Mar 31 2010

example of medicaid waste

Benzoyl peroxide is a chemical that’s been used to treat acne for over 40 years. It can be purchased over the counter in brands such as Clearasil®, Oxy 5®, and Stridex®.

Below are two benzoyl peroxid products. Both are reimbursable by SC Medicaid (ie your tax dollars). The product on the left is  Triaz® cleansing cloths. The product on the right is a generic over-the-counter benzoyl peroxide 10% cream.

Triaz® $254.11

acne medication $9.67

South Carolina reimbursement medicaid for Triaz® is $254.11. Benzoyl peroxide reimbusement is $9.67. Now pretend you’re a cash customer without insurance. You bring in a prescription for Triaz® and ask for a price quote. After we picked you up off the floor,  you would probably question the cost. You’d ask “doc, isn’t there something else we could at least try?” I’d point you to the over-the-counter acne product shelf. I’d tell you to “wash your face real good with soap and water 2-3 times per day and apply a little dab of the acne cream on your face when its still wet. Since the cheaper cream is 4% stronger, you may want to apply it only once a day if it irritates your skin. This may be a little more trouble, but hey, it’s your $ 244.44, not mine.”

Unfortunately, the taxpayer doesn’t get this option.

The problem with insurance coverage is that the consumer doesn’t have the incentive to question these costs. The physician doesn’t have the incentive either. The drug companies control the Pharmacy Benefit Managers, so they like this stuff. (A PBM is the go between the pharmacy and the insurer).

I could give you dozens of examples of this kind because I see it everyday in the drug store. This is why our health care system is such a mess. There’s a lack of consumerism, lack of accountability, and very little free market.

By Kevin Bryant • Uncategorized •

Mar 31 2010

Charles D. Lindley, cpa: HOW WILL OBAMACARE AFFECT YOUR SMALL BUSINESS?

Will health care reform mean headaches … or hidden dividends?

provided by Charles D. Lindley CPA/PFS

Increased costs or savings in years to come? What do the federal health care reforms mean for your company? Will they lead to thousands of dollars in extra costs and more paperwork? Or will federal subsidies make this a “game changer” for small companies that have struggled to provide insurance plans?

If you employ 50 or more, you will face a major choice. Businesses with 50 or more employees will have a choice beginning in 2014: they can sponsor a health plan for 100% of their workers (even those signed up for government-subsidized health insurance) or pay $750 per worker in penalties to the federal government.1

A business might opt to take the penalty and do away with health insurance. Paying the annual penalty might be cheaper. So that would leave the employees uninsured, and they would have to go to state health plan exchanges to buy health coverage that could be more expensive.

Some analysts warn that another macroeconomic effect might result – years of high unemployment. They think that increased insurance costs will discourage business hiring in the next decade.

The new reforms don’t put any caps on health insurance premiums. Insurers have every reason to hike rates before the new insurance markets come around in 2014 with added competition.2

If you employ 25-49 people, you won’t face this choice. The government won’t require companies with fewer than 50 employees to offer health insurance starting in 2014, and therefore these companies won’t have to contend with possible fines like their big brothers. But while firms with 50 or fewer workers would be exempt from coverage provisions, they will still have to contend with rising premiums.1,3

A major tax credit for smaller firms and solopreneurs. If you employ less than 25 or are self-employed, you may find that the healthcare reforms bring you tax relief.

Beginning in 2010, companies with less than 25 employees that pay the majority of health care premiums for their workers qualify for a tax credit up to 35% of their premiums. (In 2014, that credit could be as great as 50% of premiums if you arrange insurance via one of the Small Business Health Options Programs, or SHOP Exchanges). The tax break you get will depend on a couple of variables: the number of employees you have and their average salary.2

However, this tax break won’t be offered to sole proprietorships. That factor may encourage you to incorporate or become an LLC.2

If you own a smaller company, insurance might become cheaper. The idea is that small businesses can pool together in the SHOP Exchanges and negotiate insurance coverage as a group. Greater buying power implies lower premium costs (in theory).

Businesses with 100 or fewer workers can jump into a state SHOP Exchange pool starting in 2014; states may choose to limit the pools to firms with 50 or fewer employees through 2016.4

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the SHOP Exchanges would lower annual premiums for these businesses by 1-4% with a 3% increase in the amount of coverage. That could mean a savings of more than $10 billion nationally.1,4
If you work for yourself, you will likely be able to take advantage of government health care subsidies in 2014. If you are self-employed in 2014 and earn less than four times the poverty level, you can qualify for these subsidies. (To give you some idea, in 2010 400% of the poverty level comes to $88,200 for a family of four.)2

Some notes for 2011. In 2011 as a result of the new law, a business will have to report the value of an employee’s health care coverage on W-2 forms. Many companies provide coverage for employee dependents not enrolled in other employer-based health plans up to age 22 or 23; next year, that age limit will rise to 26. All lifetime caps on insurance policies offered through employer-sponsored plans will be eliminated in 2011. Penalties will increase for the misuse of HSA funds, and workers with FSAs and HSAs will not be reimbursed for money used for over-the-counter drug purchases.5

Charles D. Lindley CPA/PFS is a Representative with Capital Investments Inc.

