The high cost of excessive drinking can be tallied in billions of dollars for health costs, lost productivity, criminal justice expenses and property damage, a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found.
Nationwide the cost of binge drinking was $223.5 billion in 2006, according to the study, with a median cost of $2.9 billion to each state and the District of Columbia.
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As healthcare reform expands coverage, nonphysician providers are seeking to expand their portfolio of licensed services and are facing intense opposition from doctors to their efforts.
In California, three bills before the Legislature propose to expand the scope of practice for nurse practitioners, optometrists and pharmacists, with one bill advancing and two bills being stalled.
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Does the federally sponsored Direct messaging protocol pose an existential threat to vendors of health information exchange software? Time will tell, according to the author of a new market research report on health information exchanges.
Time will tell, according to the author of a new market research report on health information exchanges. But Direct is definitely producing anxiety among firms selling software that's designed to be used in more complex types of health information exchange—the long-sought “query-and-response” style of information swapping that has yet to achieve widespread adoption through the industry despite extended federal efforts.
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A new analysis suggests that smart design of the websites used for the new state insurance exchanges to enroll consumers in health plans could save consumers and the government more than $9 billion a year.
It highlights the difficulty for consumers of choosing a health plan that best fits their healthcare and financial circumstances even in the new reform environment where they can more easily make apples-to-apples comparisons.
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Lee
Some of California’s top insurers, including Kaiser Permanente, are protesting the state’s plans to drop quality ratings from insurance listings when its exchange goes public on Oct. 1.
Covered California executive director Peter Lee told the Los Angeles Times that the data behind existing quality ratings were too out of date. He also fears the plans sold on the exchanges will be very different from the individual policies that formed the basis for the star-based grades (this is movie-land).
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The not-for-profit group responsible for educating Americans about the healthcare reform law's coverage options provided a status check of its efforts on Monday, but remained vague about how much it is spending on the massive endeavor.
Throughout 2014, Enroll America will spend “tens of millions” of dollars on the “Get Covered” campaign that it launched in late June, Anne Filipic, the group's president, told reporters in a phone call.
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An investment advisory firm has dealt a blow to Health Management Associates in recommending that shareholders vote to replace its current board of directors with eight new members.
The recommendation comes days after the Naples, Fla.-based hospital chain seemed to make a concession to activist shareholder Glenview Capital Management, which is pushing for an entirely new board. Late Tuesday, HMA said it was prepared to invite some of the hedge fund's nominees to join its board, including as chairman.
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It's more those smoking breaks than healthcare costs that make smokers more expensive employees.
A new analysis by researchers at Ohio State University found that employees who smoke cost private employers $5,816 more a year than nonsmoking employees. Much of the cost, about $3,077, came in lost time from smoking breaks.
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Wender
Dr. Richard Wender has been hired by the American Cancer Society to work in the newly created position of chief cancer control officer.
Wender, the first primary-care physician to serve as ACS president, will focus on the organization's consumer and clinical guidance on cancer prevention and early detection as well as the implementation of its evidence-based cancer-control interventions, according to a news release.
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Boehner
The New York Times ran a quietly subversive news story Wednesday about how members of Congress and their aides will receive health coverage under the Office of Personnel Management's new proposed rule interpreting a controversial Obamacare provision.
During the drafting of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), an opponent of the legislation, insisted that members of Congress and their staffers should have to buy their coverage from the state health insurance exchanges the same way millions of other Americans would get it—rather than getting it through the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program as they do now. It was a commendable idea that few members of Congress probably thought through.
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Boehner
The New York Times ran a quietly subversive news story Wednesday about how members of Congress and their aides will receive health coverage under the Office of Personnel Management's new proposed rule interpreting a controversial Obamacare provision.
During the drafting of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), an opponent of the legislation, insisted that members of Congress and their staffers should have to buy their coverage from the state health insurance exchanges the same way millions of other Americans would get it—rather than getting it through the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program as they do now. It was a commendable idea that few members of Congress probably thought through.
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