| While Health Reform Debate Rages, Oracle Caters to Insurance Companies
While most of these are basically the same as other Oracle products, today's release is a rules-based application tailored to managing insurance billing and revenues. In a recorded webcast that accompanied the PR for the new product, Oracle representatives specifically mentioned increased spending on Medicaid and Medicare as something that the company wanted to profit from. If Oracle is intent on capitalizing on the attention that health IT is getting from the reform movement, this is probably the wrong way to go about it from a public relations perspective. Despite poor timing, Oracle's offering might actually make things better for the customers of insurance carriers if it delivers on its promise of streamlining billing and payment operations. The less organizational overhead spent on activities than can be automated through the Web the better.
How Healthcare Killed His Father
Health insurance is different from every other type of insurance. Health insurance is the primary payment mechanism not just for expenses that are unexpected and large, but for nearly all health-care expenses. We've become so used to health insurance that we don't realize how absurd that is. We can't imagine paying for gas with our auto-insurance policy, or for our electric bills with our homeowners insurance, but we all assume that our regular checkups and dental cleanings will be covered at least partially by insurance. Comprehensive health insurance is such an ingrained element of our thinking, we forget that its rise to dominance is relatively recent. Modern group health insurance was introduced in 1929, and employer-based insurance began to blossom during World War II, when wage freezes prompted employers to expand other benefits as a way of attracting workers.
Insurance plan faces claims backlog
A state workers' health insurance plan that built up a backlog of more than 200,000 unpaid claims when a new vendor took over processing duties in January has reduced the backlog to 87,000 claims, a state insurance administrator said Wednesday. But the vendor, EDS of Plano, Texas, needs to work harder to eliminate the backlog and reduce the number of unpaid claims that are more than 45 days old, an official at the Oklahoma State and Education Employees Group Insurance Board said. "They are not quite where we want them to be," said Frank Wilson, deputy administrator of finance for the employees group board. "They've got some work to do." The board's HealthChoice plan insures about 125,000 state workers, teachers and retirees. Annual premiums and claims in the HealthChoice plan total about $750 million a year, Wilson said.
Jackson Insurance Policy May Be Worthless
It looks like the insurance policy taken out on Michael Jackson to cover tens of millions of dollars in losses in the event of the singer's death may be a bust.The Lloyd's of London policy -- taken out by AEG in case Jackson didn't perform his London concerts -- did not cover death related to illegal drug use. According to the policy, obtained by the L.A. Times, "This insurance does not cover any loss directly or indirectly arising out of, contributed, to, by or resulting from ... the illegal possession or illicit taking of drugs and their effects." As we first reported, authorities believe the powerful anesthetic Propofol caused Michael Jackson's death. Although the drug is legal, it should never be administered at someone's home, according to all the medical professionals with whom we've spoken.
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