What a terrific resource for seeing and learning about different surgical procedures in the abdomen!! Even Laproscopic and Endoscopic procedures. The Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) has their entire educational video library available to be viewed online for FREE! There are 301 surgical videos available for viewing.
Click here to go to their site: http://www.sages.org/education/
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Insurance company reportedly sought to drop all HIV-positive customers.
Paul Thornton And Jon Healey wrote on the "Opinion LA" blog at the Los Angeles Times (3/17) that health insurers' "abusive cherry-picking practices keep giving lawmakers incentives to vote for the healthcare reform bill." As evidence, they point to the Reuters report below of "the case of Jerome Mitchell, a young South Carolinian who signed up for an insurance policy at age 17 but was later diagnosed with HIV. His insurer, Fortis -- now known as Assurant -- summarily canceled his policy after the HIV diagnosis." As the result of a lawsuit, it was disclosed that "Fortis had a company policy of targeting policyholders with HIV. A computer program and algorithm targeted every policyholder recently diagnosed with HIV for an automatic fraud investigation."
Reuters (3/18, Waas) reports that as a result of Mitchell's suit, a jury ordered the company to pay him $14 million, a decision that was mostly upheld by the South Carolina Supreme Court which limited the payment to $10 million. The suit reportedly revealed a company policy of investigating every policyholder with HIV for fraud in an effort to remove them from the roles. Reuters reports that the practice of rescission of policies is frequently done simply to save the company money and often has no valid support though it also says that no other insurance companies are known to have targeted HIV-positive policyholders.
Reuters (3/18, Waas) reports that as a result of Mitchell's suit, a jury ordered the company to pay him $14 million, a decision that was mostly upheld by the South Carolina Supreme Court which limited the payment to $10 million. The suit reportedly revealed a company policy of investigating every policyholder with HIV for fraud in an effort to remove them from the roles. Reuters reports that the practice of rescission of policies is frequently done simply to save the company money and often has no valid support though it also says that no other insurance companies are known to have targeted HIV-positive policyholders.
Friday, March 05, 2010
Health Insurers Double Digit Premium Rate Hikes?!!
The AP (3/5, Sidoti) reports that HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius "told the nation's leading health insurers Thursday to publicly justify a spate of double-digit premium hikes that have infuriated consumers in at least a half dozen states." She met "with the CEOs of WellPoint, Aetna, Cigna, UnitedHealth Group, as well as several state insurance commissioners." After asking insurers to post "their justification for proposed rate hikes" online, Sebelius told reporters, "At the very least, we need some transparency. ... We need people to understand what's going on.
The New York Times (3/5, A13, Stolberg, Pear) notes that during the meeting "the president stopped by -- an appearance that was unscheduled, but clearly orchestrated -- to deliver a letter from an Ohio cancer survivor who had dropped her insurance after a 40 percent rate increase."
The Wall Street Journal (3/5, Adamy, Johnson) characterizes the meeting as the administration scolding insurers. For their part, insurers blamed healthcare companies including drugmakers, medical-device makers, and hospitals for driving up healthcare costs, according to the Journal. They also disagreed with Sebelius that they are highly profitable.
The Los Angeles Times (3/5, Sidot) focuses on the rate hikes, noting that "Sebelius has heard from many Americans who are concerned that they will be priced out of the market." Pushing the online justification of rate increases, Sebelius said, "That kind of rate increase is just unacceptable and unsustainable. ... At least the bright spotlight may help to discourage some of these wildly exorbitant increases from occurring."
By the end of the meeting, "the executives emerged saying they felt they were heard when they argued that the price hikes are due to rising medical costs and other factors beyond their control," CQ HealthBeat (3/5, Norman) reports. "But there were no accords or agreements, the executives said, beyond a general consensus that more transparency is needed."
The New York Times (3/5, A13, Stolberg, Pear) notes that during the meeting "the president stopped by -- an appearance that was unscheduled, but clearly orchestrated -- to deliver a letter from an Ohio cancer survivor who had dropped her insurance after a 40 percent rate increase."
The Wall Street Journal (3/5, Adamy, Johnson) characterizes the meeting as the administration scolding insurers. For their part, insurers blamed healthcare companies including drugmakers, medical-device makers, and hospitals for driving up healthcare costs, according to the Journal. They also disagreed with Sebelius that they are highly profitable.
The Los Angeles Times (3/5, Sidot) focuses on the rate hikes, noting that "Sebelius has heard from many Americans who are concerned that they will be priced out of the market." Pushing the online justification of rate increases, Sebelius said, "That kind of rate increase is just unacceptable and unsustainable. ... At least the bright spotlight may help to discourage some of these wildly exorbitant increases from occurring."
By the end of the meeting, "the executives emerged saying they felt they were heard when they argued that the price hikes are due to rising medical costs and other factors beyond their control," CQ HealthBeat (3/5, Norman) reports. "But there were no accords or agreements, the executives said, beyond a general consensus that more transparency is needed."
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