Big Insurance Moves in on Medicaid

• An excerpt, DECEMBER 29, 2010

Insurers Bid for State Medicaid Plans

BY AVERY JOHNSON

Health insurers are preparing to capitalize on $40 billion of new opportunities to run privately managed Medicaid plans for the states, which would position insurers to benefit from the health overhaul's expansion of Medicaid in 2014.

Medicaid, the state and federal program for the poor, has become a growth area for big insurers such as UnitedHealth Group Inc. and more specialized plans such as Molina Healthcare Inc. Texas and Georgia will solicit new contracts for their private Medicaid plans early next year, while California, Florida and others are likely to meaningfully expand their programs, companies and states have said.

NO to Forced Purchase of Health Insurance

While I am strongly committed to health care access for all as is available in most countries outside the US, I think this ruling is one to be strongly evaluated.

First of all why must insurance, especially in a plan largely written by the insurance and pharmaceutical industry be rammed down the throats of selected groups of people?

Secondly, most media outlets are not giving much coverage to the groups that are exempted from this proposal.  Members of Congress are excluded and to me this is the most flagrant abuse in the legislation.

There are other concerns too but I want to stick with an example of employment based insurance.

In an NPR report related to the court ruling there was a discussion of the "boomers" in age 50-64.  Right now many are unemployed, lacking coverage, and lacking employment opportunities because so many of the Republicans in Congress sent jobs from their political crony corporations out of the country, and for the most part are responsible for NAFTA and GATT.

A health policy instructor at a California university mentioned in the report that it is just the 50-64 age group that is at highest risk of developing chronic health conditions like the heart attack that left a 59 year old man with $94 thousand in debt.  He'd also been unemployed for 5 years.

This college instructor also mentioned that most chronic health conditions start appearing around age 64.

Certainly a better way to see this is to see that there is no inclusion of natural health options in the health insurance reform bill.

There is talk about "integrative" care but this model  has quickly become a copy cat of the AMA model, only the "prescriptions" are a bit different, but it is still a tightly controlled arena.  They want this limited to the few who have 'licensening'.

What you hear so little about is prevention and true natural therapies.

The traditional natural health care approach has been keeping people well for h undreds of years.  You can find out more here. We have been helping people be well and stay well in a toxic world for decades naturally and during the decades as a nurse practitioner.

Key healthcare provision voided by federal judge

A requirement that Americans buy insurance — the central provision of Obama's signature domestic achievement — is unconstitutional, the ruling says.


December 13, 2010
By Noam N. Levey and David G. Savage, Tribune Washington Bureau Reporting from Washington — Declaring a core part of the new healthcare law unconstitutional, a federal judge in Virginia has launched President Obama's signature domestic achievement into a gantlet of conservative-leaning courts that will almost certainly conclude at the Supreme Court just as the 2012 election is cresting.

In the first such decision since Obama signed the law in March, U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson ruled Monday that Congress had overstepped its power in requiring Americans to get health insurance by 2014.

Continue reading

More here

Health Insurance Reform Bill Struck Down

By LARRY O'DELL, Associated Press Larry O'dell, Associated Press – 

RICHMOND, Va. – A federal judge declared the foundation of President Barack Obama's health care law unconstitutional Monday, ruling that the government cannot require Americans to purchase insurance. The case is expected to end up at the Supreme Court.

In his order, U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson said he will allow the law to remain in effect while appeals are heard, meaning there is unlikely to be any immediate impact on other provisions that have already taken effect. The insurance coverage mandate is not scheduled to begin until 2014.

Related article: Terrain Shifts in Challenges to the Health Care Law

Saving Lives and Saving Money

The following is a quote excerpted from a Public Citizen report that looked at the US health crisis.  As we move to the unfolding of health insurance reform in 2011 it is well worth everyone's attention to the issues addressed in this post.

