U.S. doctors urge transparency on insurer payments

* Doctors group says transparency means savings

* AMA urges more openness on out-of-network services

WASHINGTON, March 26 (Reuters) - Requiring health insurers to be more open about how they set reimbursement rates for out-of-network medical services would save everyone money, the top U.S. doctors group told Congress on Thursday.

American Medical Association President Nancy Nielsen said such a move would prevent insurance companies from shortchanging patients and upsetting their relationship with their doctors by underestimating what doctors should be charging for services.

"The AMA believes enormous savings would accrue to patients, physicians, health insurers and other third-party payers if there were complete transparency," she told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

Insurer reimbursement rates for out-of-network services are often set at what are considered "usual" or "customary" charges. The problem for doctors and patients is that insurers have been systematically underestimating those charges, Nielsen said.

Recent lawsuits are changing those practices, Nielsen said. But she urged Congress to make sure health insurance payment transparency is part of a broad healthcare overhaul that President Barack Obama wants enacted by the end of the year.

Neilsen's testimony comes a day after the AMA and others sued WellPoint Inc (WLP.N), accusing it of fixing payments for out-of-network services artificially low.

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles federal court, followed similar federal claims led by the AMA against Cigna Corp (CI.N) and Aetna Inc (AET.N) in New Jersey, and against UnitedHealth Group Inc (UNH.N) in New York.

WellPoint said on Wednesday in response to the lawsuit that it was "committed to providing appropriate reimbursement for out-of-network services."

In January, UnitedHealth agreed to pay $350 million to resolve class action litigation and $50 million to settle an investigation by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo into its Ingenix database.

Eating Red and Processed Meats May Increase Risk of Death

The News Said about that Eating Red meat and red things is not good for body it will just make your body going bad and maybe you will die !! MUAHAHAHAHAHA =]
Or maybe if you eat the meat that plus more things or plus more other meat and it will also make your body health go bad and you will also die !! MUAHAHAHAHAHAH =]

Why it's not good it's because red meats aren't as healthy as "lean meats" doesn't mean that you shouldn't eat them. Everything is good in moderation and meat has a lot of protein so limiting yourself to only one variety doesn't open up a lot of doors. So you can still eat them, just eat them in moderation.

And Why is not good to eat the meat that plus more other meat is because that other meat mix with the fresh meat you eat it will be unhealthy.

QUESTION TIME'S =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =] =]

Who?:
The Doctor and people said that it's unhealthy.
What?:
About eating RED MEAT is not good and also eating the meat that PLUS OTHER KIND OF MEAT is not good and unhealthy it will make you DIE !! MUAHAHAHAHAH =]
When?:
Everytime!
Where?:
In the whole world.
Why?
Because it's unhealthy!
There is information WHY on the top of QUESTION TIME'S =]





Bye Bye~~
Why?

YouTube takes down thousands of fair-use videos

Thousands of user-created videos- or at least their audio tracks - have disappeared from YouTube, and the question is who’s fault is it?

The New York Times reports that many YouTube users have found themselves in the same position as high school sophomore Juliet Weybret, who posted a video of herself playing piano and singing “Winter Wonderland.”

Her video was removed “as a result of a third-party notification by the Warner Music Group,” YouTube informed her.

But Warner says it’s not their fault.

“We and our artists share the user community’s frustration when content is unavailable. YouTube generates revenues from content posted by fans, which typically requires licenses from rights holders. Under the current process, we make YouTube aware of WMG content. Their content ID tool then takes down all unlicensed tracks, regardless of how they are used,” said Will Tanous, a spokesman for Warner Music.

In other words, Warner provides a very long list of copyright materials and Google’s tool goes through and wipes them all out, regardless of how fair the use might be.

It’s yet another example of how broken the DMCA regime is. Google believes it is legally obligated to take down every instance of a reported copyright work. More to the point, the scale is so huge it sends its robots out to do the takedowns.

Under DMCA, users can file an objection to the take-down, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Fred von Lohmann says:

“People are somewhat intimidated by the possibility of being sued by one of the music companies, even if they have a free lawyer, like us.”

So a very large amount of fair-use works are simply taken down, and the digital speech that is the currency of our modern age simply goes offline.

Volcano in Alaska blows top again

Mount Redoubt volcano in the US state of Alaska has erupted for the sixth time in 24 hours, spewing ash and steam 15km (9.3 miles) into the air.

The volcano, 166km (103 miles) south-west of the state's biggest city, Anchorage, began erupting late on Sunday after a 20-year lull.

Ash has fallen on towns north of Anchorage, but the city itself has not been affected by the eruption.

