Malpractice Insurers Grab Record Profits While Politicians Shortchange Horribly Injured Patients
MAG Mutual and Medical Mutual Celebrate Riches, Say Consumer Advocates, as Insurance Lobbyists and Republican Lawmakers Push for More
Raleigh, NC (PRWEB) May 03, 2011
A record dividend by one of the state’s largest medical insurance companies puts the lie to political assertions that doctors here face a crisis in medical malpractice cases, the NC Advocates for Justice said today.
MAG Mutual recently announced its largest stockholders dividend in history, $16.5 million. A note to policyholder-owners crowed, “This is the fifth year in a row a dividend has been declared. Your physician-owned company has now made distributions in 13 of the last 17 years, totaling $93 million.”
Yet despite the insurance company’s surging profitability, insurance lobbyists are aggressively pushing for a one-size-fits-all cap on damages, says the NCAJ’s Dick Taylor -- including malpractice cases resulting in mutilation, disfigurement, loss of limbs, blindness and other terrible and preventable injuries.
“Republican leaders are putting profits over people. Insurance lobbyists and GOP lawmakers seek to justify stripping patients’ rights by claiming doctors need relief from high insurance premiums while, in fact, doctor-owned insurance companies are making record profits,” said Dick Taylor of the NCAJ. “Republican leaders should re-prioritize by putting patient safety far above insurance company profits.”
MAG Mutual controls 18 percent of the North Carolina market, according to a 2009 report by the NC Department of Insurance. Medical Mutual Insurance Company, with 33 percent of the market, has also posted record-breaking profits.
Senate Bill 33 -- sponsored by Sens. Tom Apodaca, Harry Brown and Bob Rucho -- is now the subject of concurrence negotiations between the Senate and House. Politicians supported by insurance lobbyists are attempting to kill a bipartisan House amendment, according to the NCAJ, that would exempt the most extreme
Stimulus by Fed Is Disappointing, Economists Say
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve’s experimental effort to spur a recovery by purchasing vast quantities of federal debt has pumped up the stock market, reduced the cost of American exports and allowed companies to borrow money at lower interest rates.
But most Americans are not feeling the difference, in part because those benefits have been surprisingly small. The latest estimates from economists, in fact, suggest that the pace of recovery from the global financial crisis has flagged since November, when the Fed started buying $600 billion in Treasury securities to push private dollars into investments that create jobs.
As the Fed’s policy-making board prepares to meet Tuesday and Wednesday — after which the Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, will hold a news conference for the first time to explain its decisions to the public — a broad range of economists say that the disappointing results show the limits of the central bank’s ability to lift the nation from its economic malaise.
“It’s good for stopping the fall, but for actually turning things around and driving the recovery, I just don’t think monetary policy has that power,” said Mark Thoma, a professor of economics at the University of Oregon, referring specifically to the bond-buying program.
Mr. Bernanke and his supporters say that the purchases have improved economic conditions, all but erasing fears of deflation, a pattern of falling prices that can delay purchases and stall growth. Inflation, which is beneficial in moderation, has climbed closer to healthy levels since the Fed started buying bonds.
“These actions had the expected effects on markets and are thereby providing significant support to job creation and the economy,” Mr. Bernanke said in a February speech, an argument he has repeated frequently.
But growth remains slow, jobs remain scarce, and with the debt purchases scheduled to end in June, the Fed must now decide what comes next.
The Fed generally encourages growth by pushing down interest rates. In normal times, it reduces short-term interest rates, and the effects spread to other kinds of borrowing like corporate bonds and mortgage loans. But with short-term rates hovering near zero since December 2008, the Fed has tried to attack long-term rates directly by entering the market and offering to accept lower returns.
The Fed limited the program to $600 billion under considerable political pressure. While that sounds like a lot of money, the purchases have not even kept pace with the government’s issuance of new debt, so in a sense the effort has amounted to treading water. And a growing body of research suggests that the Fed could have had a larger impact by spending more money on a broader range of debt, like mortgage bonds, as it did initially.
A vocal group of critics, meanwhile, argues that the Fed has already done far too much, amassing a portfolio of more than $2 trillion that may impede the central bank’s ability to raise interest rates to curb inflation. Some of these critics view the rising price of oil and other commodities as harbingers of broader price increases.
“I wasn’t a big fan of it in the first place,” said Charles I. Plosser, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and one of the 10 members of the Fed’s policy-making board. “I didn’t think it was going to have much of an impact, and it complicated the exit strategy. And what we’ve seen has not changed my mind.”
The Fed’s decision to buy bonds, known as quantitative easing, emulated Japan’s central bank, which started buying bonds in 2001 to break a deflationary cycle.