"...the country is in a patient safety crisis, and that medical professionals, lawmakers and regulators must do significantly more to avert it.
The 1999 landmark report, “To Err is Human,” dropped the first bombshell, reporting that between 44,000 and 98,000 Americans die in hospitals each year from medical mistakes, costing an estimated $17 billion to $29 billion annually. HHS’ new finding that medical mistakes kill 15,000 Medicare patients a month equates to 180,000 Medicare deaths per year - more than the IOM’s estimate, which attempted to cover all patients in the United States. That means that the annual death toll in this country caused by mistakes in hospitals is well over 250,000 deaths a year! But perhaps the most startling finding by HHS is that a significant number of patients suffered injuries or died needlessly, as 44 percent of the medical errors were preventable."

One of my clients recently saw the writing on the wall when he went for his regular lab work, as he is an organ transplant recipient. transplant.  The lab removed many of the tests on his doctor's order, and he will not be able to get them routinely because of program changes.

As this moves further along we see that the "advance care planning" portion is in a rule from US Department of
Health & Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) here:
http://www.ofr.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2010-27969_PI.pdf
[NOTE: link went inactive following 11/29. As of 12/1 the document is available at http://tinyurl.com/3akk88e

SOURCE: Just when you thought the American people had dodged the death panel bullet (Section 1233 of the House bill), think again. Last Monday, November 29, 2010, /The Federal Register/ (page 73406) published a new funding rule for "voluntary" advance care planning consultations that changes US Department of Health and Human Services regulation pertaining to Medicare and Medicaid patients.

The new regulation states that advanced care planning consultations will now be offered (and funded) as part of the initial wellness visit for medicare patients and during all subsequent annual visits.

The Federal Register provides a uniform system for making available to the public regulations and legal notices issued by Federal agencies. Agency proclamations having general and legal effect are required to be published by act of Congress.

Has there been any media attention to this important change in health care coverage for all those receiving medicare and medicaid services" You will recall the uproar about death panels, but this week funding for these consultation sessions became part of general government regulations without fanfare.

Ione Whitlock is Chief of Research at LifeTree. On our current homepage she discusses these new Federal Regulations. Also posted there is her new essay titled "Heads up: Section 1233 again."

Ione discusses Congressman Earl Blumenauer's bill -- HR 5795 -- which was introduced this summer after passage of the health care bill, and two matching bills which were introduced in 2009 by Senator Rockefeller and Congressman Blumenauer. All these bills seek grants for programs to expand or enhance existing state programs for orders regarding life sustaining treatment (POLST).

One of the main goals of this legislation is to fully implement the POLST form into our health care system. POLST stands for Physician's Orders for Life Sustaining Treatement. It comes in many flavors including MOST, MOLST, POST and TPOPP, depending on the location.

Government funds will be used to educate "providers" who will work with the patients, their families and surrogates in filling out the POLST forms. They will learn the so-called "best practices" for discussing end-of-life care with dying patients and their loved ones. These funds will ensure that the POLST forms are recorded electronically.

Note: For more information on the history and implications of POLST, see "POLST: 'Self-Determination' or Imposed Death" http://www.lifetree.org/resources/polstInfo.html in LifeTree's Resources section.

New CMS Rule Establishes "Voluntary" End-of-Life Consultations

Americans weary of "voluntary" TSA pat-downs and full-body scans will be delighted to learn that "voluntary" end-of-life consultations are in their future as well.

The US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has made it official: The "advance care planning" funding that would incentivize "voluntary" end-of-life counseling will be included in Obamacare. This funding was part of what was in the controversial "Section 1233" earlier this year. See more
extensive discussion in our alert below, posted last week.

The new CMS rule as printed in the Federal Register (Vol. 75, No. 228, Book 1) online at http://tinyurl.com/2wn5vz4
Discussion on "voluntary advance care planning" begins on page 73406.

posted 12/1/10 by IW
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Heads up: Section 1233 again.

Last March Nancy Pelosi told the American people that she and her colleagues "have to pass the bill so you can find out what's in it." Americans had already seen one part of the proposed healthcare legislation, and didn't like what they saw: The infamous Section 1233 of HR 3200 would have federalized "voluntary" end-of-life "consultations."
The section was eventually dropped.

It appears that Section 1233 is still alive and kicking.

