DDOS attack on ObamaTax site
Got this in email this morning:
"Researchers have uncovered software available on the Internet designed to overload the struggling Healthcare.gov website with more traffic than it can handle.The program, called PPACA, is a trojan virus that cancels your existing health insurance plan, restricts your access to physicians, and increases your premiums and out of pocket financial liability."
[I may have taken some liberties with the second paragraph.]
Original content copyright © InsureBlog (Source: InsureBlog)
Source: InsureBlog - November 8, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
Cavalcade of Risk #196: Call for submissions
Matt Becker hosts next
week's Cav. Entries are due by Monday (the 11th).To submit your
risk-related post, just click here to email
it.You'll need to provide:■ Your post's url and title■ Your
blog's url and name■ Your name and email■ A (brief) summary of the
postPLEASE remember: ONLY posts that relate to risk (not personal
finance tips and the like). And please only submit if you are willing to link
back to the carnival if your submission is accepted.
Original content copyright © InsureBlog (Source: InsureBlog)
Source: InsureBlog - November 8, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
Obamacare on a Roll
Screwed up website and presidential apology's be damned, #Obamacare is on a roll in Delaware.
The state of Delaware spent $4 million in federal grant money on Obamacare enrollment and has only signed up four people in the last month– effectively costing taxpayers $1 million per enrollee.
Capitol City Project
Only in America would this be considered a success.
Your tax dollars at work.
Original content copyright © InsureBlog (Source: InsureBlog)
Source: InsureBlog - November 8, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
Left hand, Right hand, Lips moving...
As we already know, despite President Obama's explicit and repeated promise, you can't keep your current insurance.You know this, and we know this, but guess who doesn't seem to know this?If you guessed the White House, you win!
[Click picture to embiggen]
In case you can't read the mice type, the Official White House website specifically states:
"For Americans with insurance coverage who like what they have, they can keep it. Nothing in this act or anywhere in the bill forces anyone to change the insurance they have, period"
Original content copyright © InsureBlog (Source: InsureBlog)
Source: InsureBlog - November 7, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
My newest article is up...
At Answers.com:"Individual disability insurance can help provide peace of mind, and money for food and shelter, and can be configured to meet your own specific needs."
Original content copyright © InsureBlog (Source: InsureBlog)
Source: InsureBlog - November 7, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
You get your dog back, you get your truck back...
Courtesy of Carrie and Brad, a unique take on George Strait's ObamaTax Amarillo By Morning:
Original content copyright © InsureBlog (Source: InsureBlog)
Source: InsureBlog - November 7, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
Compare & Contrast
Here's the bare minimum requirements to become a licensed insurance agent in Ohio (and, I would presume, the other 57 states):"To obtain a resident agent’s license, applicants must claim Ohio as their home state. Applicants must complete required pre-licensing education with an approved provider. Applicants must complete the Uniform Resident Agent Application and complete a criminal background check after successfully passing at least one of the following lines of insurance" [emphasis added]And here's HHS Secretary Shecantbeserious testifying (under oath) before Congress yesterday:"Health and Human Services secretary Kat...
Source: InsureBlog - November 7, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
CoveredCA statistics (along with some random thoughts...)
Each week, CoveredCA puts out a website and call center activity report. I thought it would be interesting to put together a consolidated table of their press releases. Here's the table and my observations. Key figures are in bold.
Oct 1-5
Oct. 6-12
Oct 13-19
Oct 20-26
Oct27-Nov2
Unique visits to CoveredCA.com
986,705
602,539
486,678
543,300
511,552
Call volume
&n...
Source: InsureBlog - November 7, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
If You Like Your Health Wonk Review...
You can KEEP your HWR. Period.Brad Wright hosts this week's round-up of wonky posts, with a special focus on the "roll out" and associated carnage.
Original content copyright © InsureBlog (Source: InsureBlog)
Source: InsureBlog - November 7, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
"Pro's" vs Navigators
So, the first day of the ObamaTax Exchanges saw a whopping six enrollees. How's that compare with the job that actual "pro's" can do?Turns out, not so hot:"Organized by "Siouxsie Q," a Bay Area sex worker ... It was a rousing success: Nearly 40 men and women attended and almost all of them filed enrollment paperwork."[Hat Tip: Co-Blogger Pat P]
Original content copyright © InsureBlog (Source: InsureBlog)
Source: InsureBlog - November 7, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
Obama Administration proposes to cut yet another great road thru ACA
According to Kaiser Health News, today the administration will propose exempting “certain self-insured, self-administered plans” from the law’s temporary reinsurance fee in 2015 and 2016. Kaiser notes the exemption will affect mostly Taft-Hartley union plans which are often not only self-insured, but also self-administered. Thus the exemption would not apply to insurers or to self-insured employers who hire a third-party to adjudicate their medical benefit claims.I haven't been able to find authority in the ACA as enacted that supports this exemption – other than the sweeping discretionary powers given ...
Source: InsureBlog - November 6, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
Love and Marriage (Penalty)
Five years ago, Bob wrote about a poll which showed that "7 percent of U.S. adults married so one or the other could get on a partner's health insurance plan." The idea was that an unhealthy, uninsured person could marry someone covered by an employer-sponsored ("group") plan and be immediately added as a dependent.But that was then, and this is now. What's changed?Well:The term "marriage penalty" is one that may be familiar to tax-paying married couples:"When two individuals marry, their income tax liability as a married couple may exceed their combined income tax liabilities as singles. This additional tax burden resulti...
Source: InsureBlog - November 6, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
Good News, Bad News
We'll start with the Good: Folks participating in Flexible Spending Account programs, famous for their "use-it-or-lose-it" design, just got a break from the Feds:"The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has decided to let holders of health flexible spending arrangements (FSA) roll over up to $500 in account balance from one year to the next"Don't get too excited, though: your employer has to agree to adopting the change.And now the bad: we've been warning about "skinny networks" for some time, since that will be one of the few ways for insurers to trim costs. Unfortunately, it seems like the best hospitals are the ones going on...
Source: InsureBlog - November 6, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
Lost In Translation
Apparently the public, and the media, misunderstood Pres. O'bama when he said
"If you like the plan you have, you can keep it."
The videos show Obama promising 300 million Americans that “if you like your health-care plan, you will be able to keep your health-care plan, period.”
But that’s not what he really said, Obama announced Monday in a speech to about 200 Organizing for Action supporters, gathered at the St. Regis hotel in D.C.
“What we said was you could keep it if it hasn’t changed since the law was passed,”
Daily Caller
Or maybe what he said was, you only THINK you like your plan.
Yea...
Source: InsureBlog - November 5, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
MVNHS© Going Critical [UPDATED!]
The Much Vaunted National Health System© continues its own (literal) Death Spiral with news that (at least) 25% of its hospitals "are at heightened risk of providing poor care."Of course, based on the system's overall results, if it wasn't for poor care, there'd be no care at all. That's because a quarter of MVNHS© hospitals are now in the "two highest risk bands," a measure of just how badly they're performing.But hey, it's free!Well, maybe not for long.U
UPDATE: As I pointed out above, "if it wasn't for poor care, there'd be no care at all." Turns out, I may have understated the case:
"Police are investigating allega...
Source: InsureBlog - November 5, 2013 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs
