Efforts intensify to sign up Hispanics for health care

In this March 31, 2014 file photo, Jose Villanueva, left, and Doraisy Avila sit with an agent from Sunshine Life and Health Advisors as they look at a pricing plan available from the Affordable Care Act at a store set up in the Mall of Americas in Miami.(Photo: Joe Raedle, Getty Images)

WASHINGTON With the enrollment deadline looming, the Obama administration and advocacy groups are ramping up efforts to sign up millions of Hispanics for health coverage through online exchanges set up under the Affordable Care Act.

Activists in states with high Latino populations are using various strategies to recruit a traditionally hard-to-reach group that already faces barriers to health care. The activists have been especially aggressive in Texas and Florida, which declined to expand Medicaid under the 2010 health care law.

Groups such as Enroll America are hosting social media initiatives, airing Spanish-language public service ads and deploying advocates in Hispanic neighborhoods to convince an often reluctant population that enrollment would benefit them and their families.

The enrollment window, which opened Nov. 15, closes Feb. 15.

"We've made every effort to double down on the most effective tactics to reach the Latino community," said Anne Filipic, Enroll America's president. The liberal advocacy group has set up grass-root efforts to sign up uninsured residents in 11 states, including Arizona, Florida and Texas.

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Efforts intensify to sign up Hispanics for health care

Major Changes to Medicare Coming for Senior Health Care

The Obama administration has announced a major change to the way the federal government pays doctors and hospitals under Medicare. Its an historic attempt to shift away from the traditional, costly fee-for-service model and quell the ballooning costs of health care.

Heres the plan: Starting next year, the federal government will begin paying Medicare providers based on their performance, rather than on the number of surgeries, check-ups or CT-scans they perform. Under the proposal, 30 percent of Medicares $362 billion in annual payments will be tied to performance. Health officials expect that will increase to 50 percent by 2018.

Sylvia Mathews Burwell, secretary of Health and Human Services, said the goals are meant to drive transformative change.

Proponents of the pay-for-performance initiative say it is an effective way to slow health spending while improving the quality of care. It has the support of major industry trade groups and leaders, including the American Medical Association (AMA) and Americas Health Insurance Plans.

"Today's announcement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services aligns with the American Medical Association's commitment to work toward innovative care delivery reform that will promote high-quality and efficient care for our nation's seniors who count on Medicare, while reducing the administrative and regulatory burdens physicians face today. Robert M. Wah, M.D., president of the AMA, said in a statement.

Patient advocate groups also threw their support behind the announcement.

Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images A retiree carries a bag of educational pamplets from L.A. Care, the largest public health plan in the US, at a Senior Information & Resource Fair in South Gate, California September 10, 2013 . The event included a discussion of how the Affordable Care Act, also called "Obamacare" will impact senior citizens and what insurance plans will be available to them. With just weeks until a centerpiece of the health care reform law launches, the task of spreading the word about new health insurance marketplaces will fall to local navigators and counselors employed locally but funded by federal grant money.

The transition away from fee-for-service is an important next step towards better care and lower costs in the Medicare program, Joe Ditr, Families USAs director of enterprise and innovation, said in a statement. Since private insurers often follow Medicares lead, the announcement is likely to have a profound and positive impact.

The plan focuses on patient outcomes. If patients fare well, their doctors are paid more; if the results are poor, doctors are paid less. The administration says about 20 percent of traditional Medicare payments are already going through similar programs that emphasize care, such as accountable care organizations and bundled payments. They hope to expand that reach significantly.

WHY THIS MATTERS

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Major Changes to Medicare Coming for Senior Health Care

Obamacare helps mental health care

Granted, we have more to do and the political evaluations of the ACA and some macro- and micro-economic considerations of the law will continue to be debated. I was among the many closely following the law, but from the lens of those providing mental health-care services, it has had a measurable positive impact for people in need despite issues with the rollout and some bumps last year. Support for the law continues to waiver around fifty percent, but many of the key provisions that have strong support and popularity are linked to behavioral health.

