Health Spending Over The Coming Decade Expected To Exceed Economic Growth

Today's post was shared by Kaiser Health News and comes from www.kaiserhealthnews.org

The nation’s total health spending will bump up next year as the health law expands insurance coverage to more Americans, and then will grow by an average of 6.2 percent a year over the next decade, according to projections released Wednesday by government actuaries. That estimate is lower than typical annual increases before the recession hit. Still, the actuaries forecast that in a decade, the health care segment of the nation’s economy will be larger than it is today, amounting to a fifth of the gross domestic product in 2022. They attributed that to the rising number of baby boomers moving into Medicare and the actuaries’ expectation that the economy will improve, according to their findings published in the journal Health Affairs. The actuaries were not persuaded that experiments in the health law and new insurer procedures that change the way doctors, hospitals and others provide services will significantly curtain health spending. They assumed "modest" savings from those changes from the law. "It's a little early to tell how substantial those savings will be in the longer term," Gigi Cuckler, one of the actuaries, told reporters. The actuaries also said they are skeptical that the nation has entered a new era of lower health spending, a case that has been made by the Obama administration and many prominent economists. They have predicted a strengthening economy will not be accompanied by sharp health spending hikes. The report expects health...

[Click here to see the rest of this post]

Related articles

• Law Will Shift Demographics For Medicaid Toward Healthier Group, Study Finds (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• No Shopping Zone: Medicare Is Not Part Of New Insurance Marketplaces (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• For Workers Leaving Their Jobs, Health Exchanges Offer Insurance Choices Beyond COBRA (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• A Conservative Re-Envisioning Of The Health Care Overhaul (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• GOP Still Embroiled In Intra-Party Split Over Govt. Shutdown And Efforts To Defund The Health Law (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Medicare To Punish 2,225 Hospitals For Excess Readmissions (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)

Found on

Many Cancer Patients Overtreated In Final Days

Cancer care for injured workers' is extremely costly. The final year of life equates to a large proportion of medical costs. Ehical and moral factors enter into the balance for spending deicision though. Today's post was shared by Kaiser Health News and comes from www.kaiserhealthnews.org

While most older people say they don't want aggressive care at the end of life, many get it anyway. Care in the last month of life for Medicare patients with advanced cancer typically is even more aggressive in the Philadelphia area than in the nation as a whole, concludes a report from the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, which studies regional differences in care. It released a report last week that showed the percentage of cancer patients who died in hospitals in 2010, or were hospitalized or in an intensive care unit in their last month. Oddly, participation in hospice, which should relieve symptoms rather than prolong life, is above average in the Philadelphia area. Throughout the nation, though, the average patient waits until the last week or two to join hospice. The Dartmouth researchers believe the regional variations reflect differing physician practices and available resources rather than patient preferences or quality. The conclusion is that many patients here are being overtreated and are not communicating well with doctors, said David Goodman, coprincipal investigator of the Dartmouth Atlas. "I think most people would agree that most health-care systems have got some real work to do," he said. "Patients have no idea what is the style of care in the place that they're receiving care, and it's not easily identifiable." He said doctors find it hard to pull back as their patients worsen. The study included hospitals that cared for at least 80 Medicare patients...

[Click here to see the rest of this post]

Related articles

• Health Care Workers Suffer Exposures to Antineoplastic Drugs (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Medicare To Punish 2,225 Hospitals For Excess Readmissions (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• What to Do About Futile Critical Care (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Health Spending Over The Coming Decade Expected To Exceed Economic Growth (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Night Shift Work Causally Linked to an Increase in Breast Cancer (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• An "F" for Quality (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• The Shocking Truth About Medication Errors (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)

Found on

U.S. Textile Plants Return, With Floors Largely Empty of People

Today's post was shared by The New York Times and comes from www.nytimes.com

The old textile mills here are mostly gone now. Gaffney Manufacturing, National Textiles, Cherokee — clangorous, dusty, productive engines of the Carolinas fabric trade — fell one by one to the forces of globalization. Just as the Carolinas benefited when manufacturing migrated first from the Cottonopolises of England to the mill towns of New England and then to here, where labor was even cheaper, they suffered in the 1990s when the textile industry mostly left the United States. It headed to China, India, Mexico — wherever people would spool, spin and sew for a few dollars or less a day. Which is why what is happening at the old Wellstone spinning plant is so remarkable. Drive out to the interstate, with the big peach-shaped water tower just down the highway, and you’ll find the mill up and running again. Parkdale Mills, the country’s largest buyer of raw cotton, reopened it in 2010. Bayard Winthrop, the founder of the sweatshirt and clothing company American Giant, was at the mill one morning earlier this year to meet with his Parkdale sales representative. Just last year, Mr. Winthrop was buying fabric from a factory in India. Now, he says, it is cheaper to shop in the United States. Mr. Winthrop uses Parkdale yarn from one of its 25 American factories, and has that yarn spun into fabric about four miles from Parkdale’s Gaffney plant, at Carolina Cotton Works. Mr. Winthrop says American manufacturing has several...

