Tag: Medical care
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11 Ways Congress Can Improve the ACA Right Now
Now that the 2014 elections are behind us, we thought we’d take a look at 11 actions Congress can take to improve the Affordable Care Act. Several of our suggestions have bipartisan support and, even in the 2015 session of Congress, a vote to do away with some of the less popular aspects of the […]
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Study Confirms Long-term Stem Cell Benefits for Parkinson’s Disease
Newly reported research discovered neural dopamine-producing stem cells transplanted into patients with Parkinson’s disease stayed healthy and functional for up to 14 years. The findings were reported in the June 5, 2014 issue of the journal Cell Reports. This is exciting news for people with Parkinson’s Disease. Researchers studied the brains of five Parkinson’s Disease […]
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What If American Medical Care Ran Air Travel
The American medical care system is often called one of the best in the world. In some ways, it is a fair observation. We have greater access to state of the art medical technology than almost any other nation. Our doctors are skilled and well-trained. Most communities have access to a hospital. Major diseases and injuries are […]
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5 Must-Fix Items in the Affordable Care Act: Higher Insurance Costs
Supporters of the Affordable Care Act told us the law would make medical care and health insurance less expensive. Advocates said there were several reasons. More people will have insurance, including a lot more healthy young people. Competition created by health insurance exchanges will bring prices down. More people would gain access to preventive care. However, other parts of the […]
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Five Must-Fix Items in the Affordable Care Act – The Small Business Deductible
Editor’s Note: We initially expressed concern about the impact of the small business deductible cap in September 2012. Since that time, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a final rule on the application of the small business deductible. Under that ruling, the Affordable Care Act provision allowing small businesses to use medical expense […]
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Clearing up the International Accreditation Noise
There is a lot of noise about accreditation in media and marketing surrounding international medical travel. With few clear voices, sorting the message from the madness is challenging. Accreditation, whether regulatory or voluntary, is simply a floor above which a hospital must work. That there are no “good, better, best” connotations implied or expressed in […]
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International Medical Accreditation Unwound
We often see the comment “We only use JCI accredited hospitals” on the websites of and marketing brochures of medical tourism facilitators. I always enjoy reading that statement, knowing that the company either doesn’t understand accreditation or doesn’t really believe the comment. Accreditation, put simply, is a means by which the medical community evaluates administration, operations, […]
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Time to Bend the Health Insurance Cost Curve
There was an interesting health insurance discussion on the social networking site LinkedIn recently. Participants were talking about the 2011 United Benefits Advisors Health Plan Study. The study noted that Consumer Directed Health Insurance Plans, at 22.9% of employer-provided health plans, surpassed HMOs, which now represent only 17.8% of employer health plans. Both still lag far behind PPO plans (48.4%), according to […]
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Destination Medical Care: Right New Take on an Age-old Practice
Many people look at a destination medical care as a new idea. In fact, nothing could be farther from true. From antiquity, people around the world have traveled to distant locations to reach the best medical care possible. The earliest references date from about 2650 BC, when people traveled to see the Egyptian physician Imhotep who was renowned […]
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American Medical Association Guidelines on Medical Tourism & Destination Medical Care
The American Medical Association advocates that employers, insurance companies, and other entities that arrange medical care outside the U.S. adhere to the principles below. As a leader in destination medical care, here’s our take on the American Medical Association’s guidelines. Medical care outside of the U.S. must be voluntary. Soter position: We agree. Soter Healthcare will not […]