Category: Health Care

‘Deeply entrenched’ ageism limits mental health care for elderly, report says | UK News

Zain
“Deeply entrenched and systemic” ageism means the elderly can miss out on mental health care, a report has said, with symptoms of mental illness dismissed as “just your age”. A study by the Center for Mental Health has called for older generations to be shown the same concerns as young people, warning the discrimination suffered currently affects not only the older person, but also families, communities and public services. The centre’s report, commissioned by Age UK, was based on a review of literature published in the past five years, and pointed to a “pervasive sense of pessimism and inevitability that…Continue Reading

Quebec, Ottawa reach health-care funding deal with $900M per year to province – Montreal

Zain
By Staff The Canadian Press Posted March 19, 2024 5:47 pm 1 min read Decrease article font size Increase article font size Quebec has become the last province to reach an agreement in principle with the federal government on health-care funding. Premier François Legault’s office says the proposed infusion of $900 million in annual health funding comes with no conditions. Legault had been pushing back on conditions that the federal government wanted to impose in exchange for the transfers. The premier’s office says health care is a provincial responsibility and that Quebec will be free to decide how it spends…Continue Reading

California’s single-payer health care boondoggle is back and worse than ever

Zain
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Karl Marx could have predicted the future of California when he said that history repeats itself – first as tragedy, then as farce. The tragedy is a state budget of $225.9 billion this year, with a budget deficit equivalent to nearly one-third of that figure – $73 billion, according to the latest estimate from the state Legislative Analyst’s Office. The farce is California state Assemblyman Ash Kalra, a Democrat, re-introducing legislation to ban private health insurance and force all Californians into a single, publicly run health plan – at a cost estimated…Continue Reading

UnitedHealth paid more than $2 billion to providers after cyberattack

Zain
UnitedHealth Group Inc. headquarters stands in Minnetonka, Minnesota, US Mike Bradley | Bloomberg | Getty Images UnitedHealth Group said Monday that it’s paid out more than $2 billion to help health-care providers who have been affected by the cyberattack on subsidiary Change Healthcare. “We continue to make significant progress in restoring the services impacted by this cyberattack,” UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty said in a press release. “We know this has been an enormous challenge for health care providers and we encourage anyone in need to contact us.” UnitedHealth disclosed nearly a month ago that a cyber threat actor breached part…Continue Reading

Biden-Harris Administration Announces New Initiative to Increase Investments in Person-Centered Primary Care

Zain
ACO Primary Care Flex Model aims to improve access to high-quality primary care for underserved Medicare populations Today, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), announced a new voluntary model that empowers primary care providers in eligible Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) to treat people with Medicare using innovative, team-based, person-centered proactive care. A key part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to further promote competition in health care, the ACO Primary Care Flex Model (ACO PC Flex Model) will provide a one-time advanced shared savings payment and monthly prospective primary…Continue Reading

HIMSS24: Health Care AI Guardrails Get a Boost while Cloud-Based Apps Soar

Zain
Amid the nonstop news coming from the recent HIMSS24 tech conference, there was a decided shift in how many in the field perceive and use artificial intelligence (AI). And make no mistake, AI again overwhelmingly dominated content and conversations at the event. Issues like how tech companies and provider organizations can work together to accelerate optimal uses of AI, the need for guardrails to ensure the ethical and responsible use of AI and how cloud-based systems can be used to improve diagnostic efficiency and accuracy were punctuated with real -world illustration cases. And although there remains a long way to…Continue Reading

UnitedHealth increases loan offers after Change Healthcare outage

Zain
UnitedHealth Group appears to be offering some providers more substantial loans in the wake of the cyberattack on Change Healthcare, according to three doctors who each saw their advances increase up to seven figures. The apparent change comes as hospitals, doctors, and lobbying groups have for weeks complained about low offers from the company, in some cases less than 1% of their typical weekly billing. Initially, after a mid-February cyberattack took its system offline, hampering insurers’ ability to receive claims and send payments, UnitedHealth offered loans to bridge the gap while the company worked to fix the outage, but many…Continue Reading

AHS staff face job terminations and transfer offers in the midst of health-care overhaul

Zain
Health-care staff are now being shifted from Alberta Health Services to the provincial health department as the province forces ahead with its controversial and sweeping restructuring plans. The Alberta government announced its intention late last year to hive off health-care provisions into four key organizations, and reduce AHS to the role of a hospital care provider. So far, 126 AHS staff have been terminated but have been presented with “equivalent” job offers within Alberta Health, according to the province. A government spokesperson has confirmed the impacted staff are from the departments of capital planning, system planning, continuing care and procurement.…Continue Reading