Wellness

Six federal agencies have issued a final rule requiring insurers to provide to consumers at the time of enrollment a plain-English summary of benefits and coverage, and a uniform glossary of terms.

President Barack Obama, in an abrupt policy shift aimed at quelling an election-year firestorm, announced on Friday that religious employers would not be required to offer free birth control to workers and that the onus would instead be put on insurers.

Proceedings of the Supreme Court, long kept out of the view of most Americans, would be televised under a bipartisan bill approved on Thursday by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“Stand up.” The audience stands. “Sit down.” The audience sits. “Now stand up again.” An audience member mutters under his breath, “No way,” while Fikry Isaac, chief medical officer for wellness and prevention at Johnson & Johnson makes his commands to make a point. Wherever your employees are — a meeting, a desk or at a conference, simple movement can go a long way to create a corporate culture where health is truly valued and lived.

After a lengthy debate, Walmart decided that eggs are indeed healthy.

The federal government estimates that the health care system may need upwards of 50,000 additional employees to develop, implement and maintain health information technology in the near future. In light of this projection, results from the survey of 196 health information exchange initiatives show a growing need for workers proficient in health IT.

The Obama administration is willing to work with Catholic universities and hospitals in implementing new rules that require health insurance to cover birth control, a top adviser to the president's re-election campaign said on Tuesday.

American Catholic clergy called on the faithful to write Congress to protest new birth control rules from President Barack Obama's administration, stepping up a campaign that began a week ago with denunciations from the pulpit at Masses across the country.

Tuesday morning, the 2012 Employer Health and Human Capitol Congress kicked off in Washington, D.C., with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.) emphasizing the role of employers in pushing for payment reform in the health care system and advancing health information technology, which could drastically change health care spending and costs to both employees and employees.

The Department of Health and Human Services expects soon to publish a final rule to govern establishment of state insurance exchanges to provide one-stop shopping for health coverage, and a proposed rule to establish the long-delayed unique identifier for health plans.