The "advance care planning" portion is in a rule from US Department of Health & Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) here: http://www.ofr.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2010-27969_PI.pdf
[NOTE: link went inactive following 11/29. As of 12/1 the document is available at http://tinyurl.com/3akk88e

The POLST part is included in pending legislation, HR 5795 "Personalize Your Care Act of 2010." See
http://tinyurl.com/24u5q37
which is a link to all the information about this bill and the actual text as a pdf at http://tinyurl.com/2a9rudq.

CMS posted the preliminary rules on Election Day; formal rules are to be published in the Federal Register on November 29. The rules include a discussion of the definition of "voluntary," although some of the more nuanced meanings of "voluntary" may have been missed (just ask any recipient of a "voluntary" TSA pat-down). The rule also includes a discussion of signature requirements for "orders" versus "requisitions" in context of diagnostic tests. The American Bar Association's Charles Sabatino, who supported Section 1233, calls the new rules "a big step forward."

Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) introduced HR 5795 this past July. It is a revised version of the legislation that he and Senator Rockefeller (D-WV) introduced last year. Blumenauer introduced HR 2911, and Rockefeller introduced S. 1150 in 2009, both titled "Advance Planning and Compassionate Care Act of 2009". Both bills included:
    * Section 211 (Advance Care Planning) was almost identical to Section 1233 of HR. 3200 " the section that was dropped from the  final bill signed in March.
    * Section 112, which would have provided funding to expand POLST.

It is Section 112 of the Rockefeller and Blumenauer bills (S 1150 and HR 2911) that is now Section 3 of HR 5795. Portability of advance directives and standards for electronic health records are also addressed in HR 5795.

Blumenauer is the congressman most often associated with POLST He is, incidentally, an advocate of legalized assisted suicide, and Rockefeller has spent decades trying to push through legislation on behalf of the organizations that evolved from the Euthanasia Society of America.

Shortly before the election, Blumenauer told a radical pro-assisted suicide group that he had reintroduced what had been known as the "death panel" legislation. He complained that Section 1233 had been dropped due to "organized opposition" from "all of the Sarah-Palin-Fox-News-tin-foil-hat" people, but "it's not stopping us from moving forward." Over the summer he had reintroduced the bill with a new name: the "Personalize Your Care Act of 2010" (HR 5795).

"Personalize" leaves the impression that this bill might put medical treatment decisions back in the hands of the individual, keeping the discussion between patient and physician. It implies that the patient might as easily "choose life" as to forgo treatment. This is pretty slick marketing, considering it is coming from the same Oregon liberals
who pushed not only assisted suicide, but rationing for "equitable distribution of resources" for "the common good." The bioethicists at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) who devised the "citizen parliaments" that gave Oregon its rationing scheme are some of the same bioethicists who put the fine tuning on POLST.

Blumenauer, in his remarks to the Oregon activists, went on to say that Oregon leads the way in health reform. Well, yes. Oregon health care is infamous for two things: assisted suicide, and rationing. Blumenauer's bill would impose both on the whole country.

Note: For more information on the history and implications of POLST, see "POLST: 'Self-Determination' or Imposed Death"  www.lifetree.org/resources/polstInfo.html in LifeTree's Resources section.
posted 11/24/10 by IW, revised 12/2/10 by IW

The Six Parts of the Deficit Commission's Plan for Medicare Reform Through 2020
Part #1— Reform the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate ($26 Billion Savings)
Freezing physician pay reductions through 2013 and a one percent cut in 2014. Additionally it recommends developing a new pay formula based on care coordination and quality instead of quantity of services.
Part #2— Reform or Repeal the CLASS Act ($76 Billion Cost)
The attempt as part of the health care overhaul to address the need for residential long-term care through a voluntary insurance program is criticized as financially unsustainable under its current format.
The recommendation is for complete overhaul or repeal (the preferred option) even with a price to be paid. This is because the collection of premiums over the first five years would have provided positive cash flow.
Part #3— Medicare and Other Health Care Revisions for 2012-2020 ($316 Billion Savings)
The commission proposes the following:

• $9 billion in waste, fraud and abuse will be saved by increasing the authority and resources of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
  
• $110 billion by introducing a simple annual deductible of $550 for Part A and Part B and 20 percent Medicare co-pays, with a cap of $7,500.
  
