Welcome to the WBD News Flash, your weekly highlight of HR benefits and healthcare news. Weekly, we will provide you with the top trending industry news stories in healthcare, human resources, legislation, benefits technology and administration, and more. Make the WBD News Flash your go to reference for current events!
Silicon Valley’s Solutions To Elderly Care, Diabetes And More
While Silicon Valley’s technological breakthroughs have transformed the way people live, work, and play, health care remains an arena bogged down by archaic technology and inefficient paperwork. At the 2017 Forbes Healthcare Summit, executives from startups Color, Virta Health, Honor and Collective Health gather to discuss how they apply the hallmarks of their industry — user-friendliness, big data, virtual communication — to everything from caring for elderly parents to managing your employees’ health insurance plans.
Hacking Health Care: How Tech Will Drive Down Costs
Human beings are safer today than at any time in history. We live more than twice as long as we did in 1900 thanks, in large part, to advances in technology. But our increased lifespan comes at a price. The U.S. spends $3.5 trillion each year on health care, and the federal government shoulders more than 28% of that cost. Much of this technology has not been widely tested, and some of it raises difficult questions about privacy and cybersecurity. But AI, sensors and even digital assistants like Amazon’s Alexa could help keep costs down and improve care. Here’s how.
Employers change tactics to curb health-insurance costs
Company leaders are grappling with how to deal with the rising cost of health insurance in ways that get beyond the longtime strategy of simply passing on more of the burden to workers. “The CEOs of our clients are more involved in the health-care benefits program than I’ve seen in 25 years,” says Jim Winkler, a senior vice president at consulting firm Aon PLC. “It’s, ‘What are we spending our money on, and does it make sense?’ ”