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Trials involving human patients are crucial to the advancement of clinical science. But they're not without risk. Fortunately, insurers are willing to cover them. Westhill Insurance Consulting, one of the most trusted on-line insurance consultant that offer consumer information on reasonably priced health and medical coverage has these following things to review if you are planning to take part in a clinical test. Challenging trials One challenge for underwriters is the relatively small premium base measured against a trend for higher [insured] limits to be requested. Clinical trials policies normally have "claims made" wordings which means that insurance coverage does not automatically extend beyond the trial dates. The potential gap is where you arrange insurance, let the policy end and have no insurance for an event which may occur sometime in the future that can be attached to the clinical trial. Serious problems in clinical trials are rare, as Rossano points out. "But what I would say is that clinical trials are not without risk. The risk of a clinical trial is that the human body is very complex and in rare cases there can be unforeseen outcomes, as happened in cases like TeGenaro."

Study: More exercise, less sitting reduces heart failure risk for men More exercise, less sitting reduces heart failure risk for men By American Heart Association DALLAS - sitting for long period's increases heart failure risk in men, even for those who exercise regularly, according to new research published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Heart Failure. Preventing heart failure, researchers found, requires a two-part behavioral approach: high levels of physical activity plus low levels of sedentary time. The study is the first to examine the link between heart failure risk and sedentary time, said Deborah Rohm Young, Ph.D., lead researcher and a senior scientist at Kaiser Permanente in Pasadena, Calif. "Be more active and sit less. That's the message here," Young said. Researchers followed a racially diverse group of 84,170 men ages 45 to 69 without heart failure. Exercise levels were calculated in METs, or metabolic equivalent of task, a measure of the body's energy use. Sedentary levels were measured in hours. After an average of nearly eight years of follow-up, researchers found: Men with low levels of physical activity were 52 percent more likely to develop heart failure than men with high physical activity levels, even after adjusting for differences in sedentary time. Outside of work, men who spent five or more hours a day sitting were 34 percent more likely to develop heart failure than men who spent no more than two hours a day sitting, regardless of how much they exercised. Heart failure risk more than doubled in men who sat for at least five hours a day and got little exercise compared to men who were very physically active and sat for two hours or less a day. Study limitations included: Since

Tips for navigating Obamacare http://www.westhillinsuranceconsulting.com/blog/westhill-consulting-tips-for-navigating-obamacare/ Think hard before your drop insurance entirely Tambe said that might not make good business sense despite some companies might be tempted to abolish insurance benefits completely and let employees go to marketplaces to get coverage. The problem is insurance purchased on the marketplace will be more expensive for individuals. Then the company will risk talent leaving the company for a competitor who offers them the less expensive option if the company isn't willing to compensate by raising their salary. "It may work to keep costs down but you'll have a hard time keeping talented folks," he said. Other federal programs could help you For households making under 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level, the ACA grants subsidies available on the public marketplace under certain circumstances. Additionally there are current efforts for Ohio to spread out the Medicaid program to households making less than 138 percent of the poverty level. This in turn if acted out would make more people eligible for those programs. Not all individuals will qualify for subsidy even though most Americans will be eligible to obtain coverage through the exchange. Employer-sponsored coverage may affect an employee's ability to meet the criteria for the subsidy. If there are many employees qualify for federal assistance, it will be reasonable to let them use those plans, particularly since employees being offered insurance by an employer aren't allowed onto the marketplace if their employer is offering insurance deemed affordable, or 9.5 percent of their wage rate based on 130 hours per month for single coverage. "A lot of folks qualify for these things, and there's no penalty to employers," Tambe said. Know the paperwor

A 27-year-old in Jackson pays $336 a month for the second-cheapest silver health plan on Mississippi's s federally run insurance marketplace. That is more than twice as much as the $154 a 27-year-old in Nashville would pay for the same type of policy, and the $138 for a similar person in Tucson. Across all 34 insurance marketplaces run by the federal government, the average is $287, about 25 percent cheaper. The reason for the higher prices in some markets? Paltry competition, say Leemore Dafny and Christopher Ody from Northwestern University, and Jonathan Gruber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Jackson has only two insurers on the marketplace: Humana and Centene. By contrast, four insurance companies slug it out on Nashville's exchange. In Tucson, there are eight. Jackson's over-the-top premiums underscore one of the least-heralded shortcomings of the rollout of the Affordable Care Act: the scarcity of insurers on health plan exchanges, which is driving up the price of policies across the country. The research by Ms. Dafny, Mr. Gruber and Mr. Ody, to be published by the National Bureau of Economic Research next week, concludes that premiums on the exchanges are 11 percent higher than they would be if all the health insurance companies that sell policies in each state had participated in the new markets for health plans. More competition not only would lower premiums, but would also save the federal government money. It would spend $1.7 billion less in subsidies to low- and middle-income Americans buying policies on the health care insurance exchanges. "Half of the population in the states with health exchanges facilitated by the federal government is served by three insurers or fewer," Ms. Dafny said. "To have competition on the exchanges you need competitors." The findings are somewhat perplexing, though. By law, 80 to 85 percent of premiums must be devoted to medical spending. Insurers don't have particularly large profit margin