Read MoreOp-ed: The Great Obamacare Medicaid Bait 'n' Switch

For too long, mental health care was in the shadows and coverage was inconsistent, despite the fact that about 50 percent of Americans experience a mental health episode during their lifetime, from depression or anxiety to chemical dependency or schizophrenia. The ACA changed that imbalance in coverage by putting mental health and substance abuse benefits on par with medical and surgical benefits. By law, coverage for cancer treatment would be the same for substance-abuse treatment. In addition, there would be no lifetime or yearly dollar limits for mental health care recognition that services and recovery can take time and be expensive for patients and families.

This year, an estimated 3.7 million Americans with significant mental illnesses now have coverage and access to care through the insurance exchanges or extended Medicaid they have moved from the shadows and into needed treatment.

But other well-known provisions of the ACA translate into mental health-related benefits. Given that teens and young adults encounter higher levels of behavioral issues (half of all mental health and substance abuse begins before high school and 75 percent develop before age 24), the under-26 provision allowing parents on their policies to continue providing coverage to their underage children has extended coverage to an at-risk population. Considering the cost of untreated mental illnesses on individuals, families and society, providing care to young adults will not only improve the quality and productiveness of lives but also save money.

Read MoreObamacare co-ops struggle to swim, not sink

According to the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health, the first-year impact of the ACA on younger adults is encouraging: Inpatient mental health care has increased while emergency room psychiatric care has dropped. Younger patients are getting services where and when they need it rather than waiting for a crisis and visiting an ER. This improves the quality and delivery of care while reducing costs of treatment.

The pre-existing condition coverage includes mental health and substance abuse. What was frequently seen as a benefit for diabetics, heart disease or cancer survivors also includes individuals with behavioral health issues. The prospects of losing insurance was a barrier for people recovering how could a patient move to a new job or new community and the next stage of their recovery if they faced the prospects of losing their insurance due to pre-existing conditions? That has been fixed.

While more than eight million Americans now have private health-care coverage through the ACA, an estimated 41 million still lack coverage that includes nearly four million low-income Americans suffering from serious mental illnesses who live in one of 24 states that did not expand their Medicaid programs. People at or near the poverty line suffer from higher instances of mental anxiety and disorders. We need to recognize these risk factors and treat them accordingly.

Read MoreHealth-care ignorance costs insurers

Originally posted here:

Obamacare helps mental health care

Obamacare is a huge help for mental health care

Granted, we have more to do and the political evaluations of the ACA and some macro- and micro-economic considerations of the law will continue to be debated. I was among the many closely following the law, but from the lens of those providing mental health-care services, it has had a measurable positive impact for people in need despite issues with the rollout and some bumps last year. Support for the law continues to waiver around fifty percent, but many of the key provisions that have strong support and popularity are linked to behavioral health.

Read MoreOp-ed: The Great Obamacare Medicaid Bait 'n' Switch

For too long, mental health care was in the shadows and coverage was inconsistent, despite the fact that about 50 percent of Americans experience a mental health episode during their lifetime, from depression or anxiety to chemical dependency or schizophrenia. The ACA changed that imbalance in coverage by putting mental health and substance abuse benefits on par with medical and surgical benefits. By law, coverage for cancer treatment would be the same for substance-abuse treatment. In addition, there would be no lifetime or yearly dollar limits for mental health care recognition that services and recovery can take time and be expensive for patients and families.

This year, an estimated 3.7 million Americans with significant mental illnesses now have coverage and access to care through the insurance exchanges or extended Medicaid they have moved from the shadows and into needed treatment.

But other well-known provisions of the ACA translate into mental health-related benefits. Given that teens and young adults encounter higher levels of behavioral issues (half of all mental health and substance abuse begins before high school and 75 percent develop before age 24), the under-26 provision allowing parents on their policies to continue providing coverage to their underage children has extended coverage to an at-risk population. Considering the cost of untreated mental illnesses on individuals, families and society, providing care to young adults will not only improve the quality and productiveness of lives but also save money.

