RARITAN TOWNSHIP — Call it a match made in health care heaven.

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Hunterdon, Atlantic health systems announce intent to form alliance

NEW YORK (AP) -

The owner of Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants is putting more workers on part-time status in a test aimed at limiting costs from President Barack Obama's health care law.

Darden Restaurants Inc. declined to give details but said the test is only in restaurants in four markets across the country. It entails boosting the number of workers on part-time status, meaning they work less than 30 hours a week.

Under the new health care law, companies with 50 or more workers could be hit with fines if they do not provide basic coverage for full-time workers and their dependents. Starting Jan. 1, 2014, those penalties and requirements could significantly boost labor costs for some companies, particularly in low-wage industries such as retail and hospitality, where most jobs don't come with health benefits.

Darden, which operates more than 2,000 restaurants in the U.S. and Canada, employs about 180,000 people. The company says about 75 percent of its employees are currently part-timers.

Bob McAdam, who heads government affairs and community relations for Darden, said the company is still learning from the tests, which was first reported by the Orlando Sentinel.

"We're not at a point where we have results," he said. McAdam also noted that Darden is not alone in looking at ways to keep labor costs in check, with companies industrywide prepping for the new regulations to take effect.

This summer, McDonald's Corp. Chief Financial Officer Peter Bensen noted in a conference call with investors that the fast food company was looking at the many factors that will impact health care costs, including its number of full-time employees.

"There's not a company in those industries that aren't looking at this," said Paul Keckley, executive director of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.

In fact, Keckley noted that there follow-up legislation might be needed to ensure that companies do not shift more workers to part-time status to avoid providing coverage.

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Health care changes spur test of more part-time workers

ST. PETERSBURG On the edge of downtown, a three-story building is rising that symbolizes where health care is heading.

When the scaffolding comes down later this year, one of the area's biggest physician groups, Suncoast Medical Clinic, will move into a new home built by the area's biggest hospital group, BayCare.

The 50 or so doctors working at Suncoast are just a fraction of the 800-plus who have recently aligned with BayCare, which this year announced expansion plans with hospitals in Polk and Sarasota counties.

Bigger is thought to be better in these days of health care consolidations and partnerships. Size brings the bargaining power and the range of patient services needed to drive down costs and to better coordinate care, improving quality.

So goes the mantra uttered time and time again as hospitals and physician practices that once operated independently seek the protection of deep-pocketed partners.

But whether this trend will translate into lower costs particularly for patients is theoretical at best, experts say.

"Have you ever seen costs go down in health care? Anywhere? For anything?" said Glenn Melnick, a health economist at the nonpartisan RAND Corp.

The University of Southern California professor added, laughing, "Not that I'm cynical or anything."

The research is clear, experts say hospital mergers and consolidations historically have led to higher prices, no matter the rosy promises to the contrary. There's little evidence that quality improves, either.

Excerpt from:

As health care companies expand, promised cost savings in doubt

VIENNA, Va., Oct. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Kinergy Health, a pioneer in using the web to connect family members, doctors, and other health care providers to better and more efficiently deliver care for an aging or chronically ill loved one, today announced it was selected as winner of The Advisory Board Company's Patient Engagement Blue Button (R) Challenge. David Chao, Chief Technology Officer for Crimson at The Advisory Board Company, made the announcement at the Health 2.0 6th Annual Fall Conference in San Francisco on Monday, October 8th.

Blue Button is a Web-based feature through which patients may easily and securely download their health information from doctors, insurers, pharmacies and other health-related services and share it with health care providers, caregivers, and others they trust. The Blue Button appears on the patient portals of more than one-third of U.S. hospitals. Patients using the MyKinergy service are able to download Blue Button information and share it with their providers and caregivers along with medical history, care plans, medication lists, and other information in their secure MyKinergy account.

Each of the five finalists was paired with an Advisory Board member for a trial of their solution. Kinergy Health was paired with Lynchburg Internal Medicine, a member of the Centra Medical Group. All finalists were judged on three criteria: basic functionality and security; the ease of accessing, updating and sharing patient information for both patients and providers; and ease with which that information is integrating into the clinical setting.

Kinergy Health was recognized for identifying a highly-effective driver of real-world patient uptake: enabling the physician to convincingly articulate the value of Blue Button to the patient. This resulted in an unexpectedly high percentage of Medicare patients returning home, registering, and sharing their Blue Button data with health care providers. According to Aneesh Chopra, Senior Advisor, The Advisory Board Company, "Kinergy outperformed our other high quality finalists on its ability to engage patients and the medical staff, resulting in a level of trust that led providers to actively encourage patients to enroll."

