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A.M. Best Affirms Ratings of American Republic Insurance Company and World Insurance Company

April 16, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

OLDWICK, N.J.–(Business Wire)–
A.M. Best Co. has affirmed the financial strength rating (FSR) of A- (Excellent)
and issuer credit ratings (ICR) of “a-” of American Republic Insurance Company
(American Republic)(Des Moines, IA) and World Insurance Company (World) (Omaha,
NE), subsidiaries of American Enterprise Mutual Holding Company (American
Enterprise)(Des Moines, IA).

In addition, A.M. Best has assigned an FSR of A- (Excellent) and an ICR of “a-”
to American Republic CorpInsurance Company (American Republic Corp) (Omaha, NE),
a subsidiary of American Republic. Concurrently, A.M. Best has upgraded the FSR
to A- (Excellent) from B++ (Good) and ICR to “a-”from “bbb” of World Corp
Insurance Company (World Corp)(Omaha, NE), a subsidiary of World. The outlook
for all ratings is stable.

The ratings assigned to American Republic Corp and the upgrading of the ratings
for World Corp reflect the explicit support each company receives from American
Republic. This is evidenced by the recent implementation of material quota share
reinsurance and capital support agreements with the two companies and American
Republic. World Corp, reactivated in 2006, markets new Medicare supplement
products under the World brand, in addition to administering its original
run-off individual major medical business. American Republic Corp, reactivated
in 2007, has been noticeably growing premium revenue in recent years by selling
new Medicare supplement products in its role as American Republic`s marketing
arm.

American Enterprise, a mutual holding company with annual net premiums written
totaling over $600 million, markets primarily individual major medical and
Medicare supplement products to niche markets chiefly in the Midwest.

Although American Enterprise maintains a favorable risk-adjusted capital
position and significantly reduced expenses in 2009, the organization has been
experiencing increased competition in its core accident and health lines of
business in recent years, which may compress future premium revenue and
earnings. In addition, the regulations and requirements of recently enacted
national health care reform legislation will likely pressure future operating
results in American Enterprise`s individual major medical segment.

For Best`s Credit Ratings, an overview of the rating process and rating
methodologies, please visit www.ambest.com/ratings.

The principal methodologies used in determining these ratings, including any
additional methodologies and factors that may have been considered, can be found
at www.ambest.com/ratings/methodology.

Founded in 1899, A.M. Best Company is a global full-service credit rating
organization dedicated to serving the financial and health care service
industries, including insurance companies, banks, hospitals and health care
system providers. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Analysts
Brian Virostek, 908-439-2200, ext. 5531, brian.virostek@ambest.com
Jeffrey Lane, 908-439-2200, ext. 5567, jeffrey.lane@ambest.com
or
Public Relations
Rachelle Morrow, 908-439-2200, ext. 5378, rachelle.morrow@ambest.com
Jim Peavy, 908-439-2200, ext. 5644, james.peavy@ambest.com

Sound reasons for CT scans says GP body

March 16, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

West Australian doctors are being encouraged to use clinical judgement when ordering CT scans.

A new report from the Medicare watchdog, the Professional Services Review, has found several cases of doctors ordering high radiation CT scans without clinical justification.

CT scans take three dimensional pictures of the body and can more easily diagnose problems such as cancers and cardiovascular disease but they increase the risk of cancer by one in a thousand.

The chairman of the WA Faculty of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Peter Maguire says patients expect the scans and doctors order the scans to legally protect themselves.

But, Dr Maguire says doctors should not feel pressured into ordering the scans.

“The old fashioned clinical judgement is not to be ignored and doctors are trained to sort problems out without investigations and plain x-rays may be sufficient in certain circumstances.”

He says doctors order the scans to ensure they have not misdiagnosed a patient.

“People have grown to expect CT scans for the investigation of various things and patients often seem disappointed if you say it is not necessary.”

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Overuse of CT scans ‘putting patients at risk’

March 16, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

There is concern about the overuse of CT scans in Australia, with doctors being urged to stop the indiscriminate ordering of scans which can cause cancer.

The Medicare watchdog says there is an alarming trend of doctors using the scans without clinical justification and not understanding the health risks.

The Australian College of General Practitioners also concedes there is a problem.

Over the past decade, there has been an explosion in the number and the availability of CT scans in Australia.

Dr Tony Webber from Medicare’s Professional Services Review says doctors are turning to the scans too quickly.

“Most people do practise responsibly, although I am really quite astonished when speaking to doctors about their ignorance of the risks of CT scans,” he said.

“Many of the people that I see in my investigations for inappropriate practice have been using CT scans really without regards to the potential risks and the risks are reasonably significant.

“Studies from America … suggest that CT scans may be responsible for up to 1 per cent of all cancer deaths in America. Now that is a very considerable risk.”

And he is worried that patients are not giving informed consent.

“Many patients will request a CT because they think it is the best investigation that will give them the answers they are looking for without realising that there is no free lunch,” he said.

Dr Webber says while CT scans are useful, they are not always necessary.