These are the views of Peter Montoya Inc., not the named Representative nor Broker/Dealer, and should not be construed as investment advice. Neither the named Representative nor Broker/Dealer gives tax or legal advice. All information is believed to be from reliable sources; however, we make no representation as to its completeness or accuracy. The publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional services. If other expert assistance is needed, the reader is advised to engage the services of a competent professional. Please consult your Financial Advisor for further information. www.montoyaregistry.com www.petermontoya.com

By Kevin Bryant • Uncategorized •

Mar 30 2010

TimesOnlineUK: White House snubs Netanyaho

For a head of government to visit the White House and not pose for photographers is rare. For a key ally to be left to his own devices while the President withdraws to have dinner in private was, until this week, unheard of. Yet that is how Binyamin Netanyahu was treated by President Obama on Tuesday night, according to Israeli reports on a trip viewed in Jerusalem as a humiliation.

After failing to extract a written promise of concessions on settlements, Mr Obama walked out of his meeting with Mr Netanyahu but invited him to stay at the White House, consult with advisers and “let me know if there is anything new”, a US congressman, who spoke to the Prime Minister, said.

“It was awful,” the congressman said. One Israeli newspaper called the meeting “a hazing in stages”, poisoned by such mistrust that the Israeli delegation eventually left rather than risk being eavesdropped on a White House telephone line. Another said that the Prime Minister had received “the treatment reserved for the President of Equatorial Guinea”.

Left to talk among themselves Mr Netanyahu and his aides retreated to the Roosevelt Room. He spent a further half-hour with Mr Obama and extended his stay for a day of emergency talks to try to restart peace negotiations. However, he left last night with no official statement from either side. He returned to Israel yesterday isolated after what Israeli media have called a White House ambush for which he is largely to blame. read on

By Kevin Bryant • Uncategorized •

Mar 29 2010

www.firejohnspratt.com

By Kevin Bryant • Uncategorized •

Mar 27 2010

Judge Wynée Eubanks nomination

Judge Wynée Eubanks nomination being formally read across the desk. Judge Eubanks will be sworn in Monday 03.29.10 in the Courthouse. Anderson Independent’s coverage

By Kevin Bryant • Uncategorized •

Mar 25 2010

palm sized ultrasound

Topping Fast Co.’s innovators list as Vscan rolls out

GE’s healthcare technologies have been in the spotlight in recent days, with one of the most noticeable being a tip of the hat from the tech gurus at Fast Company magazine. Each year they kick the tires on a slew of some of the biggest household names — from Apple to Nike to the folks at Facebook — to arrive at their “Most Innovative Companies” rankings. This year in the Healthcare category, GE grabbed the No. 1 spot. As Mike Barber, who heads GE’s healthymagination initiative, told the magazine: “We believe that what is good for the public at large and what is good for the world is also good business.” Fast Company says it picked GE for the top healthcare spot precisely because “six GE breakthroughs from the past year deliver on that promise.”

The new technologies include the smart-phone-sized Vscan ultrasound, which is pictured below, as “it lets primary-care doctors make diagnoses that once required a specialist,” the editors note. The Fast Company ranking comes just days after the new technology became commercially available in the U.S., Europe, India and Canada having received 510(k) clearance in the U.S. By the Food and Drug Administration, the CE Mark by the European Union, as well as the Medical Device License from Health Canada.

Making the Olympic cut: Vscan is seen here in action last week in GE’s Mobile Medical Unit – which is currently helping athletes at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. “Vscan may help change frontline healthcare practice – improving patient management during the physical exam by providing immediate, non-invasive, visual information inside the body,” said Dr. Ross Brown, manager of the Whistler Polyclinic, pictured above

By Kevin Bryant • Uncategorized •

Mar 25 2010

spending capped!

1-S. 2, or spending caps create a Budget Stabilization Fund or BSF. I offered an amendment that was a simple automatic tax refund to the overcharged taxpayer if the following criteria are met: “When the balance in the Budget Stabilization Fund is greater than 15% of the prior year’s actual general fund revenue collection and when the big spenders have grown government to match the 10 year projections (roughly 4.5%), then the taxpayer will get an automatic refund. My amendment was tabled back in 2008, but this time it passed!

2-Another amendment passed that distributed equal portions of excess funds to 3 things 1-tax rebate, 2-debt retirement and 3-OPEB (other post employment benefits).

By Kevin Bryant • Uncategorized •

Mar 24 2010

24 hour reflection period passes Senate!

H. 3245 passed the Senate today with a unanimous vote. I offered an amendment that had common ground to other members that don’t have the convictions of life that I do. The current bill required the mother to get her information from the abortion clinic. Those opposed to this bill had a problem with forcing the mother to drive far distances to the clinic, then have to return 24 hours later. The reasons I  introduced this amendment was that I wanted to give the mother options of where she gets her information. She could go to the abortion clinic, her personal doctor, or crisis pregnancy centers. It is my hope that many mothers would visit a crisis pregnancy center. They will get loving scriptural council and assistance offered if she would like to keep her child.