"We created Kinergy to enable patients, their family members, and all of the providers and care givers involved in their care to communicate and collaborate," said Gail Embt, Kinergy Health CEO and Founder. "By having a single secure place on the web where everyone involved can see and update history, test results, care plans, medication lists, and other information, providers are able to deliver better care more efficiently, and family members gain peace of mind knowing that their loved one is receiving the care they deserve."

"Centra agreed to participate in The Advisory Board Company's Blue Button challenge because we believe that empowering patients through access to their personal health care information increases patient engagement and promotes cross-network care management," said Terri Ripley, Centra's Director of Systems and Programming. "Ultimately our goal is to improve care quality and efficiency." According to Angie Hodge, Centra's Director of Ambulatory Informatics, patients recognized the value of Kinergy: "One particular patient going out of network for treatment was comforted having his Blue Button and Centra data accessible from Kinergy anywhere they travelled and not needing to carry printed copies of his history and records."

Embt commended The Advisory Board Company for its commitment to innovation that helps improve health outcomes and for sponsoring the Patient Engagement Blue Button Challenge. "Software developer competitions like this are becoming increasingly important as drivers of innovation across health care IT," said Embt. "Kinergy Health is honored to have been selected as The Advisory Board Company's Patient Engagement Blue Button Challenge winner."

About Kinergy Health: For elderly and chronically ill individuals Kinergy Health brings their family members, doctors, and professional caregivers together in a private, secure online community where they share and respond to up-to-date information, coordinate plans, and collaborate to assure that the patient is always receiving timely and appropriate care. Today, over 66 million Americans manage the care of someone else. Kinergy Health simplifies the role of family caregiver and improves efficiency and effectiveness for health care providers. MyKinergy is a SaaS-based service allowing health care providers to rapidly deploy patient-centered care models. For more information please visit http://www.kinergyhealth.com.

Media Contacts:

Stuart Itkin Kinergy Health 571.295-8059 Stuart.Itkin@kinergyhealth.com

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Kinergy Health Wins The Advisory Board Company's Blue Button Challenge

08-10-2012 09:06 John Kennedy, CEO of Autocam (Grand Rapids, MI), is one of the brave business owners fighting back against the HHS Mandate. As a Catholic, the things mandated to be covered within the health care plans that John provides his associates are contrary to John's deeply held religious beliefs. So John, together with CatholicVote, is fighting back. On Monday, October 8th, 2012, John Kennedy, through the Legal Defense Fund, filed suit against the Department of Health and Human Services, and its Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (a Catholic). The purpose of the suit is to compel the court to strike down the mandate as unconstitutional. To find out more about the lawsuit, or how you can help, visit:

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In Good Conscience - Video

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Village Health Partners and HealthTexas Provider Network have collaborated with local consulting firm Mercer on behalf of employers to successfully launch a unique, high-quality primary care model catering to individuals with complex health conditions.

This advanced care program is called CareConnect.Unlike traditional patient-centered medical homes emerging throughout the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, this primary care model matches a very select group of high-performing physicians with chronically ill patients who require salient caring intensive, tailored care.

CareConnect is being used by one national employer with large numbers of employees in Dallas and will be made available to other employers in the Dallas market. The initiative is based on successful programs piloted in other parts of the US, results of which were published by Mercer physician adviser Arnold Milstein, MD, in the policy journal Health Affairs blog (http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2009/10/20/are-higher-value-care-models-replicable/#more-2518).First-year results were dramatic, with a 20% reduction in cost (net of plan expenses), 15% or greater improvements in physical and mental functioning, and a 45% reduction in absenteeism.

The return on investment is remarkable considering that while studies of other, more traditional patient-centered medical homes have also shown gains in quality, savings results have been mixed, said Mercers Eric Bassett, senior partner based in Dallas. This advanced-care approach is extremely promising as a way to improve quality of care, health care status and costs.

What makes this model so effective is that it is driven by physicians and nurses chosen specifically for their ability to deliver better care and to work closely with patients to address their concerns in a highly caring manner. As a result, the care the patients receive through CareConnect from a select panel of primary care physicians is characterized by what has been called salient caring, said Neil Smithline, MD, a Mercer physician consultant who has been instrumental in developing the program.

This is because members of the care team the patients primary care physician and a dedicated personal care nurse who works alongside the physician are chosen because of their ability to provide not only high-quality medical care, but also because they provide the patient with extra caring.

This extra caring means being accessible to the patient through extended evening and weekend hours and virtually via online access. It means using a physician-led team of health care providers to coordinate the care of patients to achieve high-quality outcomes at reasonable costs, added Christopher Crow MD, founder of Village Health Partners.

Major employers are seeking newer and better approaches to caring for their employees with complex or multiple health conditions. Mercer worked with the employer with a large presence in the Dallas area to identify its employees with chronic health conditions. The CareConnect providers Village Health Partners and the HealthTexas Provider Network (HTPN) approached this group of employees to participate in the program, and roughly 40 percent have agreed to do so. Employees must change primary care physicians in some cases, but the primary care physician fee may be waived as one incentive to participation.

