Healthy Plan

HCP Releases 2023 Benchmarking Report Now for Home Care, Home Health, & Hospice to Benchmark Business Across Care Continuum

REXBURG, Idaho, May 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — HCP, the leading provider of customer and employee satisfaction surveys, training, and reputation management, released its 14th Annual Edition of the HCP Benchmarking Report, now tripled in size, covering home care, home health, and hospice.

Home Care Pulse (PRNewsfoto/Home Care Pulse)

Home Care Pulse (PRNewsfoto/Home Care Pulse)

The 2023 HCP Benchmarking Report includes data collected through an industry-wide survey conducted during the first months of the year. The Report is designed to equip post-acute care businesses with the industry trends and benchmarks needed to thrive alongside the changes of an ever-evolving care continuum. With expanded research, organizations have a more in-depth, holistic view into the current state of post-acute care.

“Leaders in the post-acute care industry are tackling challenges and finding innovative solutions by looking at the care continuum as a whole,” said Kristen Duell, CMO of HCP. “With 10,000 baby boomers

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Healthy Plan

Rhode Island bill legalizes abortion care under Medicaid and state employee health plan

Sen. Bridget Valverde (D-North Kingstown), Senate sponsor of the Equality in Abortion Coverage Act, said the EACA was unfinished business after a state-based abortion right became law in 2019.

“We protected Rhode Islanders from losing the right that has been stripped from millions of Americans across the country over the last year, following the Dobbs decision by the Supreme Court,” Valverde said. “[But] a right to a health care service is useless if we intentionally prevent people’s health insurance from covering it. The ban on abortion coverage in Medicaid and state plans has been an unfair and unjust barrier to the full range of reproductive healthcare, which includes abortion.”

The Senate passed the EACA on a 24-12 vote, with support from President Dominick Ruggerio.

The opposition came from the GOP minority in the Senate and a sprinkling of Democrats.

Senate GOP Leader Jessica de la Cruz of North Smithfield

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Healthy Plan

Proposed Wake County Mental Health Hospital Aims to Treat Whole Person

This story originally published online at NC Health News.

The gift of a suncatcher became a symbol of hope as local and federal officials gathered with hospital executives at Garner Town Hall in southern Wake County to announce the awarding of $12 million in funding to help build a new mental health facility.

Rachel Moorefield was in the audience. In 2018, her son Isaiah died by suicide at the age of 19. Her family, through their grief, made suncatchers as a way to remember Isaiah and his sunny personality. She brought one to the announcement ceremony to symbolize and celebrate support for the cause of mental health care.

Moorefield, who recently moved to North Carolina from Minnesota, said having access to compassionate care is essential for people dealing with mental health issues. Compassion, she said, is something that Isaiah didn’t receive as she and her family looked for the help

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Healthy Plan

Abortion bans are driving off doctors and closing clinics, putting basic healthcare at risk – MM+M

The rush in conservative states to ban abortion after the overturn of Roe v. Wade is resulting in a startling consequence that abortion opponents may not have considered: fewer medical services available for all women living in those states.

Doctors are showing — through their words and actions — that they are reluctant to practice in places where making the best decision for a patient could result in huge fines or even a prison sentence. And when clinics that provide abortions close their doors, all the other services offered there also shut down, including regular exams, breast cancer screenings, and contraception.

The concern about repercussions for women’s health is being raised not just by abortion rights advocates. One recent warning comes from Jerome Adams, who served as surgeon general in the Trump administration.

In a tweet thread in April, Adams wrote that “the tradeoff of a restricted access (and criminalizing

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Healthy Plan

Telehealth Co. Signs Contract With US Health Plan Serving 1 Million Patients

May 19, 2023 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Telehealth company Reliq Health Technologies signs a contract with a U.S. health plan that operates in five states with over 3,000 doctors and more than 1 million patients.



Telehealth company Reliq Health Technologies Inc. (RHT:TSX.V; RQHTF:OTCQB; A2AJTB:WKN) has signed a contract with a U.S. health plan that operates in five states with over 3,000 doctors and more than 1 million patients.

The move is expected to add more than 10,000 new patients to the company’s iUGO platform by next March at an average revenue of CA$65 per patient per month.