Here’s some bullet points of the bill:
-allows mothers to obtain information from other sources (if from internet certificate must be on file with clinic)
-requires printed material and DHEC maintained website to have listed free ultrasound providers (if providers opt in)
-allows mothers to obtain ultrasound from other sources
-requires 24 hours from receiving information from other sources
-releases providers of free ultrasounds from liability
-prohibits future regulation of free ultrasound providers
-does not force cooperation of free ultrasound providers
-requires ultrasound to be used for 24 hour purposes to be verified by certificate or printed time-stamped image

It is my hope that the South Carolina House would concur with this bill. If not, we’d have a conference committee putting its ultimate passage in jeopardy.

Press release below: Abortion 24-Hour Waiting Period Passes Medical Affairs Committee
Waiting Period Gives Mothers More Time To Reflect
Columbia, SC – March 25, 2010 – The South Carolina Senate today passed a bill that extends the waiting period for abortions from just one hour to twenty-four hours.

South Carolina is currently the only nation in the country to have a one-hour waiting period for abortions – the shortest waiting period of all states with a waiting period. The new law would require a 24-hour waiting period upon the completion of an ultrasound or the giving of materials about abortion to the patient.

The extended period would give women a full day of reflection before making one of the biggest decisions of their lives. It is the hope of bill sponsors that the additional time to reflect on the risks of and alternatives to abortion will lower the number of abortions in South Carolina, help protect more unborn children and give mothers more time to consider the health risks.
The bill was ushered through the Senate by Senators Kevin Bryant (R-Anderson) and Mike Fair (R-Greenville) after being pushed out of committee by Majority Leader Harvey Peeler (R-Cherokee). 

“Today South Carolina’s Senators, both Republican and Democrat, found common ground to protect our state’s unborn children,” said Senator Bryant. “Each child is a gift from God and a person should truly reflect on their decision before terminating its life. A lot of abortions are made during crisis situations and this new law would simply require mothers to stop and think for twenty-four hours before making such a life altering decision.”

Click here for a video statement from Senator Bryant. (coming soon)

 “South Carolina should serve as an example to the nation on this issue, not lag behind more liberal states,” Senator Fair said. “No one knows how many babies will be saved if we extend the waiting period to 24 hours. All we know is that some mothers will decide to deliver their baby. That’s enough for me and I’m happy that it was enough for the State Senate.”
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By Kevin Bryant • Uncategorized •

Mar 24 2010

HIGHLAND GAMES TO ADD INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR TO ANDERSON COUNTY

ANDERSON COUNTY WELCOMES HIGHLAND GAMES

HIGHLAND GAMES TO ADD INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR TO ANDERSON COUNTY

ANDERSON COUNTY, SC—Anderson County is pleased to welcome the Loch Hartwell Highland Games and Festival to Anderson County. A press conference is scheduled for 1:30 pm on Wednesday, March 24 at the Balloon Launch Field across the street from the Civic Center of Anderson. Mr. Mike Gordon, the Lock Hartwell Convener of the Highland Games, will be in attendance to share information about the October 2^ndevent. The public is invited to attend.

“We are excited that Anderson County is continuing to gain a strong reputation as a tourist destination,” said Council Chairman Tommy Dunn. “Tourism IS economic development. It brings money into our County’s economy and positively impacts our businesses bottom lines. The Highland Games is yet another event that will showcase all that Anderson County has to offer.”

“With our county’s rich Scots/Irish heritage, this event will have a natural, built-in audience,” said Anderson County Parks, Recreation and Tourism Director Glenn Brill.  “Additionally, I expect it will attract tourists from throughout the Southeast who will spend money in our hotels, retail stores, restaurants and gas stations.  It will be an economic shot in the arm for Anderson County’s economy.”

# # #

Angela C. Stringer

Public Information Officer/Web Manager

Anderson County

PO Box 8002

Anderson, SC 29621

864.260.1052   864.934.6451

By Kevin Bryant • Uncategorized •

Mar 24 2010

random drug screen every

From Michael Harden’s website, Georgia House of Representatives:The legislation I introduced will require recipients of public assistance to submit to at least one random drug screen every year. Upon the first positive the person will lose their benefits until a negative test is taken. Upon a second positive or failed screen, the person will lose their benefits for a period of two years.

This is the first bill of its kind that will not be a cost to the taxpayers, but a cost that the recipient pays for out of their benefits. The test will cost less than $25 and spread out over the year will result in $2 per month deduction from benefits. This will hardly cause some to “go hungry” as has been suggested by critics.

This legislation will not affect any children under the age of 18. We will not allow the children of this state to fall between the cracks because of mistakes of their parents. Our hope is that no one receiving tax payer dollars is spending them to subsidize illegal drug activity, but if they are they need to be identified so they can get treatment. read more

By Kevin Bryant • Uncategorized •