CareConnect also dramatically changes physician compensation.Physicians are rewarded for excellent results and for spending additional time with their patients. They are paid an additional fee for the extra care coordination required. They also have the opportunity to receive additional compensation for demonstrated improvement in patient health outcomes.

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Dallas-Area Employers and Local Providers Teaming up with Mercer to Provide Advanced Health Care

DETROIT, Oct. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --More than 23,000 people in Livingston, Washtenaw and Wayne counties can feel even more secure in their health care plan knowing that Blue Cross Complete of Michigan, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan's Medicaid HMO, has been ranked the No. 1-rated Medicaid plan in the state by the National Council on Quality Assurance. It also was ranked the number four Medicaid plan in the nation out of 115 Medicaid plans. NCQA is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health care quality.

"This honor reflects our hard work and commitment to giving our members high quality products and excellent service," said Nancy Wanchik, vice president at BCBSM and CEO of the company's Medicaid program. "We know that these efforts are keys to improving health and controlling overall costs."

In addition to achieving an "Excellent" accreditation and its number-one-in-the-state rating, Blue Cross Complete of Michigan ranks in the top 10 percent of health plans nationally in 15 health measuresincluding comprehensive diabetes care, prenatal and postpartum care, childhood immunizations and advising smokers to quit.

NCQA uses a standard set of criteria, Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) measures to rank the health plans in important aspects of care such as improving members health and customer satisfaction. Prevention and treatment measures made up 60 of the total score, consumer satisfaction accounted for 25 percent and NCQA accreditation scores made up the remaining 15 percent of NCQA's Medicaid Health Insurance Plan Rankings 2012- 2013.

"We continue to find innovative ways to improve care, strengthen our services and keep costs in check, through our partnerships and programs," Wanchik says. "For example, our Healthy Moms and Kids Challenge, which partners medical care groups to improve services from cancer screenings to child wellness visits. Programs like this and others bring real results in improving health and health care in the state."

Where did the NCQA rankings come from?

NCQA's rankings of the nation's Medicaid health insurance plans is based on its combined CAHPS, HEDIS and NCQA Accreditation standards scores.

CAHPS is the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems. It is a survey of health plan members' experiences and services received through their health plan.

HEDIS is a collection of performance metrics that measure the services provided by a health plan collected through a review of administrative data (such as claims or laboratory) or medical records.

NCQA Accreditation refers to scores that plans that have achieved on their NCQA's Managed Care Organization, Health Plan or New Health Plan accreditation standards.

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Blue Cross Complete of Michigan is tops in state for service

Maybe the management team at UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) has been watching Dancing With the Stars and really liked the samba. The large U.S. insurer just announced plans to acquire Brazil's largest health-care organization, AmilParticipacoes S.A.

Terms of the $4.9 billion deal call for UnitedHealth to conduct two transactions. The first will be to buy the 60% stake currently held by controlling shareholders. The second will be to extend a tender offer to buy 30% more from public shareholders. All of this depends, though, on approval by Brazilian regulators. UnitedHealth expects to gain this approval in fourth quarter this year.

What it meansUnitedHealth was already the largest health insurer in the U.S. ranked by market value. Now, it can lay claim to being the largest health-care organization in all of the Americas.

The move makes sense financially. Brazil represents the largest and fastest-growing market for private health care in Latin America. The country has a growing middle class and boasts a per-capita GDP that's 2.5 times that of China. While 80% of the U.S. population uses managed care, only around 25% of Brazil's population does so.

By scooping up Amil, UnitedHealth gains instant access to a well-established provider network and membership base. Amil currently serves more than 5 million members in Brazil. The company's network includes 44,000 doctors and 3,300 hospitals. Amil owns 22 hospitals and nearly 50 clinics.

Amil's revenue doubled over the last three years to $5 billion. While that's a drop in the bucket compared with the $101.8 billion for UnitedHealth last year, expansion into Latin American markets should lead to higher revenue down the road.

UnitedHealth expects the acquisition to be slightly accretive to 2013 earnings. The company projects that its debt to total capital ratio to rise a little to 36% temporarily but then go back below 35% by mid-2013.

Looking aheadMore international expansion could be the wave of the future for managed-care companies.Cigna (NYSE: CI) maintains a footprint in 30 countries and expanded into India last year through a joint venture.

Aetna (NYSE: AET) had already operated in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East prior to announcing the hire of a general manager to oversee its Americas expansion earlier this year.WellPoint (NYSE: WLP) , on the other hand, doesn't have much of an international presence. The company's expansion plans focus on the U.S. with its announced merger with Amerigroup (NYSE: AGP) .