Read MoreObamacare co-ops struggle to swim, not sink

According to the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health, the first-year impact of the ACA on younger adults is encouraging: Inpatient mental health care has increased while emergency room psychiatric care has dropped. Younger patients are getting services where and when they need it rather than waiting for a crisis and visiting an ER. This improves the quality and delivery of care while reducing costs of treatment.

The pre-existing condition coverage includes mental health and substance abuse. What was frequently seen as a benefit for diabetics, heart disease or cancer survivors also includes individuals with behavioral health issues. The prospects of losing insurance was a barrier for people recovering how could a patient move to a new job or new community and the next stage of their recovery if they faced the prospects of losing their insurance due to pre-existing conditions? That has been fixed.

While more than eight million Americans now have private health-care coverage through the ACA, an estimated 41 million still lack coverage that includes nearly four million low-income Americans suffering from serious mental illnesses who live in one of 24 states that did not expand their Medicaid programs. People at or near the poverty line suffer from higher instances of mental anxiety and disorders. We need to recognize these risk factors and treat them accordingly.

Read MoreHealth-care ignorance costs insurers

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Obamacare is a huge help for mental health care

How Obamas $3 Trillion Health-Care Overhaul Works

The Obama administration hasannouncedplansto accelerate a shift in how the U.S.pays its $2.9 trillion annual health-care bill. Officials at Medicare, which covers one in six Americans, want to stop paying doctors and hospitals by the number of tests and treatments they do. Instead, the government wants to link payments to how well providerstake care of patients, not just how much care they provide.

This transitionis already under way. Millions of Americans are now covered in experimental programs created by the Affordable Care Act designed to reduce unnecessary care and incentivize doctors to focus on quality, not quantity. The administration wants to vastly expand suchprograms to include half of all Medicare payments by the end of 2018. Heres what you need to know:

Growth has slowed in recent years. Since 2010, per capita health spending has increased at about the same rate as the U.S. economy, a historically low rate for American health spending. Even if that holdssteady, 17 of every dollar spent in the U.S. goes to health care, far higher than inother countries that have health outcomes as good or better than Americas.

After the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, the federal government started experiments with doctors and hospitals willing to try new payment models. One of theattempts to do this was a program called Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), which would let medical providers share in the savings if they reduced the overall health-care costs for their Medicare patients. Now more than 7.8 million of Medicares 55 million beneficiaries get their care through such arrangements, up from zeroin 2011.

The Obama administration would liketo speed this up. Medicare wants 30 percent of all payments to go through models like ACOs by the end of next year,and 50 percent by the end of 2018, up from about 20 percent now. Other incentives already in place, such as penalties for hospitals when patients get readmitted, nudgeproviders to improve care, even if theyre still getting paid in a traditional fee-for-service system. The government wants 90 percent of all Medicare payments toincludesuch incentives by the end of 2018.

Its hard to say precisely how much of the total $2.9 trillion in health spending flowsthrough fee-for-service payments, but a safe answer is: most of it. Even hospitals participating in Medicares new payment experiments often get paid the old way by commercial insurers, for example. Those contradictory incentives can make it hard for hospitals to fully make the changes they need to care for patients more efficiently.Can you create a situation ultimately where youre treating fewer people in the hospital and doing fewer higher-reimbursement treatments? Thats a real risk, Moodys health-care analyst Dan Steingart told methis month.If your contracts only pay you on a pure fee-for-service basis, youre basically shooting yourself in the foot.

This is the first time Medicare officials have setclear targets for how much spendingthey want to flow through new payment systems. The Obama administration saidthe goalsshould incentivize more doctors and hospitals to join, and give them some certaintythat theswitch to new payment methods is real. Thegovernment also wants private-sector buyers of health caretomake the shift. A council of executives fromthe insuranceandmedical industries, as well as big employers such as Boeing and Verizon, will try to expand alternative payments.

