Archive | November, 2011

What’s baked into the Affordable Care Act? Half of Americans still don’t realize there’s no-cost preventive care

By on November 30, 2011 in Affordable Care Act, Health Consumers, Health engagement, Health insurance, Health literacy, Health marketing, Health Plans, Medicare, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Popular culture and health, PPACA, Prescription drugs

The U.S. public’s views on health reform — the Affordable Care Act (ACT) – remain fairly negative, although the percent of people feeling favorably toward it increased from 34% to 37% between October and November. Still, that represents a low from the 50% who favored the law back in July 2010. It’s quite possible that [...]

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Designing health technology for people at home

By on November 29, 2011 in Aging, Aging and Technology, Chronic care, Design and health, Environment and heatlh, Health Consumers, Health engagement, Health literacy, Health social networks, Home care, medical home, Medical innovation, Medical technology, Medication adherence, mHealth, Mobile health, Popular culture and health, Prevention and wellness, Seniors and health, Telehealth, Telemedicine

The Internet, broadband, mobile health platforms, and consumers’ demand for more convenient health care services are fueling the development and adoption of health technologies in peoples’ homes. However, designing products that people will delight in using is based on incorporating human factors in design. Human factors are part of engineering science and account for the people using [...]

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Retail health is hot, especially for the young, affluent and not particularly sick

By on November 28, 2011 in Chronic care, Health care marketing, Health Consumers, Health engagement, Health insurance, Health Plans, Pharmacy, Prevention and wellness, Primary care, Retail health, Women and health

Walmart issued a Request for Information to expand its retail health footprint in the communities in which the world’s largest company operates. That was a strong sign that retail health has surpassed a tipping point. Now, there are hard data to support this observation from a RAND Corporation research team. Trends in Retail Clinic Use Among [...]

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Food choice and overweight Americans: it’s not just about self-control

By on November 22, 2011 in Environment and heatlh, Food and health, Health care marketing, Health Consumers, Health engagement, Health social networks, Obesity, Public health

Per capita calorie intake has grown by 9 to 30 calories a day since the 1980s. Portion sizes have grown; as a result, so has the level of overweight and obesity in America. By 2020, 83% of men will be overweight or obese in the U.S.; so will 72% of U.S. women, according to Mark [...]

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Employers aren’t engaging with patient/health engagement

By on November 18, 2011 in Employers, Health Consumers, Health Economics, Health engagement, Health insurance, Health literacy, Health marketing, Health Plans, Health social networks, Internet and Health

The vast majority of employers who sponsor health benefits look at those benefits as part of a larger organization culture of health. While one-third are adopting value-based health plan strategies — doubling from 16% in 2010 to 37% in 2011 — only 3% of employers are taking an integrated view of value-based benefits and corporate [...]

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