• $38 billion through Medigap supplemental insurance reform. Eliminating coverage for the first $500 and restricting coverage to 50 percent of the next $5,000 in cost sharing. As a stretch into dangerous political territory the commission recommends the same treatment for Tricare (military version of Medicare) and federal retirees.
  
• $49 billion from treating Medicaid drug rebates in the same way as Medicare for those eligible for both programs.
  
• $60 billion by reducing excess payments to teaching hospitals to 120 percent of the national average salary for residents.
  
• $23 billion from ceasing payment for unpaid Medicare deductibles and co-pays.
  
• $9 billion by bringing forward, by two years, plans to change reimbursements for home health providers.
  
• $18 billion by introducing a change in the Federal Employee Health Benefit program and providing a fixed subsidy. The commission also recommends evaluation of the program to determine, based on the experience with FEHB reform, whether a voucher system could work for Medicare.

Part #4— Aggressive Implementation and Expansion of Payment Reform Pilots
The commission sees opportunities to expand programs aggressively where there is evidence of cost control, without need for additional Congressional approval. Note that this expansion will not be at the cost of providing quality care.
Part #5— Eliminate Provider Carve-Outs from IPAB
This recommendation allows the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) to include provider groups, such as hospitals, within its authority to recommend changes in revised payment policies.
Part #6— Establish a Long-Term Global Budget for Total Health Care Spending
This requires establishing a total federal health care budget and limiting growth to GDP plus 1 percent with a process to review spending. It additionally requires structural reforms if the spending exceeds the targets. The commission also said that if spending continues to grow, tax benefits for employer provided health insurance should be eliminated.

US 49th in Life Expectancy but don't tell John Boehner

Coming soon to your health insurance plan, especially as the deficit commission plans to shift more costs from employers to workers.

Please Mr Obama, stop caving in on the needs of the people who are your true "boss".  Listen up and stay away from those back room deals with politcos...

Inefficiency Hurts U.S. in Longevity Rankings By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
November 29, 2010


By any measure, the United States spends more on health care than any other nation. Yet according to the World Fact Book (published by the Central Intelligence Agency), it ranks 49th in life expectancy.
Why?
Researchers writing in the November issue of the journal Health Affairs say they know the answer. After citing statistical evidence showing that American patterns of obesity, smoking, traffic accidents and homicide are not the cause of lower life expectancy, they conclude that the problem is the health care system.
Peter A. Muennig and Sherry A. Glied, researchers at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, compared the performance of the United States and 12 other industrialized nations: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. In addition to health care expenditures in each country, they focused on two other important statistics: 15-year survival for people at 45 years and for those at 65 years.
The researchers say those numbers present an accurate picture of public health because they measure a country’s success in preventing and treating the most common causes of death — cardiovascular disease, stroke and diabetes — which are more likely to occur at these ages. Their data come from the World Health Organization and cover 1975 to 2005.
Life expectancy increased over those years in all 13 countries, and so did health care costs. But the United States had the lowest increase in life expectancy and the highest increase in costs.
In 1975 the United States was close to the average in health care costs, and last in 15-year survival for 45-year-old men. By 2005 its costs had more than tripled, far surpassing increases elsewhere, but the survival number was still last — a little over 90 percent, compared with more than 94 percent for Swedes, Swiss and Australians. For women, it was 94 percent in the United States, versus 97 percent in Switzerland, Australia and Japan.
The numbers for 65-year-olds in 2005 were similar: about 58 percent of American men could be expected to survive 15 years, compared with more than 65 percent of Australians, Japanese and Swiss. While more than 80 percent of 65-year-old women in France, Switzerland, and Japan would survive 15 years, only about 70 percent of American women could be expected to live that long.
In narrowing the blame to the American health care system, the researchers first eliminated several other factors. Obesity and smoking are the most important behavior-related causes of death, but obesity increased more slowly in the United States than in the other countries and smoking declined more rapidly, so neither can explain the differences in survival rates. Homicide and traffic fatality rates have remained steady over time, and social, economic and educational factors do not vary greatly among these countries.
But not all experts agree with this analysis. Samuel Preston, a demographer and a professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, says the analysis is faulty.
“The basic message is correct — that measures of U.S. health, including mortality and morbidity, are very poor in comparison with other countries,” he said. But the Columbia researchers “have no direct evidence about the health care system in this article,” he continued. “Their conclusion is extremely speculative.”
That they did not find smoking at fault, Dr. Preston said, “is mysterious to me, particularly since they show high lung cancer mortality for the U.S.” Dr. Preston has published widely on mortality trends and the effects of smoking.
Dr. Muennig conceded that the study examined only life expectancy and health care spending in the 13 countries, and not the structure or economics of health care. “We did a pretty good job of showing that smoking isn’t the culprit,” he said.
“Smoking and obesity are still major risk factors for an individual’s health,” he said. “But they are sapping life expectancy in all countries. Whereas in the U.S. we have a highly inefficient health system that’s taking away financial resources from other lifesaving programs.” SOURCE