“We are very pleased to have signed our first contract with a U.S. health plan,” said Reliq Chief Executive Officer Lisa Crossley. “The remote patient monitoring, chronic care management, and behavioral health integration solutions Reliq will be providing using our iUGO Care platform will support critical preventative programs to assist the ACOs in

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Healthy Plan

“You Are Drinking From a Bottle”

Health insurance providers, it seems, are as cruel as ever, as evidenced by a letter sent to a newborn’s family denying the infant coverage for neonatal care in an intensive care unit (ICU).

In an editorial for the Washington Post, Kaiser Family Foundation senior contributing editor Elizabeth Rosenthal described the problem of insurance claim denials in the starkest terms: by providing examples of real letters people had gotten denying them and their loved ones coverage.

One such letter, sent directly to a newborn baby, was so absurd that — if it weren’t real and published in WaPo — we would think it was satire.

“You are drinking from a bottle,” read the denial for the infant’s fourth day in the neonatal ICU ward. “You are breathing on your own.”

“If only the baby could read,” Rosenthal quipped, to devastating effect.

This issue, the KFF editor noted, goes all the

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Healthy Plan

Plans for I-55 Expansion in Chicago Raise Concerns Over Air Quality and Community Health

Lea este artículo en español.

Having spent most of her life in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, Sara Cortes learned to live with bad-smelling air that created a haze in the summer. 

About a year ago, Cortes, 38, was diagnosed with an untreatable lung condition that makes her tired and leaves her short of breath.

So she was shocked when she learned of a fast-moving plan in Springfield to expand the nearby Stevenson Expressway, part of Interstate 55, with additional lanes, bringing more traffic and more pollution.

“It’s definitely a concern for me,” said Cortes. “The air quality in Little Village has been bad for a long time.” 

Introduced at the tail end of the Illinois legislative session, a pair of measures that promote private funding of road projects are moving through quickly as state lawmakers try to wrap up their session this week. One is a resolution that would

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Healthy Plan

Healthy Benefits Restrictions: Can you use your card on Amazon?

There’s exciting news for those of you with Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) or Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). Amazon has stepped up its game and is now accepting FSA and HSA cards as a payment method for eligible products. So, you can say goodbye to those last-minute trips to the store for medical supplies when you can have them conveniently delivered to your doorstep.

To use your FSA or HSA card on Amazon, simply add it as a payment option in your account. Just remember, some HSA cards need to be registered as credit cards to ensure they are used solely for eligible products. According to Amazon, “If you register your HSA card as a credit card, you’ll be responsible for ensuring the card is used only for eligible products.” So, exercise caution and double-check before you hit that “buy” button.

What items are covered?

Amazon has got you

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Healthy Plan

Health officials urging Marylanders to ensure they don’t lose Medicaid coverage

Secretary of Health Laura Herrera Scott and other state health officials urge Marylanders to stay informed on Medicaid re-enrollment on May 11, 2023. Photo by Danielle J. Brown.

Maryland state officials are pushing a statewide informational campaign to ensure that Marylanders who are still eligible for Medicaid do not lose out on coverage now that the public health emergency for COVID-19 has come to an end.

“While we remain committed to fighting COVID-19, we recognize that this milestone brings change. This includes the return of Medicaid renewal,” said Secretary of Health Laura Herrera Scott at a Thursday press conference announcing the state’s informational campaign.

Medicaid is a federal program for low-income individuals and families to receive health insurance funded by federal and state dollars.

Pre-pandemic, Medicaid recipients had to re-enroll annually to redetermine eligibility. But over the COVID pandemic years, states were prohibited from rolling people off the program even

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Healthy Plan

Soracom Launches IoT Data Plan ‘US-MAX’, Boasts Largest Multicarrier Coverage Footprint

Soracom yesterday announced ‘US-MAX’, a new cellular data plan that provides IoT data coverage across the three largest wireless networks in North America: AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. US-MAX also includes access to Soracom’s fully-virtualized cellular platform, including advanced cloud integrations and secure networking services designed specifically to accelerate IoT deployment and ensure success at scale.

In a country known for its wide open spaces, US-MAX offers IoT devices the largest available coverage footprint along with the ability to automatically switch between any of the three leading cellular networks for optimal connection reliability on the move. Soracom’s containerized multi-IMSI capability, which is compatible both eUICC and UICC standards, means that Plan US-MAX is available today as an over-the-air download to any device in North America using Soracom IoT SIMs or eSIMs.

Like Soracom’s standard global data plan, Plan US-MAX is offered on a shared success model, where customers pay only for

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