LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill., Oct. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- In 2012, U.S. companies and their employees saw the lowest health care premium rate increases in six years, according to an analysis by Aon Hewitt, the global human resources solutions business of Aon plc (AON). The average health care premium rate increase for large employers in 2012 was 4.9 percent, down from 8.5 percent in 2011 and 6.2 percent in 2010. In 2013, however, average health care premium increases are projected to jump up to 6.3 percent.

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Aon Hewitt's analysis showed the average health care cost per employee was $10,522 in 2012, up from $10,034 in 2011. The portion of the total health care premium that employees were asked to contribute toward this premium cost was $2,204 in 2012, compared to $2,090 in 2011. Meanwhile, average employee out-of-pocket costs, such as copayments, coinsurance and deductibles, were $2,200 in 2012, compared to $2,072 in 2011.

For 2013, average health care costs per employee are projected to jump to $11,188. Consistent with the previous two years, employees will be asked to contribute 21 percent of the total health care premium, which equates to $2,385 for 2013. Average employee out-of-pocket costs are expected to increase to $2,429. These projections mean that over the last five years, employees' share of health care costsincluding employee contributions and out-of-pocket costswill have increased more than 50 percent from $3,199 in 2008 to $4,814 in 2013.

"In 2010, employers found themselves in a challenging budgetary position, thus taking more aggressive actions with their benefit plans. An expected decline in employment levels and new costs resulting from health care reform had to be factored into expected costs, which led many employers and insurers to conservatively project their health care premiums for 2011," said Tim Nimmer, fellow to the Society of Actuaries, member of the American Academy of Actuaries and chief health care actuary at Aon Hewitt. "As actual results materialized, employers have seen some stabilization in employment levels, less severe impact of high cost claims, a general movement towards consumer-driven plans and greater clarity around the average cost impact associated with health care reform. As a result, 2012 premiums were offset to reflect the better than expected historical experience. For 2013, we expect premium increases to gravitate back to the 6 percent range."

Costs by Plan Type

On average, Aon Hewitt forecasts that companies will see 2013 cost increases of 7.0 percent for health maintenance organization plans (HMOs), 6.1 percent for preferred provider organizations (PPOs) and 6.1 percent for point-of-service (POS). That means from 2012 to 2013, the average cost per person for major companies is estimated to increase from $10,659 to $11,405 for HMOs, $10,433 to $11,069 for PPOs and $11,062 to $11,737 for POS plans.

2012 Cost Increases by Major Metropolitan Area

In 2012, major U.S. markets that experienced rate increases higher than the national average included San Antonio (7.4 percent), San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose (7.4 percent), Los Angeles (7.2 percent) and Austin (6.5 percent).Conversely, Dallas (3.4 percent), Cincinnati (3.6 percent), Denver (4.5 percent), New York City (4.5 percent), Washington, D.C. (4.7 percent) and Philadelphia (4.9 percent) experienced lower-than-average rate increases in 2012.

Employer Action to Mitigate Trend

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Aon Hewitt Analysis Shows Record-Low Health Care Cost Increases in 2012

IRVING, TX--(Marketwire - Oct 3, 2012) - In today's accountable care era, health care executives are embracing cooperative efforts driven by transparency and business intelligence. That was demonstrated by an initiative of VHA Inc., the national health care network, when executives from 22 member hospitals of the VHA West Coast region gathered recently to meet and compare performance data and discuss their mutual challenges.

The springboard for new collaborative conversations is customized improvement plans generated through VHA IMPERATIV, a performance improvement solution. VHA IMPERATIV combines an integrated view of a hospital's clinical, operational and financial performance data with personalized advisory services, peer networks and leading practices to help hospitals fast-track their performance improvements. In a nationwide initiative, VHA is providing all VHA member hospitals with customized performance plans to help them with their continuous improvement efforts.In addition, these plans offer new opportunities for executives to share performance data and gain a clearer picture of their hospitals' performance compared to their peers.

At the West Coast meeting, hospital CEOs, COOs and physician leaders focused on common clinical improvement opportunities, most notably in the areas of surgical complications, hospital acquired infections and HCAHPS scores. All of these measures impact hospitals' reimbursements under health care reform. For example, analyses of VHA IMPERATIV's value-based purchasing data revealed that as a group, these West Coast hospitals are at risk of losing as much as $3 million in reimbursements due to lagging Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) measures.

"It was really eye-opening to see not only my own hospital's performance compiled that way but also the performance of the other hospitals represented at the meeting, as well as our competitors' performance.That was new information that we previously didn't have," said Michael Covert, FACHE, CEO of Palomar Health, California's largest by area public health care district. "With this information at our fingertips, we were able to discuss how we can work together to address common issues."

