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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/0Rdw7QLHD5s/story01.htm
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Tweet from anywhere on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with TwitkaFly [jailbreak]
Twitkafly allows you to tweet from virtually anywhere with a quick swipe or tap on your jailbroken iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Twitkafly will add a Twitter shortcut to your notification center and allow you to program a quick gesture for composing straight through Activator. The interface is clean and very iOS 5 like. It isn't bogged down with too many buttons or cheesy graphics.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Congress told to replace sequestration cuts with alternative to achieve responsible policies
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Public release date: 26-Jan-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: David Kinsman
dkinsman@ACPonline.org
202-261-4554
American College of Physicians
Annual State of the Nation's Health Care briefing provides framework to gain health care savings while preserving funding for critical programs
(Washington) Congress today was told to replace the $1.2 trillion in across-the-board sequestration-mandated budget cuts. The request was made by Virginia L. Hood, MBBS, MPH, FACP, president of the American College of Physicians (ACP), at today's annual State of the Nation's Health Care briefing. She declared that what is needed is an alternative framework to achieve fiscally and socially responsible policies to gain health care savings while preserving funding for critical programs.
"Today, ACP releases a report on the State of the Nation's Health Care in 2012 that is a story of both progress and continuing challenges." Dr. Hood said. "ACP's members are encouraged about the progress being made in addressing some of the challenges to providing affordable, available, and quality care to most Americans, but they are sobered by the obstacles that remain."
The report described the progress and challenges:
- The Affordable Care Act has begun to reduce barriers to care for tens of millions of persons, including young adults, children with pre-existing conditions, and seniors who now have access to "no cost" preventive care and discounted brand-name drugs. Yet, because the law will not be fully in effect until 2014, more than 46 million persons reported that they went without health insurance in 2011.
- Outcomes have improved on several key health indicators, including reductions in all five leading causes of death, yet disparities in care exist for many underserved populations.
- There has been a dramatic increase in primary care physicians who are benefiting from scholarships and loan forgiveness under the National Health Services Corps, providing improved access to care for millions of persons in underserved communities. At the same time, the United States still is facing a projected shortage of more than 40,000 primary care physicians overall.
- Annual health care cost increases have reached a 50-year low, continuing an eight year slow-down, yet spending on health care still is projected to continue to grow faster than the economy, consuming a larger share of the economy as measured by percentage of GDP and the federal budget.
"While we are pleased there is progress being made to improve access, reduce costs, and address physician shortages," Dr. Hood continued, "recent and proposed cuts in federal funding for many critical health programs threaten to turn back the clock, endangering the health of millions of persons and threatening access to care for the most vulnerable Americans."
A better way to achieve health care savings while ensuring funding for critical health programs, she said, is to enact reforms to address the true drivers behind health care cost increases. The report outlined a specific set of policies that would reduce health care spending by hundreds of billions of dollars, including:
1. Use dedicated funding for overseas military operations that will not be needed to eliminate the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate formula (SGR). Create a pathway to new payment models to align incentives for physicians with value to the patient.
2. Enact policies to reduce the costs of defensive medicine.
3. Make structural improvements in Medicare to reduce costs and improve quality.
4. Reform federal tax policies to encourage individuals to consider cost in the selection of health benefit plans.
5. Establish a multi-stakeholder initiative to promote high value care and reduce utilization of marginal, unsafe, and ineffective care.
"Many of ACP's ideas for reducing health care costs in a fiscally and socially responsible way have been embraced by bipartisan groups that have been charged with developing a comprehensive plan to reduce the federal deficit," observed Bob Doherty, ACP's Senior Vice President of Governmental Affairs and Public Policy. "Regrettably, though, a broken political culture that demands confrontation over compromise has made it impossible for Congress to achieve agreement on such common-sense, common-ground approaches."
"The 2012 elections," he continued, "could result in even more inflammatory and misleading rhetorical attacks intended to fire up voterscausing even more cynicism, polarization, and lack of confidence in the ability of elected governments to deal responsibly with health care."