Regardless of what the competition does, UnitedHealth's acquisition of Amil should prove to be a good move. Investors seem to have given high marks to the news, with shares up around 1% in intraday trading Monday on a day that the overall markets declined.

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Health Care Dances the Samba

State health officials are contacting patients of four healthcare facilities in western, central and southern Ohio to make sure they were not exposed to a potentially contaminated steroid that could cause meningitis.

The Mahoning County Health Department said on Monday they were asked by state officials to contact healthcare providers in the county to be aware of subtle symptoms of fungal meningitis that could stem from an injected steroid used to treat back pain.

All counties have been asked to do so.

"It's kind of a slow-brewing meningitis, so if they present with symptoms of a headache, a severe headache, or fever or stiff neck, that could be associated with having a spinal injection with this prednisone, they they want to follow up," said Mahoning County Health Commissioner Patricia Sweeney.

The Ohio Department of Health said certain medication made by the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass. may be contaminated with a fungus that has caused some patients, including a 65-year-old Ohio man, to develop a rare form of fungal meningitis and stroke.

Officials have not released the county where the man resides in order to protect his identity, a news release said.

The four healthcare facilities that have used the injections are: Marion Pain Clinic and BKC Pain Specialists in Marion, Cincinnati Pain Management and Ortho-Spine Rehab Center in Dublin.

The ODH said the majority of the patients have already been contacted.

Although this type of meningitis does not spread person to person, its still very important for us to make sure every patient who potentially received a tainted drug gets in touch with their healthcare provider, said ODH Director Dr. Ted Wymyslo. The fungal meningitis that could be caused by this injection has very subtle symptoms and these Ohioans need to know what type of health changes could indicate an infection and when to seek treatment.

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Officials Warn Health Care Providers of Meningitis Scare

One of the Dayton areas biggest home health care providers has acquired a primary care practice to expand its services.

Home health agency Black Stone said Monday it acquired Advanced Geriatric Education & Consulting, an area primary care practice that provides home calls. Advanced Geriatric Education is a practice of nurse practitioners that specializes in home-based medical care for the elderly, according to Black Stone.

Black Stone currently offers home care, assisted care and skilled nursing care.

Home care is a rapidly growing segment of Daytons health care industry. Home care companies are growing to meet the demands of an aging population that prefers to stay in their homes as long as possible, and a population thats aging fast. Patient volumes at local home care companies have grown 40 to 60 percent since 2009, a previous Dayton Daily News analysis found.

This is Black Stones 10th acquisition since 2007, but its first acquisition of a company thats not directly in the home care business.

Health care is changing and we want to part of the change, said David Tramontana, Black Stone chief executive officer.

New health care initiatives are focused on cutting costs and improving quality. For example, hospitals Medicare reimbursement rates are now penalized for high readmission rates of patients with certain conditions. Ohio next year will start a new program to coordinate Medicare and Medicaid coverage for people eligible for both programs, typically low income seniors.

Were trying to position Black Stone to be a value proposition for our patients and for those who pay for our services, Tramontana said.

Advanced Geriatrics six employees will join the 1,300 employees company-wide who work at Black Stone. The acquisition price was not disclosed.

Advanced Geriatric, founded in 2008, has offices in Loveland and the Dayton area. The new division with Advanced Geriatric will be called House Calls by Black Stone.

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Black Stone acquires primary care practice

* Despite having access to health care, male veterans report poorer health than men in active duty, men in the National Guard and Reserves, and civilian men. * Men in the National Guard and Reserves were less likely to have health insurance than civilians, veterans or active duty servicemen. * Veterans and active duty servicemen report higher rates of smoking, tobacco use and drinking to excess than civilian men.

Newswise Even with access to health care, male military veterans are in poorer health than men in active military duty, men in the National Guard and Reserves, and civilian men, finds a new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The study concluded that organizations that serve veterans should increase efforts at preventing poor health behaviors and linking them to health care services.

The findings are from a 2010 survey of 53,000 veterans, 3,700 Guard and Reserve members, 2,000 active duty servicemen and 110,000 civilians. The survey included questions about their health and health behaviors, and their access to health care. A similar study of women veterans, National Guard/Reserve members, active servicewomen and civilians was published earlier this year by the same research team.

"We think our research substantiates claims that veterans bear a disproportionate disease burden," said Katherine D. Hoerster, Ph.D., MPH, a research psychologist at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle. Survey results found that veterans were more likely than active duty men to report diabetes. Veterans were more likely to report current smoking and heavy alcohol consumption than men in the National Guard and Reserves and civilian men and a lack of exercise compared to active duty and National Guard and Reserve. National Guard and Reserve men had higher obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease (versus active duty and veteran men, active duty men, and civilian men, respectively). Active duty men were more likely to report current smoking and heavy alcohol consumption than civilians and National Guard and Reserves, and reported more smokeless tobacco use than civilians.