“In many conditions, particularly things like lower back pain which is a very common presentation, often there is no need for any investigations apart from a good physical examination and history,” he said.

There are also calls for medical students to be better educated about radiology and when it is absolutely essential.

GP Chris Mitchell, who is the president of the Australian College of General Practitioners, agrees.

“I don’t think doctors generally go to a scan as a first resort,” Dr Mitchell said.

“If you are asking if there is benefit in further and ongoing education, absolutely there is. There is an increasing reliance on investigation for a variety of reasons.

“Some of that relates to our legal system and more defensive medicine, but some of it also relates to the fact that our patients actually appreciate the options of progressing some more detailed investigations.

“I think that is something that the community needs to consider and weighs risk of the potential for side effects from investigations against the benefits.”

And he says there is scope to reduce reliance on the CT scans.

“I think all of us as doctors could strive to reduce our use of investigation and spend more time with history and physical examination,” he said.

“It is certainly what most GPs would like to do. Spend their time taking a detailed history, doing a physical examination and then only investigating those patients that need it.”

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Dentists ‘exploiting’ Medicare scheme

March 15, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Dental health experts say the Federal Government has failed to stop dentists from rorting the Medicare dental scheme.

The Senate has twice blocked the Government’s attempts to replace the scheme with a cheaper, more targeted plan.

Associate Professor Hans Zoellner, from the Association for the Promotion of Dental Health, says the Government should retain the scheme and administer it responsibly.

“A handful of dentists have been exploiting the scheme and overservicing patients and giving too much crown and bridge,” he said.

“There’s an unnecessarily great expense, a significant amount which is probably not required and just purely cosmetic.

“The Government really has an important role to regulate the scheme but instead of regulating dental Menticare, the Government has simply refused to even look at it.”

But Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon says the program was poorly designed by the previous Government.

“It has lent itself to be able to be abused, it’s clear when there is an undersupply of dental services in the community and when dental care is expensive that any program would provide some relief,” she said.

“But we believe it would be much better targeted to those who have the most need.”

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Alleged illegal immigrant accused of $1m theft

March 13, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Police have laid extra charges against an alleged illegal immigrant accused of a one million dollar money laundering scheme.

Jimmy Yeonata has been in custody since his arrest more than a week ago.

Initially police laid six fraud-related charges against him, but today in Central Local Court prosecutors laid an extra 130 charges.

The Indonesian national is accused of stealing cheques from mail boxes, mainly around north Sydney.

Detectives say he created false licences, medicare cards and other identification using the names on the cheques.

He then allegedly opened 20 false accounts in three different banks using about 10 victims.

The cheques ranged in amounts between $12,000 and close to $500,000.

Yeonata appeared in court via-videolink and did not apply for bail.

He will return to court in May.

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Carbon monoxide exposure may up heart problem risk for the elderly

September 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sep 1 (ANI): Carbon monoxide exposure has been found to elevate the risk of hospitalisation for the elderly with heart problems in an American study.

The nationwide study of 126 urban communities has shown that an increase in carbon monoxide of 1 part per million in the maximum daily one-hour exposure is linked with a 0.96 percent increase in the risk of hospitalisation from cardiovascular disease among people over the age of 65.

The connection remains even when carbon monoxide levels are less than 1 part per million, which is well below the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Ambient Air Quality Standard of 35 parts per million.

The finding has indicated that an under-recognized health risk to seniors.

Presently, the EPA is evaluating the scientific evidence on the link between carbon monoxide and health to determine whether the health-based standard should be modified.

“This evidence indicates that exposure to current carbon monoxide levels may still pose a public health threat. Higher levels of carbon monoxide were associated with higher risk of hospitalisations for cardiovascular heart disease,” said Michelle Bell, the study’s lead investigator.

Working in collaboration with experts from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, Bell analysed hospital records for 9.3 million Medicare recipients and data on air pollution levels and weather, gathered between 1999 and 2005.

The analysis considered the health effects of other traffic-related pollutants, including nitrogen dioxide, fine particles, and elemental carbon.

“We found a positive and statistically significant association between same-day carbon monoxide levels and an increased risk of hospitalisation for cardiovascular disease in general, as well as for multiple, specific cardiovascular disease outcomes, including ischemic heart disease, heart rhythm disturbances, heart failure and cerebrovascular disease,” said Bell.

Carbon monoxide is a tasteless, odourless gas that is a component of automobile exhaust.

The researchers stressed the need for additional research to investigate whether carbon monoxide or a combination of it and other traffic-related pollutants could result in increased cardiovascular hospitalisations in the elderly.

Their most recent findings have been detailed in a research article published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. (ANI)

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John David Lewis Health Care | John David Lewis Duke University | John David Lewis Duke | Classical Ideas | Classical Ideals

August 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

John David Lewis Health Care | John David Lewis Duke University | John David Lewis Duke | Classical Ideas | Classical Ideals

John David Lewis who teaches at the Duke University wrote a piece called What ‘Right’ to Health Care? where he rips Obama’s health care proposal to shred. Here is what the professor in Philosophy, Politics and Economics wrote.