In addition to the customized improvement plans, each hospital executive left the meeting with 10 to 20 ideas for proven practices they could implement promptly.

VHA IMPERATIV provides all VHA members with a comprehensive view of quality and performance data from seven domains: clinical, patient experience, value-based purchasing, patient safety, supply chain, operational and workforce. This is powerful, since simultaneously looking at multiple domains helps identify correlations in performance data and expanded opportunities. For example, if a hospital addresses septicemia, it may also reduce total costs and improve patient outcomes and patient satisfaction.

"Hospital executives know they need to fundamentally operate differently and take a more balanced approach with an organization-wide view, rather than just looking at one element at a time," said Rick Barnett, VHA senior vice president and executive officer of the VHA West Coast region. "This 360-degree view of seven information domains helped open executives' eyes to the possibilities and sparked discussion around common opportunities."

Alongside the individual performance data, VHA IMPERATIV delivers actionable improvement resources that apply to the hospitals' specific opportunities from VHA's Leading Practice Blueprint library. Weak performance metrics are linked to interactive blueprints and a list of hospitals that are top performers in that area, allowing hospital executives to connect for discussions. VHA has more than 170 blueprints on a wide range of topics including clinical outcomes, patient safety, patient experience and care coordination.

"Hospital leaders are under tremendous pressure to improve clinical and operational performance. So having this insight, tailored to their specific organization, along with guidance from expert advisors and leading practices, provides the roadmap for change," said Steve Miff, PhD, senior vice president, VHA IMPERATIV. "Combined with VHA's regional model and collaborative networks, it's an approach that fosters innovation and accelerates improvements."

About VHA - VHA Inc., based in Irving, Texas, is a national network of not-for-profit health care organizations that work together to drive maximum savings in the supply chain arena, set new levels of clinical performance, and identify and implement best practices to improve operational efficiency and clinical outcomes. Since 1977, VHA has leveraged its expertise in analytics, contracting, consulting and networks to help members achieve their operational, clinical and financial objectives. In 2011, VHA delivered record savings and value of $1.9 billion to members. VHA serves more than 1,350 hospitals and more than 72,000 non-acute care providers nationwide, coordinating delivery of its programs and services through its 14 regional offices. VHA has been ranked as one of the best places to work in health care by Modern Healthcare since the publication introduced this list in 2008.

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VHA Inc. Helps West Coast Hospitals Identify Areas of Improvement

RICHMOND, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

ConnectVirginia, the Commonwealths Statewide Health Information Exchange (HIE), is in the process of on boarding Inova, Northern Virginias largest health care system, as its first EXCHANGE partner. Making great strides towards electronically connecting health care providers and organizations throughout the Commonwealth, Inova is expected to be in production on ConnectVirginia EXCHANGE by the end of 2012.

Connect Virginias EXCHANGE service is key to our vision to promote the electronic exchange of health care information as a standard of care in the Commonwealth. We want to make available to authorized users timely, accurate, comprehensive and easily-accessible information which can be used for coordination of care, improvements in safety and quality, and advancements in the provision of healthcare, says Sandy McCleaf, Executive Director of ConnectVirginia. I am extremely pleased to have Inova as our first EXCHANGE participant.

A not-for-profit health care system serving more than two million people per year, consisting of five hospitals with more than 1,700 licensed beds and 16,000 employees, Inova realizes the value of being part of the EXCHANGE. Inova is extremely proud to be the first health system to participate in statewide health information exchange, says Dr. Marshall Ruffin, the Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Inova. Having information available at the point of care for our patients and our physicians will lead to better care and better health outcomes for the population of patients we serve.

The ConnectVirginia Governing Body appreciates Inovas willingness to lead the way to improved health care for citizens of the Commonwealthby becoming the first to connect to the Statewide HIE, says William Hazel, M.D., Secretary of Health and Human Resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia and Chairman of the ConnectVirginia Governing Body. As Inova and others become participants of ConnectVirginia EXCHANGE, critical medical information will become more accessible to the proper health care providers across the Commonwealth as they provide patient treatment.

ConnectVirginia EXCHANGE is a collection of standards, policies and message-based services providing a secure method to query and retrieve patient data across all ConnectVirginia EXCHANGE Participants. ConnectVirginia EXCHANGE is based on the Nationwide Health Information Network specifications and standards supported and maintained by the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology (ONC) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

More information about ConnectVirginia EXCHANGE can be found at http://www.connectvirginia.org.

About ConnectVirginia

ConnectVirginia is the Statewide Health Information Exchange (HIE) for the Commonwealth of Virginia. It provides a safe, confidential, electronic system to support the exchange of patient medical records among healthcare providers, both here in Virginia and beyond. Community Health Alliance (CHA) is the Virginia based non-profit vendor selected by the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) to implement the statewide Health Information Exchange, ConnectVirginia. CHA, VDH and a governing bodyof health care professionals and executives from across the Commonwealth are planning and managing this implementation. For more information please visit http://www.connectvirginia.org.

