Study Finds Few Baby Boomers Receiving, Few Healthcare Practices Prepared to Offer Medicare Wellness Visits

TeleVox, a high-tech engagement communications company that provides automated voice, email, text and web solutions that activate positive patient behaviors through the delivery of a human touch, recently released a study combining consumer and healthcare provider opinion entitled “Healthcare Change: The Time is Now” [1]. The report, which addresses the healthcare industry’s essential shift away from primarily treating illness to keeping people healthy, reveals that the majority of healthcare practices across the country aren’t prepared to meet the demand of the 46.6 million Medicare beneficiaries who are now eligible for wellness visits.

TeleVox Healthcare Change the Time is Now

Breathable, Implantable Microcomputers that Conform to the Human Body

Traditional tech devices have been rigid and boxy. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based startup MC10 aims to change that. The company is developing flexible and stretchable electronics that preserve the performance of silicon while enabling new form factors that can be bent or stretched to conform to soft and irregular surfaces and can be used for a variety of medical applications.

Biostamp

What the Healthcare Law Ruling Means to You

President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in to law in March 2010 after a year of intense national debate. On Thursday last week, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld law, ruling that the individual mandate, which requires U.S. citizens and legal residents to have qualifying health coverage or pay a penalty, is constitutional as a tax. The ruling will have a far-reaching impact on healthcare providers, especially for those who work with underserved populations.

US Supreme Court

Genetic Test Results Do Not Trigger Increased Use of Health Services

People have increasing opportunities to participate in genetic testing that can indicate their range of risk for developing a disease. Receiving these results does not appreciably drive up or diminish test recipients’ demand for potentially costly follow-up health services, according to a study performed by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and colleagues at other institutions.

Genetic Testing

Poll Shows More Consumers Using Social Media for Health Information

A poll conducted by consulting company PricewaterhouseCoopers shows that one-third of Americans use social media, including Facebook and Twitter, to obtain information about health and wellness [1]. Respondents reported using social media resources to self-diagnose, get information about prescription drugs, and check up on doctors’ and hospitals’ reputations.

Connected via social media