Tuesday 30 July 2013

Posted by WESTHILLINSURANCE - Westhill Consulting Insurance - How to Avoid Health Care Fraud

WesthillConsultingInsurance - Howto Avoid Health Care Fraud



Mail-ordermedications

Patients who buy drugs through mail-order companies could be rolling the dice with their health says Dr. Deborah C. Peel, a physician and founder of the nonprofit Patient Privacy Rights.  There’s a high probability in many cases that these drugs are counterfeit Peel added.
“And you don’t ever know because the fraudulent tablets look just like the real ones,” says Peel.
She says ordering from companies that specialize in mail-order sales that are not affiliated with a legitimate insurance company, especially from foreign countries, can be very risky. Not only could the quality be questionable, it could also be illegal.
“But people are desperate because we’re being so grossly overcharged for medication,” she says.
Peel says you can lessen costs by buying generic. You can spot it by: the best thing to do is to keep away from buying drugs from foreign or obscure pharmacies.  And if you decide to go with the mail-order route, just stay with U.S.-based companies because if it’s a U.S. company, you can report the health care fraud to the Food and Drug Administration while if it’s a foreign company, there’s little that can or will be done.


According to the Federal Trade Commission, millions fall victim each year to false miracle cures. Especially vulnerable are victims of debilitating and potentially deadly illnesses such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, HIV and AIDS.
The FTC website says scammers take advantage of people with a grim diagnosis such as cancer and “promote unproven — and potentially dangerous — substances like black salve, essiac tea, or laetrile with claims that the products are both ‘natural’ and effective.” But, say physicians and other experts, simply because something is advertised as “natural” doesn’t mean it works. And while a patient is experimenting with bogus treatments, he or she can squander the opportunity to receive treatments that might truly be effective. Peel says consumers should beware of products with personal testimonies that prove nothing. Don’t trust a product just because of favorable reviews on the Internet, she warns.

How to spot it: If product claims make it sound like it’s too good to be true, then it is. Something that works miracles would make headlines, so when “Mary in Indiana” says that a special tea cured her cancer, it’s a worthless testimonial.
Here is something worth doing: protect yourself against phony products through talking to your trusted physician or physical therapist.

Dental treatments performed by nonprofessionals

Earlier this year, an Oklahoma dentist accused of allowing unlicensed employees to give IVs to patients made nationwide headlines after some patients were alleged to have contracted hepatitis due to the purported use of contaminated instruments.
This happens although not that usual, and industry professionals such as James Quiggle, communications director of the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, say you can take steps to ascertain that your dentist employs ethical practices. One such step is to scope out dentists you’re considering.
“Go to two or three dental offices and get a sense of the comfort level of that office, how clean it is, how professional and whether it’s up-to-date and well-lit,” says Quiggle. While dental scams are not as common as some other types of health care fraud, the results obtained by an unscrupulous dentist can be life-altering in a terrible way.
Trust your instincts and find someone else: if you have dental insurance, check your explanation of benefits statement and make sure it matches the work you had performed.  If the office seems unsanitary or the staff not properly trained, better be a sign of not pursuing to have any transaction with them.


A report from Ohio authorities said they’ve indicted a man for using a fraudulent identity to obtain $345,000 in medical treatment from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.  The man used a stolen license multiple times in order to get services from 2008 to 2013, according to news media reports.
Medical identity theft is one of the most serious and fastest-growing crimes in the nation.  Some sources say the damages run as high as $234 billion.  Some 1.85 million Americans were affected by medical identity theft in 2012, according to a study by the Ponemon Institute.
Jeff Young, vice president of fraud control at Verisk Health, says you should guard your health care insurance information as carefully as you do banking data. “Protect it, don’t carry it around and report it immediately if you lose it,” says Young.
Your credit can be ruined if you become the victim of medical ID theft.  You can find flawed treatment information on your records and creditors will harass you to pay for treatment never received.

Bogus medical treatment after a staged car crash

Quiggle says it’s an old scam he’s seeing more and more, as well as a source of rising insurance premiums.  Four residents of Jacksonville, Fla., including a chiropractor, were recently arrested and charged with staging automobile accidents, then steering the victims to the chiropractor for treatment they did not need.
Fake accidents are very common and more often than not dangerous.  The National Insurance Crime Bureau reports that criminals targeting the Las Vegas area are staging fake accidents by pulling into the paths of big rigs and slamming on their brakes.  These scammers are up to getting big settlements out of the truckers but a lot of these staged crimes also involve false medical treatment.