Medicare is trying a fewexperiments, including ACOs and bundled payments (which try to put limits around how much hospitals can charge forcommon procedures like knee and hip replacements). While economists and medical providers largely agree that ending the fee-for-service program is essential to containing health-care costs, the evidence for the new models isnt really in yet.Medicare officials saidthey have no results on bundled payments yet. The early years of the ACO program have shown some savings, but a majority of ACOs for which Medicare has datahave not generated savings yet.

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How Obamas $3 Trillion Health-Care Overhaul Works

The Health Care Budget: Four Things to Know

Texas' Republican leadership has fought tooth and nail against federal health care reform, adamantly opposed to taking either money or direction from the Obama administration when it comes to providinghealth care for the poor.

But putting politics aside,public health care costs in Texas are rising about $1.3 billion over the next two years, according to one legislative budget estimate. Medicaid enrollment is growing, whether or not the state decides to accept more federal funds toexpand the program's coverage to poor adults.And fiscal conservatives are raising the possibility,for first time in recent memory, that state appropriators will this year allocate more money for health care than education.

With the Senatesbudget estimate expected to be released Tuesday morning, we take a look at the health care numbers lawmakers will be grappling with for the next four months.

1. Expect less help from the feds.

The silver lining here is that the average Texan is on the upswing,with average incomes risingin recent years. But because of that, the feds are asking the state to shoulder more of its own health care costs.

The share of Medicaid paid by the federal government is going down, slightly, from 58.05 percent in 2015 to 57.13 percent in 2016. That drop may seem small, but even a slight change to a budget behemoth like Medicaid, which insures about 4.1 million Texans,comes with big fiscal consequences for state lawmakers.

The less favorable federal match means Texas will have to pull nearly $750 million moreout of state coffers over the next two years just to continue providing the level of care it does now, according to the House budget estimate. That cost, however, will be partlyoffset by about $300 million in newfederal money for certain children in the Medicaid program, made available under the federal health law.

2. Medicaid keeps growing.

Public spending on health care is on the rise in Texas, to the tune of about $1.3 billion over the next two years and thats based on an estimate that does not include inflation of health care costs. The main culprit? More Medicaid enrollees.

Federal health reform, which mandates that most Americans have health insurance or pay a fine, continues to be a big driver of Medicaid growthbecause more people are enrolling now who were previously eligible but nonetheless uninsured.State health officials predict the Affordable Care Act will swell Texas Medicaid participation by more than 560,000 people in 2015, including nearly 140,000 adults who were previously eligible.

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The Health Care Budget: Four Things to Know

Autism Genes Randomly Mutated, Study Finds

A new genetic study shows even siblings with autism often have very different DNA mutations from one another a finding that strengthens the evidence that autism is often just genetic bad luck.

The deep dive into the DNA of 170 people with autism spectrum disorder shows that more than 69 percent of brothers and sisters with autism had different DNA mutations underlying their disorders, Dr. Stephen Scherer of The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada and colleagues found.

"It's random mutation in these families. It just happens to be lightning striking twice," Scherer said.

"It just happens to be lightning striking twice."

The findings, published in the journal Nature Medicine, add to other research that shows "autism" is a broad term for a range of developmental disorders that are barely related to one another. The catchall name could be making it seem like one disorder is affecting many kids, when in fact it's a range of conditions.

"It is largely just a random effect," Scherer said. "Everybody in the population accumulates new mutations in the genome when they are conceived."

Autism spectrum disorder can range from the mild social awkwardness, including Asperger's syndrome, to profound mental retardation, debilitating repetitive behaviors and an inability to communicate. There's no cure, but experiments with early treatment suggest it can help.

Autism is becoming more and more common among U.S. kids, and researchers don't quite understand why. The last survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed 2 percent of U.S. children have been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder one in 68 kids.

Studies also show it's clear that genetic mutations are responsible for a lot of it. Autism can run in families.

Scherer's team set out to see if siblings with autism were inheriting some common pattern of mutations from their parents. They recruited 85 families where more than one child had been diagnosed, and sequenced everyone's entire genome.

