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On May 17, 2014, The Fiscal Times reported that the government is: "paying incorrect subsidies to more than 1 million Americans for their health plans in the new federal insurance marketplace and has been unable so far to fix the errors, according to internal documents and three people familiar with the situation." A 7-page slide presentation created by HHS confirms that one-in-four people who have signed up for Obamacare have "data discrepancies." Reports are that some two million people's health care coverage may be at risk. Out of some 8.8 million persons who have signed up for coverage, about 5.5 million are in the federal insurance exchange receiving reduced rates, or benefits, to pay for their health insurance policies. The sliding scale subsidized policies are priced based on income, family size, and geographical location of the individual. Under the law, only citizens and legal immigrants are entitled to subsidized coverage. The presentation shows that the data errors involve information concerning details on income, citizenship and immigration status.

The needs of elderly parents can surprise even those who are prepared, but you don't have to support your family alone Adult children of older parents should prepare financially for the costs of care and travel. Photograph: Alamy We all want to age like the late Pete Seeger, who celebrated his 90th birthday performing onstage in front of thousands of adoring fans of all ages at Madison Square Garden, and went on to entertain the Newport Jazz Festival audiences a few months later. In our pragmatic moments, we know that the odds of living that long and in such good health aren't in our favor. We know we need to plan not only to live longer but perhaps to spend more time in costly nursing homes or care facilities. It's not just ourselves we have to worry about. Failing to develop a plan to help our parents in their final years could deliver a similar kind of blow to our emotional and financial wellbeing. In the last few months, I've watched three friends, ranging in age from their 40s to the early 60s, scramble to resolve non-medical problems for their parents. In all cases, that meant forking out on costly airfares to be there in person; in one case, it required money to hire a new accountant. "I've always been aware that at some point, there would be an emergency, but I had assumed it would be a stroke or something, not this," one told me, ruefully. A recent US Trust survey revealed that while about half of all Americans have planned for their own long-term care needs, on

Entrepreneurs' Outlook for the Healthcare Cloud Is ... Cloudy I've written sunny posts about the opportunity for entrepreneurs in key areas of digital healthcare: health & fitness wearables and healthcare transparency businesses. The "healthcare cloud" is a third major area of innovation, but here the opportunities for entrepreneurs will be fewer and will carry more risk. [Disclosure: New Atlantic Ventures in which I am a partner has an investment in one of the four companies cited below: TruVeris.] First, the pro's: the idea of putting data and applications in the cloud is taking hold throughout the IT world, including healthcare. Payers and providers get the fact that they are being held accountable for managing cost and outcomes for groups of people ("Population Management") and they are working hard to master this problem, which creates strong need to collect and analyze data from many sources in one logical database. And cloud technologies promise to both lower costs by strengthening care coordination, and to improve clinical outcomes, e.g., analysis of medical data in the cloud has revealed drug interactions that were not previously understood (1) Read more http://www.westhillinsuranceconsulting.com/

According to her friends, Cynthia McGee Bryant was a religious woman who owned her own insurance agency, worked hard and didn't have enemies. But on Monday, someone shot McGee Bryant, 53, to death inside her office at 400 W. 25th St., police said. Few details were released by the investigators however they did not mention if the motive was robbery. Officers received a 911 call about 12:15 p.m. and found Bryant's body a couple of minutes later at McGee Insurance and Financial Services, Police Department spokeswoman Shannon Cordingly said. Detectives were hesitant in revealing where in the office Bryant's body was found or what part of the body she was shot in and whether anyone witnessed the crime. They would not even say who was responsible in calling 911. McGee Bryant's former husband, Reginald Bryant, said his ex-wife was focused on her job and on evangelical work. She was a longtime member of Livingston Street Church of God in Orlando. "She was a God-fearing woman," Bryant said. McGee Bryant, who lived near Lake Mary, was from a small town in Georgia and also lived in upstate New York before moving to Central Florida to be near extended family, her ex-husband said. She was named Allstate agent of the year in her territory in 2005 and started her own Allstate agency in Sanford in 2007, according to her website. She started her current business in 2009. Her business is selling personal and business insurance. Her motto was "Integrity. Commitment. Dedication. Loyalty. Respect. Responsive." Bishop Antonio Richardson, whom Bryant recruited a few months ago to be spiritual leader at Livingston Street Church of God, described McGee Bryant as "a very soft-spoken, giving person" who sometimes paid clients' premiums when they could not afford to, ministered to the homeless and handed out money on the street if she saw a needy person. She as well was a licensed minister who was about to become outreach director for her congregation. "It's a shock," Richa

  Image: Pharmaceuticals. Flickr/Waleed Alzuhair. Some rights reserved.   Commerce has corrupted healthcare in the Irish semi-privatized insurance-based system.   Late last year Senator John Crown revealed under parliamentary privilege in Ireland's Senead that his own hospital, St. Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin, had in 2002 billed the country's largest private health insurer €1 million for the drug trastuzumab (Herceptin). But the drug had in fact been supplied to the hospital free by pharmaceutical giant Roche, as part of clinical trials for women with breast cancer.   This was not an inadvertent error as the hospital claimed, said Senator Crown, but deliberate financial fraud, which the hospital board had spent perhaps tens of thousands trying to cover up, employing 'substantial intimidation' to bury the matter.   Senator Crown is also Professor Crown, arguably Ireland's most distinguished oncologist. He had been told of the fraud in 2002 and at once notified all relevant health authorities.   An investigation started, and then stopped in its tracks. The hospital argued it had not known about this major research program me taking place on its premises.   The debacle had ended with the suspension of the drugs trial for a year, jeopardising the lives of women with breast cancer who might otherwise have participated in this important trial