulil, president of the Florida Health Care Coalition.

State legislators from Broward and Palm Beach counties have scheduled town hall sessions in coming weeks on health care and the effort to expand Medicaid coverage.

Also, an outreach campaign begins stumping this coming weekend in low-income neighborhoods in Miami and Orlando, as part of the campaign to promote the presidents health care law.

The Legislature ended the 2013 session last month failing to reach agreement on expanding Medicaid. But advocates have been clamoring for lawmakers to revisit the issue, possibly in a special session this fall. But House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, however, has said nothing has changed to ease his chambers opposition to a big expansion.

The business card has been played by supporters before. But Wednesday in a conference call with reporters, advocates again warned that by refusing federal dollars for care, lawmakers were missing an opportunity to jolt the states economy.

Also, Bill Kramer, a director at the Pacific Business Group on Health, said a cost shift already present in Florida will expand asthose with insurance have to contribute to covering a large portion of the population without coverage.

Deirdre Macnab, league president, likened it to quicksand for Florida businesses.

This is something the state simply cannot afford as we begin to rebound from recession, Macnab said.

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Health care advocates warn that not expanding Medicaid will hurt business

Because needs in patient care and technology are changing, so are the health care jobs that will be needed in the coming years.

The health system is a reflection of the community around us, says Joe Dorko, CEO of Lutheran Health Network. He says the network employs more than 7,000 people, but not all those positions are your typical doctor and nurse thing.

Now with the federal Affordable Care Act, which requires virtually all Americans to have insurance by 2014, local health experts see greater demands not only for nurses, doctors and other health care professionals, but also for accountants, computer experts, statisticians and those with communication skills.

Meeting that demand will require more nurses, but Dorko says the role of a nurse will change. There will be more emphasis on the outpatient aspect, he says, as hospitals work to reduce the number of people admitted compared with years past. That means working harder on preventive treatment and teaching and helping people maintain their treatment plans.

Greg Johnson, chief medical officer for Parkview Hospital, says primary care by nurse practitioners and in family practice will continue to play a big role in health cares future.

The post acute care arena, which focuses on patients once they are discharged from a hospital, will continue to expand, Johnson says. He says potential jobs in this area include medical techs, nurses, and physical or occupational therapists.

Dorko says Lutheran is starting to identify nurses who can work in nontraditional roles that require an increased emphasis on telephone communication, ability to digest and understand data and information in computer systems, and ability to help people maintain a higher standard of living through medication control, diet and physical activity.

Thats where new careers will develop, such as health coaches, who will, for example, help 65-year-olds get exercise and live a healthy lifestyle, Dorko says.

Dorko says it will be challenging for schools to start to generate a slightly different skill set for nurses. Johnson says Parkview continues to partner with local nursing programs to help meet these future demands.

Were blessed to have some incredible nursing programs in our area, he says.

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Jobs shift with health care

By Amy Norton HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, June 18 (HealthDay News) -- Plenty of Americans are eager to use their mobile phones and tablet computers to better manage their health care, a new poll finds -- though the nation has a way to go before we're all consulting Dr. Smartphone.

In a Harris Interactive/HealthDay survey released Tuesday, more than one-third of respondents who are online said they were "very" or "extremely" interested in using smartphones or tablets to ask their doctors questions, make appointments or get medical test results.

Similar numbers of respondents were eager to use mobile phones and tablets for actual health-care services -- such as monitoring blood pressure or blood sugar, or even getting a diagnosis. Such phone and tablet apps are, however, either just getting off the ground or not yet on the market.

The survey results show that the demand for digital assists to health care is "strong and likely to grow," said Humphrey Taylor, chairman of The Harris Poll.

But he added that big questions remain: What types of services will consumers be able to get with their mobile devices, and when?

"The devil will surely be in the details," Taylor said, "and these are very big details."

An expert in health-care information agreed. "Right now, we're looking at a patchwork system," said Titus Schleyer, who heads the Center for Biomedical Informatics at the Regenstrief Institute, based at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis.

Companies are developing a number of apps that, along with equipment attached to your phone or tablet, can help diagnose everything from ear infections and eye diseases to irregular heartbeats and malaria. One goal is to bring better health care to remote parts of the world.

But there are already apps out there designed for the masses -- including ones to manage your blood pressure or blood sugar readings, for example. You take the reading via a monitor that plugs into your smartphone, and the app records all the information, which can then be e-mailed to your doctor or sent to your electronic health record, Schleyer said.

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Many Americans want health care via smartphone

HARTFORD, Wis.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Advocate Health Care, the largest health system in Illinois, is making their organization a great place to work and a great place to heal with the help of innovative workforce management technology. At the core of Advocates clinical operations is the Healthcare Workforce Information Exchange (HwIE) from API Healthcare that enables strategic data-driven decisions on staffing and operations. The HwIE also helps lay the foundation for Advocate Health Cares future growth opportunities.

