China’s Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) yesterday gave PICC health insurance Co., Ltd. green light to lift its registered capital to CNY 3.97 billion from CNY 3.65 billion. PICC Health, a modern joint-stock insurance firm sponsored by PICC Group, DKV, and other companies in China, has an initial registered capital of CNY 3 billion. The company [...]

Australian private health insurers have been permitted to provide gap cover since mid-2000. Some 89 per cent of medical treatment in hospitals is now provided without patients having to pay gap fees, compared with 65 per cent in 2000. Nevertheless, the Private health insurance Administrative Council has noted that many medical practitioners still impose gap [...]

H.I.M. On Call announced the availability of its latest AvianceHealth technology solution, Aviance DNFB Management at the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) Convention and Exhibit at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. The announcement was made by Joseph J. Gurrieri, RHIA, CHP, Vice President and COO. According to customers already [...]

Health insurer Australian Unity is providing more home care for patients who have been in hospital in a bid to slow rises in claims and health insurance premiums. Australian Unity’s head of healthcare, Amanda Hagan, says providing post-hospital home care for patients suffering diseases such as diabetes or patients requiring rehabilitation after knee and hip [...]

A panel of three judges in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments from lawyers for more than half the states and from lawyers for the federal government. In a battle largely waged along partisan lines, most states involved in the challenge lean toward the GOP, either with a majority of Republican [...]

Jackson Health System is showing some short-term financial improvement, but huge problems will come next year because of cutbacks made in the just-concluded session of the Florida Legislature, executives said Thursday. At an unusual public meeting intended to bridge the change from the system’s old governing board to its new one, four members of the [...]

VENICE – Smokers need not apply for city jobs under a tough new employment policy the City Council is considering. Applicants who smoke cigarettes or cigars or chew tobacco will not be considered for employment no matter how much they are otherwise qualified. And potential hires have to sign an oath they do not use [...]

Health Care Reform FACT CHECK: The Health Reform Law Hurts Our Economy What Republicans are Saying: Rep. John Fleming said: “With higher taxes and more constrictions on businesses… employed Americans will continue to decline or become an endangered species altogether.” Here Are the Facts: While Americans are still facing tough times, employment is not in [...]

The Junior Doctors Association of South Africa (JUDASA) argues that the ills that afflict the country’s public health system are largely the result of poor management. With the National health insurance (NHI) scheme, the quality of people appointed to manage hospitals will determine the success or failure of the system. “I think over and over [...]