The answer to the country's broken politics, Mr. Doherty said, is "for voters to demand that the candidates provide detailed answers to how they would address the challenges in American health care." To that end, ACP today also issued a checklist to help voters discern how candidates presidential and congressional propose to address the challenges of unsustainable cost increases and uneven quality and access.
###
The American College of Physicians (http://www.acponline.org) is the largest medical specialty organization and the second-largest physician group in the United States. ACP members include 132,000 internal medicine physicians (internists), related subspecialists, and medical students. Internists specialize in the prevention, detection, and treatment of illness in adults. Follow ACP on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/acpinternists) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/acpinternists).
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 26-Jan-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: David Kinsman
dkinsman@ACPonline.org
202-261-4554
American College of Physicians
Annual State of the Nation's Health Care briefing provides framework to gain health care savings while preserving funding for critical programs
(Washington) Congress today was told to replace the $1.2 trillion in across-the-board sequestration-mandated budget cuts. The request was made by Virginia L. Hood, MBBS, MPH, FACP, president of the American College of Physicians (ACP), at today's annual State of the Nation's Health Care briefing. She declared that what is needed is an alternative framework to achieve fiscally and socially responsible policies to gain health care savings while preserving funding for critical programs.
"Today, ACP releases a report on the State of the Nation's Health Care in 2012 that is a story of both progress and continuing challenges." Dr. Hood said. "ACP's members are encouraged about the progress being made in addressing some of the challenges to providing affordable, available, and quality care to most Americans, but they are sobered by the obstacles that remain."
The report described the progress and challenges:
- The Affordable Care Act has begun to reduce barriers to care for tens of millions of persons, including young adults, children with pre-existing conditions, and seniors who now have access to "no cost" preventive care and discounted brand-name drugs. Yet, because the law will not be fully in effect until 2014, more than 46 million persons reported that they went without health insurance in 2011.
- Outcomes have improved on several key health indicators, including reductions in all five leading causes of death, yet disparities in care exist for many underserved populations.
- There has been a dramatic increase in primary care physicians who are benefiting from scholarships and loan forgiveness under the National Health Services Corps, providing improved access to care for millions of persons in underserved communities. At the same time, the United States still is facing a projected shortage of more than 40,000 primary care physicians overall.
- Annual health care cost increases have reached a 50-year low, continuing an eight year slow-down, yet spending on health care still is projected to continue to grow faster than the economy, consuming a larger share of the economy as measured by percentage of GDP and the federal budget.
"While we are pleased there is progress being made to improve access, reduce costs, and address physician shortages," Dr. Hood continued, "recent and proposed cuts in federal funding for many critical health programs threaten to turn back the clock, endangering the health of millions of persons and threatening access to care for the most vulnerable Americans."
A better way to achieve health care savings while ensuring funding for critical health programs, she said, is to enact reforms to address the true drivers behind health care cost increases. The report outlined a specific set of policies that would reduce health care spending by hundreds of billions of dollars, including:
1. Use dedicated funding for overseas military operations that will not be needed to eliminate the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate formula (SGR). Create a pathway to new payment models to align incentives for physicians with value to the patient.
2. Enact policies to reduce the costs of defensive medicine.
3. Make structural improvements in Medicare to reduce costs and improve quality.
4. Reform federal tax policies to encourage individuals to consider cost in the selection of health benefit plans.
5. Establish a multi-stakeholder initiative to promote high value care and reduce utilization of marginal, unsafe, and ineffective care.
"Many of ACP's ideas for reducing health care costs in a fiscally and socially responsible way have been embraced by bipartisan groups that have been charged with developing a comprehensive plan to reduce the federal deficit," observed Bob Doherty, ACP's Senior Vice President of Governmental Affairs and Public Policy. "Regrettably, though, a broken political culture that demands confrontation over compromise has made it impossible for Congress to achieve agreement on such common-sense, common-ground approaches."
"The 2012 elections," he continued, "could result in even more inflammatory and misleading rhetorical attacks intended to fire up voterscausing even more cynicism, polarization, and lack of confidence in the ability of elected governments to deal responsibly with health care."