About Inova

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ConnectVirginia Announces EXCHANGE Service with Inova

Workers in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky will pay an average $4,775 out of their own pockets for health care in 2013, about $400 more than this year and nearly $2,000 more than 2007.

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Health care will cost you $4,775 next year

SYDNEY -- China's move from an emerging industrial nation to one with a large middle-class society and an ageing population is likely to see many Australian health care companies benefit.

According to the Australian Financial Review, China plans to triple annual spending on health care to US$1 trillion by 2020, to become the second-largest health care market in the world, behind the U.S. China's Ministry of Health has said that government spending on health care has nearly doubled in just three years to $113 billion by 2011.

With a population of 1.3 billion people -- (more than four times the U.S.) -- it's not hard to see the potential opportunities in China, and with the government providing basic health care for 95% of the population, many health care companies have set their sights on this relatively new market.

Cochlear Limited (ASX: COH.AX) has been providing services in China for 12 years, with its hearing devices subsidized by the government. Cochlear is already the leading provider of hearing devices in the U.S.

Sleep apnea device maker Resmed (ASX: RMD.AX) has reported that it is seeing double-digit growth in China -- but was also facing increased competition from local companies and copycat products. Resmed has stated that China will be a significant part of its business within four to five years, despite the issues it has to overcome.

British drug-making firm AstraZeneca recently decided to expand its facilities in Australia, because of difficulties building a sterile factory in China with its poor air and water quality. The company expects Australian exports of its asthma drug to China to increase five-fold, from $50 million today to $250 million by 2015.

For other health-care companies like CSL Limited (ASX: CSL.AX) and Sirtex Medical Limited (ASX: SRX.AX), China appears to offer a compelling opportunity to expand their businesses. Both companies offer critical services and products that could be in high demand in future years, from China's ageing population.

The Foolish bottom lineHealth care in China could be the next boom, and Australian companies with a presence there already appear well-situated to take advantage of the increasing spend on health care. There may be life after the resources boom after all.

If you are looking for ASX investing ideas, look no further than our brand new free report: "The Motley Fool's Top Stock for 2012-13." In this free report, investment analyst Scott Phillips names his top pick for 2012-13... and beyond.Click here nowto find out the name of this small but growing software company with huge potential. But hurry the report is free for only a limited period of time.

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Health Care: The Next China Boom?

01-10-2012 22:56 Healthcare spending was up by 4.6 percent in 2011, according to a new report by the Health Care Cost Institute. That's higher than the 3.8 percent increase reported for 2010. The report is based on claims data of more than 40 million insured, about 25 percent of all those with employer-sponsored health insurance, ESI. 2011 healthcare spending for people with ESI averaged $4547 per person for the year. Star Nutrition, a California-based health and wellness industry company, has added Peak Performance Products as the newest Canadian distributor for its Incrediwear brand. Incrediwear products, including socks, insoles, and braces, provide benefits such as additional blood flow, thermal regulation, and wicking moisture to allow users to train harder and longer, and recover faster from workouts while aiding pain relief to injured body parts. Other companies working with Peak include Nogii, Dymatize, BPI Sports, Organique, and other athletic, lifestyle, and beauty products. EMC's IT has been adopted by Munson Healthcare, a regional group of eight hospitals and five clinics in Michigan, to transform the system's IT infrastructure and deliver new IT services. Munson has created a Health Information Exchange to enable providers to facilitate a high level of patient care through a private cloud enabled by EMC and VMware technologies. For more information on these and other stories, go to http://www.csrminute.com. The Health Minute is produced for 3BL Media by Video4Good

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Healthcare Up 4.6%; New Star Nutrition Distributor; Munson Adopts EMC's IT - Health Min 10/1/12 - Video

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Health2.0 Advisors announced today the ten leading health care organizations that will be participating in the third series of Matchpointmeetings, October 10th at the Cooley LLP offices in San Francisco. At Matchpoint, leading health care organizations (Matchpoint Hosts) meet face to face with the most promising early-stage companies (Matchpoint Innovators) in 15 minute, focused meetings to discuss potential partnerships, pilots, and acquisitions. The Industry Leaders are Aetna, United Healthcare, Kaiser Permanente, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Medtronic, Cigna, Premera Blue Cross, Cooley LLP, Ziegler, and The Packard Foundation.

"The quality of the companies we met exceeded our expectations and we have initiated follow-up conversations with more companies than we had anticipated. Hosting the Matchpoint sessions was very valuable [to UnitedHealthcare]," said previous Matchpoint Host Vidya Raman-Tangella, Vice President, Product Innovation and Innovation Resource Group at UnitedHealth Group.