Alaskan Airlines has cancelled a number of flights because of the ash.

Officials at the Alaska Volcano Observatory were able to monitor the latest eruption live via a webcam.

"We were able to see mudflows, pyroclastic flows and a nice ash column shooting out of the summit," geologist Janet Schaefer told the BBC. "It was quite spectacular."

Karen Timmers picks up her daughter Kaila Kais, who suffers from asthma, and son Johann from Talkeetna Elementary School, in Talkeetna, Alaska on 23 March
People living in the path of ash cloud have taken precautions

Ms Schaefer said the ash, which can cause skin irritation and breathing problems, was so far was not too dangerous for people living in the vicinity but was dangerous for air traffic.

The ash can cause damage to jet engines. People with respiratory problems have been warned to stay indoors until the ash settles or to wear a face mask if they go outside.

Ms Schaefer said the Observatory was working with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Weather Service to track ash clouds and ensure flights were diverted or cancelled if necessary.

Dozens of aircraft at the Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage were being sheltered as a precaution against the falling ash.

Mount Redoubt, which stands 3,100m (10,200ft) high, last erupted over a four-month period from 1989 to 1990.

Scientists monitoring the area warned in late January that an eruption was likely.

On Sunday, officials raised the alert level after researchers recorded increased seismic activity.

"If it is anything like the 1989 eruption, we could expect activity to continue for three to four months," Ms Schaefer said.







Vidio


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7960825.stm

House passes bill to capture most of AIG bonuses

WASHINGTON - Struggling to keep ahead of public outrage over the actions of Wall Street firms, the House of Representatives passed a bill yesterday that seeks to recoup the lion's share of the $165 million in bonuses paid to executives of American International Group Inc.

The House measure, hurriedly drawn up on the orders of Democratic leadership, imposes a 90 percent tax on those who were paid bonuses at AIG and other firms as long as their families earned more than $250,000 annually and their companies received more than $5 billion in federal bailout funds. It passed by more than a two-thirds majority, 328 to 93.

All but one of the representatives from Maryland voted in favor of the measure. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett of Frederick, the state's lone Republican, voted against it.

The Senate is taking a different approach. It is readying a bill that would levy a 35 percent excise tax on executive bonuses. Both the company and the recipient of the bonuses would pay the tax. The Senate could take up the measure next week, or perhaps attempt to reconcile it with the House tax bill.

Even as the House voted, New York's attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, announced that AIG had complied with a request to turn over the names of those in the company who had received the bonuses. Cuomo pledged to be cautious in releasing the names because of concerns over the employees' safety.

The House bill, sponsored by New York Democratic Rep. Charles B. Rangel, garnered significant Republican support. But that did not come without a bitter debate, with conservative Republicans angrily denouncing the measure as a charade intended to deflect blame from Democrats about how the AIG bonuses were permitted to be paid.

They remained focused on an embarrassing disclosure by Senate Democrats Wednesday that they acceded to a Treasury Department request in February to scale back language in the economic stimulus bill that would have limited the payments.

"This bill is nothing more than an attempt for everybody to cover their butt up here on Capitol Hill," said Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader. Opponents advocated a separate plan that would require the Treasury Department to seek repayment of the funds immediately. And some suggested the bill was an unconstitutional attempt to penalize a specific company, though legal experts said yesterday that the bill would probably pass muster by the courts.

Supporters said the bill was the most effective means for the government to seek redress of the bonus money.

"This vote is the difference between solving the problem or continuing the problem," said New York Rep. Steve Israel, a Democrat. "The only way to get their money back is to tax it back."

Some Republicans agreed. "At the end of the day, this insult to taxpayers cannot, should not, and will not stand," said Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan.

Republicans were clearly divided, with nearly half supporting the Rangel measure, perhaps worried about how constituent anger over the AIG payouts might be visited upon them.

Democrats charged that Republicans had opportunistically changed their tune on the compensation issue, noting that many have resisted past attempts to limit executive pay.

Nearly a third of U.S. bird species in trouble

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly one-third of all U.S. bird species are endangered, threatened or in significant decline, with birds in Hawaii facing a "borderline ecological disaster," scientists reported on Thursday.

The State of the Birds report, issued by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar along with conservation groups and university ornithologists, also noted some successes, including the recovery of the bald eagle, the peregrine falcon and other species after the banning of the chemical DDT.

"When we talk about birds and we talk about wildlife, we're also talking about the economics of this country," Salazar told reporters as the report was released.

Wildlife watching and recreation generate $122 billion annually, the report said.

