News Briefs
News Briefs
Plan would give home care to Holocaust survivors
Florida recently unveiled a plan for providing free, comprehensive home health care to the estimated 10,000 Holocaust survivors living there — a plan that could serve as a model for worldwide efforts to help survivors.
Bill Nelson, Florida’s treasurer and insurance commissioner, urged the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims to approve up to $10 million in start-up money for the plan, using already-deposited funds from a humanitarian account funded by companies suspected of not honoring survivors’ insurance policies.
The companies would also be required to pay millions more for the time the Holocaust survivors need home health care. "Many of these Holocaust victims are elderly and frail," he said. "This [plan] would give them some compensation now, while we continue our work to get insurance companies to honor any unpaid claims."
Nelson first presented the home health care coverage idea at a meeting of the International Holocaust Commission last July. Former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, who heads that panel, asked Nelson to write a proposal for Florida. If the commission approves Nelson’s plan, it could become a pilot for a worldwide program. The International Commission was created last year to settle outstanding life and property insurance claims filed by Holocaust survivors and their heirs. A Memorandum of Understanding committed six European insurers to cooperate with the commission.
Terms of the plan
Terms of the plan include home visits by a nurse or health care assistant to provide medical services as prescribed by a doctor. This service would be available to Holocaust survivors free-of-charge for the remainder of their lives. Eligibility for the plan is solely dependent upon being a Holocaust survivor; there would be no underwriting standards for the beneficiaries to pass. For further information, contact the Florida Department of Insurance at (850) 413-2842, or review the Holocaust Survivor Proposal at www.doi.state.fl.us.
Texas leads in lost Medicaid for children
Over the past three years, more children lost Medicaid health insurance coverage over in Texas than in any other state, according to a new national study conducted by Families USA. The study covered enrollment in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, a new government-subsidized plan for the working poor, in the 12 states that account for almost two-thirds of the nation’s 11.1 million uninsured children. Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, and North Carolina increased enrollment, while Arizona, California, Ohio, and Pennsylvania saw declines.
Some 193,000 Texas kids have left Medicaid since 1996, due largely to a declining number of welfare recipients. Most who left do not have other health insurance. They are still eligible for Medicaid, though their families may not realize it. According to state figures, 1.4 million Texas children lack health insurance, including nearly 600,000 who are eligible for Medicaid. In an effort to improve access to Medicaid, human services staff have received special training from Texas officials and are distributing fliers.
Standard Register signs VNAA contract
Standard Register recently announced the Visiting Nurse Association of America (VNAA) has signed a three-year Integrated Print Management contract. The agreement includes a two-year renewal option and is worth up to $40 million. Standard Register will deliver a total print management program of traditional business forms printing, and commercial and digital on-demand printing to some 400 VNAA locations.
VNAA plans to establish Standard Register’s Internet-based SMARTworks as a central forms repository and provide member agencies with a direct link from the VNAA home page to the next generation document management and electronic commerce service.
Assessing documents
VNAA member agencies accessing SMART-works may print VNAA forms or place production orders for a variety of VNAA documents, including stationery, government-regulated documents, new-hire kits and patient-oriented literature. All communications will be handled through a secure server. Standard Register will produce and deliver select documents locally by printing them nearest each ordering VNAA member agency via a nationwide network of more than 30 STANFAST(R) digital print centers.
The Visiting Nurse Associations of America is the group purchasing organization for more than 400 home health care agency locations throughout the country that provide care for almost 10 million people. The organization supports community-based home health care through business development, national public imaging, member services, and government affairs. For more information, visit www.vnaa.org.
$9.1 million to improve children’s health care
The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) will provide $9.1 million for research studies to assist public health insurance programs and health care delivery systems in improving health care for low-income children. The studies will seek to determine which health insurance and delivery features work best for low-income children, especially minority children and children with special health care needs. Seven of the nine projects planned focus on children with special health care needs, while five will explore disparities between minority and nonminority children. HRSA Administrator Claude Earl Fox, MD, MPH, says, "These research projects mark an unparalleled effort to understand how to improve health care for vulnerable children, including children who remain uninsured, and the institutions that serve them."
The principal investigators will take part in a national coordinating committee that will try to strengthen the individual studies, and make possible the application of results across locations, populations, and insurance design and organizational delivery system features.
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