and from UPI, trends in waiting, as the health insurance reform bill waits to go full throttle -

Some insurers switch to cheaper drugs

UPPER NYACK, N.Y., Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Health insurers change as much as 70 percent of medication prescriptions, resulting in adverse reactions among some patients, a U.S. survey indicates.
A survey by the Global Healthy Living Foundation, a non-profit patient advocacy group, found some patients with chronic conditions who responded well to a particular drug relapsed after being switched to a cheaper drug.
"This disturbing finding is not a simple case of switching a brand-name drug for a generic one, a common and generally accepted practice used for many illnesses, and one GHLF supports," Louis Tharp, executive director of the GHLP, says in a statement. "We found that health insurance companies throughout the U.S. switch one brand-name drug for another simply because the switched drug is cheaper -- if the drugs are identical, physicians generally have no objection, the survey found, but national medical groups have said most drugs are not identical and switching can cause adverse reactions and poor recovery rates."
Tharp says his group is working with other advocacy groups, state insurance commissioners, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and state attorneys general to see what action can be taken to stop the practice.
"Switching is a practice that is starting to get a lot of attention," Tharp says.
"Legislation pending in New York, California and Missouri would outlaw this practice," and, he added, "Louisiana passed a law last year prohibiting it."
No survey details were provided.

Perhaps this abstract from AHRP.org says more, just like the Harvard study that found only 80% or modern medicine actually works...

Medical Errors Contribute to Hospital Deaths -

In 1999, the Institute of Medicine issued a landmark report, To Err is Human, documenting the extraordinary high rate of fatal medical errors at U.S. hospitals: medical errors caused 98,000 deaths and more than a million injuries a year, most being preventable.  

Two major recent analyses of U.S. hospital safety found NO IMPROVEMENT in patient safety.

One study, by a Harvard Medical School team analyzed medical errors at 10 North Carolina hospitals found: "harm to patients was common and the number of incidents did not decrease over time."  For every 100 patients admitted to a hospital, 25 suffered harm requiring medical intervention.

The other study, by the U.S. Inspector General of the DHHS, analyzed 1,000,000 Medicare patients' hospital records documenting that 1 in 7 suffered adverse events during hospitalization in the month of October, 2010.  The IG report calculates the cost of such errors to taxpayers to be several billion dollars a year.

The Issue of Insurers: Consider the Conundrum

I was reading an LA Times article earlier this morning about insurers that failed to pay death benefits on accepted policies.
None of this surprises me because longtime a insider in insurance law tells us that these companies love collecting their premiums from you yet don't like paying out claim.
These tricks are certainly an issue of concern in the health insurance debacle.
Just wait until 2011.

Insurers Test Data Profiles to Identify Risky Clients

Life insurers are testing an intensely personal new use for the vast dossiers of data being amassed about Americans: predicting people's longevity.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704648604575620750998072986.html#ixzz15vnmlh6p

Insurers have long used blood and urine tests to assess people's health-a
costly process. Today, however, data-gathering companies have such extensive
files on most U.S. consumers-online shopping details, catalog purchases,
magazine subscriptions, leisure activities and information from
social-networking sites-that some insurers are exploring whether data can
reveal nearly as much about a person as a lab analysis of their bodily
fluids.