The American version worked well at first. From November 2008 to March 2010, the Fed bought more than $1.7 trillion in mortgage and Treasury bonds, holding down mortgage rates and reducing borrowing costs for well-regarded companies by about half a percentage point, according to several studies. That is an annual savings of $5 million on every $1 billion borrowed.
As the economy sputtered last summer, Mr. Bernanke indicated in an August speech that the Fed would start a second round of quantitative easing, soon nicknamed QE 2. The initial response was the same: Asset prices rose, interest rates fell, and the dollar declined in value.
But in addition to being smaller, and solely focused on Treasuries, there also was a problem of diminishing returns. The first round of purchases reduced the cost of borrowing by persuading skittish investors to accept lower risk premiums. With markets closer to normalcy, Mr. Bernanke warned in his August speech that it was not clear that the Fed would have comparable success in persuading investors to accept even lower rates of return.
“Such purchases seem likely to have their largest effects during periods of economic and financial stress,” he said.
The Fed says that its expectations were tempered by these realities, but that the program nonetheless has lowered yields on long-term Treasury bonds by about 0.2 percentage point relative to the rates investors would have demanded in the Fed’s absence. That is about the same impact the central bank might have achieved by lowering its benchmark rate 0.75 percentage point, which in normal times would be an aggressive move.
But some economists say the new program has had a more limited impact on the broader economy than would a traditional cut in short-term interest rates. The Fed predicted that investors would be forced to buy other kinds of debt, reducing rates for other borrowers. But the supply of Treasuries available to investors has grown since November, as issuance of new government debt outpaced the Fed’s purchases.
A study published in February found that interest rates decreased, but only for companies with top credit ratings. “Rates that are highly relevant for households and many corporations — mortgage rates and rates on lower-grade corporate bonds — were largely unaffected by the policy,” wrote Arvind Krishnamurthy and Annette Vissing-Jorgensen, both finance professors at Northwestern University.
Another indication of its limited success: Borrowing has not grown significantly, suggesting that corporations — which are sitting on record piles of cash — are not yet seeing opportunities for new investments. Until they do, some economists argue that the Fed is pushing on a string.
“What has it done? It has eased credit conditions, it has pumped up the stock market, it has suppressed the dollar,” said Mickey Levy, Bank of America’s chief economist. “But does the Fed think that buying Treasuries and bloating its balance sheet is really going to create permanent job increases?”
Economic Recovery: Don’t Slam on the Breaks— Los Angeles Rally Sends Message to Congressional Leaders in Washington – “NO To HR1″
Van Nuys, CA (PRWEB) April 8, 2011
On March 23, 2011, Veterans, environmentalists, educators, service-providers, job-seekers, members of Congress, celebrities and other concerned Angelinos showed up to rally in downtown Los Angeles against $61 billion in potential federal budget cuts that could undermine national economic recovery.
Rally speakers included Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Congressmembers: Maxine Waters, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Karen Bass, Laura Richardson, Judy Chu, Councilman Richard Alarcon, actor/activist Tim Robbins, actor/activist Mimi Kennedy, actor/environmentalist James Crowell and a huge crowd of concerned citizens supporting the 100+ local social service agencies threatened by the proposed cuts. An outpouring of media covered the Rally which in lieu of the passing of a major celebrity and impending rainstorm that day, showed the extent of media support which included every major English and Spanish news crew and print outlet plus Korean, Russian TV, Thai TV, Chinese TV, etc.
A compelling seven minute video, “Wake UP Everybody!” by was culled from the footage of the Rally which poignantly depicts the state of America today. The video created by Los Angeles filmmaker, Tess Cacciatore includes Rally speakers, street photos showing homelessness, joblessness, and the plight of Americans struggling to live a decent life with underlaying music by legendary musicians, Marvin Gaye (“Inner City Blues”) and Harold Melvin & the Bluenotes (“Wake Up Everybody!”). A heart-breaking sign of the times depicting a dismal future unless people “wake up” to seeing what is going in America today!
This bill will impact every state of our nation and we encourage everyone to pay attention to how this will impact you and your community. Find out who to contact in your city, state or your elected officials in Washington. It''s time we all WAKE UP!
The budget approved last month by the House of Representatives could kill as many as one million jobs nationally-- in construction, education, public safety, technological innovation and green job sectors according to economic analysts. The cuts would also undermine job training funding and support to employers’ recruiting programs.