The answer to the country's broken politics, Mr. Doherty said, is "for voters to demand that the candidates provide detailed answers to how they would address the challenges in American health care." To that end, ACP today also issued a checklist to help voters discern how candidates presidential and congressional propose to address the challenges of unsustainable cost increases and uneven quality and access.
###
The American College of Physicians (http://www.acponline.org) is the largest medical specialty organization and the second-largest physician group in the United States. ACP members include 132,000 internal medicine physicians (internists), related subspecialists, and medical students. Internists specialize in the prevention, detection, and treatment of illness in adults. Follow ACP on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/acpinternists) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/acpinternists).
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/acop-ctt012612.php
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Video: JCP Raises Outlook
J.C. Penney shares are helping to lift consumer discretionary spending to all-time high, with CNBC's Courtney Reagan.
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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/46151357/
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Newt Gingrich promises to build a moon colony by 2020; make it a U.S. state (Yahoo! News)
The?race for the Republican presidential nomination is about to blast off into outer space: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich announced that, if elected, he'd?establish a colony on the moon by 2020.
In a speech to supporters on the Florida space coast, Gingrich called for a "grandiose" effort to colonize?space. "It's the second great launch of the adventure John F. Kennedy started," said Gingrich.
Gingrich opened up the possibility of the moon becoming the 51st state, something he believes could happen once a permanent settlement reaches a population of 13,000 Americans.?While a 1967 United Nations document says that no one country can claim sovereignty over the moon, the U.S., Russia, and China failed to sign a more recent U.N. treaty to settle the question of?who owns the moon.
The bold move hopes to boost the former speaker's presidential campaign in the Sunshine State, where space exploration remains a big industry. Florida will hold its GOP presidential primary vote on Tuesday, January 31.?Polls show the race is close.
[Image credit:?Steve Jurvetson]
(Source)
This article was written by Fox Van Allen and originally appeared on Tecca
More from Tecca:
User-friendly health plan summaries at risk (AP)
WASHINGTON ? Consumer groups are scrambling to salvage a popular provision of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul that suddenly seems to be in question.
This time it's not Republican opposition they're worried about, but the White House itself.
At issue is a requirement that health plans provide simple, standard summaries of coverage and costs to help consumers pick benefits that are right for them ? a sort of "CliffsNotes" version of cryptic insurance company jargon.
Consumer advocates say they fear the administration may heed industry complaints that the regulation as proposed last summer is too costly, burdensome and intrusive. The rule is due to take effect this year and is undergoing final review by the White House. It would apply to all private and employer health plans, covering an estimated 180 million Americans.
"There is concern that the consumer protections we were hoping to see may not be in the final rule," said Dr. LaShawn McIver, policy director for the American Diabetes Association. "Ultimately, we are looking for a consumer-friendly product that gives people the information they need about what levels of coverage they can expect."
Her organization and four others ? the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, AARP and Consumers Union ? wrote Obama this week urging him not to water down the requirements.
"The information available to Americans today is wholly inadequate for consumers to choose and understand the insurance coverage options available to them," their letter said.
Simple-to-understand health plan summaries are the most popular provision of the health care law, which otherwise continues to divide the public. That's according to a poll last November by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, which found the summaries garnered support from 84 percent of Americans compared with 37 percent who viewed the overall law favorably.
Administration officials said they can't comment on the specifics of regulations under review, but they sought to reassure the consumer groups, which were among the major backers of the health care law as it was being debated in Congress.
"Giving consumers the information they need and making the health care system more transparent is a top priority," said Erin Shields, a spokeswoman for the Health and Human Services Department. "We're confident the final rules ... will meet that goal."
A proposed template released by the department last summer included such basic details as information on premiums, deductibles and copays for doctor visits and hospitalization. Such information is now generally the norm in health plan summaries that most companies voluntarily provide their employees during annual open enrollment.
But the federal template also included so-called coverage examples of the cost of care for a typical individual for three common health conditions: normal childbirth, treating breast cancer and managing diabetes. Because all health plans would have to follow the same rules in compiling the information, it would allow consumers to directly compare insurance in ways they can't now.