While the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) addresses these common health concerns, Hoerster noted that only 37 percent of eligible veterans receive care through the VA system of hospitals. In addition, National Guard and Reserve servicemen were found to be the least likely of the groups to have access to health care. The researchers advised that other health care providers need to be aware of the prevalence of these health issues facing Guard and Reserve servicemen and veterans.

The finding that National Guard and Reserve members have poorer access to care should be addressed, Hoerster added. "This is an important military sub-population to target." One factor may be that members of the National Guard and Reserves are not linked up to services provided by the VA as effectively as active duty service members are when they leave the military, she noted. The greater prevalence of heart problems and diabetes reported by these servicemen makes poor access to care even more problematic, she said.

Increased rates of tobacco and alcohol use reported by active duty servicemen can lead to greater health problems for this group in the future, Hoerster said. "Addressing tobacco and alcohol use should also be a top priority."

Other research has suggested that veterans have a higher disease burden because of their military service, said Joy Ilem, deputy national legislative director for Disabled American Veterans, an organization that serves veterans and provides assistance in learning about and applying for benefits. However, it is surprising that this study found that veterans have poorer health outcomes and poorer health behavior than other groups given the emphasis that the VA puts on prevention of disease and promotion of a healthy lifestyle, Ilem observed.

"Not all vets have a connection to the VA system, but they may need one in the future," she added. Veterans who have health issues directly related to their service are more likely to use VA facilities and are more likely to be sicker than the overall population of veterans, Ilem added.

TERMS OF USE: This story is protected by copyright. When reproducing any material, including interview excerpts, attribution to the Health Behavior News Service, and part of the Center for Advancing Health, is required. While the information provided in this news story is from the latest peer-reviewed research, it is not intended to provide medical advice or treatment recommendations. For medical questions or concerns, please consult a health care provider.

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Despite Access to Care, Male Veterans in Poorer Health Than Civilian Men

Published: Monday, October 8, 2012, 12:01 a.m.

That is changing rapidly, thanks to VA's commitment to improve women's health services, to hire more gynecologists and other female health specialists, and to close a "gender gap" in preventive health services and screenings, says Dr. Patricia Hayes, chief consultant for Women Health Services for the Veterans Health Administration.

Hayes and her staff have studies and data to show recent gains. They range from patient satisfaction surveys to numbers of staff physicians newly trained to provide for female health needs, and to a new report showing a narrowing of gender disparity in preventive health care screening.

Following a 2008 report on deficiencies in primary care delivery to women, the VA decided to act.

"That really launched us on an overall plan to implement major changes in health care for women (to) make sure every woman veteran gets the right kind of health care," Hayes said. "We recognize that there's been a tremendous influx of women. We have beefed up and accomplished a lot, and we recognize we are still facing a large challenge ahead."

Today, 17 percent of female veterans are enrolled in VA health care vs. 20 percent of male veterans. But women returning from recent conflicts are using the VA in much greater numbers then previous generations.

In an interview, Hayes and Dr. Sally Haskell, acting director for comprehensive women's health, conceded that challenges remain to reach full equality of access and services for women vets, particularly in VA community-based outpatient clinics. But the recent gains have been impressive and will continue, they say.

"They felt unwelcomed and invisible. We are changing that culture," Hayes said.

In 2008, only 33 percent of VA health care facilities offered comprehensive primary care to women. Today, women can get full primary care services at 90 percent of VA's larger hospitals and medical centers and at almost 75 percent of its community-base outpatient clinics, Haskell said.

Four years ago, many female veterans visited VA clinics and were referred to larger hospitals, having then to travel "hours and hours to get basic primary care for things like birth control and (vaginal)infections and getting their mammograms arranged," said Hayes. The number of areas of the country where that's still true have fallen sharply.

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With reforms, more women opt for VA health care

07-10-2012 12:23 The Romney campaign senior adviser on the first presidential debate. ABC News 'This Week' Transcript: STEPHANOPOULOS: Let's hear from the Romney camp right now. Ed Gillespie joining us this morning. Ed, thanks for getting up this morning. You heard Robert right there, masterful, theatrical, fundamentally dishonest. I guess his basic point now about Governor Romney on his tax plan is either that he's not telling the truth about the scale of the tax plan or abandoning his economic theory. Which one is it? GILLESPIE: Well, the problem they have is that the debate's performance on Wednesday evening was not a matter of style, it was a matter of substance. And Governor Romney laid out a plan for turning this economy around, getting things moving again. He had a fact-based critique of President Obama's failed policies that the president was unable to respond to. And today and since then, the Obama campaign, they remind me a little bit of a 7-year-old losing a checker game, and then instead of being frustrated at the outcome, they sweep the board off the table. The fact is that if President Obama's re-elected, as Governor Romney pointed out, we'll have continued chronically high unemployment. We're going to have continued massive debt instead of moving toward a balanced budget. We've had this week the fourth trillion dollar deficit under this president. Health care premiums are going to continue to rise. Up to 20 million Americans will lose their employer-based health insurance ...