The City of Los Angeles would take a $571 million hit, and LA County well over $1 billion. This reduction in funds would severely impact job creation and could derail economic recovery. Cuts would eliminate programs that support small businesses in their efforts to avoid lay-offs, along with training and job placement programs, funding for economic development projects and support for law enforcement and other public safety functions. There would be major reduction in support for the new technology initiatives that create energy efficiency and reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gases.
“Job creation needs support, not more economic uncertainty brought on by de-funding programs that invest in LA’s workforce and infrastructure,” said Sophia Esparza, spokesperson for the Southern California Workforce Partnership (SCWP). “Our economic recovery needs jobs. It’s a bad time to take a hatchet to budget items that provide investment for innovation and support for both employers and employees trying to match jobs and skills.”
Last month, the House passed H.R. 1 which called for $61 billion in spending cuts over the previous fiscal year. The bill has not been taken up in the Senate. Instead the House and Senate have passed and the President has signed two short-term Continuing Resolutions which cut $10 billion in spending and funds the government through April 8. The Wednesday rally aims to convince the Congress that now is not the time to enact drastic cuts like those envisioned in H.R. 1 that would threaten the economic recovery and produce more job losses.
J.P. Morgan Economic Survey Signals Moderate Growth for 2011, but Unemployment Still High: Non-profit Charity CEO Talks About What the New Year Holds for Charitable Giving
Washington, DC (Vocus/PRWEB) January 02, 2011
To say the US hit an economic snag in 2010 is a bit like putting a doily on top of the elephant in the room hoping it just blends in. But there is no way to sugar coat the immensity of the 2010 economic crisis. Some economists go as far as to call this economic slump the worst since the Great Depression. But for millions of Americans the worst case scenario is happening anyway, with many losing their jobs and homes in a time of economic uncertainty. "As a nation," says Vincent Everett (CEO of Works of Life International Ministries), "we are craving good news." Still, he adds, many are pessimistic about 2011 because of high unemployment.
“The last thing we need right now is to be slapped in the face with bleak economic predictions for the incoming year,” says the Works of Life CEO, “But many projections show that unemployment will remain very high, which severely strains many Americans on an immediate level.” Everett is one of many philanthropic experts hoping that someone will call the end of this recession and actually be right. “But we have to be realistic about this,” he says, “The Obama administration remains hopeful of economic recovery. Well, Mr. Obama, hope doesn’t put food on the table. Jobs do.”
Everett’s public statement comes in light of a recent article published in J.P. Morgan in which many economists within the Banking Firm expect unemployment to remain high in spite of moderate, if uneven, economic growth.
According to Everett, slow growth does not mean the economy has recovered. A CNN Money survey of twenty-three economists predicts the unemployment rate for 2011 to be 8.5 on average, with some estimating the figure to be as high as 9.4. “These are still grim numbers that no one is really happy about, because there are real faces behind the stats.” says Everett.
Works of Life is a non-profit, non-denominational, faith-based charity with over a decade of experience in humanitarian aid. Together with their affiliate charitable organizations OnlineCarDonation.org and OnlineBoatDonation.org Works of Life accepts a variety of small and large donations including car donation, boat donation, yachts, and even aircraft donation to help support a variety of charitable causes world wide. “Our desire to help those less fortunate drives our foundation’s success in using large charitable gifts as humanitarian tools,” says Everett. He adds, “Charities pay special attention to unemployment figures because they are an indication of the level of work we have ahead of us.”
J.P. Morgan economists cite May Data which show that although there was an increase in jobs that month, almost all of them were temporary government positions. “This article unfortunately dashes hopes of a huge hiring boost,” says Everett. “Pundits on the Hill are telling us everything will be OK, but there aren’t many new jobs at all. What is this, a jobless recovery?”
Works of Life urges Americans to look at our economic record in 2010 before believing that more jobs will be created next year. Since the beginning of his presidency, Obama has pushed for a jobs bill to promote hiring. “I want a jobs bill on my desk without delay,” said President Obama in his first State of the Union address. According to Everett there is still a job crisis. “People are still hurting. They still need help. They still need something more than words,” he says.
For years, Works of Life, OnlineCarDonation and OnlineBoatDonation have received donations in order to benefit communities in the US and abroad, to help victims of abuse, the elderly, and families who have fallen on desperately hard times. Works of Life has recently been featured on Forbes Magazine as well as the Huffington Post for their commentary on economic trends in the US.
“We are on the ground where it matters,” said Mr. Everett in an interview. “Jobs are just as hard to come by today as they were when Obama came into office. If you are a member of the philanthropic community you’ll see just how bad the economy still is.” The Works of Life CEO hopes Americans will realize that real change is a matter of civic responsibility. Charitable donations allow non-profit charities like Works of Life to reach out and touch communities, helping people turn their lives around even as economic projections continue to be stark. “We are not discouraged by any of this,” says Everett, “It actually motivates us to become better as an organization.”
