Thursday, February 28, 2013

Access & Fit Top Ed Tech Challenges

The greatest challenges to nationwide digital citizenship are still accessibility, appropriateness, and smart technology investments. At least, that's among the conclusions of three leading educational technology experts.
 
The three experts spoke at this month's LearnLaunch gathering of visionaries, academics, vendor presidents, and public school administrators in Cambridge, Mass.

(See my complete blog on the topic at educationalIT.com)

Friday, February 22, 2013

2013 Economic Forecast: Asia -- Slight Gains


As Americans were preparing to fall off the fiscal cliff to close out 2012, economies in other parts of the world are in varying states of health, status quo or decline. Bookending that picture are the economies of China and Japan, with China forecast to see modest gross domestic product gains in 2013, and Japan projected to see almost none.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Medical Marijuana Centers May Pose Quandary For Mass.Banks


Despite winning popular support in some state elections in recent years, Joseph Stevens has launched a new business venture that the “right people” just don’t like. The right people being bankers, that is.
Stevens is CEO of the Greenleaf Compassion Center in Montclair, NJ, a medical marijuana dispensary. Greenleaf opened in December, 2012, after a two-year struggle to begin operations. Along the way, Stevens says he saw plenty of politics and red tape, but no financing. Local banks and credit unions just didn’t want to touch him.
(See my complete article on the topic in Banker & Tradesman)

Monday, February 18, 2013

Save the Media Specialists

New study fuels debate over the value of copay offset cards

A new study is adding fuel to the debate over the value of copay offset cards, used to defer a patient’s copayment for prescription medications.

Released in December by New Jersey-based Alliance Life Sciences Consulting Group, the study looks at the attitudes of patients, pharmacists, physicians and payers toward prescription copay offset cards.

(See my complete column on the topic in Healthcare Finance News)

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Healthcare companies prepare for ICD-10 with hold harmless clauses

For some healthcare systems, the conversion from ICD-9 to ICD-10 may seem like the latest Y2K problem – fail to get it right and the consequences could be fatal. So many organizations are being cautious by developing hold harmless clauses to protect against any consequences of errors with the new conversion.

(See my complete column on the topic in Healthcare Finance News)

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Fiserv's Acquisition Solves Open Solution's Massive Debt Woes


With its recent acquisition by Fiserv Inc., banking and credit union customers can stop worrying
about the financial stability of Open Solutions Inc., and again look forward to enhancements to
the company’s core product, the DNA platform.

On Jan. 14, Fiserv announced it had acquired Glastonbury, Conn.-based Open Solutions, which
had been previously backed by the Carlyle Group and Providence Equity Partners.

(See my complete column on the topic in Banker & Tradesman)