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Autism Genes Randomly Mutated, Study Finds

Siblings With Autism Less Similar Than Previously Thought, Study Says

TIME Health Autism Siblings With Autism Less Similar Than Previously Thought, Study Says Surprising study has implications for care

The majority of siblings diagnosed with autism do not share the same genetic mutation, according to a new study.

Using whole-genome sequencing technology, scientists looked at the genetic material of 85 families that had two children diagnosed with autism, the New York Times reports. Of those sibling pairs, about 30% shared the same genetic glitch, while roughly 70% did not. Those who shared the same genetic issue had similar habits compared to those who didnt.

We anticipated that, more often than not, there would be shared inheritance said Dr. Stephen Scherer, professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and the projects research director. That wasnt the case.

Some experts say the study, which appears in the journal Nature Medicine, will likely lead to changes in hospitals, whose staff sometimes study the oldest child with autism to gain insight into the younger childs diagnosis. Hospitals also use genetic profiles to advise parents about the likelihood of having another child with the same diagnosis.

This study makes us step back and realize were not necessarily going to get as much predictive value out of genetic mapping as we thought, Helen Tager-Flusberg, a Boston University developmental neuroscientist who didnt work on the study, told the Times.

[NYT]

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Siblings With Autism Less Similar Than Previously Thought, Study Says

Nanoparticles that deliver oligonucleotide drugs into cells described in Nucleic Acid Therapeutics

IMAGE:Nucleic Acid Therapeutics is an authoritative, peer-reviewed journal published bimonthly in print and online that focuses on cutting-edge basic research, therapeutic applications, and drug development using nucleic acids... view more

Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, NY, January 27, 2015--Therapeutic oligonucleotide analogs represent a new and promising family of drugs that act on nucleic acid targets such as RNA or DNA; however, their effectiveness has been limited due to difficulty crossing the cell membrane. A new delivery approach based on cell-penetrating peptide nanoparticles can efficiently transport charge-neutral oligonucleotide analogs into cells, as reported in Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Nucleic Acid Therapeutics website.

In the article, "Peptide Nanoparticle Delivery of Charge-Neutral Splice-Switching Morpholino Oligonucleotides," Peter Jrver and coauthors, Cambridge Biomedical Campus (U.K.), Karolinska University Hospital (Huddinge, Sweden), Stockholm University (Sweden), Alexandria University (Egypt), and University of Oxford (U.K.), note that while delivery systems exist to facilitate cell entry of negatively charged oligonucleotide drugs, these approaches are not effective for charge-neutral oligonucleotide analogs. The authors describe lipid-functionalized peptides that form a complex with charge-neutral morpholino oligonucleotides, enabling them to cross into cells and retain their biological activity.

"The exploitation of phosphorodiamidate morpholinos represents an exciting approach to treating a number of therapeutic targets," says Executive Editor Graham C. Parker, PhD, The Carman and Ann Adams Department of Pediatrics, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit, MI. "This paper suggests an intriguing but practical approach to solving the lack of a convenient non-covalent delivery system."

###

Nucleic Acid Therapeutics is under the editorial leadership of Editor-in-Chief Bruce A. Sullenger, PhD, Duke Translational Research Institute, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, and Executive Editor Graham C. Parker, PhD.

About the Journal

Nucleic Acid Therapeutics is an authoritative, peer-reviewed journal published bimonthly in print and online that focuses on cutting-edge basic research, therapeutic applications, and drug development using nucleic acids or related compounds to alter gene expression. Nucleic Acid Therapeutics is the official journal of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Nucleic Acid Therapeutics website.

About the Society

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Nanoparticles that deliver oligonucleotide drugs into cells described in Nucleic Acid Therapeutics

What To Expect From Direct-To-Consumer Genetic Tests – The Medical Futurist – Video


What To Expect From Direct-To-Consumer Genetic Tests - The Medical Futurist
The shipping cost of my sample will be higher than actually sequencing my genome. But now these services have to improve. I #39;ve had 3 genomic tests with 3 different genomic companies in the...

