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Big insurance companies and the fight to protect profits

November 11, 2010 / Staff

This story is disgusting.

As health care costs soared nationally, a small Michigan firm gave Ford Motor Co. a proposal to cut its physical therapy costs. The automaker signed up for an in-state pilot program, which was so successful Ford expanded it last year to cover about 390,000 employees, retirees and their families nationwide.
Yet the cost-saving program created by Pontiac-based TheraMatrix has come under attack from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.
Court records allege Blue Cross used its position as the state’s dominant insurer to try to crush TheraMatrix as it worked to also sign up Chrysler and General Motors. A USA TODAY review of hundreds of pages of e-mails and internal documents that are part of a lawsuit TheraMatrix filed against Blue Cross indicates that TheraMatrix’s efforts to carve out a niche market in managing outpatient physical therapy costs was seen as a threat by officials at Blue Cross and by some Michigan hospitals.

In one sense, it’s not surprising that a big company will play rough with an upstart competitor. But in the health care area, where costs are exploding, this is indefensible. Also, Blue Cross is a nonprofit – go figure.

Alison Young then goes on to write the following, which gets to the crux of the issue:

The aggressive tactics employed against TheraMatrix raise questions about whether relationships between hospitals and insurers are inflating medical prices and stifling competition needed to control costs.

The government needs to get tough with insurance companies.

Health Insurance, Hospitals

Blue Cross Blue Shield healthcare costs insurance companies Michigan hospitals physical therapy physical therapy costs TheraMatrix

The benefits of free-range eggs

November 10, 2010 / Staff

Here’s some interesting information on the benefits of free-range eggs over regular eggs. Basically, they are much more nutritious:

This only makes sense considering the chickens are allowed to consume their natural diet, which includes seeds, insects, green plants and worms. Compared to U.S. Department of Agriculture nutrient data for commercial eggs, eggs from chickens raised on a pasture may contain the following: two-thirds more vitamin A; two times more omega-3 fatty acids; three times more vitamin E; and seven times more beta carotene. The problem with eggs labeled “free-range” is that the USDA defines free-range as chickens having access to the outside. The problem with this definition is it doesn’t define their diets or what “outside access” means. Under this definition, the chickens can have access to a cement courtyard while eating an unnatural diet that includes soy, corn and cottonseed meals, and still be called free range. (Mother Earth News. Oct/Nov, 2007)

Now you need to figure out where you can purchase real free-range eggs.

Nutrition, Research

benefits of free-range eggs beta carotene free-range eggs omega-3 fatty acids USDA vitamin A vitamin E

Obesity accelerates as teens become young adults

November 10, 2010 / Staff

This is bad news considering the obesity epidemic with kids today.

Heavy teenagers are often destined for skyrocketing weight gain in their 20s, a new study shows.
About half of obese teenage girls and about a third of obese teen boys become severely obese by the time they are 30 — meaning they are 80 to 100 pounds over a healthy weight, the new research says.
We see a tremendous amount of weight gain during those years,” says Penny Gordon-Larsen, senior author of the study and an associate professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Other research has found that heavy children are more likely to become heavy adults. But this is one of the first studies to show what happens to teens who are obese — that is roughly 30 or more pounds over a healthy weight — as they reach adulthood.

It’s critical that we find ways to address obesity in children. At some point they will be a lost cause.

Research, Wellness

obese teens obesity obesity epidemic obesity in children

Companies are shifting more health costs to higher earners

November 10, 2010 / Staff

With the costs of health insurance rising, companies are trying to find creative ways to ease the burden for lower wage workers who are getting crushed by higher premiums.

With health care costs climbing even higher during this enrollment season, more employers are adopting a tiered system to pass on the bulk of those costs to their employees by assigning bigger contributions to workers in top salary brackets and offering some relief to workers who make less money.
For years, employees have seen what they pay toward health care go up as companies ask them to contribute more to premiums and deductibles. But now, as people enroll in health plans for the coming year, the sticker shock is more jolting than ever because so many companies are passing on to their workers most, if not all, of the higher costs.
A worker’s share of a family policy is approaching $4,000 a year on average, and is most certainly going to keep on rising through the next few years. For lower-salaried workers, those additional costs have only compounded their struggle in a brutal economy.
More and more companies in the last year or so have begun signaling their recognition of the added burden shouldered by workers in low- and middle-income jobs by varying the premiums they pay based on salary. Consultants say the trend is likely to continue, as employers devise various ways of spreading increased health care costs among their staff and balancing that side of the ledger against fewer raises and other compensation.

It will be interesting to see if the new health care law affects insurance rates over time.

Health Care Policy, Health Insurance

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