Related

*    Inside Deloitte's Life-Insurance Assessment Technology
<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704104104575622531084755588.h
tml> 
*
<http://online.wsj.com/public/page/what-they-know-digital-privacy.html>
Complete Coverage: What They Know

In one of the biggest tests, the U.S. arm of British insurer Aviva
<http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=AV>  PLC
looked at 60,000 recent insurance applicants. It found that a new,
"predictive modeling" system, based partly on consumer-marketing data, was
"persuasive" in its ability to mimic traditional techniques.

The research heralds a remarkable expansion of the use of consumer-marketing
data, which is traditionally used for advertising purposes.

This data increasingly is gathered online, often with consumers only vaguely
aware that separate bits of information about them are being collected and
collated in ways that can be surprisingly revealing. The growing trade in
personal information is the subject of a Wall Street Journal investigation
into online privacy.

A key part of the Aviva test, run by Deloitte Consulting LLP, was estimating
a person's risk for illnesses such as high blood pressure and depression.
Deloitte's models assume that many diseases relate to lifestyle factors such
as exercise habits and fast-food diets.

This kind of analysis, proponents argue, could lower insurance costs and
eliminate an off-putting aspect of the insurance sale for some people.

"Requiring every customer to provide additional, and often unnecessary,
information" such as blood or urine samples, "simply makes the process less
efficient and less customer-friendly," says John Currier, chief actuary for
Aviva USA.

Other insurers exploring similar technology include American International
Group <http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=AIG>
Inc. and Prudential Financial
<http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=PRU>  Inc.,
executives for those firms confirm. Deloitte, a big backer of the concept,
has pitched it in recent months to numerous insurers.

Safety Concerns and Health Insurance Reform

10 Riskiest Places to Give Your Social Security Number
As 2011 looms with changes for your health insurance plan this article from Kiplinger's offers some very sound advice to protect your identity and your very important data.

This goes with out many years of addressing privacy and personal data safety issues(too easy access to your data, even without you permission under HIPPA), data hacking along with data mining and collection, and sale of your data (like what was done w/o your knowledge at RealAge).

Here's how to lower the chances of your number falling into the wrong hands -- and what to do if it does.

By Cameron Huddleston, Contributing Editor, Kiplinger.com

McAfee, the antivirus software company, recently released a list of the most dangerous places to give your Social Security number. Many of the places on the list might surprise you:

1. Universities and colleges
2. Banking and financial institutions
3. Hospitals
4. State governments
5. Local government
6. Federal government
7. Medical businesses (These are businesses that concentrate on services and products for the medical field, such as distributors of diabetes or dialysis supplies, medical billing services, pharmaceutical companies, etc.)
8. Non-profit organizations
9. Technology companies
10.Health insurers and medical offices 