To contact Works of Life call (888) 228-7320 or visit http://www.worksoflife.org , http://www.onlinecardonation.org , or http://www.onlineboatdonation.org .
Works of Life International Ministries
Online Car Donation
1081 S. Cimmaron
Las Vegas, Nevada 89145
http://www.onlinecardonation.org
About onlinecardonation/Works of Life Intl. Ministries Inc.:
Operating since 2002 Onlinecardonation is a non-profit, non-denominational faith-based charitable organization that provides charitable works for other like-minded organizations in the form of endowments, grants and much, much more.
Their clients range from social service agencies to private non-profits, hospitals and more importantly individuals with special needs including victims of crime, military families, those with physical challenges and victims of abuse.
Onlinecardonation has enjoyed a successful relationship with many like-minded charitable Organizations, developing residential based programs for those interested in Ministering to others but limited physically in doing so.
Haiti Water Sanitation Projects Can’t Wait
Locust Grove, GA (PRWEB) January 14, 2010 -- The MiTio Foundation partners with Food for the Poor and their water sanitation projects in Haiti. Dr. Lee says, "I must admit, I feel that the task at hand is a bit daunting due to the amount of time and effort that we will need to devote to these water sanitation projects in Haiti in order for them to be successful. Yet, I must put these thoughts aside, because those in Haiti cannot wait any longer for relief." The MiTio Foundation has amassed a group of talented individuals to attend to these tasks, and we are confident that we are ready to tackle these tasks head on.
The primary mission of the MiTio Foundation is to relieve the plight of unclean drinking water in the Americas. Here in the US the water problem is one of supply. States fight over lakes, Cities decide whether or not to build new dams, and judges decide whether farmers receive tributary access or species of fish go extinct. These are not small matters, but they are supply issues that can be averted by technological innovations, conservation, or both. In the poorer countries of the Americas however, (the Caribbean’s, Central and South America) the water problem is that of sanitation. Clean drinking water is of such a rarity in these countries, that it is a clear line of demarcation between the have’s and have not’s. Unfortunately the have not’s suffer from preventable diseases as a result of unclean water.
The Mitio Foundation is a partner with Food for the Poor an already established program that is fighting these issues on two fronts; water sanitation, and distribution. Food for the Poor has an ongoing, well established system of water sanitation and purification projects in Haiti. There are over 50 water sanitation/filtration projects proposed in Haiti alone that are sponsored by Food for the Poor (see attached chart). Established in 1982 as a 501c3 corporation, Food for the Poor’s goal is to improve “health, economic, social, and spiritual conditions of the women and children they serve.” Food for the Poor provides direct relief and assistance to the poor. Between 1998 and 2008 Food for the Poor completed 98 water specific projects in Haiti. In 2009, 120 wells were built. Through wells, and water filtration systems Food for the Poor provides clean drinking water to these communities. Link: http://www.foodforthepoor.org/about/work/fast-facts/haiti-facts.html
By Dr. Nelva Lee
How to Give
Mail Check/MO to: MiTio 300 Lester Mill Rd #200-O Locust Grove, GA 30248
Contact us at info(at)mitio(dot)org or 877-338-8479 if you need routing number info to pay via bank transfer
Reports Challenge Healthcare Reform Proposals
Santa Fe, NM (PRWEB) October 13, 2009 -- Campbell-Graves.org released today its twelve-month study of the National Flood Insurance Program along with a video report explaining the implications of that study on healthcare reform efforts.
The Pass Through: Compromising America's Public Interests is part of a new report series on government insurance programs and their effects on middle-income families. Similarities between the flood program and healthcare reforms are notable.
Public Options & the Insurance Illusion is a video report that applies The Pass Through findings to understanding the effects of proposed healthcare reforms.
Both reports raise questions about long-standing ideologies that frame how public solutions should work. Some program designs cannot succeed.
According to project founder, Phil Campbell-Graves, "Reform legislation is backwards. Congress switched from addressing healthcare cost problems to subsidizing the insurance industry. Reforms ignore the fact that costs are the problem."
Flood loss and healthcare reform legislation share a number of similarities:
Each addresses an essential public need resulting from private industry failing to serve a large portion of that need;
Each stems from cost problems, with both sets of costs (flood losses and medical expenses) growing far faster than the economy;
Each addresses complex issues, with practical solutions requiring multiple and, at times, competing functions;
Each has a primary insurance function that relies on private industry; and,
Each faces a pressing need to take action.