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Ed Gillespie 'This Week' Interview: 2012 Presidential Election; Obama Vs. Romney Tax Plan, Jobs - Video

Orange, CA (PRWEB) October 08, 2012

A new [report released by the Institute of Medicine indicates that $750 Billion is wasted each year in the health care industry. The wastes outlined in the report come from everything from administrative overages to ordering unnecessary tests, impacting the viability of finding affordable health insurance.

The news comes amid the presidential campaigns end where the hot ticket is the Presidents and Romneys differing views on the how to approach the health care issue in this country. With the Affordable Care Act on the table, all eyes have been on this industry.

But whats disturbing are the findings that many people are paying for tests they dont need to have run. In fact, the report by the IoM indicates that in 2009 alone, $210 Billion of the squandered $750 Billion was spent on unnecessary testing alone. Further investigation reveals a staggering $8000 per person is spent each year on health care.

Yet, countries who have a history of professional and quality care, such as Norway and Switzerland, pay as much as half of that each year.

With such costs going out the window, patients have to be diligent about their health care. Becoming proactive in their treatments can help avoid costly situations, like what Tara Parker-Pope of the NY Times experienced.

What seemed to be a simple twisted ankle cost her health insurance company thousands of dollars because doctors kept ordering tests and M.R.I.s to have her daughters ankle repaired. And each test led to another test until the elementary school girl pointed out that after all of the blood tests and all of the M.R.I.s (for her ankle and her hand - an irrelevant discovery made while investigating her ankle prompted the doctor to order those images), her ankle still hurt.

Tara.Parker-Popes daughter had been to several doctors offices and hospitals to have work done that never needed to be done in the first place.

The health care industry is far from perfect, thats why it takes a team to manage the care of one person. Dont become part of the health care waste. Dont become a part of the statistic. Educate yourself and your family about what you can do to prevent over-testing and overcharging for yourself and your health insurance provider.

Visit HealthCompare today to start your education.

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Exorbitant Health Care Cost Wastes Affecting Health Insurance Consumers, HealthCompare Warns

In an experiment apparently aimed at keeping down the cost of health-care reform, Orlando-based Darden Restaurants has stopped offering full-time schedules to many hourly workers in at least a few Olive Gardens, Red Lobsters and LongHorn Steakhouses.

Darden said the test is taking place in "a select number" of restaurants in four markets, including Central Florida, but would not give details. The company said there has been no decision made about expanding it.

In an emailed statement, Darden said staffing changes are "just one of the many things we are evaluating to help us address the cost implications health care reform will have on our business. There are still many unanswered questions regarding the health care regulations and we simply do not have enough information to make any decisions at this time."

Analysts say many other companies, including the White Castle hamburger chain, are considering employing fewer full-timers because of key features of the Affordable Care Act scheduled to go into effect in 2014. Under that law, large companies must provide affordable health insurance to employees working an average of at least 30 hours per week.

If they do not, the companies can face fines of up to $3,000 for each employee who then turns to an exchange an online marketplace for insurance.

"I think a lot of those employers, especially restaurants, are just going to ensure nobody gets scheduled more than 30 hours a week," said Matthew Snook, partner with human-resources consulting company Mercer.

Darden said its goal at the test restaurants is to keep employees at 28 hours a week.

Analysts said limiting hours could pose new challenges, including higher turnover and less-qualified workers.

"It's a real problem for restaurants," said Howard Penney, a restaurant analyst and managing director for Hedgeye Risk Management.

Darden, the world's largest casual-dining company and one of the nation's 30 largest employers, said it offers health insurance to all its approximately 185,000 employees. Many are offered a limited-benefit plan. That type of coverage is being phased out under health-care changes, which will ban annual limits for most plans.

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Darden tests limiting worker hours as health-care changes loom

(MENAFN - Arab News) Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) and Sanofi, a global health care leader, have announced their collaboration for boosting the Mobilized Healthcare services (mHealth) with an innovative approach in the mobilized health care services in Saudi Arabia.

The partnership of Sanofi and Mobily aims to offer a state-of-art (IBG Star) device and the newest technology in diabetes management smart application.

All of this will enable patients to communicate their diabetes related data to their physicians or health care provider.

