Category: Health Care
Up to 159 million Americans (52 percent) are covered by employer-sponsored plans. The Affordable Care Act is changing the group health insurance scenario. Employers are concerned about the rising cost of per-employee benefit costs and are expecting their employees to contribute more out of their pay checks to the benefits package. This is borne out by the results of several studies, including ERCs recently published 2011/2012 Policies & Benefits Survey covering Northeast Ohio employers.
Recent Deloitte and the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists (ISCEBS) research1 indicates that 85% of employers expect new health insurance law to raise per-employee benefit costs. Employees are expected to help employers face this challenge by paying more out of their pay checks to their benefits package. In fact, the focus on controlling healthcare costs is evident: 73% of the employers surveyed said that health care reform will push them to reevaluate their benefits packages over the next 12 months in light of health reform changes. Sixty-two per cent of employers have already made cost-sharing a part of their benefits packages.
Two-thirds of the Deloitte employer respondents are making no immediate changes to their benefit programs and adopting a “wait and see” approach for final healthcare reform provisions that may reduce plan design flexibility.
More controversial was the recent McKinsey & Company survey2 of 1,300 employers in early 2011 which found that 30% said they would “definitely or probably” stop offering employer coverage after 2014. Nearly half of the employers said they would consider alternatives to their current plans, including an insurance option that would only offer coverage only to certain employees.
A survey conducted by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured and the Urban Institute3 last year showed that in 2010, employees with coverage contributed a greater share of the total premium, a significant change from the steady share they paid on average over the last decade. In 2010, covered employees on average contributed 19% of the total premium for single coverage (up from 17% in 2009) and 30% for family coverage (up from 27% in 2009).
According to ERCs 2011 survey, Northeast Ohio employers report that the average health insurance deductible paid by employees has risen significantly since 2009. As organizations strive to cope with the increase in costs, they are resorting to greater cost-sharing with employees. The survey indicates that employees’ co-pay amounts and contribution to group health insurance premiums also increased in the last two years.
Competing objectives are complicating matters. Deloitte/ISCEBS rates employers top five total reward priorities as:
Cost of healthcare benefits Employees willingness to share more of the benefit Ability of the benefits program to attract, motivate and retain talent Ability to comply with and adjust to PPACA’s mandate Clear alignment of total reward strategy with business strategy and brand
A recent review of public healthcare spending indicates that India ranks 171 out of 175 countries in the amount of money spent. India spends less than 5.2 percent of the GDP – 4.3 percent is contributed by the private sector leaving the government to spend only 0.9 percent on public healthcare.
While India has made great economic strides over the past decade, it is still the poorest country in the world with 51 percent of its population or 844 million people living in oppressive poverty. While the economic development of the country is proceeding at a sound pace, the health of the population is dropping. The urgent need to provide basic healthcare to India’s most impoverished people is a concern of many different humanitarian and religious relief groups.
The Tej Kohli Foundation, a privately funded non-profit humanitarian relief organization based in Guragaon, India, is one of the many charities offering aid and assistance to thousands of India’s poorest children. Compelled by an awareness of the need and by a heartfelt desire to help make the world a healthier, happier place, India born entrepreneur Tej Kohli established the foundation in 2005. Entirely financially funded by Mr. Kohli, the Tej Kohli Foundation attempts to lift the burden of poverty by providing food, educational opportunities, clean drinking water, adequate sanitation and medical services to India’s poorest people.
Tej Kohli, visionary philanthropist, international businessman and chief donor to the Tej Kohli Foundation notes, “Children determine the future. If a country nurtures these children’s talents from a young age, it will be capable of raising its living standards. The Tej Kohli Foundation cannot cater to each and every child in India but we hope our work will encourage our country to unite and make life better for Indian children”.
Staffed by a compassionate group of dedicated volunteers, the Tej Kohli Foundation strives to reduce poverty and illiteracy, launching education and health programs in both India and Costa Rica. The Tej Kohli Foundation operates on the premise that -the desire to help others is a primary human drive that, if harnessed correctly, inestimably benefits those who receive it.- Holding a diverse portfolio of commercial and charitable operations in India, the Americas, the Middle East and Europe, Tej Kohli is an international businessman and compassionate philanthropist; a shining example of -compassion in action.-
“I’m just happy to help spread a little bit of happiness into their lives,” says Tej. “And as we grow we’ll help a lot more people have a chance at a lasting, brighter future.”
Barrack Obama’s healthcare victory is going to be a boon for Indian IT and offshoring companies. This historic win of Obama is likely to fetch Indian IT companies deal worth Rs. 1.2 lakh crore. The US Supreme Court upheld the law that many believe will change the face of America’s healthcare sector.