By: The Medical Futurist

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What To Expect From Direct-To-Consumer Genetic Tests - The Medical Futurist - Video

Futurist Jack Uldrich: When it Comes to Future Business Trends, the Only Constant is Change

Montgomery, AL (PRWEB) January 27, 2015

Telecommunications is a constantly changing business. Every day older technology is being usurped with new technology that is faster, lighter and more efficient. Indeed, the only constant in the telecommunications business is change. As a future business trends expert, Jack Uldrich speaks on those trends and how to best embrace them for the coming years. In other words, Uldrich is in the future-proofing business.

On January 27th, Uldrich will be delivering a keynote address to one of the world's leading global providers of networking and communications equipment. Their products enable voice, data, video and Internet communications across a variety of network infrastructures. Their solutions are currently in use by service providers, private enterprises, government organizations and millions of individual users worldwide.

Uldrich will focus on his concept of the Big AHA--utilizing Awareness, Humility and Action as precepts to embracing change and jumping the curve when it comes to technological innovation. Uldrich will also discuss the specific future trends that may have the most impact on the firm's leaders and it's employees.

Uldrich has spoken all over the world on the topics of future trends, emerging technologies, innovation, change management and leadership. He has provided an in-depth exploration of how the Internet of Things, Big Data, social media, robotics, biotechnology, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, renewable energy and collaborative consumption are changing the world we live in. Most recently, Uldrich has spent his time addressing companies like Verizon Wireless, ABB, Informatica, Signal Hill and the American Vision Council.

Uldrich says, "In the near future, the greatest change will be the accelerating rate of change itself. My job as a futurist is to help the organizations I speak with to identify concrete actions to be taken today to future-proof their businesses against the tides of tomorrow.

Uldrich, hailed as "The Chief Unlearning Officer" by BusinessWeek Magazine, believes the principles of AHA are basic tenants for future-proofing, with humility being of particular importance. "Being humble enough to embrace the fact that we don't know what we don't know," says Uldrich, "opens us up to greater knowledge. It's a great paradox and one that all organizations can benefit from. Humble people are great to work with and they help create a terrific environment of collaboration and openness. That in turn makes for furtive ground for change and growth."

Uldrich will round out the month of January speaking in Phoenix and Florida. Parties interested in learning more about Jack Uldrich, his books, his daily blog or his speaking availability are encouraged to visit his website. Media wishing to know more about this event or to schedule an interview with Jack may contact Amy Tomczyk at (651) 343.0660.

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Futurist Jack Uldrich: When it Comes to Future Business Trends, the Only Constant is Change

Ride Share Delivery Service Roadie Launches With $10 Million In Funding

Ride sharing delivery startup Roadie has launched itself with a series A funding round totaling $10 million. The investors in the round include UPS, Warren Stephens of Stephens Inc., TomorrowVentures and others.

The company was founded by Marc Gorlin, whos the CEO. Gorlin is also a cofounder of Kabbage, which provides working capital to small businesses. Gorlin will remain involved with the company as Chairman of the Board.

The concept for the app, which launches today in iOS and Google Play stores, is pretty simple. If you need something delivered from one city to another, you go to the app to see if there are any drivers making the trip during your time frame. A fee is agreed to and the driver delivers the package.

In addition to the fee, drivers who use Roadie are also entitled to roadside assistance and other benefits, and users are able to track their package along the entire trip.

Theres someone leaving somewhere going somewhere all the time, Gorlin told me. Thus you have Roadie.

The idea, Gorlin continued, is that there are people all over the place making regular commutes or trips on the road. Thats a lot of unused transportation capacity, so why not take advantage of it?

Test screenshot of Roadie gigs. (Credit: Roadie)

These are people who are just taking stuff where they were already going to go, Gorlin said. The first gig was a guy who brought a package of t-shirts to Tampa. He made 64 bucks for the same trip he was going to drive without us.

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Ride Share Delivery Service Roadie Launches With $10 Million In Funding