"The mobilized health care concept is expanding as patient electronic follow-ups, electronic records and disease and health related information is now available to the public as long as there's the supply of innovative and up-to-date e-health application, solutions and products which goes in parallel with a concrete, high speed reliable data transmission services," said Mobily CEO Khalid Al-Kaf.

"Our partnership with Sanofi, a health care leader, will leverage the moblized health care solutions in Saudi Arabia," he added.

"Our main objective is putting our patients first and that's by offering easy-to-use and innovative solutions, which help patients to share instant reports to their physicians and helping patients taking diabetes related decisions," said Salah Mousa, Sanofi's GM in Saudi Arabia.

He also emphasized the importance of having such a partnership with Mobily in boosting the mobilized health care that will protect diabetics from long-term complications and more control over the disease.

Mobily is looking forward to maintain its position as a leader in (mHealth) through this collaboration as the group has already launched several applications and services concerning public health.

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Saudi- Mobily and Sanofi to promote mHealth services

WASHINGTONand LEXINGTON, Mass., Oct.8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --The American Health Care Association (AHCA), together with PointRight Inc., the industry leader in predictive analytics in the healthcare and insurance industry, today announced that AHCA will incorporate PointRight's proprietary OnPoint-30 case-mix adjusted hospitalization metric into its data collection and benchmarking tool, LTC Trend Tracker.

The joint announcement is made in conjunction with AHCA's 2012 Annual Convention & Expo, held October 8-10 in Tampa, Florida.

"PointRight's offer to share their risk-adjusted hospital readmission metric with AHCA is another significant step toward advancing our industry with a professional benchmark for enhancing quality and performance by reducing unnecessary rehospitalizations," says Mark Parkinson, President and CEO of AHCA.

The LTC Trend Tracker web-based software enables AHCA members to access various reports to track, organize, identify, benchmark, examine and compare business needs like rehospitalization. LTC Trend Tracker offers key metrics to identify opportunities, improve performance and make smarter decisions. AHCA offers this intelligence-collecting tool at no charge exclusively to its membership.

Previous to AHCA's incorporating PointRight's OnPoint-30 rehospitalization metric in LTC Trend Tracker, the two organizations jointly announced AHCA's adoption of the case-mix adjusted metric in its Quality Initiative. As part of the effort, AHCA has defined, goals in four core areas, including safely reducing hospital readmissions by 15 percent within 30 days during a skilled nursing facility stay by March 2015.

"PointRight is thrilled to deepen its partnership with AHCA for the betterment of the long term and post-acute care industries in relationship to reducing unnecessary hospital admissions," said Steven Littlehale, Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer with PointRight. "A fair, case-mix adjusted rehospitalization metric tells CMS and the public that we, as an industry, are accountable for our outcomes and offer excellent, cost-effective care. Beyond that, the use of this metric also directly helps skilled nursing facilities to be more competitive in their marketplace by demonstrating their value through data-driven analytics to hospitals and other referring sources."

The OnPoint rehospitalization metric will be available to AHCA members in LTC Trend Tracker by the end of 2012. To learn more about LTC Trend Tracker, visit http://www.ahca.org. To learn more about additionalOnPoint-30 rehospitalization services, visit http://www.pointright.com.

About American Health Care Association As the nation's largest association of long term and post-acute care providers, the American Health Care Association (AHCA) advocates for quality care and services for frail, elderly and disabled Americans. Compassionate and caring employees provide essential care to one million individuals in the Association's 11,000 not-for-profit and proprietary member facilities. For more information, visit http://www.ahcancal.org. To learn more about the AHCA Quality Initiative, please visit qualityinitiative.ahcancal.org.

About PointRight Inc.PointRight is the industry leader in providing data-driven analytics and Web-based tools that measure and improve risk, quality of care, rehospitalization, compliance and reimbursement accuracy of the healthcare and insurance industries. Using some of the largest and best databases in the industry, our nationally recognized clinical staff, researchers, and technologists expertly translate disparate data into usable information and insight. For more information, visit http://www.pointright.com.

The rest is here:

AHCA to Apply PointRight® OnPoint-30™ Case-Mix Adjusted Rehospitalization Metric to LTC Trend Tracker™

The proposed Health Care Services charter amendment on the Nov. 6 ballot Amendment 1 is nothing more than a reminder that the Florida Legislature cares more about making political statements than about the health care needs of Floridians.

The measure has nothing to do with health care or services. The Legislature passed it in 2011 as an effort to exempt Floridians from the Affordable Care Acts requirement to buy health insurance. Since the Supreme Court upheld the mandate and the law, the amendment is moot. If the court had overturned the law, the amendment wouldnt have mattered. Legislators, however, knew the amendment was useless when they approved it.

Florida and 25 other states had filed suit against the Affordable Care Act, and there was never any doubt that the question of whether the federal government could compel individuals to buy insurance would be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, not Florida voters. Federal law trumps state law.