Health 2.0 Advisors uses a proprietary database and unique industry insights to identify the best matches between young companies and established industry leaders. In its first year, Matchpoint has already facilitated more than 250 highly curated meetings.

"Health 2.0 Advisors recognizes which potential partnerships have the best chances of success in a rapidly evolving market," said Marco Smit, Senior VP of Health 2.0 and President of Health 2.0 Advisors. "Our ability to make assessments of fit -- based on technology needs, clinical benefits, business objectives, and cultural match -- between established and start-up companies has been a great asset for the Matchpoint participants."

Matchpoint San Francisco marks the first time a series of educational workshops will be offered to participants. Innovators will learn how to broker business partnerships and make their startups both financially and technologically viable.

The next Matchpoint meetings will be in New York on November 28th. Pharmaceutical companies, providers, and payers are expected to be among those taking advantage of this unique opportunity to meet with selected innovators from New York's burgeoning health technology ecosystem.

About Health 2.0 The conference. The media network. The innovation community. The Health 2.0 Conference is the leading showcase of cutting-edge innovation transforming the health care system. Health 2.0 has served as a community resource for search and online tools to help consumers manage their health and connect to providers. Now that the industry has caught up, Health 2.0 covers the entire cloud, web, mobile and unplatforms technology revolution that is shaking up every sector of health care. Health 2.0 Advisors puts its market intelligence and network to work for innovators who want to build tomorrow's winning organizations. For more, visit http://www.health2con.com.

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Health 2.0 Advisors Announce 10 Industry Leaders Seeking Health Care Innovation Partnerships

Perhaps like me, you'd like to know whether the Affordable Care Act will make our lives better or rob us of our health-care choices. My family has faced some pretty major health problems.

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Things to like about changes to health care

NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

The Nashville Health Care Council hosted an exclusive panel discussion today with nationally-known thought leaders to discuss the upcoming election and its implications for health reform and the broader national economic and political landscape.

Special guests included Judy Feder, Ph.D., former dean and professor of public policy, Georgetown Public Policy Institute, Georgetown University and institute fellow, Urban Institute; Senator Bill Frist, M.D., partner, Cressey & Company and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader; Alberto R. Gonzales, Doyle Rogers Distinguished Chair of Law, Belmont University, of counsel, Waller and former United States Attorney General; Jon Meacham, executive editor and executive vice president, Random House, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and former editor, Newsweek. The discussion was moderated by John Seigenthaler, Jr., CEO, Seigenthaler Public Relations New York and former anchor, NBC Nightly News.

As the elections approach, its very fitting to have this discussion here in Nashville. The newly-elected President and Congress will have a number of complex issues ahead of them, including the direction of health care reform, said Senator Frist.

Panelists agreed that certain elements of health care reform will move forward no matter who is elected in November, such as insurance companies eliminating exclusions for preexisting conditions and providers moving toward population health management as opposed to the fee-for-service model. However, they were also in agreement that the election results will heavily affect the future of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as a whole.

View panel member interviews on YouTube and event photos on Flickr. Photo credit: (c) 2012, Harry Butler.

Though the polls seem to be breaking President Obamas way, its still quite possible that this election will go late into the night in November. Historically speaking, the 2012 race, like 1980 or 1992, is unfolding in a climate that is largely hostile to incumbents, said Jon Meacham.

No matter who wins, Congress has to address the complex fiscal cliff which is approaching at the end of the year when significant tax cuts expire and spending cuts are triggered.How we address the deficit has enormous implications for the future of Medicare, Medicaid and health reform, on which the two parties, as well as President Obama and Governor Romney, have vastly different positions.The outcome of the election will make a big difference to the future of health care, said Judy Feder.

Health care is a very important and complicated issue in this election. There is still a lot of uncertainty about the future of the Affordable Care Act, which is why health care companies have held off on some of the changes that were outlined in the legislation. The election results will determine how we all move forward, Alberto R. Gonzales said.

Nashville is a natural venue for this discussion, considering the citys impact on the health care industry on both a national and international level. Nashville-based health care companies account for $70 billion in annual revenue and more than 400,000 jobs globally. Nashville-based hospital management companies own or operate more than half of the investor-owned hospitals in the United States.

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National Leaders Share Perspectives on the Election and Future of Health Care

By Sally Voth svoth@nvdaily.com

Three hundred guests dining at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley Business Forum Luncheon on Tuesday had a lot to digest.

Susan Dentzer, editor-in-chief of the journal Health Affairs, spent more than an hour presenting her reasons why the Affordable Care Act was necessary, and its merits.

"It's hard to conjure up an issue in American politics that has really elicited so much divisiveness among the parties," she said. "What we might be able to agree on, however, are those things inherent in what we call the triple aim."

