The New Retirement Resorts

An article from the Wall Street Journal this week talks about "alternative" living arrangements for people vs. the traditional Assisted Living centers or nursing home type environments.  Very interesting piece.  If you're a little adventurous, some of these may sound very appealing.  You can read the entire article here.

Article about the Health Insurance Exchanges including common questions and answers

Interesting article about the Health insurance exchanges that will come into being in the next few years - very timely since I'm going to be attending a conference this week that will address this very topic.

Read the "Guide to Health Insurance Exchanges" here . . .

Critics say hospitals cherry pick best-paying patients

This is an interesting article about how hospitals are using private medical records on patients to target direct marketing efforts that will ultimately yield increased profits for the hospital.  This raises more questions about privacy and sharing of personal medical data with non-medical people involved in the marketing efforts. 

I'm sure that over time, this practice (unless it's somehow either disallowed through regulation, or at least limited) is going to grow in popularity.  It also points out in the article that they specifically target patients with insurance - another way to insure that the facility receives payment, while potentially driving up insurance claims activity, which we all will ultimately end up paying for in the form of higher premiums.

Read more here . . . .

Prudential, MetLife Sued over Death Master File

State efforts to collect on unclaimed property held by insurers has mushroomed into private action lawsuits filed in Illinois, Ohio and New York against Prudential and MetLife.
The lawsuits are coming to light against the background of a hearing Thursday on inaccuracies related to the Death Master File mainted by the Social Security Administration.


Read more here . . . .

Patients Want To Read Doctors' Notes, But Many Doctors Balk

This is a fascinating article about viewing your own patient records.  As I advise my clients, everyone should check their chart at the Doctor's office - preferably after each appointment.  You do need to see what a doctor is writing about you - his or her notes can often make you ineligible for insurance.  I've had many clients encounter problems when medical records are requested by the insurance company, and they find that something was written about them that either wasn't true, or was simply erroneous.  If you read the comments associated with this article, you see examples of other issues occurring - including potential medical mistakes and errors in how you - the patient - are actually treated.

Read the actual article here . . . .

More Congressional Efforts to Redesign Medicare are Underway

http://capsules.kaiserhealthnews.org/index.php/2011/12/wyden-joins-forces-with-ryan-on-medicare/comment-page-1/#comment-23070

Take a look at the latest efforts regarding revamping of Medicare.  Looks like efforts to privatize - just masked behind a new "compromise".  May very well be a wolf in sheeps clothing if we're not paying attention . . . . .

Health Care & the Super Committee - the Cost of Failure

This article by Joe Paduda lays out some dire implications if the Super Committee doesn't come to an agreement in the time allotted.  Very realistic and pretty awful predictions of what could happen here . . . .

http://careandcost.com/2011/11/18/health-care-and-the-super-committee-the-cost-of-failure/

I still constantly wonder, who on the Hill is actually working for the people anymore? . . . .