The measures sponsors, Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island and Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, arent investing any of their time and energy pushing for the ballot question. They have been, not surprisingly, silent on the issue. The Florida Chamber of Commerce, a key proponent of the proposed amendment, has just one sentence in its elections guide on the issue and also is not investing money to support it.

Unfortunately, taxpayers did have to invest money to advertise the measure, which will be meaningless even if it gets the necessary 60 percent majority.

Floridas legislators werent the only ones wasting voters time and money. Alabama and Wyoming have similar meaningless constitutional amendments on the ballot. Sixteen states have approved statutes or put constitutional amendments to limit or reject health care reform on their ballots since 2008.

A better response would be for the Legislature to worry that Florida has the third-highest rate of residents who lack health insurance. Nearly 4 million Floridians, or 21 percent of the state, are without health coverage.

Despite that, Gov. Rick Scott has said the state will not set up health insurance exchanges, as required by the health care law for individuals to buy coverage with government subsidies, or expand its Medicaid program to provide insurance to those making up to 133 percent of the poverty level. The federal government will set up the exchanges if the state wont. The Supreme Court ruling, however, made expanding Medicaid optional for the states. The expansion would provide health insurance for an additional 2 million Floridians.

The Post recommends a NO vote on Amendment 1, and urges Gov. Scott and the Legislature to focus on health care instead of political gamesmanship.

Rhonda Swan

Read the original post:

Editorial: Reject bogus ‘health services’ amendment

Published: 10/7/2012 9:48 PM | Last update: 10/7/2012 10:28 PM Conservatives opt for a wait, see approach while moderate voices dwindle. By John Hanna - Associated Press TOPEKA - An acrimonious debate over the federal health care overhaul is seeping into state capitols, creating fissures among Republicans as the tea party movement reasserts its influence in GOP-controlled areas.

States face decisions about setting up online health insurance marketplaces, and a mid-November deadline for declaring their intentions has sparked conflicts between governors and legislators across the country. In two GOP strongholds, Kansas and Mississippi, elected insurance commissioners are at odds with governors, even though they're all Republicans.

Praeger wants the state to have a role in running the online insurance marketplace, known as an exchange, and she said she'll have a plan ready. Gov. Sam Brownback, a longtime critic of the health care law, plans to wait until after the presidential election to set the state's course and is under pressure from fellow conservatives and tea party activists to avoid any state involvement.

The disagreement with Brownback has political consequences for Praeger, the most prominent of a dwindling number of GOP moderates in state government. Now in the middle of a four-year term, she disclosed in a recent interview that she's all but decided against running again in 2014 and acknowledged she'd have difficulty winning a Republican primary.

"My position is really more apolitical, just trying to be a good insurance regulator," she said. "His is more of a political position, and I understand that."

Brownback's office declined requests from The Associated Press for an interview. It pointed to previous statements that if GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney defeats Democratic President Barack Obama, who championed the health care overhaul, states are likely to get a waiver from many of the federal health care law's requirements.

"We're operating in a seat of uncertainty," said state Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, a conservative Shawnee Republican who argues any involvement in an exchange would make Kansas a "tool of the federal government."

Exchanges are sometimes described as the health coverage equivalent of websites such as Travelocity. States that aren't setting up their own still can declare by Nov. 16 that they'd like to be partners with the federal government, handling consumer complaints and controlling which companies sell coverage.

Praeger has sent Brownback a recommendation for minimum requirements for policies sold on the exchange, despite his stance.

She's also been a part of the national debate, serving as chairwoman of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners committee on health care policy since 2009. She was the group's president in 2008.

See original here:

Health care highlights cracks in GOP

CHEYENNE -- A proposal designed to block the federal health-care act's insurance mandate in Wyoming will go before state voters on Nov. 6.

But legal experts say proposed Constitutional Amendment A will have little, or no, real impact.

It may play well politically in Wyoming, but it wont have any effect, said Timothy Jost, a law professor and expert in health care law at Washington and Lee University in Virginia.

The supremacy clause (of the U.S. Constitution) says that federal laws are supreme over state laws and that any state laws would be pre-empted.

The proposal is one of three proposed constitutional amendments on the general election ballot in Wyoming.

Ballot language on proposed Amendment A

reads:

The adoption of this amendment will provide that the right to make health-care decisions is reserved to the citizens of the state of Wyoming. It permits any person to pay and any health care provider to receive direct payment for services.

It also says the Legislature can place reasonable and necessary restrictions on health care and that the state shall preserve residents rights from undue governmental infringement.

Lawmakers passed a bill during the 2011 session to create the ballot measure.

See the original post here:

Wyoming voters will get a say on Obamacare mandate