0 comments :

Westhill Consulting - Healthcare Insurance - YouTube (playlist)

Westhill Consulting - Healthcare Insurance - YouTube




westhillconsultingIn

Westhill Consulting - Healthcare Insurance

0 comments :

Westhill Consulting Insurance - San Francisco, CA

Westhill Consulting Insurance - San Francisco, CA

2 reviews
Category: Insurance  [Edit]
Jl Jendral Sudirman Kav 3-4
Jakarta

San FranciscoCA 10220
(221) 573-5843


0 comments :

Westhill Consulting | XING Companies

Westhill Consulting | XING Companies

Westhill Consulting

Westhill Healthcare Consulting has a complete editorial freedom over the content on its pages since it was published.

Jl. Jendral Sudirman Kav 3-4
10220Jakarta
Indonesia(show on map)

work62 21 5735843

Industry:
Welfare & Community Health

Website Directory

0 comments :

Thursday 25 July 2013

Westhill Consulting - FriendFeed

Westhill Consulting - FriendFeed

Aetna will stop selling individual health plans in California

SACRAMENTO, California — Aetna Inc. discontinue selling individual health insurance policies in California, just weeks after opting out of the exchange that is being established as part of the national health care reforms, a state regulator said last month.

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said he was disappointed in Aetna's decision because consumers need more choices. The decision does not affect people who have Aetna insurance through their employer.

"This is not good news for California consumers," Jones said in a statement. "A competitive market with more choices for consumers is important, as we implement the Affordable Care Act and health insurance coverage is a requirement."

In California's individual health insurance market, Aetna is a quite small player. According to 2011 figures compiled by the California HealthCare Foundation, Aetna has about 5 percent of the state's individual health market. By comparison, Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield and Kaiser share 87 percent.

Aetna says it has about 58,000 individual enrollees in the state and expects to have about 49,000 by the end of the year. It plans to withdraw from the state at the end of the year but will continue to offer small and large group plans, as well as Medicare, dental and life insurance products.

Those in search of to buying their own health insurance will be directed to Covered California, the state's new health insurance exchange starting Oct. 1. Aetna was not among 13 insurance carriers that will sell individual coverage to millions of Californians through the exchange.

According to Jones' office Under state law, Aetna will not be allowed to sell individual policies in California for five years once it leaves that market.

Forms of term life insurance coverage:

ART or Annual renewable term life - The policy holder can renew the policy yearly for a set period of time, can be for as long as 30 years. Premiums are adjusted higher with each annual renewal and such policies are based on the age of the policy holder.

A Guaranteed level premium term life is an insurance that allows the policy holders to lock in an assured premium for a set period of 5, 10, 15, 20 years or more. The guaranteed level serves as a protection of the policy holders from increases due to inflation or from higher premiums - that might otherwise result from changes in the policy holder's health.

read more..

0 comments :

Westhill Consulting Insurance | Facebook

Westhill Consulting Insurance | Facebook

0 comments :

Wednesday 24 July 2013

Westhill Consulting - Healthcare Improving Mental Status of Elderly in T...

1 comments :

Sunday 21 July 2013

Westhill Consulting – Retire Overseas : 8 Top Spots For Quality Health Care


http://www.westhillinsuranceconsulting.com/blog/westhill-consulting-retire-overseas-8-top-spots-for-quality-health-care/

Retiring overseas may seem like a fabulous idea, but the quality of health care often has post 50s thinking twice before making a move abroad. But they needn't worry.Live and Invest Overseas, an online publication devoted to helping those interested in living abroad, has a list of the eight best places to retire for quality health care. (They also published a list of the 21 best places to retire in 2013 earlier this year.)

Live and Invest Overseas' Retirement Index took into account the availability of care that most foreigners would find acceptable; insurance coverage options; cost (both of care and of local insurance); and the quality and number of hospitals and clinics.

"If health care is a priority (that is, if you have an existing, ongoing medical concern), then you probably want to stick close to a city," said Kathleen Peddicord, publisher of Live and Invest Overseas. "Medical care is cheaper most everywhere in the world than it is in the United States; of course, not everywhere in the world boasts international-standard medical care.

"However, you can find top-notch care in centers of population, from Cuenca, Ecuador to Panama City, and from Kuala Lumpur to Montevideo," she added. "And, in these places, this legitimately world-class care can be one-fourth the cost of comparable care in the United States or less."