Advocate Health Cares ability to create a satisfying work environment for our associates and a consistent level of care for our patients is of critical importance to our organization, said Jacob Krive, project manager in information systems, Advocate Health Care. Technology solutions that let us share valuable employee data across the entire organization has produced more informed, data-driven strategic staffing decisions that benefit patients, associates and our organization as a whole. The HwIE has given us the ability to use technology to link patient satisfaction and associate satisfaction, putting us in the best position possible to ensure support in the healing and well-being of everyone who turns to Advocate for care services.

As the demands of an aging population and the realities of an aging workforce begin to take hold, innovative workforce management technology is helping organizations like Advocate Health Care achieve long term success. API Healthcares technology is empowering Advocate to share valuable employee related data across more than 250 sites of care.

The HwIE is similar in concept to a Health Information Exchange (HIE) where patients Electronic Health Record (EHR) information is communicated across organizations. However, the HwIE enables Advocate and other health systems to share employee related data contained in the Electronic Employee Record (EER) between all of their facilities. This exchange of information results in more effective talent development and utilization across the entire continuum of care. It also allows organizations to operate more efficiently by driving down healthcare costs.

Developing solutions that work for healthcare today and in the future is at the center of everything we do, said J.P. Fingado, president and chief executive officer, API Healthcare. We are pleased but not surprised to hear that innovations such as the Healthcare Workforce Information Exchange are having a significant impact on Advocate Health Care which places high value on patient and associate satisfaction. We believe these two metrics are tightly linked and we are committed to finding and developing new solutions that will enable clients like Advocate to more easily fulfill promises to the communities they serve no matter what obstacles or challenges stand in their way.

Advocate's core values of compassion, equality, excellence, partnership and stewardship are the foundation for their patient-centered care model. Advocate also embraces these values through evidence-based practice, interdisciplinary collaboration, and tenacity toward delivering exceptional clinical outcomes.

About Advocate Health Care

Advocate Health Care, named among the nations Top 5 largest health systems by Truven Analytics in 2013, is the largest health system in Illinois and one of the largest health care providers in the Midwest. Advocate operates more than 250 sites of care, including 10 acute care hospitals, the states largest integrated childrens network, five Level I trauma centers (the states highest designation in trauma care), two Level II trauma centers, one of the areas largest home health care companies and one of the regions largest medical groups. Advocate Health Care trains more primary care physicians and residents at its four teaching hospitals than any other health system in the state. As a not-for-profit, mission-based health system affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Church of Christ, Advocate contributed $571 million in charitable care and services to communities across Chicagoland and Central Illinois in 2011.

About API Healthcare

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Advocate Health Care Improves Patient and Staff Experience

The growth in total costs for health care services is typically used by insurers to set insurance premiums.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

While costs are rising faster than inflation, the projected increase pales in comparison to the double-digit spikes seen in the early 2000s. It's also slightly less than the 7.5% increase PwC estimated for 2013.

The growth in health care costs is typically used by insurers to set premiums, according to the report by PwC's Health Research Institute, which analyzed costs for the 150 million Americans covered by employer health care plans.

"Health care cost increases continue to exceed overall growth in wages, but the gap appears to be shrinking," Michael Thompson, principal with PwC's human resource services practice, said in a statement.

Cost-conscious consumers are a major factor driving the slowdown. Bearing a greater share of health care costs, many workers are limiting doctor visits, delaying procedures and choosing cheaper providers. An Affordable Care Act provision that went into effect in late 2012, which aims to limit return visits to hospitals, is also playing a part in slowing spending, according to the report.

Obamacare: Is a $2,000 deductible 'affordable?'

Next year, millions of Americans will likely enter the health insurance system through state-based exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act. But the report predicts little impact on private health care costs from the influx, though it does acknowledge that individuals covered through the exchanges could face high out-of-pocket costs.

Once annual changes to plan offerings, such as any increases in deductibles and co-pays, are taken into account, employer health care costs are projected to increase an average of 4.5%, according to the report. How those costs are passed onto employee premiums will vary, said Ceci Connolly, managing director of PwC's Health Research Institute.

"We know that a lot of other factors go into setting premium rates," she said. "It also depends on who you are and where you live."

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Health care cost increases to slow

WASHINGTON Theres good news for most companies that provide health benefits for their employees: Americas slowdown in medical costs may be a trend, rather than a mere pause.

A report Tuesday from accounting and consulting giant PwC projects lower overall growth in medical costs for next year, even as the economy gains strength and millions of uninsured people receive coverage under President Obamas health care law.

If the calculations are correct, cost spikes because of the new health care law should be contained within a relatively narrow market segment. That would come as a relief for Democrats in an election year during which Republicans plan to use criticism of Obamacare as one of their main political weapons.

There are some underlying changes to the system that are having an impact, and we can expect lower increases as we come out of the recession, said Mike Thompson of PwCs Health Research Institute, which produced the study. Cost is still going up, but not as much as it used to.

