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Nat'l Health Benefits Conf & Expo (HBCE) Jan.31-Feb.1, Clearwater Bch, FL [Advert.]
Dr. Oz praises books from speakers - hear from IBM, Sprint, Intel, Yahoo!, L.L. Bean, First Energy Corp., governmental employers, universities, more. Low cost, high quality! More info and complete program: www.HBCE.com Ph: 941-484-1430 info@HBCE.com
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Administration Rules Insurers Must Cover Contraceptives
"The rule includes an exemption for certain 'religious employers,' including houses of worship. But church groups said the exemption was so narrow that it was almost meaningless. A religious employer cannot qualify for the exemption if it employs or serves large numbers of people of a different faith, as many Catholic hospitals, universities and social service agencies do."
(New York Times; free registration required)
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Bishops Will Sue Federal Government Over Mandatory Contraception Coverage
"The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is promising a legal challenge to federal rules the Obama administration reaffirmed Friday requiring health insurers to provide women with a range of preventive health services, including birth control, without charging a co-payment, co-insurance or deductible."
(Kaiser Health News)
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Washington Post's Editorial Board Says HHS Is Wrong to Disrespect Religious Views in Its Interpretation of Health Care Law
"The best approach would have been for HHS to stick to its original conclusion that contraception coverage should generally be required but to expand the scope of its proposed exemption for religiously affiliated employers who claim covering contraception would violate their religious views. The administration's feint at a compromise — giving such employers another year to figure out how to comply with the requirement — is unproductive can-kicking that fails to address the fundamental problem of requiring religiously affiliated entities to spend their own money in a way that contradicts the tenets of their faith."
(Washington Post)
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New Cancer Drugs Affordable by the 1 Percent?
"[A]n economic drama . . . is playing itself out in cancer wards and oncologists' offices across the country. Unaffordable new drugs, even when they're covered by insurance, are being rationed by price as patients, doctors and hospital officials struggle with what is likely to be the most pressing problem for the nation's health care system over the next decade: how to pay for the spectacular rise in the cost of cancer care, especially drugs and diagnostic tests."
(The Fiscal Times)
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Health Plans Launch Own Exchanges Ahead of Public Versions
"The prospect of public insurance exchanges are driving some of the maneuvering. As laid out in the health care law, they will allow consumers and small businesses to comparison shop for health plans. Now, a spate of new privately-run online insurance shopping sites are cropping up to cater to small businesses struggling with rising premiums, including 'My Plan by Medica' in Minnesota."
(Minnesota Public Radio)
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What to Make of The 'That's What PBMs Do' PR Campaign
"On the whole the campaign is accurate. On the whole the campaign is accurate. . . . But there are certain omissions and misleading statements. . . . Rebates — which represent revenue from the pharma.ceutical industry to PBMs — are not discussed."
(Health Care Solutions And Benefits Management)
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Should You Buy Long-Term Care Insurance? Maybe Not
"Medicaid is no bargain. Still, why buy insurance for something you can get for 'free' from the government? And that helps explain why the report from the Society of Actuaries suggests that those with savings of less than $250,000 may not want to buy private insurance, while those with assets exceeding $2 mil.lion may not need to."
(Forbes)
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U.S. Health Care Hits $3 Tril.lion
"[H]ave we tamed the cost beast with real legislation -- or is it just legislation around the edges? . . . Obamacare took the payers out to the woodshed. Medical Loss Ratios (or basically what the insurance companies pay out for actual healthcare services) will be mandated -- but is this really going to dent our [national health expenditures]?"
(Forbes)
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Economist Uwe E. Reinhardt Asks, Is U.S. Health Spending Finally Under Control?
"[A]s the fraction of G.D.P. devoted to health care increases, the added satisfaction, or utility, that people derive from added health care is likely to diminish relative to the added satisfaction derived from consuming more of other things. It could explain a gradual decline in the excess growth of health care spending."
(New York Times; free registration required)
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'Tiered' Insurance Confounds Consumers and Doctors in Massachusetts
"Massachusetts health insurers assign doctors and hospitals to tiers using a complicated formula of quality and cost measures. In short, the tiers are different because insurers don't use all the same quality measures, because they give the measures different weight and because insurers pay physicians and hospitals different rates."
(The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation)
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Washington State Bill Would Require Abortion Coverage
"Democratic members of the state legislature introduced a bill earlier this month that would maintain or expand abortion coverage. The 'Reproductive Parity Act,' set for its first hearings on Thursday, would require private and public insurers that provide maternity coverage to cover abortion services as well. If passed, the law would be the first of its kind in the nation."
(The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation)
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[Opinion]
Should Everyone Be Required to Have Health Insurance?
"Uninsured individuals who need care, particularly catastrophically expensive care, generally receive these services anyway. A decision not to pay for insurance — to become a free rider — leads hospitals and other providers to charge other patients more to make up the difference. People shouldn't have the freedom to shift the burden to everybody else."
(The Wall Street Journal)
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[Opinion]
What We Give Up for Health Care
"[We] hold the questionable distinction of having the world's most expensive health care system — what about cost control? For many liberals, that just sounds like a cover for heartless conservatives who care only about cutting benefits and not about helping people in need. But liberals are wrong to ignore costs."
(New York Times; free registration required)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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Federal Pay and Benefits Remain at Risk As Congress Returns
"House and Senate conferees are scheduled to begin discussions soon over how to finance a 12-month payroll tax cut extension past February, and those talks likely will include proposals to prolong the federal pay freeze and reduce the retirement benefits of government employees and lawmakers."
(GovExec.com)
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[Opinion]
Be Honest, Tell California Taxpayers How Much We Owe
"By one estimate, the statewide taxpayer burden for unfunded pension system liabilities alone is $180 bil.lion to $620 bil.lion. The latter number works out to $45,000 for each household in the state."
(ContraCostaTimes.com)
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Press Releases
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