0 comments :

Thursday 18 July 2013

Westhill Consulting Insurance - Nobel Prize Winner Sets Sights on Fixing U.S. Healthcare



Having heard Clay Christensen expound on disruptive innovation, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that change always comes from outside of incumbent players. While health orgs are dooming their innovation to failure or dither by not taking any meaningful action, it’s notable that a Nobel Peace Prize winner sees an opportunity to fix a critical portion of the U.S. healthcare system. As any good entrepreneur would do, Yunus identified an unmet need and so Grameen created an offering tailored to their target customers.

This article is a section of a longer paper on Direct Primary Care (DPC) that was introduced in an earlier piece – Health Plan Rorschach Test: Direct Primary Care. The following excerpt from that article briefly explains DPC if it’s a new concept. Click through the previous link for additional context.

Despite its inclusion in Obamacare, Direct Primary Care (DPC, aka Concierge Medicine for the Masses), it’s surprising how few health insurance executives know about DPC. DPC  is a model of paying for primary care outside of insurance. The individual or organization paying for healthcare pays a monthly fee (like a gym membership) for all primary care needs. Generally, DPC providers say they can address 80 or more of the top 100 most common diagnoses.

Grameen America Partners with DPC Provider to Low Income Patients

Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Muhammad Yunus, is famous for creating the concept of microfinance which has brought thousands out of poverty via the Grameen Bank. Grameen America is their U.S. affiliate which has already lent $93 million to over 17,400 women impacting 70,000 people (each borrower averages a family of four). Their microfinance repayment rate is 99.4% in the U.S. which is even more impressive than they have achieved internationally. Grameen has partnered with Iora Health to offer primary care services to their borrowers in New York. They believe addressing healthcare is a key facet of bringing people out of poverty.
Grameen’s plan is to initially offer Iora’s services only to Grameen borrowers. After that, Grameen will extend Iora’s services to their family members (including children) and eventually more broadly.  Like their microfinance program, it isn’t designed as charity. Rather, Grameen borrowers will pay $10 per week ($43/month) which they expect will be economically sustainable. The borrowers, many of whom are undocumented workers, fall outside of what Medicaid and Obamacare address so the rest of the healthcare system is quite happy to keep these individuals out of the ER or even Federally Qualified Health Centers. Grameen’s “competition” will be the ER and FQHC so they must demonstrate that higher level service and dealing with the same healthcare team provides distinct advantages over disjointed (though often free) care in the ER/FQHC.

This development will further debunk the myth that DPC isn’t applicable to the broad populous. Given the extremely high Net Promoter Scores Iora achieves (higher than Google GOOG +1.57% or Apple AAPL +1.56%), if there is a “two tier healthcare system” (a common criticism of retainer-based medicine) it is higher income people getting the short end of the primary care stick. Doctors call the flawed fee-for-service model “hamster wheel primary care” because it’s a nightmare for the doctor and delivers sub-optimal value for the consumer — i.e., rushed 7-minute appointments, insurance bureaucracy laden processes, and delays in getting to see a doctor, etc. Not unlike how mobile phone carriers have developed profitable offerings to serve low income immigrant populations, Grameen hopes to prove they can do the same in healthcare. It will be interesting to watch.



Nunivak

0 comments :

Tuesday 16 July 2013

Westhill Consulting - Westhill Healthcare Consulting | LEARN

It isn't as complicated like permanent life insurance that is a combination of insurance and an investment component. In term life insurance, your term life premium is devoted to life coverage only.


The below article are written by writers and editors of Westhill Healthcare Consulting to help you better understand health care and medical insurance issues.

Term life insurance: Coverage offers simplicity, flexibility

Referred to as the simplest option when it comes to life insurance, term life insurance like the name implies is insurance for a term. This means a time period as short as a year or as long as 20 or 30 years. Its sole and simple purpose is to provide a death benefit should you happen to die during the term of your policy.

It isn't as complicated like permanent life insurance that is a combination of insurance and an investment component. In term life insurance, your term life premium is devoted to life coverage only. You can select a higher death benefit with a lower premium if you are younger and in good health.

To prevent a financial difficulty for your family, start while you are young and just starting a family. Term insurance can be a better option because in this it can provide a relatively inexpensive way to secure the coverage you need to prevent a financial catastrophe. The term would assume financial obligations such as a mortgage and vehicle payments in the event of your death.