The scams Phantom treatments. Dishonest medical providers will bill health insurers for expensive treatments, tests or equipment you never received - and for illnesses or injuries you don't even have. Double billing. Unethical providers may double- or triple-bill health insurers for the same treatments, hoping the insurer won't discover the overruns in the big stack of bills. Shoddy care. You might receive shoddy or substandard treatment for real and urgent medical problems. One eye doctor shined pen lights into patients' eyes and said he'd performed cataract surgery. Surgeons have used defective pacemakers and catheters during heart surgeries, which have killed patients or required more surgeries to correct the problems. Unneeded care. You might receive dangerous and even life-threatening treatment you don't need. One surgeon performed heart surgery on patients who didn't need it. Bogus insurers. Insurance agents or brokers sell you low-cost health coverage from fake insurance companies. Then they take your premiums and disappear. You're left without vital health coverage, and don't even know it until you make a claim. Identity theft. Cheaters steal your medical ID number, then use it to bill health programs tens of thousands of dollars for phantom treatment. Crooks steal your health info from dumpsters behind medical clinics, break into doctor offices and steal files, and hack into computer databases containing your records. Rolling labs. Mobile diagnostic labs give needless or fake tests or physical exams to consumers, then bill health insurers for expensive procedures. Runners. A person hired by a medical provider to drum up business trolls through neighborhoods, often low-income areas, enticing people to come to a clinic for tests. These runners will even round up children for unneeded tests and procedures.

As we grow older, our responsibilities add up. Having a health insurance should be one of the priorities that we should think of. By the time you are old enough to fend for yourself, you are then required to get an insurance. However, many young adults are still confused on its importance. 1. It may be Illegal When you are living in the United States, Affordable Care Act (ACA) compels you to purchase insurance. Going without insurance for three months would force you to pay a penalty of $325 or 2% of your monthly income, whichever is higher. In developing countries, uninsured individuals have the option to purchase from private companies but laws are already drafted for completion. In cities like Jakarta, Indonesia and Bangkok, Thailand, more than half of their unemployed population goes uninsured. 2. If you are a full-time employee, your employer should provide you with insurance Most companies require employees work for set period before benefits can be provided. It usually takes 3-6 months in a probationary period before regularization, by which insurance is given. It is in any law in any states and government to mandate to every employer to provide employee benefits. 3. Your parents may still be able to cover you Individuals under the age of 26 can still be listed under their parents' coverage. They can still cover even a modest premium cost. 4. You can do it alone If you are not insured under your parents' plan or purchasing insurance under your employer is not an option, you have the choice to purchase your own insurance from trusted private companies. If you are buying online, just make sure you

1. It's Smart to Prepare for a Breach How many data breaches from 2014 can you name? The freshest one in your mind is probably the Sony hack, but there were also attacks on Home Depot, Staples, Dairy Queen, P.F. Chang's the list goes on. Credit.com Co-Founder and Chairman Adam Levin recently wrote about the most important lessons you can learn from the Sony hack, encouraging consumers and companies to prioritize data security and behave with the knowledge that your personal information and correspondence could be exposed at any time. Prepare for the possibility of fraud by monitoring your credit, regularly reviewing account activity and knowing what to do if your personal information has been stolen. Do what you can to strengthen your data security, but know that so much of it is beyond your control, so the best thing you can do is know how to react to a breach. 2. Communication Is Crucial to Getting Debt-Free as a Couple We published several success stories about getting out of debt, but some of the most memorable involved couples working together to conquer their finances. The stories had similar themes: Ellie Kay married her husband without knowing about his $40,000 of consumer debt, and Ja'Net Adams was unaware her husband took out student loans to pay for college. Both families eventually hit breaking points where they realized debt was holding them back, and they needed to make drastic changes to get rid of it. Getting out of debt is never easy, and the more people who are involved, the more complicated it can be. At the same time, having someone to work through the challenges with you can be extremely helpful. Adams' and Kay's stories highlight two crucial elements of getting debt free: staying committed to a plan and remaining open and honest about the process' progress and challenges. Those lessons apply to any personal finance goal, whether you're planning with a family or on your own.

Thom Tillis is stuck at the state capitol trying to resolve a budget quarrel as speaker of the North Carolina House. It's a spot that helps Hagan emphasize Tillis' role leading a Republican-controlled state government that Democrats contend has gone overboard with conservative zeal by restricting access to abortion and the voting booth while cutting corporate taxes and slashing spending on schools. (Hagan, the daughter of Joe P. Ruthven, grew up in Lakeland.) If Tillis is worried by Hagan's portrayal, he doesn't show it. Drinking coffee last week from a hand-grenade-shaped mug in his no-frills legislative office, he's got his own message in his campaign to take Hagan's Senate seat. "Obamacare," he said, "continues to be a big problem." Similar themes are playing out in other crucial Senate races, as voters have four months to decide which party will control the chamber in the final two years of Barack Obama's presidency. For Republicans, it's all about tying Democrats to Obama - especially to a health care law that remains unpopular with many Americans. And for Democrats, the election is about just about anything else, especially if they can steer attention away from Washington and federal matters. It's a political strategy that sometimes gives the campaigns an inside-out feel, with veteran senators running as if they were first-timers without a Washington resume to defend or tout.

BY PETER KIRAGU Kenya: The number of insurance fraud cases reduced by more than half last year thanks to tighter supervision by the Insurance Regulatory Authority ( IRA)'s Insurance Fraud Investigation Unit. According to the just released industry report for the year ended December 31, 2013, the unit received reports and detected cases of insurance fraud totaling 57 during the period compared to 133 similar cases in 2012. The report shows that fraud remains highest in motor insurance category with 21 cases reported in the year, down from 35 the previous year. Out of this, four fraudulent accident and 14 theft claims were made. Another three fraudulent cases of forged certificates were also reported. There were three fraudulent claims in the medical insurance category down from six the previous year with two fraudulent funeral claims made in the year down from nine in 2012. Fraud related to insurance agents also dropped with only six cases reported down from 38 the previous year. All the six reported cases were theft by insurance agents. The level of fraud related to insurance companies especially theft by employees remained the same with 10 cases reported. See Also: Australia agency opens