The triple aim is to strive for better health, better health care and lower costs, Dentzer said.

"That's it," she said. "We just have to pursue that agenda."

Individuals' health is impacted by a variety of factors, according to Dentzer's presentation. These include obesity, lack of exercise, smoking, stress and aging. There are other contributors to early death, such as genetics, social factors and a lack of health insurance.

The latter leads to the premature death of 18,000 Americans annually, Dentzer said. She said that's about half the number of women who die of breast cancer each year.

According to a RAND study from 2003, patients received recommended health care about 55 percent of the time, Dentzer said.

"Basically, it was almost a coin toss whether we get recommended care," she said. "We also have another very troubling issue, which is do we know what works in health care? More than half of the treatments that we deliver in the U.S. health care system do not have clear evidence of effectiveness. That's an awful lot of health care that is being provided without people understanding whether it works or it does not."

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Museum hosts health care reform talk

By MARY SHEDDEN | The Tampa Tribune Published: October 03, 2012 Updated: October 03, 2012 - 12:00 AM

It's been surprisingly quiet around the state regarding Amendment 1, a constitutional proposal to block the controversial insurance mandate in the federal health care law.

From the presidential race on down, politicians have been predictably strident about this hot-button issue. But it's hard to find yard signs, advertisements or campaign literature about this amendment, which, as conceived, would prevent Florid-ians or their employers from being required to get health insurance.

Both proponents and critics have decided to put their campaign money and energy elsewhere, since a U.S. Supreme Court decision in June renders the Florida amendment moot.

Instead, groups are quietly urging a yes or no vote in election guides and with a handful of guest columns in Florida media.

"It basically will be on the books, and that's it," Rachel Morgan, senior policy specialist for the national Conference of State Legislatures, said of the Amendment 1 vote.

But the quiet debate doesn't mean the amendment has lost its political urgency, said Laura Goodhue, executive director of Florida CHAIN, a health care advocacy group that is against Amendment 1.

A "yes" vote could be used politically by legislative leaders, Goodhue said. Those vying to repeal the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or file new lawsuits could use it as ammunition, she said.

"We're concerned because the state has really tried everything they can do in their power to see that residents don't see the benefits of the Affordable Care Act," Goodhue said of the ballot issue, which needs a 60 percent "yes" vote to be added to the Florida Constitution.

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Court ruling takes teeth out of health care amendment

A new study released by the private foundation, The Commonwealth Fund, has revealed that 72 million Americans would be uninsured by 2022 if Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney wins the election and has his health care plan enacted. That compares to 27 million uninsured by the same time if President Barack Obama's Affordable Health Care Act (ACA) was kept in place with his reelection.

"There are stark differences between what each candidate has proposed for our health care system, and this report shines a light on how Americans might be affected, based on their age, their income, and where they live," the report's lead author Sara Collins, vice president for affordable health insurance at the Commonwealth Fund said to CNN. "The report finds that repealing the ACA would significantly increase the number of Americans without health insurance, limiting their ability to get the health care they need and exposing them to burdensome medical bills and debt."

The analysis was conducted by economist Jonathan Gruber, who advised the policymakers who wrote the ACA.

Currently, the government says there are more than 48 million Americans -- about 16 percent of the population -- without health insurance.

The percentage of uninsured people with President Barack Obama's Affordable Health Care Act by 2022.

While some of President Barack Obama's ACA has already been implemented -- such as free preventive women's health care, allowing children 26 and younger to be covered by their parent's plans and not allowing insurance companies to deny people with pre-existing conditions -- many of the proposed changes will not be enforced until 2014. These include implementing near-universal health care coverage, with steps like expanding Medicaid health insurance plans to cover more low income people and organizing state-regulated plans that people can choose from.

State plans would all have to fit regulations set by the federal government, which has also set goals of including free annual wellness exams and getting rid of the prescription drug benefit's "donut hole" -- or gap between the initial coverage limit and the upper limit set by the federal government. In general, they are high-deductible insurance plans, which means low premiums but higher deductibles in case of an accident.

The Commonwealth Fund, which has supported the ACA, said that if all the intended changes were made, 23 million more Americans would get insurance.

However, in comparison, The Commonwealth Fund's analysis showed that 12 million fewer Americans would receive health insurance under Romney's plan compared with current rates. Romney has pledged to repeal the ACA and implement his own changes, which he believes will encourage more private insurance incentives (instead of state-decided plans) and give the individual more say in choosing a plan that is right for them. For example, those who wouldn't seek preventive women's health care wouldn't pay for those services under his plan.

