| Medicare has recently put a lot of focus on preventative health measures to help bring down overall healthcare costs and obesity has been a hot topic. The federal government believes that around 30% of its Medicare population falls into the obese category and this greatly contributes to expensive health issues such as diabetes and heart disease. The article on NJSpotLight.com by Beth Fitzgerald, “Medicare Adds Free Obesity Screening and Counseling to Preventative Services”, talks about how reducing obesity among seniors can help trim healthcare costs. In the government’s attempt to get the obesity epidemic under control, they are adding free obesity screening in addition to a full year of weight-loss counseling to the long list of preventative services they cover. Dennis J. McGowen, public awareness coordinator for the New Jersey Division of Aging and Community Services in the Department of Health says this obesity coverage is the latest step in an overall movement towards preventative care. Starting in 2012, Medicare adds other preventative care services to the list including an annual primary care wellness visit and an eight session program to help Medicare recipients quit smoking. The attending physician in internal medicine at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, Dr. F. Dein Rice, says this Medicare obesity management benefit is a great change from previous approaches towards dealing with chronic illness. He points out that obesity is the underlying cause of metabolic syndrome and should be addressed first since it’s a marker for high blood pressure, diabetes, as well as high cholesterol. The majority of his patients are overweight or obese and he understands the importance of obesity screening and counseling. Written by Sam Tabes Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/smartshopper78
Chinese Community Health Plan (CCHP) effective Jan 1 2012 will transition its pharmacy benefits management company Navitus Health Solutions so that its members will not experience any interruption of service resulting from Walgreens ongoing dispute with Express Scripts. Beginning Jan 1, Express Scripts customers will not be able to utilize Walgreen’s to get their prescriptions filled. Anthem Blue Cross members are included in those that will be affected. CCHP is the health plan subsidiary of Chinese Hospital in San Francisco. They provide coverage to nearly all health insurance customers including large groups, small groups, individuals ans families, and seniors enrolled in Medicare. More about California health insurance
Health Blue Living is a wellness based HMO that was launched five years ago by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. Since then nearly 500k Michigan residents have enrolled in the health plan. The plan provides discounts in monthly premium to he employee if they achieve goals such as lowering BMI, or quitting smoking for example. As proof that the wellness program is successful, medical claims for Health Blue Living were 9% below that of traditional policies. The key to the wellness component working seems to be that the rewards are real. Years ago, employees might receive a small token gift for completing a health risk assessment, with Health Blue Living, the employee will get a discount each month off of their premium. More about Michigan health insurance
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