9th Asia Conference on Healthcare and Health Insurance (24-25 March, 2014)

9th Asia Conference on Healthcare and Health Insurance

With the ageing population and governments trying to get individuals to be more responsible for their healthcare, there is great potential for the private medical services and schemes. And both users of expensive innovative health services and healthcare providers look to insurers for partnership. Will insurers be able to rise to the challenge? Will they be able to tread the minefields in health insurance with dignity and improved underwriting results despite the runaway medical inflation making cutting edge technology available to all? Will insurers be ready to take on the role of making it affordable to all? Is that too big a risk? Where are the markers? What should the parameters be? And can reinsurers play a bigger role in healthcare to make product coverage more extensive? There is a need for collective effort among health professionals, government officials, healthcare providers, and insurers and reinsurers, brokers and Third Party Administrators to come together to forge the way ahead even if it means making health insurance compulsory or more selective. As demand for health insurance is hot and there are too many exclusions involved while fraudsters are rising, the insurance industry needs to come together to lick this problem to boost the image of insurance altogether. Opportunities are plenty for insurers and providers in the healthcare sector with huge potential for growth and profitability. Can the Governments do more to ensure that healthcare schemes are sensible and accessible to all? This 9th Healthcare conference organized by Asia Insurance Review has the theme: “Wealth in Health for Insurers” sub-text: Adding Value through Efficient Delivery of Cost-Effective Quality Healthcare for the long term. The two-day conference will tackle hot topics ranging from providing effective and quality healthcare for the masses to the more sophisticated high net worth segments and the silver generation as well as healthcare funding, regulatory requirements, improving health procedures and services and how to balance healthcare financing with underwriting, cost control and fraud. The conference will also provide an overview of the world-class health systems, trends and developments in Asia and the world as well as look at the strategies in implementing healthcare programmes with partners and TPAs, innovative products, technology in the medical field and creative distribution channels for healthcare.

News Source : www.asiainsurancereview.com

50 years of tobacco extended lives of 8 million Americans

Loren Grush

In 1964, the U.S. surgeon general first came out with a report detailing the significant health risks associated with smoking cigarettes. Now, 50 years later, the report’s positive effects are still being felt in the United States. A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has concluded that the surgeon general’s report, along with various other tobacco control efforts, have significantly extended the lives of 8 million Americans – adding nearly 20 years to their life expectancy. “The 1964 report, in many ways, was a watershed event for public health,” senior author David Levy, a population scientist at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, told FoxNews.com. “By that time, sufficient evidence had accumulated to demonstrate that smoking cigarettes has a profoundly negative effect on an individual’s health. Following that publicity, a number of events occurred that really caused smokers to quit – taxes on cigarettes, smoke free air laws, bans on advertisements and health reporting.” In the 1960s, more than 40 percent of American adults smoked cigarettes, but now, only 20 percent of adults continue to smoke – a decrease Levy attributes to the surgeon general’s warning. To really gauge the magnitude of the report’s effects, Levy and his team analyzed smoking rates over the past 50 years, in relation to people’s ages, when they started smoking and other factors. The researchers found that since 1964, 17.6 million deaths could be attributed to smoking in the United States. Of this number, 6.6 million occurred in people below the age of 65, equaling a substantial loss due to death and illness among the working age group, Levy said. However, the team also used statistical modeling to determine what mortality rates would have looked like if the surgeon general’s report had never occurred and tobacco control efforts had never been utilized. They then compared these hypothetical death rates to the actual death rates, estimating that 157 million years of life were saved – translating to 19.6 additional years of life for each smoker who quit. “Many of the people that quit initially were younger people,” Levy said. “People usually quit in their 20s or 30s, or they quit later on in life when they experience severe health problems. But the reductions have occurred across the board. In particular there’s been much less association of smoking with the young.” While this is very positive news for the millions of smokers who quit, Levy said there is still a long way to go in order to save more lives. According to the annual cancer statistics report from the American Cancer Society, lung cancer remains the deadliest form of the disease – leading to one in four cancer deaths. Levy said it’s important to continue with tobacco control, since it has had such a substantial effect. He also noted that the rise of e-cigarettes could be beneficial in helping people quit, as long as smokers completely make the switch from regular cigarettes to the electronic kind. “Eight million have avoided death due to smoking, but we still have a substantial number of people who are dying from smoking,” Levy said. “…This is an example of an important public health event. This is something that also provides lessons concerned with trends in obesity; changing prices and educational campaigns can have an important effect.” The research was conducted by scientists at the Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network (CISNET) and was funded by the National Cancer Institute.

News Source : www.foxnews.com

New Study Reveals Patchwork Federal Safety Net Health Care Coverage For Children With Diabetes

Federal Safety Net Health Care Coverage For Children With Diabetes

Federal funding for health care coverage of children with diabetes varies significantly from state to state across the United States, according to new research from the University of Michigan. The new research, published earlier this year in the Journal of Pediatrics, examines a public program for children with chronic diseases called the Children with Special Health Care Needs program, which is funded through Title V of the Social Security Act of 1935, and provides federal support and serves as a safety net for children with chronic diseases. In the study, researchers found geographic disparities in access to coverage for medical services and medications, says lead author Joyce M. Lee, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor of pediatrics at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. Detailed state-by-state descriptions are available in this interactive map: http://diabetessafety.net/ "States administer Title V programs individually, defining their own medical and financial criteria for eligibility," Lee says. "This has resulted in a patchwork safety net for children with chronic disease, which could have an impact on future health outcomes. "We performed this study because we wanted to better understand the safety net that exists for kids with diabetes. This is increasingly important, because the overall burden of diabetes in children is rising in the U.S., and diabetes imposes a large financial burden on families who must manage the disease." Lee and her co-authors found that children with diabetes were eligible for Title V programs in just 32 states, which at a minimum would provide assistance with coordination of care for these children. However, only twenty-six states (51%) provided medical coverage to pay for visits with health care professionals and medications like insulin. Only 24 states also covered diabetes supplies (for example, glucometer strips, syringes). "If children do not have access to a private health plan, and they do not qualify for income-based programs like Medicaid, unfortunately children in many states will not have access to the basic elements of care, simply based on geography," Lee says. Title V programs are unique because they designate eligibility based on diagnosis of a chronic disease. Although Title V programs have financial eligibility requirements, in at least 10 states, these income limits were more generous compared with the federal limits for Medicaid or State Children's Health Insurance Program. Title V programs may serve as the insurer of last resort or provide secondary coverage for children with private or public insurance, particularly in children who are underinsured. "We hope this research will further highlight the need for uniformity of health benefits for children across states. Kids who live in different states should not have differential access to the care they need," Lee says. 

News Source :   www.medicalnewstoday.com