Forms of term life insurance coverage:
ART or Annual renewable term life - The policy holder can renew the policy yearly for a set period of time, can be for as long as 30 years. Premiums are adjusted higher with each annual renewal and such policies are based on the age of the policy holder.

A Guaranteed level premium term life is an insurance that allows the policy holders to lock in an assured premium for a set period of 5, 10, 15, 20 years or more. The guaranteed level serves as a protection of the policy holders from increases due to inflation or from higher premiums - that might otherwise result from changes in the policy holder's health.

Decreasing term policies offer a decreasing death benefit over time. It gives policy holders more coverage when they're just starting out and less coverage as they accumulate savings and other assets. , the less coverage the policy holders need to ensure the financial security of their beneficiaries when they are closer they get to retirement.


0 comments :

Saturday 13 July 2013

Westhill Consulting - Healthcare | Home

It is hard to find a health insurance in the current situation of our marketplace. It seems impossible to get one of those as per this individual health insurance can offer you a confusing array of options more especially if you're one of the millions of Americans who buys their own health coverage. This health coverage are sometimes good but not always and worse few are expensive.
Agents though are everywhere, and they are easy to find and readily available. They offer you cheap health insurance but you got to remember this: health coverage isn't cheap if it doesn't adequately cover your expenses when you need it most.

Health reform legislation is recently passed and thanks to this the landscape is changing for consumers. Soon, millions of uninsured will have an access for a quality but low-cost insurance. The chief challenge could be determining options to choose the right coverage.

There is nothing to worry about! Because Westhill Healthcare Consulting  has everything that one has to know, all the information you needed.
Learn. Compare. Save.

We have library of articles and we are sure every article is fruitful. Learn how to cut your health care costs, get coverage if you're self-employed.

Go through most frequently asked questions about health coverage and be familiar with health insurance terms.

Discover how health reform will affect your benefits and your budget. Otherwise find out how it stands to help populations that historically have faced barriers to affordable health coverage.
It would be useful and practical if you use free, no-obligation health insurance quotes to compare private health insurance in your area, plan benefits and coverage costs.

Every plan id different in every state so the first thing to do is to go through our state guide in order to evaluate coverage options, including whether your state offers high-risk health insurance pools for those with pre-existing conditions. Done with the comparing? Once you have finished few insurance quote comparisons to determine the best coverage that suits your needs, you can in fact buy the low-cost plan that fits your needs. After this, a Buying online is becoming more popular because it's fast, secure and private.

0 comments :

Thursday 11 July 2013

Westhill Healthcare Consulting

Westhill Healthcare Consulting has a complete editorial freedom over the content on its pages since it was published. Some information we provide such as view expressed are our editors' and this are not to be shared by other sites we link to or partner with.


Westhill Healthcare Consulting is one of the internet's oldest sites that offer consumer information on reasonably priced health and medical coverage since it was published during early 90's. It is the most-trusted independent site, respect and loyalty was earned through the years of hard work. All the information on this site is projected to the general consumer audience.

Westhill Healthcare Consulting is not selling insurance and is not an insurance agency

Your concern is our business, as service to our visitors, we provide health insurance quotes from carefully chosen partners who are in the business of selling health insurance, and who meet Westhill Healthcare Consulting strict standards. It is the referrals that pay us and in turn this is what we use to pay the cost of publishing this site.

Editorial policy

Westhill Healthcare Consulting has a complete editorial freedom over the content on its pages since it was published. Some information we provide such as view expressed are our editors' and this are not to be shared by other sites we link to or partner with. On behalf universal health insurance access, advocacy efforts are issue-specific. Also, they are not supposed to be considered an endorsement of any particular elected official, political party or ideology.

Personal advice

We are qualified to give advice on individual situations or legal issues.

Aside from our individual state pages that offers links to all state departments of insurance, Westhill Healthcare Consulting, also offers personal consulting. If you have questions about your individual situation, please contact us for our health insurance professional, or a legal professional depending on the nature of your inquiry. It is our pleasure to help you.

Comments, suggestions, criticisms

For comments, suggestions and criticism, please feel free to contact us via postal mail, e-mail or suggestion box in the latter part of this official site. Address, phone number and e-mail address is provided in our contact information. We welcome all comments, suggestions and criticism. Thank you for helping us improves our service.

0 comments :