The report comes with a caveat that sounds counterintuitive at first: Self-employed people and others who buy coverage individually could well see an increase in premiums in 2014.

The reasons have to do with requirements in the health care law. For example, starting next year, insurers must accept patients with pre-existing medical problems, who cost more to cover. Also, new policies have to provide a basic level of benefits more generous, in some cases, than whats currently offered to individual consumers.

About 160 million workers and family members now have job-based coverage and are less likely to be affected. The individual market is much smaller, fewer than 20 million people. Still, its expected to grow significantly over the next few years as a result of the health care law, which will also provide tax credits to help many people afford their premiums.

The U.S. spends more than $2.7 trillion a year on health care, well above any other developed country. But quality is uneven, waste and fraud are widespread, and the system still leaves about 45 million people uninsured.

For years U.S. health care spending has grown much faster than the overall economy and workers wages, but since the recession, those annual increases have slowed dramatically. The debate now is whether thats a continuing trend. The answer will be vitally important, not only for companies and their employees, but for taxpayers who foot the bill for programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Obamas coverage expansion.

PwCs report forecasts that direct medical care costs will increase by 6.5 percent next year, one percentage point lower than its previous projection. The cost of care is the biggest component of premiums, followed by administrative expenses and overhead.

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Health care costs offer hope

Total costs for health care services, including everything from doctor visits and prescription drugs to surgeries, are expected to rise 6.5% in 2014, when the Affordable Care Act fully kicks in, according to a report released Tuesday.

While costs are rising faster than inflation, the projected increase pales in comparison to the double-digit spikes seen in the early 2000s. It's also slightly less than the 7.5% increase PwC estimated for 2013.

The growth in health care costs is typically used by insurers to set premiums, according to the report by PwC's Health Research Institute, which analyzed costs for the 150 million Americans covered by employer health care plans.

"Health care cost increases continue to exceed overall growth in wages, but the gap appears to be shrinking," Michael Thompson, principal with PwC's human resource services practice, said in a statement.

Cost-conscious consumers are a major factor driving the slowdown. Bearing a greater share of health care costs, many workers are limiting doctor visits, delaying procedures and choosing cheaper providers. An Affordable Care Act provision that went into effect in late 2012, which aims to limit return visits to hospitals, is also playing a part in slowing spending, according to the report.

Obamacare: Is a $2,000 deductible 'affordable?'

Next year, millions of Americans will likely enter the health insurance system through state-based exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act. But the report predicts little impact on private health care costs from the influx, though it does acknowledge that individuals covered through the exchanges could face high out-of-pocket costs.

Once annual changes to plan offerings, such as any increases in deductibles and co-pays, are taken into account, employer health care costs are projected to increase an average of 4.5%, according to the report. How those costs are passed onto employee premiums will vary, said Ceci Connolly, managing director of PwC's Health Research Institute.

"We know that a lot of other factors go into setting premium rates," she said. "It also depends on who you are and where you live."

Consumers are learning to cope with increasing costs by changing their behaviors, the report found. With the cost of emergency room co-pays up 50% between 2009 and 2013, many consumers have switched to less-expensive venues for healthcare services, such as retail clinics and urgent care centers. Visits to retail clinics, such as those in pharmacies and other retailers, nearly tripled in the past five years, according to the report.

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Health care costs to slow in 2014

By Amy Norton HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, June 18 (HealthDay News) -- Plenty of Americans are eager to use their mobile phones and tablet computers to better manage their health care, a new poll finds -- though the nation has a way to go before we're all consulting Dr. Smartphone.

In a Harris Interactive/HealthDay survey released Tuesday, more than one-third of respondents who are online said they were "very" or "extremely" interested in using smartphones or tablets to ask their doctors questions, make appointments or get medical test results.

Similar numbers of respondents were eager to use mobile phones and tablets for actual health-care services -- such as monitoring blood pressure or blood sugar, or even getting a diagnosis. Such phone and tablet apps are, however, either just getting off the ground or not yet on the market.

The survey results show that the demand for digital assists to health care is "strong and likely to grow," said Humphrey Taylor, chairman of The Harris Poll.

But he added that big questions remain: What types of services will consumers be able to get with their mobile devices, and when?

"The devil will surely be in the details," Taylor said, "and these are very big details."

An expert in health-care information agreed. "Right now, we're looking at a patchwork system," said Titus Schleyer, who heads the Center for Biomedical Informatics at the Regenstrief Institute, based at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis.

Companies are developing a number of apps that, along with equipment attached to your phone or tablet, can help diagnose everything from ear infections and eye diseases to irregular heartbeats and malaria. One goal is to bring better health care to remote parts of the world.

But there are already apps out there designed for the masses -- including ones to manage your blood pressure or blood sugar readings, for example. You take the reading via a monitor that plugs into your smartphone, and the app records all the information, which can then be e-mailed to your doctor or sent to your electronic health record, Schleyer said.

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Lots of Americans Want Health Care Via Their Smartphone