John David Lewis said “If Congress really wanted to address health care problems, it could begin with three things: (1) tort reform, to end the ruinous lawsuits that force medical specialists into insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year; (2) Medicare reform, to face squarely the fact of the program’s insolvency; and (3) regulatory reform, to roll back the onerous rules that force doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies into satisfying bureaucratic dictates rather than solving patients’ problems.”

john david lewis health care Reform Vidoe Click her

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Drug-eluting stents safer and superior to bare metal stents

March 29, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 29 (ANI): Drug-eluting stents are much safer and superior to bare metal stents in preventing death and heart attacks among cardiac patients, according to researchers from Duke University Medical Center.

For their study, the researchers tested drug-eluting stents among 262,700 “real-world” patients enrolled in a nationwide registry of cardiovascular disease.

The study is the largest of its kind to date, and may finally put an end to years of controversy over the safety of the devices.

“We hope these findings will finally lay to rest any doubt about the safety of drug-eluting stents. Our results clearly show that drug-eluting stents are indeed safe,” said Pamela Douglas, M.D., a cardiologist and member of the Duke Heart Center at Duke University Medical Center and the lead author of the study.

Stents are small tubes that can prop open blocked coronary arteries.

Although earlier versions were made of bare metal mesh, later models could release a medication that could suppress restenosis, or the growth of new tissue that could cause the artery to clog up again.

While drug-eluting stents were initially proven more effective, they later suffered a setback because studies linked them to higher long-term death rates. Thus, physicians have been debating the merit of bare and drug-eluting stents for a long time now.

During the new study, the researchers followed patients over age 65 enrolled in the National Cardiovascular Data Registry who had received stents from 2004 through 2006.

Most of the patients had received a drug-eluting stent; only 17 percent were implanted with the bare metal variety.

Then, the researchers matched the patients’ data with their Medicare claims and followed them for two and one-half years, measuring rates of death, heart attack, stroke, bleeding and the need for additional artery-opening procedures.

It was found that over the 30-month period, patients in the drug-eluting stent group had a 25 percent reduction in death and 24 percent reduction in heart attacks, as compared with those who received bare metal stents.

But they saw no significant difference in the incidence of stroke, major bleeding, or need for additional artery-opening procedures.

“First, the data show that over a two and one-half year follow up, drug-eluting stents are safe among patients in a real-world, highly variable environment. Patients who enroll in clinical trials are generally younger, healthier and on fewer medications that the population at large, and that means that clinical trials can generate findings that may not hold up in larger, more variable, community populations,” said Douglas.

He added: “In addition, we believe this is the first time that anyone has been able to link so much clinical data with Medicare claims. What that essentially has given us is an excellent model for future post-marketing evaluation.

The findings appear online in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. (ANI)

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Think twice before you act on cosmetic surgeon’s advice

March 25, 2009 By admin 1 Comment

Consumer group Choice conducted a study to evaluate quality of service provided by cosmetic surgeons. Under the recent study, the women looking for cosmetic surgery treatment made 38 visits to 30 cosmetic surgery clinics in Sydney and Brisbane. These women enquired about breast augmentation, fat-removing liposuction or wrinkle-reducing Botox treatment. The study revealed some shocking facts.

In one of the clinics, the woman was shown a sales consultant’s breasts as an example of the doctor’s work. She was also offered a discount if she agrees to be pose for “before and after” photographs to be posted on the internet. Another woman was told that breast surgery will increase her chances to find a boy friend. Another woman was given unsolicited brochures offering loans to finance the breast procedure, which is not covered under Medicare.

Choice spokesman Christopher Zinn said: “We want to see better regulation and outcomes for patients. Until then, our best advice is to make sure of the qualifications and experience of any cosmetic surgeon you are considering, and to educate yourself as to the risks of any procedures.”

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Happy hospitals make for happy patients

February 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Feb 10 (ANI): A hospital where the staff is happy is good for patients, says a new study.

In the study, John Griffith, professor in the University of Michigan School of Public Health examined the attributes of 34 community hospitals in nine states that have earned the Health Care Sector Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, a nationally recognized quality benchmark for various industries.

The findings suggest that the single-biggest factor in patient satisfaction is hospital employee morale, which starts with outside-the-box thinking at the very top management levels.

Griffith said that these community hospitals had the happiest patients and caregivers, but only because these hospitals departed radically from traditional hospital management.

For example, at the Florida hospital where patients receive a welcome letter with the CEO’s signature and home phone number, they’re also paid a visit by their unit’s nurse manager, who also leaves cell and office phone numbers.

Griffith said that this personal service doesn’t come cheaply, yet the hospitals kept costs low enough to thrive financially on standard Medicare and insurance payments, despite paying employees “extremely well.”

“They reward a good job, both with celebration and financially with cash. One of the interesting things about these places is they don’t have any nursing shortages. They have enough nurses, well-trained nurses and well-motivated nurses,” he said. (ANI)

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