Physicians take aim at insurance industry
A survey of emergency physicians reports that 70 per cent of patients are delaying seeking medical care due to increased out-of-pocket expenses, high deductibles and high co-insurance. In addition, nearly three-quarters (73 per cent) reported seeing increased numbers of Medicaid patients who have delayed medical care, because health plans are failing to provide adequate numbers of primary care physicians.
The study, conducted by the American College of Emergency Physicians in September 2015, also found that 65 percent said they are seeing an increased number of patients in the emergency department, in large part because health insurance companies are failing to provide an adequate number of primary care physicians to support the needs of communities.
Jay Kaplan, MD, FACEP, president of ACEP has questioned how the four largest insurance companies in the US have the resources to merge given the requirement to use 80 per cent of premiums on patient care.
Speed cameras may make drivers worse says study
A new study suggests that the use of highway speed cameras may actually make driver behaviour worse. Wunelli analyzed a billion miles of driving behavior data and found that the black spots for excessive braking occurred immediately before speed cameras. The survey of UK speed camera locations showed that at 80 per cent of the locations there was an increase in hard braking activity. (Wunelli defines a hard braking event as a change in speed of 6.5+ mph over a 1-second time period, which is enough to propel a bag on the passenger seat into the footwell.)
Among other findings; at speed camera locations hard-braking increased 689 per cent; women exceed the speed limit 12 per cent less than men and hard-brake 11 per cent less; motorists are most likely to speed at 5.59am and least likely to do so at 5.16pm.
AON Benfield strengthens river flood risk
Impact Forecasting, part of AON Benfield, has strengthened its catastrophe model for US rivers to give a more accurate assessment of 1.4 million miles of waterways. Inland flooding has accounted for about two-thirds of all disaster declarations in the past 50 years with economic costs reaching a high of U$34 billion in 1993. Recently in 2015, floods impacting Texas, Oklahoma and South Carolina have caused billions of dollars of new damage and loss and reinforced the need for advanced inland flood risk models.
Narathip Sutchiewcharn, senior scientist at Impact Forecasting, commented: "With only 35 per cent of eligible properties within FEMA designated flood plains having flood insurance, the new model opens doors for insurers to better understand their risk and strategically write new business."
