February 2008 Newsletter

In The News At the first of February, Alta Vista Benefits attended the National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU) Capital Conference in Washington, DC. Our web site is undergoing a face-lift and we will be re-launching the site in March.

Welcome Issue #2 Welcome to the monthly Alta Vista Benefits newsletter. This information is provided as a service to you to help with issues in your every day life. Your suggestions and feedback can be e-mailed to lucy@altavistaben.com. Health Care Trends Announcements by major carriers A recent announcement indicated that Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Aetna and Wellpoint are going to stop paying claims for medical mistakes. This move is being made to help drive down the cost of health care and is targeted at mistakes which are considered "largely preventable". The preventable mistakes include: leaving surgical instruments or other objects in a patient during surgery, use of the wrong blood type, bed ulcers, surgical site infections, and injuries that occur in the hospital like burns and broken bones. This move was made by the carriers in response to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) who announced in October that they would no longer pay for medical errors. The full article can be found at this web page: http://www.workforce.com/section/00/article/25/36/69.html Capital Conference Legislative Update At the Capital Conference in Washington, I had the privilege of going to Capitol Hill and having access to Ohio legislators from the House of Representatives. I had a chance to represent my clients as well as others in the state of Ohio about the benefits of Medicare Advantage plans. Medicare Advantage plans have had some bad press because of a few agents with unethical practices. I was able to explain how for many, this is the only insurance option they have and that this is a valuable and needed program for American citizens. As a member of the legislative committee of NAHU, I become aware of pending legislation before it is passed. This gives me the ability to pass that information on to you so that your voice can be heard. In future issues of this newsletter, I will be passing on many of those insights to you. . Lucy Grosz is the CEO of Alta Vista Benefits and can be reached at lucy@altavistaben.com or by phone at 614-889-0934. Need a better web site? Can't be found in Google? Call Tom Anderson at 614-679-0912 or visit www.excelleweb.com