[Click here to see the rest of this post]

Related articles

• Will Labor's Marriage With Industry Result in A Major Workers' Compensation Opt-Out Movement? (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Radiation Near Japanese Plant's Tanks Suggests New Leaks (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Workplace Deaths Substantially Unreported (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Italian Plant's Abrupt Shutdown Stirs a Debate (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• NIOSH Workplace Safety and Health Topics (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Frigidaire Recalls Professional Blenders Due to Laceration Hazard (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Train Industry Allies in U.S. Senate Move to Delay Deadline for Crash-Prevention Technology (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)

Found on

Workplace Stress, Depression, and the Overuse of Antidepressant Drugs in the Workplace

Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from medicationsense.com

Medication side effects are the #4 leading cause of death in the U.S. annually (JAMA 1998). Yet, few people receive adequate information when medication is prescribed. This website is dedicated to providing information to help you and your doctor make informed, intelligent choices about medications and natural alternatives to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks of treatment. An Interview with Dr. Richard Lippin, an Expert on Occupational and Environmental Medicine Dr. Cohen: Dr. Lippin, for many years you have been concerned about stress and depression in the workplace and the use of antidepressants medications.  Why? Dr. Lippin: As an administrator and doctor in occupational health settings for over 30 years, I've seen many depressed workers.  This is a huge, growing, well-documented problem.  Of the 47 million Americans who suffer from depression, probably over 70% or about 33 million are part of the nation's workforce.  Depression costs employers $44 billion a year in lost productive time...

[Click here to see the rest of this post]

Related articles

• Guidelines for Preventing Workplace Violence for Health Care & Social Service Workers (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Poor Diet Of Shift Workers An "Occupational Health Hazard" (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Workplace Deaths Substantially Unreported (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Details Lacking on Prescription Drug Coverage in New Health Law (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• NIOSH Workplace Safety and Health Topics (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Sleep, Pain, and Hospital Workers (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)

Found on

Details Lacking on Prescription Drug Coverage in New Health Law

Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from www.nytimes.com

Among the most troubling questions facing consumers as they shop for insurance under the Obama administration’s new health care law is whether the plans will cover the drugs they take — and how much they will have to pay for them. But with less than two weeks remaining until enrollment opens on Oct. 1, the answers are still elusive and anxiety is growing for consumers whose well-being depends on expensive medications. States running the marketplaces where the plans will be offered have not released details about which drugs will be covered. Insurers have said little about how much consumers will be asked to contribute or what types of restrictions will be placed on certain medicines. Of the few states that have revealed specifics, some have plans that will require patients to contribute as much as 50 percent of the cost of the most expensive drugs. “I’ve got to be honest and say I’m a little bit nervous,” said Jessica Thomas, a mental health counselor in North Carolina who takes the drug Tecfidera to treat her multiple sclerosis. Ms. Thomas, 34, has been enrolled for two years in a program for people with expensive medical conditions that is run by North Carolina. But that program is ending in December, and she must select a new plan in the state marketplace. At the top of her mind is how much she will have to pay for Tecfidera, which costs more than $4,000 a month. “I think that’s the hard thing right now is that it’s...

[Click here to see the rest of this post]

Related articles

• Health Spending Over The Coming Decade Expected To Exceed Economic Growth (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• For Workers Leaving Their Jobs, Health Exchanges Offer Insurance Choices Beyond COBRA (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• A Limit on Consumer Costs Is Delayed in Health Care Law (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Workplace Stress, Depression, and the Overuse of Antidepressant Drugs in the Workplace (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• No Shopping Zone: Medicare Is Not Part Of New Insurance Marketplaces (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• UPS Won't Insure Spouses Of Some Employees (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
• Democrats Jump on the 'Death Panel' Bandwagon (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)

Found on

Labor Dept. Mandates Minimum Wage, Overtime Pay For Home Health Workers

Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from www.kaiserhealthnews.org

The U. S. Department of Labor issued new rules Tuesday that mandate home health care agencies pay their workers the minimum wage and receive overtime pay starting in 2015. "Almost 2 million home care workers are doing critical work, providing services to people with disabilities and senior citizens who want to live in community settings and age in place in their familiar surroundings," said Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez.  But when it comes to getting paid, they are "lumped into the same category as teenage babysitters," he said. "This is wrong and this is unfair."  For nearly 40 years, home care workers had been exempted from the pay rules because their services were considered "companionship." But advocates, including organized labor organizations, had argued that these workers were often doing much more, providing assistance with dressing, eating and other daily activities. The decision extends the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage requirements, currently at least $7.25 an hour, to direct care workers, including home health aides, personal care aides and certified nursing assistants, according to a Labor Department statement.  "This is a tremendous victory for home care aides, a workforce earning near-poverty wages while providing vital personal care and health-related services to America’s elders and people living with disabilities," said Jodi M. Sturgeon, president of Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute (PHI National), an advocacy...

[Click here to see the rest of this post]

Found on

Parma considering following Cleveland in suing Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation over inflated premiums

Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from www.cleveland.com

Parma is considering pursuing legal action against the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation for allegedly inflated premiums. PARMA, Ohio -- The city is considering following Cleveland's lead in filing suit against the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation for allegedly inflated premiums. The Cleveland lawsuit, filed in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court June 28, argues that the bureau billed the city excessive workers' compensation insurance premiums for many years. Meanwhile, public employers that qualified for group rates were being inequitably undercharged, the complaint states. Cleveland is seeking repayment from the bureau of premium overcharges. Parma Law Director Tim Dobeck said the city, which does not qualify for the discounted group premium rates, was approached by Cleveland-based law firm Bashein & Bashein regarding taking action against the bureau. He said he believes the city may be asked to serve as the representative plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit brought by several communities. Dobeck was not able to provide an estimate as to how much in repayment the city may be entitled to. A request for comment from Bashein & Bashein was not immediately returned. The Cleveland lawsuit, and potential Parma-led class action, comes on the curtails of a March ruling that awarded 264,000 Ohio private employers a total of $859 million from the bureau following a lawsuit contending similar premium overcharges. That decision is being appealed by the bureau.

[Click here to see the rest of this post]

Found on