A rough figure estimates that more than 25 million American citizen will buy healthcare insurance. Interestingly, the healthcare reform will ensure that every single medical practitioner will have a centralized data center in digital format. This will result in massive data conversion for electronic records for insurance claim and other processes.
This will largely benefit Indian outsourcing companies, and they have started to look at companies who will offshore this process. This will help Indian companies to have a better understanding of the process and learn the complexities.
America’s earlier process were all aimed at bringing back job to the US citizen, but most of the policy failed to take shape since the need to outsource was always the prequisite for the American industry. Offshore outsourcing has only seen to be climbing the graph, mainly for the reason that it is cheap and affordable. Companies in US have also targeted in that front where they could bring in more business and jobs, but on the contrary it seems they have to implement more measures.
Finally outsourcing to India will grow, because with new healthcare regulations compliance will be increasingly complex, so it becomes obvious that Indian companies will have to take up the challenge and make a beginning.
By Kevin H. Karr
New Jersey – April 30, 2014. Expert Home Care, one of the leading home care agencies in NJ announces the opening of its doors to homebound patients in the state of New Jersey. This is welcome news to families who cares for family members who are homebound and those who cannot fend for themselves.
Their existing clients retain their services because this company does not just offer Live In care, they specialize in it. This company provides home healthcare NJ services ever since their establishment in 1985. In short, they are doing this for almost 30 years. With that kind of comprehensive experience they have already developed the skills and knowledge on how to perform home health aide NJservices effectively and successfully. This enables their client to live more functional and purposeful lives.
Expert Home Care offers a comprehensive line of home health aide NJ services. These services include: 48-hour caregiver services, free in-home consultation, quick placement (often within 24 to 48 hours), care for individuals who are disabled, recovering from illness or surgery, or who are chronically ill or sickly, respite, Hospice, short and long-term care, Registered Nurse supervision, delivery and pick-up transportation for the caregivers (where available), 24 hours, 7 days a week on-call service, and pet therapy visits.
Their service charges are very competitive compared to the prevailing rates today.
The most important aspect of home care that this company practices is to make their services available 24/7. They know that that when a patient needs their help, they should be there at once. That is why of all the home care agencies in NJ, Expert Home Care is the most reliable.
About Expert Home Care
Expert Home Care is one of the largest providers of home health care services in New Jersey. This company was established in 1985 and has not stopped in providing their services to those in need ever since. The owners of this company are Certified Senior Advisors (CSA) and are members of local and national organizations that support the home care industry.
Contact Details
Kevin H. Karr 1642 Cross Street Saginaw, MI 48607 Phone: 989-980-1371
Patient care is of prime importance for all healthcare professionals and doctors. Their activities focus on providing constant attention to patients’ well being. If the job of attending inbound calls to a medical office or a doctor is assigned to a professional answering service, then doctors can pay more attention to their patients.
Overburdened Staff
A busy medical office receives hundreds of calls every day and every caller looks forward to personalized attention and immediate action. It is not practical to burden the reception staff with answering the diverse and innumerable calls which is a complex job and requires special training.
During the peak hours, holidays, or lunch breaks, answering calls becomes difficult and distractive for the substitute personnel who have to manage multiple tasks, affecting the nature and quality of responses. This can affect the image of the doctor or hospital.
Need for Such Services
The generic telephone answering services had lots of shortcomings. This was primarily due to the complex nature of the healthcare sector that needed professional and knowledgeable call agents. These call agents were required to understand the medical jargon or appreciate the significance of diverse protocols of various hospitals and answer the calls with compassion without breaching patients’ or doctors’ confidentiality.
The healthcare answering service industry has evolved to become an indispensable wing of healthcare sector by matching the above expectation and much more. The leading professional answering service providers have created benchmarks to make these services truly an extension of the front office of hospitals or clinics. They are serving doctors irrespective of their specialties by adapting to their individual requirements.
Professional Call Agents
The medical call agents that are employed by the healthcare answering service are thoroughly trained to understand the functions of medical offices, the medical jargon, medical emergencies, and individual protocols. They are also briefed about the HIPAA guidelines and other regulations. Their knowledge is regularly updated, and the calls are screened and reviewed in order to make any improvements in the quality.
Service with Dependability
These service providers are equipped with power back-ups to ensure round-the-clock seamless service. They use cutting-edge technologies to enhance call quality, for message recording, routing, and follow-up. They also have analysis and reporting tools to update you on how the calls of your office are managed.
These services will ensure that your patients will receive the same compassion and dependable service that your front office staff can provide. This will result in enhanced efficiency and flexibility. The value addition a professional answering service offers in terms of dependability, flexibility, privacy and security is much more than the actual costs.
If you are searching for the right professional answering service for your medical office, look no further. Cullens Communications is the top-notch healthcare answering service that renders real value to your patients and your practice. For more details Click Here