The study also found that Romney's plan would cost Americans more money. People who choose to buy health insurance on their own would pay 14 percent of their income, compared to only 9 percent under the ACA, The Commonwealth Fund stated. The Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation added that repealing the ACA would cost a federal budget deficit of $109 billion between 2013 and 2022.

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Study: Romney health care plan to leave 72M uninsured

CONCORD The Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, will increase access to health care and reduce the number of uninsured, but will do little if anything to control costs or improve quality.

That was the underlying theme from both the keynote speaker and panelists Tuesday at the fourth annual New Hampshire Business Review Health Care Forum, which attracted nearly 300 business leaders, human resources executives and health care professionals to the Grappone Conference Center, all looking for insight into the complex legislation.

The Supreme Court is not going to take away the ACA, nor is November (election) going to take away ACA, said panelist Lucy Hodder, chair of the Health Care Practice Group at the law firm of Rath, Young & Pignatelli. The ACA is here to stay. It may be tinkered with, but if you do away with it, you still have to deal with costs.

Keynote speaker Aaron Carroll, a pediatrician and director of the Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research, based at Indiana University, told the crowd that the impact of the ACA may be overstated when it comes to the scope of changes needed in the health care system.

We have made some strides in terms of access, he said, but cost is a real issue, and we havent even touched on quality.

Carroll said the new health care law is primarily targeted at the uninsured. He said individuals who now get insurance through their employers, Medicare, Medicaid, the Veterans Administration or other government programs are not likely to notice much change as major provisions of the law take effect.

Businesses with fewer than 50 employees are exempt from the mandate to provide health insurance or pay a fine, and most companies with more than 50 employees already provide some form of coverage that would be acceptable under the law.

Things arent going to change that dramatically for most businesses, said panelist Chara Stevens, director of the Human Resources Council of New Hampshire. For the most part, its going to be business as usual.

The individual mandate to have health insurance and the expansion of Medicaid will improve access, but the problems of high cost and poor results are not being addressed despite the huge investment, Carroll said in an interview after the event.

The ACA is all about expanding access, he said. It does that with about $1 trillion more in spending over a decade. That investment will do little to improve outcomes or contain costs, he said.

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Panel Obamacare won8217t improve costs nor quality

On the eve of the first presidential debate, some of the nations foremost experts on the contested subject of health care policy converged to discuss the nuances and complications of U.S. health care reform.

During Tuesday's event, panelists discussed the trials and tribulations of health care policy in the United States and analyzed the role it has played in the upcoming election. The discussion was the second of two forums hosted by the Ross Office of Tax Policy Research at the Ross School of Business, that are designed to raise awareness of prominent campaign issues.

David Leonhardt, the Washington bureau chief for The New York Times, said during the event that health care reform has been a critical and divisive topic of presidential debate for decades.

(Health care) is a hugely complicated problem, and thats why you see it in the subject of some of the most difficult, toughest political fights we have had in this country really for 80 years, Leonhardt said.

He noted that all former presidents who have tried to reform U.S. health care policy were unsuccessful.

FDR failed to get universal health care, Harry Truman failed, JFK failed, LBJ failed, Richard Nixon failed and Bill Clinton failed, Leonhardt said. Nearly everyone who has tried failed.

Leonhardt noted that the election is becoming increasingly polarized between voters who support the Affordable Care Act and those who believe it should be repealed, even though its legality was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year.

Jonathan Gruber, a professor of economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the country has two primary choices for the future of health care.

The fight in this country is stuck between two extremes: on the one hand we have the left, which says we should have a single health system like Canada on the right they say the system works fine, Gruber said.

Gruber said of the options, neither is possible or sustainable, and the government must build on the existing system in formulating effective reform policies.

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Experts discuss impact of health care on campaigns

01-10-2012 17:05 The candidates for governor sparred Monday over health care issues in a debate on New Hampshire public radio.

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Health care focus of governor's debate - Video

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) The health care overhaul is poised to pour billions of dollars into an insurance industry thirsty for customers, according to health care consultant PwC.

The massive federal law aims to cover millions of uninsured people and will take a major step toward that goal in 2014, when the government starts offering tax credits to help many Americans buy coverage through online exchanges. Those exchanges will act as virtual marketplaces for customers to comparison shop for the right coverage.

PwC estimated in a report released Tuesday that 12 million people will find coverage on these exchanges in 2014 and pay a total of $55 billion in premiums for coverage. It projects that those totals could rise to 29 million people and $205 billion in premiums by 2021.

PwC says most of this money will be new, but some will represent premiums shifted from other parts of the insurance market. For instance, the total may include people who had coverage through their employer but switched to buying a policy on the exchange.

The actual numbers also will depend on how many states decide to expand Medicaid coverage like the overhaul requires. Medicaid is the state and federally funded program that provides coverage for the needy and disabled. The Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that individual states could opt out of this expansion.