The places are ranked based on the number of data breaches involving Social Security numbers from January 2009 to October 2010. What’s most disturbing is that you must disclose your Social Security number if you want to receive services from most of those places (either as required by law or the groups' own policies).
So I asked Adam Levin, chairman and co-founder of Identity Theft 911, what people could do to prevent their Social Security numbers from falling into the wrong hands and keep their identities safe. "It’s obvious there is no slam-dunk 100% way to protect yourself," he says. "Everywhere you turn, you’re going to run into an organization looking for information from you."
However, you can take steps to lower your risk, he says. And there are things you can do to detect identity theft and limit the damage.
Don’t be so quick to give out your number. As Levin said, a lot of organizations and companies will ask for your Social Security number. But that doesn’t mean they all have to have it. You will be required to provide your Social Security number in any situation that requires your identity to be verified (such as an application for credit or a license) or about which the IRS must be notified. Otherwise, be sure to ask whether the agency, business or organization has to have it. Unfortunately, even though many groups -- such as private insurers -- can’t require your Social Security number, they might refuse to do business with you if you don’t provide it. In those cases, ask if you can give just the last four numbers rather than your full Social Security number.
Don’t ever give out your Social Security number or any other personal information to someone you don’t know who initiates contact with you by phone, e-mail or in person. For example, if you receive an e-mail that claims that you must provide personal information to claim a refund from the IRS, it’s a scam. The IRS doesn’t request information from taxpayers by e-mail.
Lock away your Social Security card. Your Social Security card belongs in a fireproof safe in your home, not in your wallet. Why? Because if someone stole your wallet, he’d be able to steal your identity, too. And don’t leave your card or any other personal information sitting out where others can see it. Levin says this is a big problem at universities, where students leave wallets, credit-card statements and other items with personal information that can easily be stolen. See 5 Steps to Protect Your College Student’s ID. Be sure to cross-cut shred any documents with your personal information once you no longer need those documents.
Protect your number from cyber thieves. Even though there’s not much you can do to protect your personal information once you hand it over to another business or organization, you can take steps to protect the data on your computer. Make sure you install antivirus and Internet security software on your computer -- and update it frequently. "If you buy the software and don’t update it, it’s like becoming a member of a gym and not going," Levin says. The McAfee Total Protection software is $59.99 (after a $20 rebate) and the Norton 360 software is $79.99. Levin also says you should frequently change passwords for your online accounts and not use the same passwords for financial accounts and social networks.
Control the damage. Even if you take all these steps, there still is a chance that you will become a victim of identity theft. That’s why it’s imperative to check your accounts daily to catch any transactions you didn’t make. “If you have time to check e-mail and a social networking site, you can find time to check your bank and credit-card accounts,” Levin says. And take advantage of the free credit report you’re entitled to once a year from each of the three credit bureaus -- Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Go to www.annualcreditreport.com to get your reports. Rather than checking them all at once, though, order each one separately to spread out your credit checks throughout the year.
If you notice any problems, act quickly to repair the damage. You can contact the credit bureaus and ask them to put a fraud alert or credit freeze on your accounts. A fraud alert, which is free, requires lenders to make some effort to verify your identity before issuing new credit in your name. A credit (or security) freeze prevents the credit reporting companies from releasing your report without your consent. The credit bureaus charge a fee to initiate a freeze, but you might not have to pay if you're a resident of a state that waives the fee for identity theft victims. See Fraud Alert vs. Credit Freeze.
If your wallet (with your Social Security card or any credit cards inside it) is stolen, report it to the police. With a police report, you can place an extended fraud alert, which lasts seven years, on your credit report, and you'll have documentation that will help you bolster your case if you become a victim of identity theft.
See the Federal Trade Commission’s identity theft page for information about what you can do if your identity has been stolen.

Read more: http://www.kiplinger.com/columns/kiptips/archives/10-riskiest-places-to-give-your-social-security.html#ixzz14Vr3plTX

Electronic Medical Records: MORE FRAUD RISK

12/31/10

Electronic medical records not always linked to better care in hospitals, study finds

ScienceDaily (2010-12-27) -- Use of electronic health records by hospitals across the United States has had only a limited effect on improving the quality of medical care, according to a new study. ... > read full article



from October 2010
As the day looms to implement the health insurance reform bill, including the myth that electronic health records will save costs and improve care, this is a well considered warning to evaluate.

And as you can see Natural Health News has been covering this topic for quite some time.

Seventy-three people charged in healthcare fraud crimes in five states, including part of Armenian-American organized crime organization

Oct 14, 2010

By Kelly Jackson Higgins
DarkReading The threat of medical identity theft came to light yesterday with the FBI's announcement it had busted an organized crime gang that stole the identities of doctors and thousands of Medicare patients in order to operate phony clinics that bilked Medicare and insurance companies of more than $165 million in fraudulent billing.
Authorities have charged 73 people, including members of an alleged Armenian-American organized crime organization, with multiple healthcare fraud crimes. The FBI has arrested 52 of these suspects for executing what it says is the largest Medicare fraud case the DOJ has prosecuted to date. The defendants operated close to 120 fake clinics in 25 states and were indicted by authorities in California, Georgia, New Mexico, New York, and Ohio. "The emergence of international organized crime in domestic health care fraud schemes signals a dangerous expansion that poses a serious threat to consumers as these syndicates are willing to exploit almost any program, business or individual to earn an illegal profit," said Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary G. Grinder, in a statement. "The Department of Justice is confronting this evolving threat here and abroad through a number of initiatives including a strengthened Attorney General's Organized Crime Council and the creation of the International Organized Crime Intelligence and Operations Center (IOC-2) to ensure that we are focused and coordinated in our efforts to combat international organized crime."

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