Salazar mentioned revenue from hunting, fishing and bird-watching, but added that President Barack Obama's stimulus package and proposed federal budgets for the remainder of 2009 and 2010 offer more money for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which aims to protect birds and other creatures.

The report, available online at www.stateofthebirds.org, presents data collected by government and academic scientists, as well as information contributed by amateur bird-watchers.

Wetland bird populations have soared since 1968, with an increase of up to 60 from levels 40 years ago. But birds in other habitats -- forests, grasslands and arid areas -- have declined as much as 40 percent.

HAWAIIAN BIRDS MOST VULNERABLE

It is in the perceived paradise of Hawaii that birds have declined the most, the report said.

"More bird species are vulnerable to extinction in Hawaii than anywhere else in the United States," according to the report.

Before humans arrived in the Hawaiian islands, possibly as early as the year 300, there were 113 bird species that occurred nowhere else on Earth. Since humans arrived, 71 species have gone extinct and 31 more are listed as threatened or endangered.

The main culprits are new plant and animal species introduced into the Hawaiian ecosystem, said George Wallace of the American Bird Conservancy, who wrote the report's section on Hawaii.

"Most Americans would be surprised that a place that we usually associate with being an idyllic paradise would have so many serious bird conservation problems," Wallace said in a telephone interview.

"These types of isolated island flora and fauna tend to be very, very sensitive to introductions of foreign organisms."

John Fitzpatrick of Cornell University went farther, calling Hawaii a "borderline ecological disaster" and "the epicenter of extinctions and near extinctions."

Overall, the United States is home to more than 800 species of birds; 67 of those are federally listed as endangered or threatened, with an additional 184 species causing concern because of they are narrowly distributed or have declining populations, the report said.

(Humanities) -- Two Country Research

Our Groups have Cherine Jasmine and Stephanie.
And I Think I wanna Research South Africa Egypt,
Here is the information of it those country:


South Africa:

The Republic of South Africa, also known by other official names, is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa. The South African coast stretches 2,798 kilometres and borders both the Atlantic and Indian oceans.To the north of South Africa lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while the Kingdom of Lesotho is an independent enclave surrounded by South African territory.

History:

South Africa contains some of the oldest archaeological sites in the world.Extensive fossil remains at the Sterkfontein, Kromdraai and Makapansgat caves suggest that various australopithecines existed in South Africa from about three million years ago.[13] These were succeeded by various species of Homo, including Homo habilis, Homo erectus and modern humans, Homo sapiens. Settlements of Bantu-speaking peoples, who were iron-using agriculturists and herdsmen, were already present south of the Limpopo River by the fourth or fifth century displacing and absorbing the original KhoiSan speakers. They slowly moved south and the earliest ironworks in modern-day KwaZulu-Natal Province are believed to date from around 1050. The southernmost group was the Xhosa people, whose language incorporates certain linguistic traits from the earlier KhoiSan people, reaching the Fish River, in today's Eastern Cape Province. These Iron Age populations displaced earlier people, who often had hunter-gatherer societies, as they migrated.


Egypt:

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about 1,010,000 square kilometers, Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west.

Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa and the Middle East. The great majority of its estimated 76 million live near the banks of the Nile River, in an area of about 40,000 square kilometers, where the only arable agricultural land is found. The large areas of the Sahara Desert are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with the majority spread across the densely-populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta.

Egypt is famous for its ancient civilization and some of the world's most famous monuments, including the Giza pyramid complex and its Great Sphinx. The southern city of Luxor contains numerous ancient artifacts, such as the Karnak Temple and the Valley of the Kings. Egypt is widely regarded as an important political and cultural nation of the Middle East.



Geography:

At 1,001,450 square kilometers, Egypt is the world's 38th-largest country. In terms of land area, it is approximately the same size as all of Central America, twice the size of France, four times the size of the United Kingdom, and the combined size of the US states of Texas and California.

Nevertheless, due to the aridity of Egypt's climate, population centres are concentrated along the narrow Nile Valley and Delta, meaning that approximately 99% of the population uses only about 5.5% of the total land area.






Question:

Which country can best use the their funding? Why?


Answer:

Well I think it's all okei and it's all good for doing it and using it because every country have every country's good thing's and bad thing's

In south africa it's pretty and good and a lot of nice people polite people and it' famous in that country even thing's work's a lot of thing's a and there have a lot of good thing's and it's pretty.


And in Egypt I think it's cool too and that that place it's pretty famous too and they have a lot of nice people kind people and polite people even a lot of intresting animal's and a lot of thing's even that there has a lot of kind of aboriginal people and thing's animal it's great.


And I think both country it's cool and that it's good to research too~~