Nevertheless, the exchanges and the subsidies will present a "huge market opportunity in health care," said Ceci Connolly, managing director of PwC Health Research Institute.

Private health insurance offered by companies like UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Aetna Inc. is the main form of coverage for people under 65 in the United States. Insurers have struggled in recent years to increase their enrollment as companies clamped down on hiring or cut jobs and reduced the number of people covered by their plans.

The overhaul's exchanges will open the market to customers who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private coverage.

"These are the people who've been crowded out of the insurance market through the relentless drive to increase premium and pass along higher cost of health care to the consumer," said Sheryl Skolnick, an analyst who covers health insurers for CRT Capital group. She wasn't involved with the PwC study.

The overhaul will tax health insurers, and it restricts how they set up their coverage. But it also provides what Skolnick called "the last great frontier for health plans to add membership."

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Report: Overhaul offers key insurer growth chance

Call it coverage without the middle man. Last week, two major companies announced plans to shift their health-care model, giving more control to employees.

Sears and Darden Restaurants Inc. plan to implement a new way of providing benefits to workersgiving them a flat sum of money and allowing them to choose their coverage and insurer from an online marketplace, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Journal reported Darden claims employees will have the same contribution out-of-pocket that they currently have for the same level of coverage, and those who choose more coverage will have to up their own payments to cover the difference. The same goes for those who choose less coveragetheir out-of-pocket costs will drop. The plans are still considered employer-sponsored, rather than individual coverage.

But would the flat-rate model ever work for small businesses?

This model would be efficient for small employers depending on how they are attempting to compete in the job market, according to Gary Kushner, president of Kushner & Company. Benefits are obviously a competitive advantage, especially at a smaller company. However, he said, under Obamacare there is no penalty for not offering coverage for businesses with fewer than 50 workers.

Offering workers a flat amount to go shop in an online exchange may work best for a company like Sears or Darden, with many part-time workers, because they are not necessarily looking for lifers.

"Lets say I am a McDonald's franchisee. I am going to hire all sorts of people, training takes a short period of time, and I don't need to provide expensive benefits to attract and retain. Having that defined contribution may make financial sense for different employers, where the overall HR strategy is not about pursuing lifetime career employees, he said.

Diane Pfadenhauer, president of EPA Advisors, said that while it is unclear how employers will handle the changes that will occur under Obamacare, one thing is sure-- they will do whatever is cheapest. If that means offering plans via Web exchanges until the state-sponsored exchanges kick in for small companies in 2014, its a potential solution.

"Employers are more inclined, as the cost of health care goes up every year, to pass that cost along to their employees," Pfadenhauer said.

However, large companies like Sears have more buying power when approaching insurance companies. They will be receiving better rates than smaller companies without a doubt, she said.

Read the original here:

Would Sears’ Health-Care Approach Work for Your Business?

The debate over President Barack Obamas health-care law has taken another twist. Now conservatives and libertarians are defending it, while the administration tries to toss part of the legislation out.

The reason for this role reversal is that the drafters of the law outsmarted themselves and handed their opponents a weapon. Now they would like to pretend the law doesnt say what it does.

Obamas plan makes tax credits available to people who get health insurance from exchanges set up by state governments. If states dont establish those exchanges, the federal government will do so for them. The federal exchanges, however, dont come with tax credits: The law authorizes credits only for people who get insurance from state-established exchanges. And that creates some problems the administration didnt foresee, and now hopes to wish away.

Legislative debate over the law didnt go into great detail about these provisions. We can surmise what happened, though. Supporters of the legislation wanted to encourage states to set up the exchanges. So they offered the states a deal: If they did so, they would get to write their own rules, and their citizens would be able to get the tax credit. The states would also gain extra flexibility on Medicaid spending. The laws supporters also expected the health-care law to become more popular over time.

That hasnt happened. Many states are determined in their opposition, and few of them have set up exchanges. If they dont do so, the tax credits dont go into effect and the federally established exchanges wont work: People wont be able to afford the insurance available on them without the subsidy.

States have another incentive to refrain from setting up exchanges under the health-care law: It protects companies and individuals in the state from tax increases. The law introduces penalties of as much as $3,000 per employee for firms that dont provide insurance -- but only if an employee is getting coverage with the help of a tax credit. No state exchanges means no tax credits and thus no employer penalties. The law also notoriously penalizes many people for not buying insurance. In some cases, being eligible for a tax credit and still not buying insurance subjects you to the penalty. So, again, no state exchange means no tax credit and thus fewer people hit by the penalty.

The administrations response to the impending failure of its signature legislation -- a failure resulting entirely from its flawed design -- has been to ignore the inconvenient portion of the law. In May, the Internal Revenue Service decided it would issue tax credits to people who get insurance from exchanges established by the federal government. It has thus exposed firms and individuals to taxes and penalties without any legal authorization. Obviously, that situation sets the stage for lawsuits.

