The Doctor Will See You Now: Cigna Teams with MDLIVE to Offer Health Care Access 24/7/365

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BLOOMFIELD, Conn. & SUNRISE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Global health service company Cigna (CI) today announced it will work with MDLIVE, a leading telehealth provider of online and on-demand health care delivery services and software, to offer eligible Cigna health plan customers access to 24/7/365 online video or telephone consultations with Board-Certified Internal Medicine, Family Practice, and Pediatric physicians.

The collaboration is reflective of the two companies common goals of offering access to quality, affordable health care with a superior customer experience.

We are committed to offering our customers services that help improve their health and make their lives easier -- and MDLIVE represents anytime, anywhere access to quality care, saidJackie Aube, the head of product development at Cigna. MDLIVEs telehealth services enable our increasingly mobile and time-constrained customers to schedule a virtual consult with a Board Certified physician and resolve a non-emergency medical issue in less than one hour. Its cost-effective and convenient for minor illnesses such as allergies, pink eye and sinus infections.

MDLIVE offers the nations largest telehealth network, specializing in online and on-demand health care delivery services with fully integrated software that allows information to be easily captured and transferred to a patients primary physician. MDLIVE physicians are state-licensed, U.S. Board Certified and credentialed following national credentialing guidelines and have an average of 15 years of practical experience. Eligible Cigna health plan customers will be able to choose a convenient appointment time or request to speak to an available health care professional on demand (average response time of 11 minutes) for non-emergency medical issues such as cold and flu, rashes, sinus issues and headaches for children and adults.

Cigna will begin offering the MDLIVE program to several self-insured employersinterested intesting this approach with their employeesas part of theirhealth programeffective January 1, 2014.

As the leading telehealth provider in the nation, we are especially pleased to team with Cigna, one of the worlds pre-eminent health service companies, said Randy Parker, CEO of MDLIVE. We have a closely shared vision for bringing the best technology to bear on providing consumers with an experience never before seen in health care that focuses on each person as an individual, accessible where and when they want it, and in a confidential and convenient virtual environment. We are proud to work with Cigna and look forward to a relationship that will literally re-define how quality health care can be available to all, and on their own terms.

Cigna has been a frontrunner in offering reimbursable virtual house calls nationally since 2007. Cigna's initial telehealth offering was through RelayHealth, which offers webVisit consultations using an online, structured interview format to communicate eligible health plan customers non-urgent, routine health issues to their Cigna-contracted physician.

MDLIVE will add the new dimension to Cigna's portfolio of convenience care and telehealth options, making access to care more convenient, affordable for customers and appropriately compensating health care professionals for their services while continuing to support the existing patient-doctor relationship.

To watch a short video on MDLIVE services please view here: http://www.mdlive.com/cignavideo

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The Doctor Will See You Now: Cigna Teams with MDLIVE to Offer Health Care Access 24/7/365

Obama declared health care law 'is here to stay'

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Caught between nervous Democrats and emboldened Republicans, President Barack Obama on Friday stepped up the sales pitch on his health care overhaul as the final elements of his top domestic achievement go into effect. With his legacy and the law's success at stake, Obama said: "The law is here to stay."

Behind the scenes, the White House readied a campaign-style effort to get healthy young people to sign up for the insurance "exchanges" in order to keep premium costs from skyrocketing. On Capitol Hill, House Republicans are planning yet another vote to try to try to repeal the law.

The insurance exchanges are the centerpiece of the landmark overhaul of the nation's health insurance system and the White House mobilization is crucial to the success of the health care law and, by extension, to Obama's place in history as the first president in decades to expand health care coverage.

"There's a lot that this law is already doing for Americans with insurance," Obama said during a Mother's Day-themed event at the White House. "There's a lot more that's going to happen for folks who don't have insurance."

But he cautioned: "We still have a lot of work to do in the coming months to make sure more Americans can buy affordable health coverage."

And he urged the public not to be swayed by what he said were scare tactics from critics of the law who might blame it for rising premiums.

"Don't be bamboozled," he said.

Underscoring the policy and political consequences, the White House plans to employ both the resources of government as well as those of his reconfigured political operation as it aimed to enroll 7 million people in health insurance exchanges between Oct. 1 and the end of March. The goal is to get 30 million people to sign up within five years.

Moreover, the composition of those signing up for the new exchanges matters just as much as the overall totals. In order to keep premium costs down, officials say they must register 2.7 million healthy people between the ages of 18 and 35 in order to counteract the costs of ensuring seniors and people with health problems.

The White House's hopes that Obama's East Room event would draw broad attention crumpled, however, when the president's event had to compete for attention with revelations about administration deliberations over the September attack on U.S. diplomats in Benghazi, Libya, and an acknowledgement by the Internal Revenue Service that its workers had singled out conservative groups for additional review.

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Obama declared health care law 'is here to stay'

Obama steps up push to promote health care overhaul

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WASHINGTON President Barack Obama on Friday stepped up the sales pitch on his health care overhaul as the final elements of his top domestic achievement go into effect. With his legacy and the law's success at stake, Obama said: "The law is here to stay."

Behind the scenes, the White House readied a campaign-style effort to get healthy young people to sign up for the insurance "exchanges" in order to keep premium costs from skyrocketing. On Capitol Hill, House Republicans are planning another vote to try to try to repeal the law.

The insurance exchanges are the centerpiece of the landmark overhaul of the nation's health insurance system. The White House mobilization is crucial to the success of the health care law and, by extension, to Obama's place in history as the first president in decades to expand health care coverage.

"There's a lot that this law is already doing for Americans with insurance," Obama said during a Mother's Day-themed event at the White House. "There's a lot more that's going to happen for folks who don't have insurance."

But he cautioned, "We still have a lot of work to do in the coming months to make sure more Americans can buy affordable health coverage."

He urged the public not to be swayed by what he said were scare tactics from critics of the law who might blame it for rising premiums. "Don't be bamboozled," he said.

Underscoring the policy and political consequences, the White House plans to employ both the resources of government as well as those of his reconfigured political operation as it aimed to enroll 7 million people in health insurance exchanges between Oct. 1 and the end of March. The goal is to get 30 million people to sign up within five years.

Moreover, the composition of those signing up for the new exchanges matters just as much as the overall totals. To keep premium costs down, officials say they must register 2.7 million healthy people between the ages of 18 and 35 in order to counteract the costs of insuring seniors and people with health problems.

The public remains divided over the health care law. As a result, the White House is planning an election-like campaign to target those uninsured or individually insured young people, an effort reminiscent of the sophisticated voter outreach that helped Obama twice win the White House.

The administration has identified where many of the healthy and uninsured young live and will be working with health clinics, hospitals, churches and other groups to sign them up for the exchanges.

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Obama steps up push to promote health care overhaul

The Morality of Capitalism: a Freedom Party sponsored talk by Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute – Video

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The Morality of Capitalism: a Freedom Party sponsored talk by Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute
On May 6, 2013, Freedom Party of Ontario and the Toronto Objectivist Committee presented a talk by Yaron Brook titled "The Morality of Capitalism". Brook is ...

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The Morality of Capitalism: a Freedom Party sponsored talk by Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute - Video