A sixth similarity raises concerns. With both, delaying action is problematic. The flood program illustrates how some actions worsen the problem.
Lawmakers say the National Flood Insurance Program saves a little over $1 billion a year in flood losses. The numbers say something else. Over the past 31-years, taxpayers and consumers paid $54 billion to 'save' $36 billion in losses. The program increased costs by 50 percent. Congress is pushing healthcare reform down a similar path.
All healthcare reforms proposed in Congress lock America into an inefficient financing model. Because costs paid by the public for an essential public need are 'taxes,' reform proposals, from both sides of the aisle, increase taxes. They also hide the increase.
Consumers and taxpayers enjoy no benefit from the increase in costs. It wastes scarce family resources. Contrasting political rhetoric, Campbell-Graves contends, "Inefficient programs are uniquely un-American - they undermine America's public interests."
The Pass Through report and Public Options video are in a 56-megabyte Acrobat Portfolio (pdf), available at campbell-graves.org.
For more information on these reports or the related public-awareness campaign, please visit the Press Information Page or contact Phil Campbell-Graves (888-543-5130).
ABOUT CAMPBELL-GRAVES.ORG: Campbell-Graves.org is a non-partisan public service project, founded in 1997. It focuses on policy topics related to the economy, mortgages, investments, taxes, and retirement.
New Patient Care Assessment Addresses Health Care Reform Through Workers’ Behavior
Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) September 24, 2009 -- While the nation debates the options and costs for health care reform, one need remains clear: the need for quality patient care. Health care organizations are well aware that their reputation for quality and patient satisfaction drives consumer choice. To aid consumers in selecting a provider, the government created the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey, the results of which are publicly available to both patients and insurers. Hospitals are now being held accountable for their customer service track record in a very public forum.
The new PreVisor CARE Patient Care Assessment is targeted specifically at the behaviors that drive HCAHPS survey results. PreVisor, the global leader in employment assessments and talent measurement solutions that connect employment decisions to business results, created CARE utilizing a combination of technologically advanced assessment tools that identify employees' strengths and developmental needs relative to improving HCAHPS survey results. This information can be used as a leading indicator of future HCAHPS results and will help target areas for quality improvement and patient satisfaction initiatives among any staff who deliver patient care.
In addition to helping patients and insurance companies compare providers, the results of the HCAHPS survey are used to determine Medicare and Medicaid payments and will increasingly be used as benchmarks to evaluate health care provider organizations. Health care employees providing service directly to patients are the critical driver of these results.
"We know that health care providers are concerned about improving patient care not only from the ethical aspects, but because the quality of patient care directly impacts the bottom line, both in terms of choices that patients have and in the form of reimbursement incentives from the federal government that are related to formal patient satisfaction measures," stated Dr. Ken Lahti, Director of product strategy and development at PreVisor. "Because employees of health care organizations are the primary drivers of the patient care experience, talent measurement practices can be a useful tool for improving patient care."
The CARE assessment can be used at all levels of a health care organization to provide data for a wide range of activities and patient care initiatives. For example, results of this assessment can inform discussions around individual level development goals that might be designed to improve patient satisfaction. At a department or organizational level, this assessment can provide important benchmarks and comparisons on the behaviors potentially influencing HCAHPS results. This information could also be used to tailor or fine-tune training and development programs to target those performance behaviors that will have the greatest likelihood of driving up patient satisfaction.
As a patient satisfaction measure, the HCAHPS survey focuses primarily on courtesy, effective communication, responsiveness to patient needs, creating a pleasant environment, pain management, and discharge from care preparations. PreVisor's CARE assessment was designed specifically to match areas covered by the HCAHPS survey. Reports from the system include written information and feedback on eight important and highly relevant competencies linked to patient care performance.
For a product demonstration, call: 1-800-367-2509 or visit http://www.previsor.com/contact/request to request additional information.
About the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA)
In December 2002, the American Hospital Association (AHA), Federation of American Hospitals (FAH), and Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) launched the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA), a national public-private collaboration to encourage hospitals to voluntarily collect and report hospital quality performance information. This effort is intended to make important information about hospital performance accessible to the public and to inform and invigorate efforts to improve quality. More information is available at: HHG.gov.
About PreVisor
PreVisor, the leading global provider of on demand employment assessments and talent measurement solutions, helps clients connect employment decisions to business results. Following the rigorous standards of industrial-organizational psychology, PreVisor's assessment content accurately predicts on-the-job performance and supports fair hiring practices. PreVisor's solutions help streamline hiring, reduce recruiting and training costs, and improve corporate performance for clients worldwide, including more than 100 of the Fortune 500. www.previsor.com