The plaintiffs will have a strong case. Jonathan Adler and Michael Cannon -- two libertarians, the first a law professor at Case Western Reserve University and the second a health-care analyst at the Cato Institute -- have done more than anyone to bring attention to this issue. They point out that every health bill advanced by Senate Democrats clearly made tax credits conditional on states establishment of exchanges. They have also uncovered that during the debate over the bill, Senator Max Baucus, a Democrat from Montana, explicitly said the same thing.

Supporters of the health-care law may be tempted to dismiss the challenge to the IRS. That would be to repeat a mistake. They were contemptuous of the constitutional case against the law, too. Timothy Jost, a Washington and Lee University law professor, even wrote that the attorneys who brought the suits should face professional sanctions for filing frivolous cases. In the end, the Supreme Court sided with the plaintiffs on their constitutional claims, in one case by a 7-2 margin, upholding the law only by removing parts of it.

There will be many more court battles over the health- care law, because it involves so many legally dubious expansions of bureaucratic power. In addition to the IRS move, there are lawsuits against the administrations ruling that almost all employers must provide coverage for contraception and sterilization, a decision that conflicts with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The law also creates a board of experts to control health-care costs, a move that is sure to bring legal action on separation-of- powers grounds.

Read the original:

The Flaws That Will Bring Down Obama’s Health-Care Plan

PHOENIX (CBS5) -

Some serious concerns have surfaced recently about the healthcare of Arizona's inmates.

Monday the company that the Arizona Department of Corrections contracted to care for inmates issued a statement about the claims.

Allegations surfaced nearly two weeks ago when the Arizona Department of Corrections said some of the inmates are not getting their medication, are being exposed to hepatitis C and said one even committed suicide. According to the DOC, it all happened under the watch of Wexford Health Sources.

Wexford Health Sources was contracted by the DOC in July to care for the inmates.

"I understand they are in there because they did something to get in there, but that's no reason to decline them healthcare," said Freddie Bowman.

Bowman said her son has been in the Florence Prison since 2005 and has had a recent incident where he did not get the treatment he needed.

"He had little white blisters from the strep throat all in there and he couldn't eat," she said.

Bowman said it was days before her son got care and by then the doctor "diagnosed him with having a high fever and very sick," she said.

Another family member of an inmate, Ana Hebner, had a similar story.

Read more from the original source:

Inmate family speaks about health care problems

KANSAS CITY, Mo., Oct. 2, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cerner (CERN) will host more than 10,000 people in Kansas City for the 27th annual Cerner Health Conference (CHC). Clients, partners and associates representing 21 different countries, will gather to learn about key issues affecting health care, collaborate with peers and gain hands-on experience with innovative health care solutions and services. The conference begins on Oct. 6 and runs through Oct. 10.

The 2012 theme, Because it's personal, speaks to all of the experiences we have in health care - as providers, parents, spouses, suppliers, researchers and individuals. Cerner, our clients and our partners want to make the system better, safer and more efficient for our families, our community and ourselves.

Cerner clients will lead the majority of the more than 240 diverse education sessions, providing more than 750 available continuing education credits. CHC 2012 will also offer seven in-depth sessions highlighting some of the health care industry's most debated issues, such as population health, quality outcomes and health care reform.

CHC 2012 General Session Speakers

Stay Connected at CHC 2012

About Cerner

Cerner is contributing to the systemic change of health and care delivery. For more than 30 years Cerner has been executing its vision to make health care safer and more efficient. We started with the foundation of digitizing paper processes and now offer the most comprehensive array of information software, professional services, medical device integration, remote hosting and employer health and wellness services. Cerner systems are used by everyone from individual consumers, to single-doctor practices, hospitals, employers and entire countries. Taking what we've learned over more than three decades, Cerner is building on the knowledge that is in the system to support evidence-based clinical decisions, prevent medical errors and empower patients in their care.

Cerner(R) solutions are licensed by approximately 9,300 facilities around the world, including more than 2,650 hospitals; 3,750 physician practices covering more than 40,000 physicians; 500 ambulatory facilities, such as laboratories, ambulatory centers, cardiac facilities, radiology clinics and surgery centers; 800 home health facilities; 40 employer sites and 1,600 retail pharmacies.

Certain trademarks, service marks and logos (collectively, the "Marks") set forth herein are owned by Cerner Corporation and/or its subsidiaries in the United States and certain other countries throughout the world. All other non-Cerner Marks are the property of their respective owners. Nasdaq: CERN. For more information about Cerner, please visit http://www.cerner.com, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

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Thousands Will Learn, Experience Why Health Care is Personal at the 2012 Cerner Health Conference