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Just enough snow came through the Fort Collins area for the kids to plow… and mow. We’re hoping the mountains get a lot for skiers and snowboarders. We put the kids to work in the yard. Plowing…
And mowing…
Here is a video of the front end loader in action plowing the snow off of the porch! It was a gift from a friend and is their favorite toy…
A few weeks ago, the Colorado Health Foundation interviewed Jay for an article in an upcoming edition of their magazine due to come out in January. Yesterday, photojournalist Barry Staver came up to Wellington from Denver to take pictures of us to accompany the article. We were honored to be photographed by him, and impressed with his unassuming, friendly personality. And we were thrilled when he offered to take pictures of our family with our little pocket camera so that we could have our own copies. (with a baby and a three-year-old, we have to make the most of moments when everybody is clean at the same time!) So here we are, in front of our backyard office, in a family photo taken by Barry Staver […]
[…] I’ve long been a fan of high deductible, HSA qualified health insurance policies (our family had one until very recently when we switched to a high deductible plan that isn’t HSA qualified but has much lower premiums). But I’ve also always been aware that we’re fortunate to be able to utilize a high deductible health insurance policy – both in terms of being healthy and not needing much in the way of healthcare, and also in our ability to make contributions to our HSA to cover the cost of care we might need in the future. People who have serious health conditions and/or those with very limited funds […] When it comes to actually being a savvy consumer of healthcare, the vast majority of us wouldn’t even know where to begin. Google? Asking friends? Maybe, but chances are, we’re going to go to a doctor and follow (at least roughly) the recommendations the doctor makes. Most of the time, providers are the ones who control how much care a patient receives ie, it’s the supply that’s driving things, rather than the demand. We might know that something’s not right and take the initial step of going to the doctor. But what happens next (surgery? PT? wait and see? Medication? etc.) is generally up to the doctor. As Michelle pointed out, the patient’s number one priority is going to be getting better, especially if the problem being treated is a serious one. Shopping around for the best price and poring over comparative effectiveness research data probably isn’t going to be high on most patients’ lists.
[…] I found this article by Dr. Lucy Hornstein to be particularly interesting. Dr. Hornstein takes the view that preventive care does not save money in the long run, and wonders if the provision in the PPACA to provide preventive care to everyone – with no copays or deductibles – is a wise idea. The discussion is made even more interesting with a comment from Maggie Mahar (who was referenced in the article) noting that some preventive care is more worthwhile than others. […]
IMG Europe just won Best International PMI Provider at the Health Insurance Awards 2010. IMG Europe is a subsidiary of International Medical Group Inc. – one of the most popular travel insurance benefits providers […]
One of the aims of the health care reform legislation is to encourage employers to provide health insurance for their employees. In order to close the loophole that would allow employers to hire many part-time workers (and avoid paying benefits for them), the new law looks at the total number of hours worked to determine “full time equivalent employees”. On page 309-310 of the Senate Bill, the math is explained: […]
The AMA has issued medical tourism guidelines for American patients, employers and health insurance companies. At the Colorado Health Insurance Insider, we’ve written about medical tourism and how health insurance carriers are seeing it as a way to lower costs by encouraging insureds to travel abroad to get quality medical care for far less than… Read more about AMA Issues Guidelines For Medical Tourism
According to a Business Week article, most of the major US health insurance carriers are moving towards including overseas hospitals in their provider networks, in an effort to encourage policy holders to utilize the much less expensive services that can be found in many of Asia’s top-notch private hospitals. Most of the hospitals are accredited… Read more about Sunscreen, A Swimsuit, and Your Health Insurance Card
After writing about how health insurance invites waste, I came upon an article Ezra Klein wrote about the fact that even HSAs won’t help slow that waste. He makes a good point because the total exposures are usually the same. But once the out-of-pocket maximum is met, there is nothing to slow the wasteful spending… Read more about HSAs Wont Cleanup the Waste
It probably won’t suprise anyone to learn that US businesses are looking into the possibility of sending employees overseas for medical treatments that tend to be costly at home. Afterall, US businesses have been outsourcing production and customer service overseas for years. So far, only a handful of employees have been sent overseas by their… Read more about Sending Healthcare Overseas
