In his testimony to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Health (embargoed until delivery Wednesday, July 13, 2011, 9:00 a.m.), Scott Gottlieb, MD focuses on the 15-member Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) created by the 2010 health reform law to oversee Medicare payment rates and recommend spending reductions in the program as of 2014.

In particular, Gottlieb highlights:

IPABs lack of transparency and openness to public notice and comment;

The future use of widespread reimbursement cuts and lower price schedules to solve Medicares fiscal crisis all of which will undoubtedly result in hindering medical innovation;and

The likelihood that IPAB will give the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) more authority in choosing which medical products and services CMS will cover, when the agency has little competency to make such judgments

As a solution, Gottlieb suggests premium support, modernizing benefits in traditional Medicare, and paying for better health outcomes.

You may also be interested in recent remarks by AEI Resident Fellow Tom Miller explaining how IPAB will eliminate innovation and remove incentives to save money and increase efficiency.

Gottlieb and Miller are available for interviews and can be contacted at or or through their research assistant / 202.862.7183.

For other media inquiries, or to reserve AEIs ISDN facilities for radio interviews, please e-mail Veronique Rodman at or Jesse Blumenthal at .

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The impact of riots on the community can have long-lasting and unforeseen effects.

Riots may not last very long, but the time to put a community back to where it was takes a lot longer.

For a business or property owner the work ahead can be daunting.

The actual damage to each premise needs to be accessed and repaired.

This can take time and may depend on whether adequate insurance was taken out to cover the damage.
If adequate insurance is in place insurance companies need to access the damage.

There maybe damage to the property, injury to staff, residents, tenants and owners.
Tenants maybe homeless. New temporary accommodation needs to be found.

Loss Adjusters need to be appointed to look and access the damage and give authority for repair work to commence.

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My family and I were in northern Minnesota at a cabin and we went to get gas in our boat at the local supplies store. As we pulled up at the dock, a very enthusiastic dog named Zoe ran up to us and dropped a pine cone onto one of the girls lap and stood there expectantly, wagging her tail and quivering in anticipation of the game of fetch she was hoping wed participate in.

How could we resist!

While we were tossing the pine cone, which became increasingly mangled and had to be replaced several times, I noticed how fit and healthy-looking Zoe is. I talked to her family, who own the resort she lives at and she stays fit because she finds so many people to play with (proactively dropping pine cones or sticks in their boats as they pull up to get supplies) and she stays active all the time.

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MGAs connect brokers to insurance companies.

Managing General Agencies (MGAs) are intermediaries that connect insurance companies with brokers. More specifically, MGAs are essentially given a contract by insurance companies to manage business for a group of brokers.

Contrary to a popular misconception, MGAs do not deal directly with clients. Rather, they supply their brokers with a variety of products from different insurance carriers.

MGAs evolved as the idea of the in-house career agency began to fall away in the ’90s and early ’00s. Traditionally, insurance company hired their own in-house insurance advisors to sell their products, but largely as a measure of cost-cutting, large insurance companies such as Canada Life, Standard Life, and Manulife shifted away from the agency system and adopted the MGA model.

Some companies, such as RBC and Sun Life, still use both models to this day.

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For anyone holding an open house it is important to learn certain real estate information on how to do things right. There are so many different things to worry about and of course you want to make sure everything is just right so you have the best chances of getting a buyer. There is a bit of real estate information that will be helpful if you plan to hold an open house. Even the smallest mistake can cost you big time here.

One of the most important tips you could get if you want to hold an open house and sell your home is that timing is everything. Putting your house up for sale at the wrong time could mean the difference between making a killing and being put out. Talking to a professional will help here, so get in touch with a real estate agent and see what they have to say.

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Insurance companies are competing against each other for larger market share, which means they are introducing better, more beneficial offers to the market on a regular basis in order to attract new customers or even persuade existing customers of other insurance companies to use their coverage plans. The number of special offers available on the market is increasing rapidly over the past several years, but the no claim bonus remains the most popular one used by many insurance companies.

No claim bonus is actually the insurance companies’ way of reflecting a portion of the risk of insuring your van back to you or the driver. First of all, you need to understand that the no claim bonus you can acquire from the insurance company after a year without a claim can be as high as 100% of your insurance premium. T Read more…