America's Health Insurance Plans, a trade group representing the industry, complained that the timeline for introducing the comparisons this year is unrealistic, and the cost would be more than double what the government estimated, or $382 million for the first two years alone. That would drive up costs for employers and health plans, the industry said, at a time when many companies are struggling in a difficult economy.
Lynn Quincy, a senior policy analyst for Consumers Union, said the advocacy groups have learned that the requirement for employer plans to provide the comparisons may be delayed or weakened. Additionally, two of the coverage examples may be omitted at least initially, leaving only a comparison of maternity costs.
"We are very concerned that compared to the proposed rule that was released in August, the final rule we are expecting shortly will be weakened," she said. "That would be very bad for consumers."
___
Online:
Proposed template for health plan comparisons: http://tinyurl.com/6ryq8rl
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
AT&T posts 4Q loss on charges; revenue increases (AP)
NEW YORK ? AT&T Inc. is still the home of the iPhone. It activated 7.6 million of them in the latest quarter, accounting for one out of every five iPhones sold globally.
And AT&T remains heavily dependent on the iPhone to gain and keep customers, despite a vow by CEO Randall Stephenson a year ago to "very aggressively" market competing smartphones in 2011. That vow came in the wake AT&T's loss of an exclusive right to sell the iPhone in the U.S.
The iPhone accounted for about 80 percent of the smartphones AT&T activated in the fourth quarter of 2011, up from 70 percent just before Stephenson made his vow.
The figures are somewhat skewed because the fourth quarter of 2011 saw the launch of a new iPhone model, the iPhone 4S, whereas the fourth quarter of 2010 didn't. Looking at annual sales instead, there's a decline in the iPhone's percentage of AT&T smartphones ? to 69 percent last year, from 79 percent in 2010.
The Dallas-based company has also retained its position as the premier U.S. iPhone carrier, beating Verizon Wireless' 4.3 million iPhone activations handily.
AT&T's iPhone dependency comes at a heavy cost. The phone is more expensive than many other smartphones, and AT&T needs to subsidize each iPhone with hundreds of dollars to put it in customers' hands for as little as $1.
That, together with massive charges for adjustments in the value of the company's pension plans, the breakup of a deal to buy T-Mobile USA and a writedown of the value of its phone-directory business, forced AT&T to report a massive loss on Thursday of $6.68 billion, or $1.12 per share, for the fourth quarter.
It was the first quarterly loss for AT&T in three years. An adjustment of pension-plan obligations was also the main culprit behind the previous loss, in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Excluding charges, net income was 42 cents per share in the latest quarter, a penny shy of Wall Street expectations, according to a survey by FactSet.
The loss compares with net income of $1.09 billion, or 18 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.
Revenue rose 3.6 percent to $32.5 billion, helped by the smartphone sales. Analysts were expecting revenue of $31.99 billion, on average.
AT&T also said it expects earnings per share to grow by a mid-single-digit percentage in 2012, a bit lower than analysts had expected.
In morning trading Thursday, shares of AT&T Inc. fell 63 cents, or 2 percent, to $29.59.
In a welcome move for investors, AT&T is shifting the cash it had hoped to buy T-Mobile with into stock buybacks, saying it will buy back 300 million shares, worth about $9 billion at current prices, into a program that will start immediately.
Most of the iPhone activations were upgrades for people who were already AT&T subscribers. The carrier gained a net 717,000 subscribers on contract plans in the quarter. That was the best result all year, but didn't match Verizon's 1.2 million. AT&T has been lagging Verizon in this important measure for more than a year.
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Video: Preview: 'Buried Secrets'
Dateline NBC
'Dateline NBC,' the signature broadcast for NBC News in primetime, premiered in 1992. Since then, it has been pioneering a new approach to primetime news programming. The multi-night franchise, supplemented by frequent specials, allows NBC to consistently and comprehensively present the highest-quality reporting, investigative features, breaking news coverage and newsmaker profiles.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032600/vp/46101479#46101479
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